I know this episode was called " Into the Astral Plane ," but I don't think I expected it to end with Lion-O , you know, going into the astral plane. I thought we'd actually get a bit of action from inside the astral plane itself, but it seems as though they're saving that for next week's Season 1 finale.

I do hope they don't wind up going through with the whole "Tygra's going to betray the team" prophesy. Sure, the Elephant guy told Lion-O that the prophecies are never wrong, but those guys are so flighty that I'm sure the show can figure out a way to take that one back.I'm glad that this episode started to really hone in on the "love triangle" aspect of the show, but I just don't think I could buy Tygra turning on the Cats after all they've been through. Because that would basically mean he's siding with Mumm-Ra and Grune, right? Well, whatever does wind up happening, I'm glad they brought this story to the forefront.I really liked the return of Grune and, well, the rest of the main arc storyline in this episode, but the best stuff was the handful of Tygra/Cheetara flashbacks that showed us just how long Tygra's been crushing on Cheetara . Man, and what a bummer that she's now the only eligible female left in the Cats. It's hard for me to fully buy her affection for Lion-O when she and Tygra have such a history together. If you notice though, she usually flirts with Lion-O during the moments when he needs confidence, so it's possible that she's just stringing him along so that he can find his way as the leader of the group.I think back now to the flirtatious nod that Tygra gave Cheetara in the pilot episode, when he was the only one who knew she was there in the king's court, under all her Cleric garb. And even though she doesn't act like she likes Tygra now, she understands him and even tells Lion-O that he's probably bitter because he's been in his younger brother's shadow his whole life. Of course, in tales like these, those can also be potent seeds for an eventual villainous turn.The action in this one was pretty good, but once again Grune escaped before Panthro could get his nunchucks on him. Still, most of this stuff felt like a good set-up for some better material coming next week, with Mumm-Ra's bird following Lion-O and Tygra into the astral plane to stir some s*** up. The Elephant characters are still only marginally entertaining, but this felt like the first time that the Cats adventures have directly brought big time danger to the doorstep of some of the Third Earth inhabitants they've encountered. I do think that the fact that they didn't seem to know, or care, that they were in mortal peril took away some of the bite of the hostage scenario.