Friday, November 1, 2019

The Black Vipers (Xiaolin Showdown Season 2 Episode 15) - 'Toon Reviews 35

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The Black Vipers


Although this episode gives background to a central character, its execution leaves disturbing and morally confusing implications.  As a result, the final product falls flat. 
Today’s Shen Gong Wu mission leads the Xiaolin Warriors to Texas.  Arriving to fight them is a team of bikers known as the Black Vipers whom Clay seems to be aware of given that they’re native to this state.  Not only is this the case, but they fight well too and easily bring down the Warriors, though Clay seems to put up a good fight before he’s captured too.  Then everything changes when they meet the person in charge of the Vipers, Jesse, who happens to be Clay’s sister.  In the first place, the reveal is very sudden even if the others are appropriately shocked that Clay never told them about her.  Maybe if there was a subtle hint to her existence in the one episode where they explored Clay’s home life, Jesse’s first appearance would feel more natural. 
Even if we let this slide, her introduction really turns unsettling when her personality is revealed.  She has got to be one of the pettiest antagonists ever with her drive for being a bad guy fueled by feeling like her older brother got more attention than she did.  She just comes off as a spoiled brat willing to make dangerous choices to get her way.  For all we know, she actually did get some attention and just couldn’t accept that Clay got it first because he was older. From what’s told, there’s not enough to even understand her motives.  All she wants for closure is for Clay to challenge her so she can have a chance to beat him at something, although Clay, as shown in a previous episode, refuses to fight a girl. 
This wouldn’t be so bad if she didn’t go to such extreme measures.  She threatens to feed her brother and his friends to vultures, somehow gets that they escaped and follows them to the new Shen Gong Wu, and forms an alliance with Jack.  The latter measure happens when he infiltrates the Vipers’ lair while after the Shen Gong Wu, and is actually competent enough to beat them and take them over.  There is potential for Clay and Jesse to bond as they both delight in saying country idioms about how much Jack annoys them, but this doesn’t go anywhere.  Jesse still follows Jack’s lead and actually sends Clay and the others way down below the Earth’s crust.  This is beyond low that further shows how extreme Jesse’s pettiness really is, and from there her morality gets more confusing.  She later lets them out because Clay’s family, yet when they go back for the Shen Gong Wu they left behind, she still betrays them.  It can’t be this hard to decide on whether Jesse likes her brother deep down or not. 
She ultimately gets her challenge when she and Clay set up a Xiaolin Showdown for a sack of Shen Gong Wu.  This is a fun highlight for the episode as a motorcycle race through a winding canyon where moralities really clash.  At one point, when Jesse’s falling, Clay shows mercy and saves her, but Jesse wins by knocking him off and finishing the race first.  Clay realizes the hard way that it’s possible to put in too much trust, but Jesse has her most genuine change of heart.  After giving one sad look after winning, she decides to give Clay back all his Shen Gong Wu but keeps the Wings of Tinabi making for a nice scene of her motorcycle flying on a rainbow. 
Even with this ending though, it’s not enough to forget how frustrating the story mostly is.  It goes to show that not all background reveals will leave the best impacts.
C-

The Ranking

1.      Citadel of Doom

2.      The Evil Within

3.      Enter the Dragon

4.      The Deep Freeze

5.      Days Past

6.      PandaTown

7.      The Emperor Scorpion Strikes Back

8.      The Sands of Time

9.      Master Monk Guan

10.  Crystal Glasses

11.  Dreamscape

12.  The Shard of Lightning

13.  Hear Some Evil, See Some Evil

14.  Sizing Up Omi

15.  The Black Vipers

 
 
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where the next big threat to the world turns out to be a hot mermaid.

If you would like to check out other Xiaolin Showdown reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

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