The Toro Regatta

“*Gary. Days are coming. The war for your universe has begun. The time has come for you to free me. Otherwise, no one... past, present, or future... will survive. Everything depends on all of you. Our journey leads to Final Space. Together, we can save her. Gather the five Dimensional Keys. With them, you'll have the power to break through my prison. They are hidden across your universe, but you are already in possession of the first one.*”
―Bolo.
**The Toro Regatta** is the first episode in the second season of the Final Space series. It aired on June 24, 2019 on Adult Swim and July 1, 2019 on TBS.

## Plot

Gary is rescued from the wreckage of space then must earn his freedom by winning the deadliest race in the galaxy.

## Summary

The episode opens with a recap of the events from Season 1. Afterwards, we see a Galactica Trash spaceship salvage the debris from last season’s fight. Gary and KVN are among the debris gathered, but Gary is deemed trash and dumped with the other useless junk. Here, he regains consciousness, and explores the ship, lamenting his failure to save Quinn and the Earth. He notices his helmet is damaged and fears H.U.E. is gone, but to his relief H.U.E. is alive; he downloaded himself into the body of a robot. Gary invites him to hug, but H.U.E. doesn’t know his own strength and nearly crushes Gary.

Then the ship lightfolds, and takes them to a junk planet, where it dumps H.U.E. and Gary on the surface. The dump turns out to be run by Clarence, the con-artist he met on Tera Con Prime. And since Gary was collected by Clarence in the Interstellar Null Zone, Clarence now legally owns him. He and H.U.E. try to run, but are stopped by an alien girl named Ash and a huge alien with a cannon-arm named Fox, who turn out to be Clarence’ adopted children. Little Cato is also in the dump, and likewise enslaved by Clarence. He and Gary happily reunite, and begin to scheme an escape, but Clarence gives them all magnetic leg cuffs to prevent this.

On board his ship, the Lord Commander is near death. He curses Mooncake, who has been drained from all his powers and can no longer open Final Space. Nightfall arrives on the ship and kills the Lord Commander. Before he dies, she orders him to tell someone named Invictus that he will be next on her list. At the dump, all escape attempts by Gary, H.U.E. and Little Cato fail due to the magnetic cuffs. The following day, Clarence offers his prisoners a deal; if they help him steal the Nymerian Cube during a race called the Toro Regatta, he will set them free. He gives them a new ship, the Crimson Light, to use in the race. Gary agrees. Before they leave, Gary gets a very unwelcome surprise; KVN is back. He rebuild himself with metal from the junkyard. On board the Crimson Light, the group meets the ship’s AI A.V.A.. She tells them more about the Nymerian Cube.

The crew is one of four contestants participating in the race. Their target is the Starchaser piloted by Rug Yorkvain. The crew of the Crimson Light are considered the underdogs of the race, since they are the only ones that didn’t prepare. With Gary as a pilot, the Crimson Light is off to a good start, but Gary soon learns that in this race, the participants are allowed to use lethal force against opponents. As they pass the Bee-tor, The Crimson light is almost blown up with photon missiles, but Gary manages to maneuver another ship between them and the missiles to take the hit. As they approach the Starchaser, Clarence forces Gary at gunpoint to get the cube. The Starchaser fires on them, so Clarence orders Fox to return fire. He is too soft hearted to finish the job, so Little Cato has to help. With its guns destroyed, the Starchaser uses its drop drive, so the Crimson Light follows suit. Secured with a cable, Gary is send to the Starchaser. The cable breaks, but Ash uses her powers to slow Gary down, and tear a hole in the Starchaser’s hull so Gary can enter. An armed guard awaits Gary, but Ash kills him.

Rug shows up, with the Nymerian Cube. He blows up his own ship to prevent Gary and Ash from taking the cube, and gets himself to safety by jumping on the Crimson Light. Gary urges Ash to use her powers again, but she can’t do so on command. So Gary jumps, and knocks Rug off the Crimson Light. The two then fight, while only hanging from the Crimson Light by Rug’s cable. Gary delivers some headbutts to Rug, and ends up knocking Rug’s head off his body; Rug was a robot. Gary falls, but Little Cato opens the roof window and Gary lands safely on the Crimson Light’s bridge. Clarence takes the cube and orders A.V.A. to disengage drop drive. The Crimson Light thus re-enters the race, with one opponent left: the Invader Red. The ship tries to disintegrate the Crimson Light, but is suddenly blown to bits by another ship, piloted by Nightfall.

Without further opponents, the Crimson Light wins the race. Gary is reunited with Mooncake, who tells him he lost his powers due to what the Lord Commander did. Gary is surprised to see Nightfall, and assumes that her being alive means Quinn is also alive, but Nightfall informs Gary nobody ever returned from Final Space. That won’t stop Gary from trying to get Quinn back though. On board his ship, an unseen entity disintegrates the Lord Commander’s body, and tells him their work is not done yet.

Clarence tries to get back on his promise to release Gary and give him the ship. Then the Nymerian Cube suddenly transforms into Bolo’s prison. Bolo tells Gary the war for his universe will soon begin, and he must free Bolo. Gary is reluctant, but agrees when he hears the journey will take them to Final Space, and thus Quinn. To free Bolo, Gary has to find the five Dimensional Keys. Bolo doesn’t tell where they are; only that Gary already possesses one. The team thus sets out to search the keys, along with Nightfall. Since he doesn’t want to give up his ship, Clarence tags along for the ride, with Ash and Fox.

## Cast

* Olan Rogers as Gary and Mooncake
* Conan O'Brien as Clarence
* Tom Kenny as H.U.E., Rug Yorkvain, and Race Announcer
* Steven Yeun as Little Cato
* Jane Lynch as A.V.A.
* Fred Armisen as KVN
* Tika Sumpter as Nightfall
* Ashly Burch as Ash Graven
* Ron Funches as Fox
* David Tennant as Lord Commander

## Final Thoughts

For behind the scenes of the episode, see https://www.adultswim.com/videos/final-space/final-thoughts-s-2-e-1.

## Trivia

* Watched by 579.000 viewers when it premiered on Adult Swim
* Despite being a TBS production, the show switched networks to Adult Swim due to the channel cancelling the original plan of having it's own animated programing block and wanting the show to gain more audience. The move was succesful and both Season 2 and 3 would release on Adult Swim first and later on TBS.
* This is the first episode not be produced by Studio T.
* Upon their introduction, Ash and Fox perform the Fusion Dance from *Dragon Ball Z*.
* Sources contradict each other on the exact spelling of the title; Toro Regatta or Torra Regatta.
* The planet where this episode takes place on is called Dollonia and, although is not mentioned, it is seen on a screen on Gary’s helmet.
* This episode, alongside The Happy Place premiered first on **The Soda Parlor**, Olan's hybrid retail place, during the party premiere ofSeason Two.
* Ash & Fox performed the fusion dance from Dragon Ball Z when Clarence introduces them to Gary & H.U.E.
* The Crimson Light is base on The *Millennium Falcon from the Star Wars* franchise.
* This is also the first episode in Season 2.
	+ This is also the first episode to premiered on Cartoon Network's late-night programming block Adult Swim.
* This is also the first episode to have title that doesn't begin with the word "Chapter."
* Both Jane Lynch and Steven Yeun have done voice work for the Netflix orginal series *Tuca and Bertie* that debuted two months prior.