Ladies and gentlemen! We have our first dark water appearance. After a few off-hand mentions, we finally get the black goopy stuff on screen. Episode 2 improved on Episode 1, and I have to say, Episode 3 continues the trend. The storytelling gets more unique in this episode, things turn dark, and rather than bounce back from last episode’s troubled cliffhanger, our heroes are even worse off at the end of this 22 minutes.
Contemporary shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones have been very good at building to the end credits. Tension rising, characters in danger, things happen, and then BAM black screen. Credits roll. The audience exhales. PDW doesn’t get to that level. It can’t really. But the end of this episode shows that its writer’s wanted those kind of gasps from the kiddies. But I get ahead of myself…
Last episode, Konk stole the compass and 1st treasure of Rule (Rool?) only to be cut off from reuniting with Bloth. This episode we pick up in the very next moment, with Wren and crew pursuing Konk and his two brother’s as they flee to Jomba Town to hideout and wait to reconnect with Bloth.
We get some un-eventful chasing, and the Konk decides to alter course and head for Pandowa, to try and lose their pursuers. Pandowa, it turns out, is the home island of the Bird People, is where Nibbler was born, and is home to a brisk slave trade where the “two legs” sell the bird people into captivity. So Wren’s pursuit of Konk and co. is interrupted by a Jabba the Hut wannabe, and some attacks from a Bird People rebel force.
The rebels cease fighting when Jabba brings out their queen—“Not only our queen, but mother to us all” cries Nibbler—Wren promptly gives the Queen some water, and a murmur of surprise rushes among birds and dudes alike. Back to the chase, Wren and his group chase Konk to the den of Jarvis: leader of the slave trade, mayor of Pandowa, and friend of Bloth.
WHOOPS! they think. There only choice is to flee, get picked up by some Bird People rebels, and hideout in their treetop hideout. Then we get our big turning point. The bird rebels ask Wren to help and make a distraction in town while they attack Jarvis’ place, and when Wren agrees, Tula and Eyeoz are like…well SEE YA and just head for the boat, to leave. SUDDENLY, Jarvis’ men, who have been tipped off by a traitor bird man bust in and start busting heads. Wren falls! Tula and Eyeoz try to come back, but it’s too late! They have to just sail off without Wren/Niddler!
All the Bird Dudes are corralled and taken to the center of town along with an unconscious Wren. The traitor bird reveals himself, and then Niddler makes a speech about freedom and the Birds fly (pun intended) into a bird frenzy and burn that mother down. Wren wakes up back in the hideout, Niddler tells him the good news, and the newly freed Bird Queen is like nice work Son of Primus, guess what? MY CROWN HAS A ROOL TREASURE IN IT!
WREN IS LIKE NUH UH! AND QUEEN IS LIKE HAVE IT! AND WREN IS LIKE:
So then they give him and Niddler a boat (Konk is long gone at this point), and they set sail. MEANWHILE, Eyeoz and Tula have a) felt bad about ditching Wren and b) realized the compass is still hella valuable even if Wren might be dead, and so are headed for Jomba Town to still stop Konk. MEANWHILE that’s what Wren and Niddler want to do too, but THEN BLOTH’S SHIP COMES OUT OF NOWHERE AND SWALLOWS THEM UP CUT TO END CREDITS WHAAAAAAT????
Score: A
Dark Water Count: 2 (one in the opening chase, and one when Tula and Eyeoz are fleeing the bird hideout)
This episode really hits home for me how willing this show is to introduce nested narratives. The main quest of collecting treasures is interrupted by losing the compass, the quest of getting to Jomba Town is interrupted with this Pandowa detour, and now out of no where we’ve been captured by Bloth again! Story lines don’t complete, they just unravel—a sort of little kids introduction to Kafka. Now our hero is boatless, compasless, crewless, and in the belly of the beast! What happened to wacky adventures-of-the-week?
Also, as cut and dried as the slave-revolt plot is, it is super critical to note that Wren’s role in helping the rebellion is almost entirely symbolic. He doesn’t have any strategies that help, he’s terrible in the only relevant fight, and he’s unconscious during the actual revolt. Thus the story avoids turning our main dude into some kind of super-powered messiah. He’s just someone with a really specific moral code, and in this case it costs him 2/3 of his companions. There’s a beautiful moment just as Tula and Eyeoz are walking out on Wren: “We must hurry, our attack begins before darkfall,” says the Head Bird Rebel. “Darkfall… *beat* Yes! Chieftain I am yours.” Wren replies. In that moment, you can hear Wren question his own decision. Why is he staying to help? Who are his friends? What is right? And so the conflict introduced last episode—that Tula and Eyeoz are just opportunistic strangers—didn’t end with last episode. Negotiating what it means to be a group is still very much the show’s through-line.
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