'Toon Reviews 19: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 30: Let's Have a Stakeout

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Let’s Have a Stakeout

Throughout this season, there’s been plenty of K.O. bonding with his co-workers, his mom, and his best friend. This cartoon is the first one fully devoted to him bonding with his level-11 boss, Mr. Gar.  He’s the hero K.O. looks up to the most, but so far we’ve never really seen them together or heard how Mr. Gar really feels about K.O.  In an interesting change of pace, circumstances bring K.O. together with Mr. Gar for an important mission. 

Someone’s been sneaking into Lakewood Plaza Turbo for many nights.  K.O. instantly recognizes the creeper as Shadowy Figure, the villain responsible for making him unleash T.K.O.  When Mr. Gar organizes a stakeout to catch him, through working in parental permission, K.O. gets a chance to join in.  However, his little kid tendencies are on full display during what’s supposed to be a serious stealth mission. His excitability clearly threatens to compromise the element of surprise. 

That said, while he does come off as a bit of a pest asking endless questions, his excitability is mostly entertaining, especially through his misconceptions on stakeouts.  There’s also a nice moment where Mr. Gar humbly says he’s only getting used to a small kid with a lot of questions around.  While he’s answering that single question, we get that sandwich flashback yet again, and it once again ties into something new about Mr. Gar.  That flashback has made him believe that you’ll screw something up no matter how hard you try it, begging how this can be. 

It isn’t long before K.O. starts living through that piece of advice when he’s by himself and decides to follow Shadowy Figure into the sewers to catch him and make Mr. Gar proud.  While chasing him, K.O.’s biggest childlike tendency pulls him into an obvious trap. He believes that Shadowy Figure ran into a secret room, but the door’s locked.  K.O. pulls off an effective power fist to open the door, but Shadowy Figure never got inside at all.  Thanks to K.O.’s power fist, he’s now free to snatch up all the glorbs, which have only been mentioned once before. 

However, in another twist that begs big questions about Shadowy Figure’s true morality, he’s more interested in fighting K.O. than stealing glorbs.  He acts like he’s trying to get K.O. angry to unleash his true power through dodging his attacks and deliberately taunting him by saying he’ll never be a true hero.  In the process, K.O.’s overall greatness as a character shines through. He self-reflects on his behavior during the stakeout and deduces that maybe he was too much of a pest to fully deserve joining Mr. Gar.  However, while he’s effected by this harsh truth, K.O. is strong enough to not give into the negative emotions to unleash T.K.O. again.  He even beats back Shadowy Figure with a simple nudge under his own positive power, prompting the villain to leave emptyhanded. Him just leaving after that further suggests that helping K.O. realize his true power was his true intention after all. 

The last scene has Mr. Gar discover what K.O. had done, and it does great justice for his character. He’s sympathetic for the young hero in training, reminding him there’s always a chance at redemption when you screw up.  It’s a well-handled wholesome moment between the two characters.  K.O. actually gets some meaningful advice from his idol, bringing together everything from a stakeout of meaningful character moments.

A

The Ranking

1. Face Your Fears
2. You Have to Care
3. T.K.O.
4. No More Pow Cards
5. Legends of Mr. Gar
6. We’ve Got Pests
7. I Am Dendy
8. Let’s Have a Stakeout
9. You Get Me
10. Let’s Be Heroes
11. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
12. Jethro’s All Yours
13. Know Your Mom
14. Everybody Likes Rad?
15. A Hero’s Fate
16. Plaza Prom
17. We’re Captured
18. My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
19. Let’s Be Friends
20. We Messed Up
21. Presenting Joe Cuppa
22. Sibling Rivalry
23. Second First Date
24. Stop Attacking the Plaza
25. Just Be a Pebble
26. Do You Have Any More in the Back?
27. You’re Level 100
28. You Are Rad
29. We’ve Got Fleas
30. One Last Score

The next OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode is a bizarre one where Rad falls in love with Shannon...and it goes nowhere.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the Star vs the Forces of Evil episodes "Collateral Damage" and "Just Friends."

If you would like to check out other OK K.O.! reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.