Ninjago S9 E8

## Plot

Continuing from the cliffhanger at the end of the previous episode, Mistaké and Skylor are restrained by Killow and Ultra Violet. Mistaké says that Ninjago is a place of light, and its future is not for Garmadon to decide. She changes into her true Oni form and attacks him. She causes a cloud of black smoke to appear. Harumi tells Garmadon to watch out for Skylor. He blasts her, but it was actually Mistaké, and the real Skylor manages to touch him. She's able to escape, and finds out that Mistaké was killed by Garmadon offscreen. No! Why? She was so cool and funny and awesome! Why do all the mentors have to die? Wu wants to save Faith, but the other guys point out that it's most likely a trap, and they have a map to the Dragon Armor, and the Iron Baron doesn't. Wu admits that more of his memories haven't come back, but his father told him to have faith. They never would've gotten this far without her, and ninja never leave their friends behind. They agree to help him save her. They were right though, it was a trap, and they're captured again. Despite their dire situation, the guys make jokes and laugh, telling Wu that they need to stay positive. Faith tells the other hunters the truth about the Iron Baron, and suggests that he might've even killed the other hunters who went on the mission with him to cover up his lies. They're too scared of him to say anything after he threatens them though. The electric shock from the antenna causes Wu to regain all of his memories. He escapes his chains and ages into an adult. Okay, that mustache and goatee are pretty cool. He even gets a new staff and a hat! However, he agrees to lead the Iron Baron to the Dragon Armor, but only if he sends his ninja home. Jet Jack tries to go with them for his protection, but he says that once he has the armor, it will be her needing him. Skylor gets back to the freezer and tells the others that Mistaké didn't make it. She tries to control the Colossus, but Garmadon sends it after them instead. The others want to leave, but Lloyd tells Skylor that he has faith in her. She takes control of it at the last second, throws Ultra Violet far away, and breaks Killow's mask. She sends it after Garmadon and Harumi. The Colossus starts climbing Borg Tower. Harumi wants to leave, but Garmadon refuses to run, so she leaves without him. The Colossus punches the tower, and falls to the ground when Skylor and Garmadon fight for control of it. Lloyd says his father's power is too strong, but Skylor says that she can hold on. His power is hurting her though. Garmadon regains control, but while the Colossus regains its balance, it knocks into the building Harumi ran into. The fire escape is intact this time, but she goes back when she hears a boy crying. His parents are about to make the same decision her parents made all those years ago, but she leads them to the stairs instead, so they can all get out together. However, this leads to her being trapped in the building. She tells the family to go, and says she'll find another way. She heads to the roof, and sees people running in fear from the Colossus, which is knocking into more buildings. Nya tells Skylor to let go, but Lloyd realizes that she can't. His father's power will kill her. Her eyes turn purple, and she's basically comatose for the rest of the season. Great, another female character that isn't Nya is just unnecessarily pushed to the sidelines and forgotten about (Misako, Maya, Pixal, Skylor, etc.) It feels like moms in particular get the short end of the stick on this show. Fans don't like Misako because she abandoned Lloyd (out of universe, the writers just forgot to include her until season 2), we never learn who Wu and Garmadon's mother was (and that's assuming they even have one, since their father is basically the god of this universe who created almost everything, so making offspring by himself isn't that big of a stretch, which would ironically make him similar to the Virgin Mary), Jay's biological mother doesn't even get a name and we never learn what happened to her, Zane and Pixal's creators are both men, it took until season 8 to tell us what happened to Cole's mom (and even then, it was only hinted at, and they didn't give us the details until season 13), Maya and Ray are both forgotten about due to the movie forcing a soft reboot approach after season 7 made such a big deal about them and they weren't even mentioned again until season 14, we never learn what happened to Vania's mom, or Kalmaar's, etc. I think there have only ever been two empresses and two queens in the entire franchise (depending on whether or not you count Aspheera as a queen). The leaders of various different races, factions, and kingdoms are almost always men for no real reason. Look, I'm not stupid, I've seen the creative team, I know it's mostly men, both behind the scenes and in the booth, but still! Apologies for the long winded tangent/rant. Actually, you know what? No. I'm not sorry. This needed to be said, and acknowledged, because that's the only way things are ever going to even have a chance of changing, and women already apologize too much for things that aren't their fault. I've seen America Ferrera's speech from Greta Gerwig's *Barbie* movie, and it is spot on. Hell, there's even an old Barbie vlog that addresses the whole "apologizing too much" topic. **Barbie** taught me something about feminism when I was a teenager. The same Barbie that made me want to take ballet classes when I was in kindergarten because I basically rewatched *The Nutcracker* and *The 12 Dancing Princesses* movies so many times that the music was burned into my brain. The Colossus backs into the building Harumi is on again, which Garmadon sees. Harumi makes eye contact with Lloyd, and he watches as the building crumbles to the ground, killing her in the same way her parents died, reuniting her with them at long last. Wow. I mean… wow. Last minute redemption and what I actually hope was a very quick and painless death. I don't think I could ever forgive Harumi for everything she did, but I used to hate her with every fiber of my being, at least until I saw this. All of the anger I felt just turned into sadness and pity. Her life could've turned out so differently. Garmadon realizes that she's dead, and decides to destroy the city. Nya says it's like his power has poisoned Skylor, and the only way to save her is to get that power out of her. Dareth points out that the Colossus is heading straight for them.