Days of Nightfall’s Past

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Three days after Avocato’s sacrifice, the ship is still repairing itself, as are its crew trying to repair themselves. Gary now uses his video logs to talk to Cato, mainly to vent his depression and talk about how Little Cato has ducked into the air vents to avoid dealing with his feelings. Gary is by no means “dad material” so dealing with a little angsty cat boy who just lost his dad while Gary is still dealing with losing a friend…well, it’s an uphill battle. To make matters worse, while the ship floats to Torex, a blue and asteroid-y sector, KVN welds the bathroom shut, which is as bad as clogging the toilet times like a million.

However, HUE has an announcement: Gary’s prison sentence is now officially over! Gary, with his newfound freedom, knows the only proper way to celebrate: Cookies! And now that he’s in at least somewhat of a good mood, this seems like a good enough time as any to finally have the talk with Little Cato. Seems he’s been stealing some cookies too, and he and Gary bond over how disappointing they actually are. Gary asks what he can do to make the little guy, and he asks for a chance to kill the Lord Commander. Gary hesitates, but his people-pleasing tendencies get the best of him and they commit to assassination! The feels well up as they go to Cato’s old room. LC gets to know about the last few days of his dad’s life and Gary assures him that he loved the kid right until the very end.

They manage to get Mooncake and KVN in on the fun (or as much fun as can be had with KVN, which is not much) and take a ship out. Quinn’s less than pleased about this, considering they still have a planet to save and already took a distracting detour that got their most competent fighter killed. It’s clear no one involved is in their right mind, as Gary is an emotional mess and LC is on the warpath. They might fold in front of an LC…I mean, Lord Commandership (see how hard this kid’s name is to say, Olan?! Spelled out, he sounds like his dad, and abbreviated, he sounds like the villain!), but he’s not home. Even worse, their ship is obliterated, leaving them stranded in space, until an imposing craft shows up, destroying the larger ship and rescuing them.

Back on the Galaxy One, the pilot revealed to be Nightfall, reveals herself further as Future Quinn. A more sultry, flirty Quinn, for some reason. Everyone’s naturally confused as cabbage about this, though Quinn is more annoyed and Gary more aroused. But that fades once Quinn reminds him that he almost got another friend and crewmember killed with his antics, and now that he’s not bound to the ship anymore (not that he ever really was), it might be time to head out before he hurts anyone else. Nightfall objects, telling Quinn she needs everyone on the mission for it to work, but she may not have counted on her past self-hating being lectured to. So, with one swift chop to the neck, Quinn is knocked out, and Nightfall moves to Plan B.

LC, listening to the convo while recovering, realizes he might be able to use her time machine to save his dad, while Gary packs up to leave. HUE admits to Gary being his only friend, which is a nice tender moment, followed up by Nightfall playing even more tender…right before cuffing the now naked Gary to his bedroom wall. Quinn and the Sames arrive to see this Three’s Company moment, but they’re sent flying as Nightfall explains the horrific future she comes from: Every time Gary leaves, he’s found and killed by the Lord Commander. When that happens, Mooncake goes berserk, destroying much of the universe in his rage, and that rampage and energy opens the door to Final Space, out of which come The Titans. Neither “Teens” nor being able to “Attack On” them, they’re an incomprehensible force of wrath that will lay waste to whatever Mooncake leaves behind.

The only way to stop that is for Nightfall to kill Mooncake before it happens, but Quinn manages to free Gary so they can pursue. This leads out into space amongst a field of ice asteroids, but Gary manages to get in front of the shot. The standoff is interrupted by LC and KVN trying to hijack the time ship, but things go wrong and start forcing them to age rapidly. Putting aside their current quandary, they make it back to the ship and manage to save them just before the implosion. So, now Nightfall’s stuck with them, but Quinn admits she needs everyone, and Gary sticks around to see this through.

OUR TAKE

Seeing Cato as the first thing in the opening sequence still stings a bit, but it does seem like the show is really committing to keeping him dead. They DID say that consequences would stick when they ripped off Gary’s arm, and it doesn’t look like they’ll be backtracking on all that any time soon. Even more interesting is how his death has made Gary’s choice of recording logs change in meaning from pining for the idea of someone he likes to mourning someone he knew and feels lost without. You might say that he’s trying to make up for losing Cato by submitting to LC’s wishes without question, but I think that might’ve been resolved by the end when he saw LC look like a color-swap of his dad. Yes, Cato is gone, but his legacy and his mission live on in his son and the crew.

Gary’s now expired prison sentence is certainly a personal milestone for him, but like the initial reveal of Nightfall, it both feels too early and too late. Too early in that something like this seems better placed at the end of the season or the beginning of the next, and too late in that…well, it never really mattered past the first episode. HUE was already letting Gary off the ship with Cato (a trained killer who tried to kill THEM when they met and was briefly imprisoned) to go on missions regarding Mooncake (a random creature from nowhere that should have been reported the moment it showed up if HUE gave a crap about his job), and once it became clear the Infinity Guard was up to no good, HUE still kept the prison sentence for no reason, even after being forcibly hacked by them. It makes me think about how much more intriguing HUE’s character might’ve been if he was actually conflicted between following his programming/being loyal to the Infinity Guard and his friendship with Gary, but never really becomes a meaningful issue. They only thing losing it now does is create a convenient excuse for Gary to try to leave the ship, which isn’t convincing for even a second for both the reasons I’ve mentioned plus the fact he has nowhere to go anyway. At least pushing it till after the big fight is over would’ve made it feel like a bookend, but as it’s been used, it seems more like an artifact from a former draft of the story.

Okay, we’ve touched on the good and bad of the episode, now here’s something with an even mix. I still maintain that Nightfall’s reveal was premature, but it’s what we have to work with now, and it’s not necessarily a problem on its own. Finding out the codename was Gary’s idea is both hilariously in-character and pretty sad, given his fate. I’m a sucker for a good time travel story, mostly because they’re pretty few and far between in that subgenre, and hearing about the doomed future she comes from is harrowing stuff, but if her ultimate goal is to kill Mooncake, what was stopping her from taking the shot the last two times they met? Were those her in a different run through of events before she decided that was the only solution? But would other versions of her previous attempts even show up if she’s constantly resetting to the beginning? I guess we’ll find out in the next three episodes, but that is a bit of a hole there.

…and I can’t help but have this irking about the fact we still technically only have one female character on this show, just two different versions. What Nightfall’s role in the story even is now is unclear. Aside from the Temporal Worm, this is the only major implementing of time travel, and it’s mainly just to drop some exposition and possibly confirm Gary and Quinn’s eventual romance. As much as I like time travel when it’s done right, I’ve never been a fan of characters seeing themselves as a couple and then just deciding “that’s fate” or something. Gary and Quinn’s relationship weirdly seems to be just expected to happen without much actual development, as Gary’s just been vlogging to a woman he barely knows until recently, and Quinn’s future self might just be confirming it to work out, taking the choice out of her hands entirely. Not a good look.

But despite all of that, I’m still having a lot of fun. The backgrounds and animation continue to impress, the mythos is expanding and becoming more intriguing, and the mind-blowing sci-fi epic feel is slowly upping the ante going into the finale. I just wish Gary could lose 30% of his ramblings since that would make this flight at least twice as smoother.

Score 7/10