'Toon Reviews 17: Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2 Episode 5: Eye of the Storm

Eye of the Storm

The fact that the last episode abruptly ended with the Paladins found by Zarkon’s fleet suggests that this episode is going to be an all-out galactic brawl.  We do start with a huge battle, but it doesn’t last long.  The Paladins take in the facts that Zarkon is simply too powerful for them to take on alone at this point, especially after what happened at his base. 

The episode’s focus is using wormholes to get enough distance from their enemies for some time.  As a result, the episode isn’t all about battles, so it doesn’t always live up to the cliffhanger, but we do still get many admirable qualities.  With wormholes being needed, there’s some interesting facts to their creation as demonstrated in a cute limited animation style common for infomercials.  Wormholes are made in a part of the ship called a teludav where a laser is fired off of crystal discs.  While this would be seen as random, it’s actually a big deal because a lot of the crystals are broken and wormholes can’t be made, at least not ones that can reach far distances. 

You’d expect our heroes to put all their attention into the teludav problem, but the reveal of the issue is instead followed by a sequence of antics around the ship.  They’re enjoyable for sure, but some like Lance and Keith going to a pool and Pidge learning to speak Altean from a tutorial that has the safety turned off aren’t substantial.  Fortunately, I can’t say that’s the case for all the antics, but these ones really stick out.  Then we’re abruptly thrown back into battling Zarkon who tracks them down again.  It’s a really intense battle with frantic attempts to hold him back while Coran rushes to perform a light wormhole jump, made difficult by his case of the slipperies, an Altean virus where the body excretes a slippery liquid, primarily used for funny scenes. 

Following that fight, when thoughts turn to how Zarkon keeps finding the team, there’s some drama when Allura believes her mere existence gives them away.  It’s hard to believe since there’s no clear evidence, but sympathy is still apparent that Allura, someone devoted to the Paladins believes something this drastic.  Whether this is true or not isn’t explained though. Zarkon finds them much quicker resulting in the episode’s biggest battle in a cosmic storm.  The magnitude is helped by the storm making things difficult for both sides and Zarkon’s undying desire to get his original lion, the black lion.  What gets the Paladins out of harms’ way is an interesting move that gives relevance to some of the earlier antics.  The broken crystals in the teludav are replaced by hard cookies Hunk inadvertently made earlier, and the fluids from Coran’s slipperies allow the Paladins to get the wormhole they need via a dangerous scene where they have to hold in some of the replacement crystals as the laser fires.  The episode ends shortly after the wormhole jump is made, though we’re still without a clear reason why the Paladins keep getting found.  Though Zarkon’s clear desire to get the black lion does make the conflict and him as a character a bit more interesting. 

This leaves us with a greatly enjoyable episode where much of its new reveals and character moments all come together in the end. 9/10

The Ranking

1. Shiro’s Escape
2. Greening the Cube
3. Eye of the Storm
4. Across the Universe
5. The Depths

The next Voltron: Legendary Defender review covers a visit to a new planet while Keith and Allura believe they're putting the team in danger.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is a special review to commemorate Memorial Day and, by coincidence, the 1-year anniversary of this blog.

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