Oil in the Family
I’ve always felt that the villains of this show are far more interesting than the heroes. They all have a lot more variety to their personalities for starters as well as approaches to schemes. That’s a long way from the Xiaolin Warriors who tend to think alike more often than not. With that in mind, you can only imagine what greatness can come from their dynamics, even when they consist of them backstabbing each other. This concept stands out a lot more with a creative concept to drive this episode.
Wuya feels underappreciated and overpowered by Chase Young given that she doesn’t have all her powers despite being fully human now. She then gets a chance to regain some reverence with the reveal of a new Shen Gong Wu, the Rio Reverso. That’s got to be one of the most imaginative Shen Gong Wu, being able to turn anything back into its original source. When going after it, Wuya keeps the Xiaolin Warriors from retrieving it by hitting them with other fellow villain, Jack, whom she manipulates with the Ruby of Ramses. Jack ultimately gets the Rio Reverso, and Wuya is confident she can easily steal it from him later.
In the meantime, Jack uncovers a creative thing to do with the Rio Reverso. By testing out its powers, he discovers that he can use it to create an army of dinosaurs, and the potential for greatness speaks for itself. When the Xiaolin Warriors come to get it back, with Raimundo in particular shaken that they’ve been beaten by evil a lot lately, fighting dinosaurs is certainly a good change of pace. Because these dinosaurs are just babies, they’re easily beaten, but that doesn’t stop Wuya from getting hold of it, beating the Warriors and Jack, and using it for her own means.
Stealing Jack’s initial dinosaur army idea, Wuya takes the Rio Reverso to a huge oil rig to bring to life a huge T-Rex. This is where the episode reaches its high point as Jack teams up with Chase Young so they can both get back at Wuya for going behind their backs. Add in the Xiaolin Warriors coming to right all the wrongs, and the climax is all set to leave an impact. One creative addition more with Chase making the T-Rex talk all high class with the aid of the Eagle Scope is welcome as well. The villains then proceed to backstab each other as beings of evil tend to do, but get their just due from a dinosaur with actual intelligence.
This leaves the Xiaolin Warriors to take care of things, which is a good start to their redemption over past losses, especially for Raimundo. He quickly adopts the concept of patience as he faces the T-Rex in a Xiaolin Showdown, which turns out to be an extreme version of the ultimate mind game, chess. It’s kind of convenient he knows what to do given that there has been next to no past material saying he’s good at the game. Still, the fact that he’s able to make the right moves to beat the T-Rex shows that something was learned from the experience. For the heroes’ efforts, they get an entire zoo of miniature dinosaurs, including the big one shrunken down, and things going into motion for things to really turn around for them.
As for the villains, their
backstabbing and brooding gets them nowhere for now, but they certainly proved
their worth as catalysts for the events.
Bring them together with a concept big on creativity, and I can consider
this episode a standout effort for Season 3.
A
The Ranking
1. Bird of Paradise
2. Oil in the Family
3. The Treasure of the Blind Swordsman
4. Finding Omi
5. Omi Town
6. The Life and Times of Hannibal Roy
Bean
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode that brings back Master Monk Guan with disappointing results.
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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