PLOT A: "Double-O Berk"
Having found the twins, Hiccup sends Tuffnut
to spy on the Berserks and the Outcasts to find out what they’re planning
So I was pretty excited when it seemed
that the twins and Hiccup were going to be working side-by-side in this
episode. It seemed like it would be a nice touch after the previous episode establishing
that the twins finally came to terms with themselves not being completely
useless.
Though, unfortunately this episode
fell into a pit hole that all the twin-centric plots seem to.
It was all about Tuffnut.
I’m not going to lie, Tuffnut’s
hilarious. Everything he says he pretty much funny. But there’s a time and a
place for Tuffnut’s comedy act and a lot of places in this episode is slowed
down the plot and brought back the first season’s problem of “lollygagging” in
the second act only having to make up for it in the third act.
This episode had a pretty pressing
issue, two of our main villains were working together, they had a skrill, and
were planning an invasion. And yet…pretty much all of the second act was given
to Tuffnut being funny. He is a rather dominating character and it’s easy to get
caught in the “rhapsody of it all” with his funny lines. But I felt a lot of
his scenes could’ve been shortened and cut out and the plot would’ve faired the
same.
Why? Because the last act felt rather
crammed.
Think about it, we had three battles
in the last 7-5 minutes of the episode. Why couldn’t some of that have been
resolved in the second act as well? Cause the second act was all about Tuffnut
being funny.
Plus, again, Ruffnut was there…and
what did she do…? Nothing.
I don’t know, I just felt it focused a
little too much on the funny aspect of Tuffnut being a spy than the strategy of
him being a spy. They should’ve taken notes on what they did in “Heather
Report, part 2” or
“Defiant One” for the spying aspect of being on Outcast
island.
Still, it was nice to see the twins in
a tag-team mission with Hiccup yet again. Though I just wished the whole second
act hadn’t been slowed down so much to unnecessarily add funny stuff in.
That being said…at least Tuffnut did do his job and got information and successfully
got it back to Hiccup. So, that’s something.
PLOT B: "Outcast vs. Berserkers"
Alvin has captured the skrill and is making a
plan with Dagur that they both attack Berk in exchange for handing over the
skrill to the Berserkers. But Dagur’s got other plans.
Now this plot was surely interesting. Alvin vs. Dagur. Almost like the
good villain vs. the villain who’s falling flat. And with how the ending battle
between those two was handled I’m thinking that maybe Alvin’s lack of…exciting-ness
was actually intentional.
Was he supposed to be a failed villain…?
Who knows, but if it was supposed to be intentional than…well, that’s rather
interesting.
Though there is the pressing question
of did Dagur kill Alvin…? I’m not too sure because getting struck by lightning
in the water could kill him believably. But, I would say no, even though I saw
on tumblr that there might’ve been official confirmation on twitter that he
actually did die. Though I haven’t looked into anything so I don’t know.
Taking the surprising road and killing
Alvin off in such a way—after failing and being humiliated only to have his
tribe barely mourn him and switch over to the Berserkers—that’s pretty
depressing…makes me feel sorry for him.
But,
if he’s not dead and they’re planning to bring him back, I think it would be
interesting to have him ride in on the screaming death, wanting revenge and
then we’d have a three-way battle between Berk, the Berserkers and Alvin and the
Screaming Death. Now that would be
interesting, but we shall see. Still, if they are going to bring him back, they’d
better do something interesting with him to make up for his rather lack-luster
performance lately.
And as for Dagur…he continues to
impress me as a villain. He’s entertaining to watch, has a personality, an
established history and motivation, and has the intimating factor to make him a
threat to our heroes. All of which was perfectly shown in this episode. I
absolutely loved the little moment about him hating people who smack because
his father used to smack. Always calling back to that past of his…nice
establishment.
I only wished we had more time focusing on the tension
between Alvin and Dagur before their battle. Which would’ve happened if a
certain twin hadn’t hogged a lot of screen time….
But the end battle between Alvin and
Dagur was very good even if it was short. They’re both skilled fighters so it
was really just a matter of who would get the upper hand first. And Dagur had a
skrill at his disposal so…we all knew how that was going to end….
Still, aside from this plot not being
as present as it could’ve been and the ending battle being perhaps a tad too
short—probably cut for time—this was a very good show down, and should’ve taken
up a majority of the screen time instead, in my opinion.
PLOT C: "Brotherhood, the Reunion"
Finally with the skrill to himself, Dagur and
Hiccup face off, Night Fury vs. Skrill
I was kind of disappointed how this
fight was literally left to the last 5 minutes of the episode as it was one of
the main buildups since the previous episode.
Hiccup vs. Dagur, that’s what we’ve
all been waiting for. But, like I said, they basically crammed all three of the
ending battles—Daugr vs. Alvin, Dagur vs. Hiccup, and Hiccup vs. the Skrill—into
the last act. So each battle could only last about 2-3 minutes each.
Which was a bit of a letdown,
especially after the previous episode’s wonderfully choreographed fight.
Still, it seems a little clearer now
that Dagur definitely wants to capture Toothless and have him for himself…and I
suppose kill Hiccup…? What he wants to do with Hiccup is still a bit unclear.
But Dagur seems pretty bent on just having every fleet he can get his hands on.
And so far he’s successfully taken over the Outcasts so, he’s got the odds in
his favor.
Still, the ending battle between these
two was left on a good cliffhanger, but the battle was still…just too quick. I
wouldn’t say it was rushed just…quick.
Quicker than I would’ve liked.
Now the ending battle with the skrill
seemed alright, even though that was crammed into the remaining minutes of the
episode. And I have heard some complaints that re-freezing the skrill was
anti-climatic. I suppose it was…but Dagur gained a whole extra fleet, so it’s
not like he left this whole mess with nothing. He’s still more intimating now
with twice the number of soldiers, so…it evens out. And it was nice to see the
twins helps out in freezing the skrill.
So…all of this was good stuff, just…too
crammed into a short period of time. Everything was too quick. Though I did
love the ending scene. Dagur just looked scary…..in
a good kind of way, of course.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
So, really this episode was filled
with good stuff. Had a really great set up…it’s problem was really just time
management.
And, sorry, but I’ve just gotta blame
the Tuffnut stuff. There was just too many long scenes with Tuffnut being funny…that
were hilarious but not needed to advance the plot. They should’ve allowed more
time for the pressing matters of the plot. Like Alvin vs. Dagur, and Hiccup and
Dagur’s battle. Because those plots—even in the short time they were allotted—were
very well done.
So…it’s always so odd how the second
parts to these two part episodes never seem to meet the great set up they’re
given. Though hopefully the finale (that probably going to be another
two-parter) will fix this streak.