After the last few episodes, I’ve been ever-increasingly disappointed with Pirates of Dark Water. The little-kid comedy has come to the fore, Bloth has been reduced to a Team-Rocket-level running joke, and the action/staging/logical progression of plots and sequences has become clumsy. But I can say with little reservation that episode 8 really turns that around. It’s a neatly contained story, with few logical plot holes, interesting exposition, a worthwhile villain, and no sign of Bloth and his clown squad.
PDW is at its best when it explores Wren’s character. For all it’s pandering to little kids—when are we going to EAT?! cries Niddler—the one theme that the show handles with some nuance is the tension between Wren’s integrity and naivety. At his best, Wren behaves in a way keeping with the platonic ideal of royalty. He helps the unfortunate, he refuses to compromise, and he sees the best in people. He is, quite literally, noble. At his worst, Wren is nothing but oblivious enthusiasm. He ignores the reality of his surroundings to the point of negligence, he discounts the feelings of those people closest him, and is absolutely guile-less. And so when a big watery avatar of his dead father tells him to ring a bell and save the world, he doesn’t hesitate.
It’s a shame that the episode doesn’t give Tula more of a chance to leverage her vision of Corruptus. Wren’s decision to barrel ahead and ring the bell would hit home harder if it came in the face of clear, logical protest from his friends. BUT we get ahead of ourselves. After his vision, Wren and crew sail to a nearby island surrounded by a whirling wall of floating boulders. At first this seems to be just the most recent in the PDW progression of “weird” places, but the rocks turn out to have a real narrative role… In the meantime, their presence means Wren must abandon his ship in the grosses/coolest way possible: using a face-hugger fish as a scuba mask.
Gross. After the requisite conflict with the island-dwellers (who use awesome tuning fork staves as weapons) Wren and crew bust loose and ring the bell in question. And (surprise surprise) the monster etched on its face comes to life, grabs Wren, makes a scary monologue, and flies off.
All of this prompts Island Leader to drop into some magic-crystal ball exposition. Yes, he used to know Primus. Yes, Primus was the one who captured Corruptus and put him on that bell. Not only that, but Corruptus is the servant of the Great Wiggly One: THE SOURCE OF BLACK WATER AT THE CORE OF THE PLANET CHECK IT OUT THIS IS WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE:
So a plan is hatched, the compass is left as bait (Corruptus can’t have fled, because of the revolving rocks keeping him from flying away…ah ha!) and a long action sequence begins where Corruptus mostly outsmarts/outfights our heroes. UNTIL WREN GRABS HIS PREVIOUSLY UNMENTIONED HANG-GLIDER:
Wren flies to where the Bell of the First Noise got dropped after the last trap failed, does a little tricky stuff, and BAM. BELL IS RUNG. CORRUPTUS GONNA GET SUCKED UP IN TH BELL! BUT WREN ALMOST GETS SUCKED IN TOO!
Seriously. Pretty great climax.
Score: A
Dark Water Count: 1 (I guess? Does Final Boss Wiggler count as DW?)
This episode does well with so many of the things that have been done poorly in recent episodes. 1) there is no Bloth. The threat of Corruptus is big enough to provide danger, and Wren’s willfulness following the Dad-vision is enough to move the plot along, and the absence of Bloth here is SO SO welcome. 2) Corruptus is pretty great. Monstrous, scary, dangerous, and actually smart. The fact that he’s only one of “several” servants of the Final Boss Wiggler is nice bit of potential fore-shadowing. 3) The exposition in this episode isn’t just some BS excuse to show Primus looking stern on a boat. It actually delivers new information, and more importantly, explains where DW comes from, what the 13 Rool treasures have to do with it, and what might come AFTER the treasures get recovered 4) lastly, we once again have an episode that is built around Wren, making decisions, based on his character, that have consequences, that challenge him and his friends, and cause him to learn/change by the end of the episode. I mean, I don’t think that the standard, coming of age ha ha I need to learn responsibility is the most original or entertaining character arc, but it’s better than just a string of vaguely action-y vaguely funny pirate scenes. So, nice work episode 8. Would watch again.
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