BYOB: Bring Your Own Beatings

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Nomad confronts Don Paragon in front the citizens of the Oasis and Bliss Hill in order to get him to give his people water. Unfortunately, his lack of a voice means he has to pantomime what he says, which severely undercuts the coolness of his message. The citizens are…I want to say inspired(?) by this and begin to riot while the Don takes on the Nomad personally. The fight takes them into the city, with Don telling his Dandy Lions to set aflame in order to smoke the Nomad out. The two dukes it out, though the Nomad soon gains the edge with his ability to both reattach limbs that get sliced off, as well as being able to call rocks together to form a giant armor that punches off Don’s hair.

Skout tries to find a way to help him but is confronted by Red Manuel, who admits that he still can’t get respect despite his recent promotion, not even from his mother and wife (who apparently exists???). Skout tells him that this is because he is, in fact, a jerk, before flinging him from a tower attached to a cannon ball. She then decides to go with Toth’s plan from the last episode to break the water reservoir as a distraction, which I’m not sure she realizes basically will doom all the citizens once they realize they have no water, but it’s the thought that counts I suppose.

Red Manuel ends up flying into where Toth is now imprisoned, breaking her free. The first thing she does is find Don and sock him right in the face, then pound away the Nomad’s defenses…until he brings a headless statue to life and finishes breaking the reservoir which puts the fires out. Not even a hellbent Toth can stop them, and the two escape.

The citizens celebrate their homes being saved. Almost everyone will be dead in a week from dehydration while they repair the reservoir, but optimistic music says this is a triumphant moment. At least, a triumphant moment for everyone but Don Paragon, who runs into a flock of birds that are all being controlled by El Rey. Despite his groveling, he’s devoured, gaudy clothes and all. He then turns his sights on Toth, who may act as a suitable replacement.

Outside the Oasis, Skout and the Nomad formally join forces and ride off into the sunset.

OUR TAKE

And so, after over six months, Nomad of Nowhere’s first season draws to a close. The show’s been on a rough ride to get here, and while it’s not that bad of a conclusion to the first season, I wouldn’t say it’s that good either.

First, the final battle between The Nomad and Don Paragon. Try as I might, I couldn’t really get myself all that invested in this, and I think that comes down to our two combatants. I’ve never been fully able to tell if Paragon was meant to be a threat or just someone who relies on his muscle. Sure, he’s good enough with a sword, but the only time we’d seen him use it before this was on a training dummy and a subservient lackey. At least Toro’s champion from a few episodes ago had a physical ability to him, and a season finale should have at least SOME escalation in its own fight. I feel like Don should have gotten some magic from either El Rey or Toro or someone in order to diversify his moveset a bit, then have that power turn on him when he abused it too much. He was basically introduced with “Disc 1 End Boss” stamped across his forehead, but you would think that boss would be a bit less annoying and more of an actual fight.

Though I guess I could possibly forgive that somewhat if this resulted in a solid victory, it ends up kind of short-sighted. I know an oasis has to have a water source, but breaking a reservoir for a distraction seems like it’s a bit drastic, doesn’t it? And sure, it worked to put the fires out, but now all of these people have a lot less water that they NEED to LIVE. Plus, even the time they can now spend stressing over a water shortage will be swiftly followed by Toth, El Rey’s personal replacement for running the Oasis, putting them all back in place under her boot. Hope you enjoyed that brief promotion, Red Manuel. I’ll get into why her being put in charge is an awful idea when I go over the Season Review, but to summarize, it seems the Nomad left this place in a far worse shape than it was when he got there.

But I guess I should be more optimistic about this. Skout joining the Nomad on his further adventures could mean the beginning of a cute little dynamic as they travel across Nowhere to brighten more people’s lives. Toth’s further plummet down the dark side could forge a path towards a tragic story of someone losing themselves to gain a singular goal. Heck, we might even meet the people she’s doing all of this for! And we’ve got all of the other Governors to meet in all the other lands! There’s so much potentially awesome stuff!

And yet everything we’ve had so far has been so lacking and uninspiring. To be clear, I really feel like a jerk to have to write how underwhelmed I am, especially since many people seemed to really like this episode in particular, but come back next week for the Season Review so we can take a look at this season as a whole, and maybe find some diamonds in this dessert.

Score 5/10