The Year of
the Green Monkey
The trend of creative story ideas for this season continues
here as this episode builds it around established character habits. One Shen Gong Wu you’ll often find Jack
Spicer using is the Monkey Staff for the sole purpose of goofing around as a
monkey. This habit makes for a somewhat
interesting character study as it ties to him treating being evil more like a
custom than something really from the heart.
It all happens with a reveal of a new Shen Gong Wu designed to give
infinite knowledge called the Fountain of Hui, nicely named after series
creator Christy Hui. The catch is that
it gives a lot of random information all at once, and the only way to limit it
down to the facts you actually want to learn is with another Shen Gong Wu the
Eagle Scope. The Xiaolin Warriors easily
get the Fountain which is distressful for Chase Young, coming into the
spotlight after quite some time. Given
his ambitions to sway Omi to the side of evil, he fears that his enemies will
soon obtain the secret to destroying evil forever. However, he proves to know people very well
as he calls upon Jack as part of a ploy to prevent the Warriors from getting
the other needed Shen Gong Wu. Jack, who
already has the Monkey Staff, also needs a companion Shen Gong Wu for the
process to work which requires a raid on the Xiaolin Temple.
Through a rather unbelievable stunt of hiding
in a small banana and surprising negligence to strange sounds from the
Warriors, he obtains the Tongue of Saiping.
As some may recall, that’s the Shen Gong Wu that gives the user the
power to talk to animals. Because
monkeys tend to follow a leader, i.e. monkey see monkey do, both Shen Gong Wu
together give Jack his own army of green monkeys. For all the ridiculousness of the setup, it’s
impressive that this strategy turns out effective as the Warriors are vastly
outnumbered and overpowered by the monkeys.
Creatures often used for humor are a legitimately formable force of
resistance, and are effective in keeping the Warriors stuck in the Temple when
the Eagle Scope is revealed.
Their best
option is to use the Fountain of Hui on its own but comical after effects of
cramming knowledge into Omi’s big head seem to get them nowhere. However, in his funny spouting of random
facts, he concludes that the only way out is to face the monkey by acting like
a monkey. There’s surprisingly good
logic to this plan as Jack’s obsession with the monkey staff has him once again
succumb to its after effect of becoming more monkey-like the longer he holds
it. Going into a Xiaolin Showdown of
fighting amongst monkey bars, he’s pretty much full on beast. Still, Omi is ready to face it through
playing to monkey mannerisms environment through tempting Jack with a banana
and winning with a bite on the butt.
That said, while Jack faces consequences for his monkey obsession
afterwards, the Warriors unluckily miss their chance at getting the Eagle Scope
and ending evil. Plus, Chase is still
out there, now with Wuya by his side, and is more confident than ever in
swaying Omi to open a new evil chapter.
This episode shows that legitimately good plans can come from the most
unlikely sources while also doing its part to build up future big plans from
the most sinister villain to date.
A
The Ranking
1. Citadel of Doom
2. The Last Temptation of Raimundo
3. The Evil Within
4. Enter the Dragon
5. The Deep Freeze
6. Days Past
7. PandaTown
8. The Emperor Scorpion Strikes Back
9. The Return of PandaBubba
10. The Sands of Time
11. The Year of the Green Monkey
12. Master Monk Guan
13. Screams of the Siren
14. Crystal Glasses
15. Dreamscape
16. The Shard of Lightning
17. Hear Some Evil, See Some Evil
18. Sizing Up Omi
19. The Black Vipers
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where ignorance and irresponsibility on the Warriors' parts has major evil grow from a tiny seed.
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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