It’s time for an AgentWashingtub008 DUO FEATURE (because my week got away from me last week). That’s right, I’m back again to talk all about #RedvsBlue Zero’s latest two episodes, with my thoughts and theories sprinkled in. I’m going to do my best to split my thoughts on both episodes up though I’ve spoiler-tagged it anyway just in case. Duo is a fine episode. There’s things I liked and things I didn’t. I want to preface this all by saying that a lack of like isn’t necessarily a dislike. I’m giving my honest opinion, but there’s no point in just trashing things and I don’t feel like there’s anything to trash anyway. Now, back to the actual episode. So far, a lot of my criticisms seem to be about the pacing of the episodes, and that hasn’t changed much. Ever since longer action scenes & animation have been introduced into RvB it has complicated the already fine balance of a weekly series & a 2-4 hour story. Some deliver better than other. I personally really enjoy Season 15 for instance, but week-to-week watching this 4-hour meta movie play out in 10-15 minute chunks wasn’t nearly the same as watching it all together. The multiple plotlines advanced each time, but it was at their own pace and finding a mini-resolution was rare. I feel the same about seasons 4 & 7. Now, while it fits the action-comedy focus of the story we’re being told, having around half of every episode be fight scenes on multiple planes of actions and some stretching over the gaps between episodes is a little jarring. (It’s also hard to track a sense of time-scale.) Duo is the most like this. We start with Zero & Phase’s infiltration of the temple, fighting the final guardians (BRUTE ROBOT-GOLEMS WITH HARDLIGHT WEAPONS!) And there’s nice looking parallel action going on with the training fight between Carolina & Shatter Squad. But, the way these things all line up, the sequences feel a touch too long & out of joint. The infiltration of the temple started around halfway through the last episode, at the beginning of training and we can assume from that all these things are happening at once: Temple, Training, & Raymond & West’s story in the base. In this we get a nice bit of theme building with Zero and Phase working together vs One and East working alongside each other, but also with the Shatter Squad origins part II, and where as Training breaks evenly (moving from one type of action to another with a neat cliffhanger, the Viper sequence doesn’t get any small resolution. Then we wait a week, and it picks up as if they just moved to the next room. Watching these back-to-back for writing this I can say the concurrent sequences of Training, Temple, & Base run together great over the ~10 minutes they take up, but base more book-ends these events & only Training has an organic feeling break. What instead feels off is when watching it episode by episode we have the beginning of Recovery which is more-or-less it’s own thing, then half an action segment that largely feels like half of an action segment followed a week later by the last half of the same segment followed by the rest of Duo which feels much more complete/unified. If Recovery and Duo were actually split over 3 shorter episodes (maybe with some more dialogue or small jokes) and we had just a middle fight episode I think the episodes would have a better feel to them. Raymond and West’s base story fits fine in either because we have the joke-dialogue scene with a natural break to a small fight. Distinct events vs parts of one. While I’m discussing the parts that I didn’t like as much, there’s two more I can focus on. First, the dialogue and treatment of East is just a bit hackneyed. I can get someone with the story of East going for the “You don’t know me” line but it’s so on the nose & heavy that it’s hard to not at least comment upon. We’re half-way through the story with this set of episodes, & from a full-movie standpoint getting to the reveal of East and Phase’s connection makes sense, but it also had been so heavily implied all season it’s hard to say if this is being dragged-out or if it happened to quick. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of Phase and East having a shared origin, and we don’t truly know what it is at this point, or who the original was if it’s a copy situation, but we know it is the case and we know both sides hate that it was done to them. It’s very clear in Duo and kept at the same level of clear in Encounter. When compared to the other stories & elements it just has the least finesse in its execution so far and so it stands out. Finally, I’ve been sitting on this because I wanted to give it some time, but I think it’s fair to call now. Tiny is the new Doc, if not in base color & function (3rd party recurring character that performs a service) then definitely for me as the character I’m not a huge fan of. Doc is an integral part of the Red vs Blue story and there are good jokes and moments with him as a result of him being a solidly written character where it matters. I would not want to associate or hang out with Doc in real life. I believe that he is the most significant villain the Reds and Blues have faced, but as a person he is an annoyance and coward who slinks around through life. Tiny doesn’t have those particular qualities, but she comes on VERY strong and strikes me as the kind of person who would cosplay Deadpool to get away with actively bothering other people. The very fact that I have this response should not be taken as a direct critique of Tiny’s inclusion, writing, or the performance by Brooke Olson. I’m not sure her personality has fully clicked into the dynamic of Shatter Squad or tone of RvB Zero yet, but I’m willing to wait for the full picture on this. One more thing I keep coming back to is this is a season of firsts and beginnings so I am fine with waiting for things to gain full definition. The presentation of her personality has also mellowed some by Encounter, so I’m hoping the first instances were just making an impression. Enough of those things though, let’s talk about the things I do like about