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Junkin’ Janna
Right away you know that this episode is going to focus solely on mindless fun, but it’s very good mindless fun regardless. It follows the perfect character for such a tone, Janna, one of the biggest ‘anything goes’ members of the cast. However, in her fun, Janna does bring out some development in a few lingering plot threads.
She brings Tom along with her to help him find out what to do with himself when Star has other matters she needs to deal with alone. Fitting for her character, she invites Tom along for the unusual yet really fun activity of ‘boot-sledding.’ It involves finding a big boot at the top of a junk pile, and jumping inside it while it’s pushed down a hill. From a staging perspective, it’s very convincing that such an activity is very exciting, kind of making you wish boots that big existed in real life.
As for Tom, he visibly still has things to work through as he’s constantly texting or sending selfies to Star via his compact mirror phone. Soon, bigger matters interfere with the fun when Janna spots a crow who’s apparently been giving her trouble ever since she discovered boot-sledding. She wants Tom to blast it with his fire power, but in accordance with his legitimate development, he refuses, saying the bird is too innocent to get struck. However, even when the crow proves to be not so innocent and steals Janna’s boot, he still refuses which is a bit stubborn of Tom even though he’s not trying to be that.
At the same time, this fun time is inter-cut with scenes of what Star is doing. She and Eclipsa are called for a meeting with the Magic High Commission who stall for time and leave both of them incredibly frustrated. I also have to wonder why Eclipsa even keeps the Magic High Commission around after their plot to erase her daughter from the Butterfly family lineage. Their issues don’t even have weight to them either. They claim that dark magic spells that have been forbidden for a long time have been active in Eclipsa’s domain. From what I can tell, the only dark magic that’s been used since Eclipsa took over was the all-seeing eye which has been around since Season 2. Also, this is another plot point brought up this season that is never explored anywhere else, so it’s really just a time waster built on mostly unwarranted scorn towards Eclipsa.
Really, the true dark magic comes from where Janna and Tom find the boot the crow stole. It takes it to the ruined Butterfly castle, and is seemingly using it to build its nest. The magic is revealed when Tom finally blasts the crow, but doing so reveals that the crow is actually a demon with a true monstrous form. He and Janna then have to escape for their lives and leave the boot behind, although the thrill of adventure is satisfying enough for them, especially Tom. Opting to leave his phone, his only communication to Star, behind is symbolic of him not being solely defined by his relationship. As for the crow, it further leads itself to the true magical disturbance as the episode ends with it returning to its master, Mina Loveberry. She uses the obtained boot to construct her own magic warrior, foreshadowing Season 4’s action set piece. Then again, when you consider that crows were associated with her in her previous appearance, it’s not surprising that she has something to do with this. Overall, this episode shows just how big things can get when working off of something simply done for fun.
A
A Spell With No Name
As a matter of hurting this episode’s potential, it’s yet another one about the spells living inside the royal Butterfly family wand. I was never a fan of these episodes as they offered little point in personifying the spells, and the stories themselves never mined the setup for genuine imagination. Half the time, the spells weren’t even that likable. To this episode’s credit, this has the biggest point of existence out of all the spell-centered episodes there are.
The first big sign of this is the particular spell it chooses to follow. By contrast, the last two episodes about the spells mainly followed Spider with a Top Hat, someone trying way too hard to be a fighter, never accepting that he’s hardly qualified for it. He was simply a weak lead with a lot of concerning issues. The lead for this episode is the Narwhal of Star’s famed Narwhal Blast, who has a lot more credibility as a true powerful spell, and is shown to be a good family man. When all of Star’s spells gather for a pancake breakfast at the start of the episode, Narwhal makes it his mission just to find more syrup for his son, showing true dedication.
This is made difficult when the breakfast is intercepted by a group of Eclipsa’s spells. Their actions leave pretty dangerous impressions as they beat Spider by stripping him of self-esteem and capture a glowworm spell. Now Narwhal has to try and settle this matter by tracking down the team of spells to save Glowworm. When doing so, the morality of Eclipsa’s spells starts becoming confusing. They appeared villainous through how they attacked everyone’s breakfast, but are worried for the spells’ well-being. They’re tracking down a very dangerous spell that, according to the episode title, has no name. It’s also a spell that really means business as it passes through one of Eclipsa’s spells, destroying it for good. This right here gives a lot of background to how magic works on this show as well as legit reasons to why Eclipsa lacks so much trust. Holding a spell like that which can kill anything in its path with no effort is bound to hurt a reputation. You’d probably think it’s the same one Moon once used against Toffee though a later episode shows that it has slightly different words to it.
As for now, it leaves legit stakes for all the spells in the wand, and Eclipsa’s spells are soon without a proper means to get it in a pickle jar out of harm’s way. It’s here, though, when Narwhal shows value in the mission with one of the whale’s natural abilities, echolocation. While it makes sense from an implied biological standpoint, this reveal could have been benefited by at least one showing of it in a past episode. Otherwise, it just feels like an out of nowhere revealed existing to offer a quick fix to the conflict. The pancake breakfast with plenty of syrup going great after the spell is caught in the jar is at least decent enough to justify the fix.
There’s also an attempt at raising tension with the last scene of Narwhal looking to the imprisoned spell with no name with worry. Unlike most plot points in this season, this one does turn up again justifying the worry. However, no instance in any other episode implies how it can actually escape that jar so the building tension isn’t necessarily perfect. Thankfully, the showing of such a deadly spell as well as actual creative ways of showing the wand’s inner workings and a likable character at the lead benefit this spell episode. Considering their reputation, at least from my view, this is certainly a relief.
B
The Ranking
1. Escape from the Pie Folk
2. Meteora’s Lesson
3. Swim Suit
4. Cornball!
5. Yadda Yadda Berries
6. Moon Remembers
7. Junkin’ Janna
8. Queen-Napped
9. Ghost of Butterfly Castle
10. The Knight Shift
11. Ransomgram
12. Butterfly Follies
13. Kelly’s World
14. Surviving the Spiderbites
15. A Spell With No Name
16. Princess Quasar Caterpillar and the Magic Bell
17. Down By the River
18. Out of Business
19. Lake House Fever
20. The Ponyhead Show
21. The Curse of the Blood Moon
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode featuring Marco inviting Tom to a Dragon Cycle gang, and Eclipsa getting up to actual endearment in a date with her monster husband.
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