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Bon Bon the
Birthday Clown
In
this double-length episode, the show begins to put a lot of focus on
romance-related drama. Normally this
wouldn’t be the best course since bigger areas of the series require more drama,
but how it’s presented here makes it work.
For one thing, it’s an after effect from two different things Star and
Marco do. Marco goes to a school dance with Jackie and Star joins Janna for
a séance of a dead birthday clown.
The former activity shows that Marco has come a
long way with being around Jackie, especially after the last episode. The
latter is a creative activity backed by a flashback with one of the cutest death scenes I’ve seen.
Each subplot has its own appeal to make them stand out. The séance portion brings more
charm from Star’s bond with Janna as they both see pleasure in finding out if
the legend of Bon Bon is true. Adding to the charm is their enjoyable banter with Glossaryck
who tags along. As for Marco and Jackie,
their chemistry is strong and does justice for Jackie’s character. She’s quick to see Marco’s desperate attempts
at conversations and lets him know that he doesn’t need to trouble himself. She reminds him that he’s good at picking himself up from any awkwardness. Jackie is also a thrill seeker for
opting to spend time with Marco as a date as opposed to going to the even more awkward
school dance.
Both subplots come
together as the relationship drama kicks in.
It’s been hinted a few times this season that Star is getting a crush on
Marco. She was originally excited about going to the dance with him before
Jackie invited him. Despite technically
being possessive, Star does know of Marco’s true crush and tries not to
intrude when Jackie gets involved. Joining Janna for the séance makes it
easier. Star does allude to being justice
over Marco and Jackie together, but does attempt to restrain her
jealousy through subtle questions about why he’s going out with Jackie and not
her. She even puts a
lot of effort into Bon Bon’s shrine, and only checks on Marco when
the ghost clown doesn’t show up.
However, circumstances lead her to the ultimate move to spy on him when she
summons a forbidden dark magic spell from Eclipsa’s section of her spell
book. It lets her see Marco
hanging out with Jackie instead of going to the dance. Even crazier is that it lets her
control the vision when her jealousy accidently gets her to shoot one of the wheels on
Jackie’s skateboard. Star is kept
likable for regretting the action though.
We also get a big climax for the episode when she and Janna are ambushed
by Ludo and his associates. The ensuing
battle is one of the show’s most evenly matched with many big and creative
spells from both Star and Ludo’s wands. It eventually looks like Star will win with a
black hole spell sucking Ludo up.
However, Marco showing up with Jackie causes the spell to backfire with
Star about to get sucked in. The
confrontation ends with an intense moments of all four teens saving themselves
from getting sucked. Even so, Ludo steals Star’s spell book with
Glossaryck in tow.
The big thing about
this is that while there is still some drama over crushes, the
fact that Star’s spell book is gone is treated like the bigger deal it is. That offers a huge direction to take the show in. It’s not easy to treat romance drama
tactfully, but through strong efforts of restraining it in favor of bigger plot
points and charming character moments, it all works out to something great.
A+
The Ranking
- Bon Bon the Birthday Clown
- Ludo in the Wild
- Into the Wand
- Hungry Larry
- Game of Flags
- On the Job
- Sleepover
- Is Mystery
- Naysaya
- Mr. Candle Cares
- Wand to Wand
- Page Turner
- Starstruck
- Girls’ Day Out
- By the Book
- Friendenemies
- Gift of the Card
- Starsitting
- Star on Wheels
- Camping Trip
- My New Wand
- Red Belt
- Spider with a Top Hat
- Star vs Echo Creek
- Fetch
- Goblin Dogs
- Pizza Thing
The next Star vs the Forces of Evil review covers the follow-up to this episode as Star and Marco make their first attempt to get Glossaryck and the spell book back, and the show hits a new low when Star meets a birthday magician and everyone is too dense to believe her discoveries that his magic is real.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is another Xiaolin Showdown episode, "Chameleon."
If you would like to check out other Star vs the Forces of Evil reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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