Duo. I love the way One is being handled. She has a heavy drive to prove herself, but she’s not just defined by that drive. She has fun with what she’s doing & she doesn’t make trouble. She can get angry but so far that’s usually based on how other people act towards her. I think it’s super telling that despite their rivalry she put out a hand to East, not just after that fight, but after the alluded-to history of Shatter Squad. One is positive and especially compared to Carolina it is nice to see a character both proud of herself and enthusiastic about bettering herself. I also love Carolina, but her rise to who she is today was her story and I’m glad to see a new one being told even if it is a nod and a wink to her new Freelancer Mentor. The Guardian, THE Guardian, is another of this season’s great additions to where they’re taking Alien mythology this season on top of being an awesome fight. One of the better non-direct exposition elements is Phase and Zero don’t have to say “go for the cores” it is just explicit that it’s where the power and AI are held. Then we get the sword. I’m really enjoying that these keys have a sense of scale to them as Zero gathers more of them and goes deeper down the well a la how we have been told Locus went on his own particular journey as a Great Warrior. The fact that it either reacted to or needed his suit power (& whatever ancient alien tech they based it on (an old trick from all of the programs like Project Freelancer)) when gaining mastery over the broadsword like key is a nice part of the story. While we’re on Viper, a little bit of theory crafting their mid-episode interaction lead to is that I’m leaning towards Phase being the original or dominant one between her and East. “How’s your echo.” “It can last a few days.” Makes me think that it is even possible Phase is projecting her somehow with some control or active element and fair amount of “auto-pilot” thrown in. Even deeper in, could they have formed an AI and kept the original host alive? Is that what they (East & Phase) want revenge for? A surviving body and mind from that could potentially necessitate a lot of cybernetic supplementation to their body… It’s something to still think about. For all I said about the dialog around this situation, I do enjoy that we know they’re connected but the nature of their connection is the real question/puzzle. I just love West & Raymond’s part of the episode. After all that has changed, some of the most engaging parts of Red vs Blue is the interaction of different personality types while they fumble through a quest together. Raymond’s lines are a little cheesey here and there, but he’s saying them sincerely & West is just as staunch a straight man to make them work. Speaking of working together well, a highlight moment of the episode was Raymond coming in with the Rocket Launcher. His background still very much interests me & while it makes sense with his character that he’d grab a big weapon, it wasn’t my first thought for him and speaks to something a bit more capable in him. Shatter Squad has the kind of Dynamics that make for a good Red vs Blue team, but an obvious amount of successful military training that sets them apart. How didn’t they suspect getting Wash back was a trap, I don’t know, but a story where every character makes sensible and right decisions ends too quickly. Tiny gives them their new car, which is a neat new development and a look into character personalities. I’m not sure if this will be Shatter Squad’s main ride yet, but it serves them on their next mission. And now let’s talk about the mission. The back half of this episode is amazing, as is its bleed into Encounter. This pacing is really good. All of the main cast are in one instance together and what happens here is set-up and context for the bigger action of the sequence that comes in Encounter. Raymond uses the car’s “camo” function, giving an in-episode minor resolution to its introduction. Then we establish where Axel is as the fight starts (as well as that West is on his own). This, while prolonged a touch by the flashback, is a very good instance of the episode-to-episode pacing with a solid cliff-hanger off a full revelation. The flashback. I really like the flash-back. It goes to show just how tightly the web of the past weaves around all the characters. Starlight Labs and what they do connects to almost every one of Shatter Squad & Viper Squad (we know nearly nothing about Raymond and Diesel) which really tightens the narrative of this season (and what I suspect could be a 2-4 season Arc) with a common thread. It is mellow dramatic and campy, but I think I enjoy it more because 1) it is leant into with the grayed tone and pouring rain, and 2) it is a flashback. Axel’s recollection of events is probably pretty solid, but we’ve seen him act like this about a day dream of being a landscaper. It tracks. Most importantly though, it uses dialogue that makes sense. Axel and Zero use details and vagueness in a natural way, referring directly to past events in a way that isn’t like they’re explaining them to the audience nor are they playing the pronoun game to obscure the details for the audience. It’s always just enough. In another fresh twist, Axel may feel guilty about helping make Zero what he is, but this won’t be the trope of “but I regret I didn’t take the shot.” He did that. There will be consequences. Consequences revealed over the rest of the season, starting with Encounter. Before I leave Duo though, I’ll give it a verdict. Duo does a fair amount well and a fair amount not as well. The pacing being odd is the main factor to the not-as-well, but it makes up for it with character development through out and a solid cliffhanger on the end. It may not be my favorite episode, but there are things to like. With a title like Duo, the main effort of the episode is clearly on the duality or pairs. Zero & One. East & Phase. One & Carolina. Shatter Squad and Viper Squad. After watching it on loop to write this, I can recognize and respect that. Okay, now let’s move on to