Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Dark Plaza - (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 2 Episode 37) - 'Toon Reviews 40

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Dark Plaza

The Season 2 finale is one to appropriately and epically culminate some of the series’ deeper elements after a string of fairly light-hearted material.  In fact, there’s an effective transition from nice and wholesome to dark and serious right at the start. 

Reflecting the happier times K.O. and his friends have been enjoying, the beginning features them all enjoying life at the bodega, thinking the day’s going to be great.  At just a couple of seconds in, the lighter tone is quickly and suddenly darkened, though given the context of the story, it makes sense for things to escalate quickly.  

The heroes responsible for this are from P.O.I.N.T. under the leadership of Foxtail, giving some much needed context to the end of the earlier P.O.I.N.T. Prep arc of this season.  She’s also appointed Elodie to work alongside her, which at first feels like a detriment to her character development. Thankfully though, there are a few hints all throughout that she doesn’t really approve of following these orders. 

Now, Foxtail has come to the plaza to take full control of the hidden glorb tree so P.O.I.N.T. can harvest them and use them for power.  Out of this is the exposure of Carol’s involvement as a secret agent who was the former protector of the tree and is now relieved of those duties.  Though Carol is quick to oppose these plans, Mr. Gar is understandably hurt that she kept such a huge secret from him.  For an even darker measure, P.O.I.N.T. ends up taking over the entire plaza and even tears down Gar’s Bodega, making everyone work for them harvesting the glorbs. 

Not only does everyone opt not to stop them right on the spot, but P.O.I.N.T.’s reign legitimately lasts for two months, showing the weight of the events’ effects on the world.  K.O. and many of his friends form an underground resistance with both Mr. Gar and Carol going into hiding.  The impressive thing about this setup is that despite the repercussions on P.O.I.N.T.’s reign, it hardly feels out of place for the light-hearted tone of the series.  K.O. for instance is portrayed as an edgy resistance leader, but still gets over-emotional about the prospect of things going back to normal.  

Then there is the plan to take P.O.I.N.T. out of power that makes good use of characters major and supporting put into action once important blueprints are obtained.  It’s hard to tell it’s actually happening since it’s shown while K.O. is explaining it, but it’s made clear later that this is the case.  There’s a good productive use of everyone’s powers while K.O., being the serious mission leader, is treated as the cute little bundle he’s designed as.  His small size fitting into things like Enid’s shadows, Rad’s levitation, Red Action’s arm cannon, and even Chameleon Jr’s tongue is an endearing sight in a post-apocalyptic setting.  There’s also strong continuation of newly formed bonds, particularly with K.O. and T.K.O.  Bringing the impression that he’s embraced his positive and negative emotions, they’re able to work in sync and be at their most powerful, creating a being called P.K.O. or Perfect K.O.  Their power along with a previous plot device, the key to the plaza is used to bring to life Lakewood Plaza Turbo’s ultimate defense system, Plazamo, proving that ridiculous story true. 

As Plazamo is kind of dopey and can’t focus on the battle, she needs help from K.O., Rad, and Enid when Foxtail and Elodie come to attack.  There’s an exciting battle out of this with Plazamo soon under threat of losing her powers, but there are plenty of elements on its side.  P.K.O. brings on the truly impressive elements of holding back the disempowering rays of the enemies.  

Carol and Mr. Gar suddenly show up, have an endearing make-up while falling towards the scene of battle, and then help out majorly.  Bringing on the true redemption though is Elodie, for allowing herself and Foxtail to take the hit of the disempower ray, allowing the plaza to win back its freedom.  It’s easily one of the show’s grandest battles and it’s followed up on effects that change the show going forward. 

Foxtail is left powerless and is heartbroken over this as she feels that without power, she can’t lead P.O.I.N.T. well and could potentially lose another great one like Laserblast.  Carol, who was once really close to Laserblast, understands Foxtail’s feelings, and gives her a passionate speech.  Luckily for Foxtail, with K.O.’s help, she gets a chance to prove herself as a great hero through launching him to stop Lord Boxman from stealing much of the harvested glorbs.  The real changes then come in just after this.  While Elodie’s sacrifice is cheapened somewhat with a mention that the disempowering ray was dialed back so the effects won’t be permanent, healthy decisions are still made.  Foxtail retires, and Elodie who’s much more considerate for the job, is named the new head of P.O.I.N.T.  K.O., Rad, and Enid are also named official heroes with Mr. Gar allowing them to take part in top secret missions.  Just to further K.O. getting to his ultimate goal, this growth is marked by a fitting level up on his Pow Card.  For this show, this is best way to close one season and go into the next one, and after something so huge too.

It’s true that some things happen quickly, some conveniences arise, and some repercussions aren’t as big as they could be.  While this means this season finale isn’t perfect, it doesn’t change that it’s still very strong for what it does provide.  It goes from happy to dark seamlessly, still maintains the show’s cartoonish side even when dark, and the changes it brings to the show are fitting to see.  Any fault it does have end up working well because of these strengths in fact.  One thing’s for sure, it does its part to make the series all the more engaging, and excites for what’s coming next.

A+

Season 2 Rankings

1.      Your World is an Illusion

2.      T.K.O.’s House

3.      Final Exams

4.      CarolQuest

5.      All in the Villainy

6.      Dark Plaza

7.      GarQuest

8.      Dendy’s Power

9.      Crossover Nexus

10.  Lord Cowboy Darrell

11.  Bittersweet Rivals

12.  Beach Episode

13.  Red Action to the Future

14.  My Fair Carol

15.  K.O.’s Health Week

16.  Are You Ready for Some Megafootball?!

17.  Boxman Crashes

18.  Wisdom Strength and Charisma

19.  Gar Trains Punching Judy

20.  I Am Jethro

21.  Mystery Sleepover

22.  Super Black Friday

23.  Point to the Plaza

24.  Project Ray Way

25.  Special Delivery

26.  Seasons Change

27.  The So-Bad-Ical

28.  Monster Party

29.  Sidekick Scouts

30.  Whacky Jaxxyz

31.  Rad’s Alien Sickness

32.  Plaza Film Festival

33.  OK A.U.! Alternate Universe

34.  Let’s Watch the Boxmore Show

35.  Be a Team

36.  Plaza Alone

37.  Soda Genie

 

The second season is officially covered, and you won’t have to wait long to see any views of what comes next.  For in just a few reviews, we'll soon see these new status quo changes come into effect in the premiere for Season 3.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "The Intruder" from The Owl House.
If you would like to check out other OK K.O.! reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

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