Frieza certainly wastes no time reminding everyone why he had such a revered reputation in the first place. Just minutes after he’s been brought back to life he’s already ousting Sorbet as leader and rubbing salt in the wound over the deplorable job that he’s been doing in his absence. It’s also a nice little blast from the past to hear Zarbon and Dodoria get name-dropped in reference to how all of the higher-ups on the Frieza Force are all at least as strong as Frieza’s former henchmen. The sparks of a growing rift between Frieza and Tagoma are also first witnessed here in some effective foreshadowing. Now that the titular leader of the Frieza Force is back, the members of his team might not be as impervious as they initially thought.

I also didn’t mind that Frieza was left to play a little catch-up regarding how the universe has changed in his absence. It’s a welcome touch to see Frieza being aware of other heavy-hitters in the universe such as Majin Buu and Beerus. It also makes for an endearing detail that these warriors were mentioned as cautionary tales to a young, impressionable Frieza. For characters like those two who were exceedingly strong, but happened to come post-Frieza, it’s nice that Frieza’s at least got the proper reaction to those diabolical forces rather than him simply ignoring them and pretending that he’s always been the strongest being in the universe.

Another crucial component from this episode involves a different visitor from outer space, Jaco the Galactic Patrolman. Jaco kind of immediately steals the show, and it’s not surprising to hear that the character is one of Toriyama’s all-time favorite creations (viewers of Resurrection ‘F’ might also remember his appearance there). Some background information on Jaco: Jaco the Galactic Patrolman is an 11-chapter manga series that Akira Toriyama serialized back in 2013 (2015 for North America). The series follows the misadventures of Jaco, an intergalactic police officer for the universe, who’s set to protect all that is good from menacing alien attacks (usually with comedic misunderstandings getting wrapped in along the way).

The eleventh, final chapter even curiously ties in to the beginning of the original Dragon Ball while also bringing over a few characters from that world (namely Bulma, as well as introducing the fact that she has an older sister named Tights, who will eventually also show up in Super). Jaco actually pulls off a rather brilliant storytelling move by making the “evil alien” that Jaco is attempting to prevent from invading Earth, the baby Saiyan, Goku. If Jaco had been successful in his mission, Goku would have never arrived on Earth and the events of these series would all be drastically different.

I’m all for creators’ worlds getting bridged together and for every show to be self contained, so it’s interesting to see Toriyama trying to turn this filler character of his into a supporting presence in Dragon Ball Super. The character receives plenty of focus moving forward (even receiving his own solo episode down the road), as well as becoming an enjoyable foil for Goten and Trunks, as well as yet another weird extraterrestrial confidante for Bulma to add to her list of friends. He makes a strong first impression here and all of the comedy in his heightened scene lands well. It’s a beautiful moment of comedy when Jaco buries the lede regarding the fact that Frieza and his army will be on Earth in one hour’s time.