Encounter and the REAL SPOILERS of this post. I know I eluded to some things over the course of the first half, but if you really don’t want to know about what happens before you can watch it, now’s the time to look away. But go watch it or watch it on Monday when you can because this is one fantastic episode. Good pacing, good plot, good jokes, good action, and frankly, a perfect mid-point to the season. I’m gonna talk about pacing first again. In terms of episode-to-episode storytelling the team really nailed it here. It’s complex but contained, what it starts it gives some immediate resolution but the threads are open for the rest of the season to start. The frame of this episode going back and forth in time to show the consequences and then the action that created them kept me engaged the whole time. Then the internal things were wrapped up and we are presented with a tease of the next step. Some things were a bit awkward (One’s “No” followed by pan to Ray’s “West!” before he even moves looses a bit of the urgency of the moment for me) but I wouldn’t say any of it was awful. Despite the jumping of this plot, I had a better feel of the timeline than I did last time (mostly because of how explicit the link between events was. They were separate events, but we literally had a timeline to stich them together in a balanced way. Agent One’s good nature is an early other highlight of the episode. Things like “We’ll get ‘em next time,” and her rushing to Ray’s defense in the “now” and her “We can do this” in the “past” really solidify her as a cool hero. Fiona has great delivery too, having both a hot head and a good attitude come through when they need to. The action in this episode is really awesome. All of the fight with Phase is amazing and the rest of the chase sequence is good too, but the melding of narrative, character, and some action in the 3v1 of Shatter Squad and Zero is how you give the villain a victory for the heroes to rise from. It’s not long and all the cool bits come from Zero while he monologues because he can. He’s that much stronger so his confidence is earned. The smugness he has during this and interacting with Phase “after” also is the most personality we’ve gotten out of him so far and it works. Speaking of Zero’s power though, he can summon… [looks at Halo wiki] “Promethian-“ looking grunt-soldiers / henchmen now. That’s cool, but I would have liked a better introduction of that, even he just raised his hands and they appeared. I’m fine with leaving it up to the rest of the season to clarify, but where those orange robot constructs (they kind of look like my favorite D&D monster, the nothic) came from I hope we see later. Or they get used later too. Did he get them when he got the broadsword key? Has he always had them? It feels like a nitpick in an 11 minute episode, but was that ever explained or even intimated and I just missed it? Was something cut? Between this and Diesel,* I’m curious if there was a bit of trimming we’ll learn about on the Blu-Ray commentary what might have cleared some things up, though I totally get that shows have runtimes, budgets, & deadlines to consider. What we do see of Zero’s powers is pretty cool and I eagerly anticipate more. (A flying sword that reacts to his mind!) ------- *For the people who may not know, Diesel had a previous voice actor which had to be changed later into production. It was a good decision but probably not without its own consequences. ------- Everyone else’s powers are also really cool. We got to see good use of them this episode and it fills out my list of who has what: -Agent One: General Enhancement -Zero: General Enhancement & Teleportation (And his sword). -East: Burst Step (Speed and concussive energy) -West: Shield & Armor Lock combo. -Raymond: Unclear -Axel: Unclear -Diesel: Strength Enhancement. We don’t have everything yet and Ray working on armor with Tiny makes me think there’s some new powers around the bend. The last major scene of the episode was another stand-out ending, bringing us back to the fact that we’ve got the best pacing of the season in this episode. The encounter that Encounter is built around is done, contained in this episode, but the ramifications ripple out into the rest. I knew it was about to cut away, I knew where it was going, but because I know I can’t wait to see what comes next. Aside from the inclusion of Wash and Carolina, this is proof positive that this is Red vs Blue and a continuation of the stories in that world. A “Why are you here?” conversation after Carolina waxes upon her past life even if One isn’t all that connected to it feels like what Carolina would do (because she’s been doing it for years), while also giving a nod to this being a different, slightly removed story at first. Then we’re hit with the connection. It’s not what I called last time, but I may still be right. Either way, I’m excited. We have to save Lavernius Tucker. Before the end, I couldn’t find a good place to put it in the reviewing part, but I liked a lot of the jokes and funny comments of this episode, especially the repetition of the “Carolina interrupts someone with a pistol” joke. On a plot level it is also another good moment showing us everyone’s emotions through their actions. It’s 21:00 or 9:00 at night. 12 hours since the earliest point in this episode and they had to get to the car chase & have the Wednesday meeting, plus the training before it. Everyone has been up for a while, yet Agent One is at the firing range so into it she doesn’t hear Carolina at first, Ray is tweaking armor, and East is talking to herself and wandering HQ. None of these guys are going to bed anytime soon. They were so effected by what happened that they’re keeping themselves busy & still thinking about it. Quality storytelling and all the other good elements of this episode really go to show what this new team can do for Red vs Blue and here at the halfway point I can definitely say that I’m in it for the rest and likely more. See y’all next week and a big thank you to everyone who made this season possible.