A Ghost of a Chance

A Ghost of a Chance

Optimus Prime brings us in to Planet Doom with a little Space Poetry.  Cossack is wondering where Merla comes from, and Haggar says she can control minds.  Zarkon mocks both of them, and then gets his mind controlled by Merla.  He puts her in charge of conquering Arus.  Zarkon, Lotor, Cossack, and Haggar all enter Merla's Space Cutter to see her quark-filled cosmotron.  Which runs on charmed quarks.  She puts Cossack in the gizmo and it's basically an agony booth.  Except it's also a Outer Limits "teleport you to PAIN" machine.

In Haggar's lab, Cossack complains to Haggar.  Haggar muses on her mental powers, and the fact that Merla's been reading Allura's mind.

On Arus, people are doing things.  Optimus Prime tells us about rumors.  Apparently the Arusians have been hearing about the ghost of Alfor returning at the valley of Zohar.  They all go to the remote location to look at the monuments.  And apparently Alfor and Zarkon had a duel here.  And then Merla designed as Nanny's character model tells them that he's coming back.  I mean, seriously, isn't it obvious?  She leads them into the rainbow caves where they find Alfor's golden shield. 

The Voltron force discusses the rumors.  Allura hopes it's true.  And the Voltron force are her best friends.  Then the townspeople rush to the castle to tell her about the golden shield of Alfor in the rainbow caves in the Valley of Zohar.  *pant*  Then Pidge rushes to tell Keith that Allura's gone there alone.

Allura runs past the monument and Merla watches, and then takes off her disguise.

Allura finds the gold shield and a statue of her father, and then a meteor (?!?) hits the ground and Keith knocks her to the ground.  The rest of the team tells them of the meteor and find phony gold fragments from the busted shield.  And then the meteor blocks the cave entrance.  The team tries to push it open.  They open it far enough for Allura to fit through, but a rockfall blocks Pidge from following her.  She leaves to get help. 

The meteor takes flight and then explodes to reveal Merla's star cutter.  She gloats.  It's like a terminal disease.  On her way to the castle, Allure sees the star cutter fire on the castle.  Coran orders the castle defenses to return fire, but the star cutter deals severe damage to the castle and robots enter the castle.  Merla rides up next to Allura in a skull tank and captures her.  Allura mocks her lipstick.  Then Lotor arrives.

Lotor, Cossack, and Hagger invite themselves in, and Merla tells Allura that Lotor wears shoulder pads under his uniform.  Merla takes Allura to the Comsotron.

Coran is stunned by robots invading castle control.  The team is still struggling to move the boulder, but Pidge finds a Pidge-sized tunnel and escapes.  Merla has Allura in the cosmotron and turns it on.

Allura is agonized by the cosmotron.  Lotor is disturbed.  He finally draws his sword and threatens Merla, forcing her to release Allura.  The mice have snuck into the star cutter.  Lotor comforts Allura and Merla tries to mind-control him, but he's too besotted by Allura.  Merla sends her Fish Speakers somewhere, Lotor leaves the room, and the mice steal Merla's cloak while one awakens her and they escape.  Cossack and Haggar watch her leave and laugh.  They mock Merla.

Following Pidge's passage, they find a painting of King Alfor leading the Lion Knights against Zarkon.  His ghost appears and he teleports the team to their lions.

Allura jumps into the lake to swim to her lion.  Alfor appears and teleports her into blue lion.  The lions launch.  Merla watches the lions launch as Cossack, Lotor, and Haggar watch.

The team converges on the star cutter and forms Voltron.  They fire stingray missiles and the insignia crest at the star cutter.  Merla orders her dwarfling Fish Speakers to launch the robeast.  Cossack asks Hagga how Merla got it if she'd hidden the keys.  Then, the red and yellow chicken-gator robeast arrives and fires darts out of its beak at Voltron, then grabs him and starts electrocuting Voltron.  Allura identifies an arc-field generator, and they arc it back at him with the insignia crest.  Then they form the blazing sword while the robeast gets spikey.  Despite its spikes, it gets blowed up.  Lotor flees in his first season command ship.

The team, with Coran, admires the painting of Alfor defeating Zarkon.  Then we get a PSA about rumors.

Either I'm mellow today, or this episode isn't as bad as some of the other second season ones have been.  I like the Alfor-mythology they hint at here (and with Stryde in the last episode), and as silly and "standard American Cartoon" bumbling Haggar, Cossack, and Lotor have gotten, I kind of like their rivalry with Merla.  Oh, well.  Tomorrow's episode will probably piss me off like the others.