Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.12: Spyhog

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.12: Spyhog
Original Air Date: November 26, 1994

As I've referenced before, for so long “SatAM” felt like this unobtainable thing from way back in my memory, a show that I remembered more than I actually watched. Nowadays, I can stumble upon the show in the middle of the day. Not long after starting this retrospective, I was channel surfing and came upon “Sonic the Hedgehog” airing on Starz Family, during one of its random midday showings of the program. It happened to be this episode. I watched about fifteen minutes before I got pulled away to something else but it sure was an interesting coincidence. That I hadn't caught “SatAM” in the wild for years before coming across it not long after deciding to rewatch and write about the entire series.

Anyway, that's not really that relevant. “Spyhog” begins with Uncle Chuck sending information to the Freedom Fighters. After they successfully disrupt some oil tankers headed to the Doomsday Project, Robotnik figures out that there is a spy in his midst. With some deduction, and a false alarm where Snively captures Antoine, Uncle Chuck is tracked down. Sonic, Sally, and Bunnie – using a Robotropolis shuttle that Rotor has reverse-engineered – have to get to Chuck first before it's too late.

Though “SatAM” was doubtlessly pretty well written for a nineties Saturday morning cartoon, as I've observed many times, it still had to follow many of the cliches of the time. As intimidating as Robotnik could be, he was still kind of an idiot that let Sonic and the others slip through his fingers on more than one occasion. It's only now, on literally the second-to-last episode of the entire series, that he's realizes that the Freedom Fighters have a spy in Robotropolis. You know, for a genius mad scientist that can build all sorts of robots and successfully planned a coup of an expansive kingdom, he probably should've figured that out a lot sooner.

Nevertheless, “Spyhog” does have a strong narrative thrust. Uncle Chuck is a character we really care about, at the center of some of the show's most emotional moments. So putting him directly in danger is a good way to generate suspense. The climax of the episode has Chuck being captured, reprogrammed by Robotnik – a serious downside to your mole being a robot – and coming very close to revealing the location of Knothole. In fact, I wish the episode focused a little more on this. It takes about ten minutes, within a twenty-five minute cartoon, for Robotnik to discover there's a spy in the city. Snively mistakenly grabbing Antoine takes up another chunk of the runtime. I guess this was another example of Ben Hurst trying to, perhaps, squeeze a little too much within a single episode of children's programming.

It definitely feels like we haven't seen an episode featuring the entirety of the Freedom Fighter team in a while. As the show veer towards its ending, perhaps Ben Hurst wanted to make sure everyone got something to do. (I guess Tails still gets left out but he did get a spotlight episode just last time, so it's alright.) Bunnie accompanies Sally and Sonic on the initial mission to spoil the oil tanker, with the Rabbot showing up a few times throughout the episode. Rotor builds the shuttle, providing the ride needed to save Chuck at the end. Dulcy shows up to get Antoine's butt out of danger. 'Twain himself actually gets to be useful here too, in a nice change of pace from season two mostly treating him like a total joke. After Sally's magnetic pack malfunctions, Antoine re-plugs a wire and saves her life.

If the episode had left it at that, a simple reminder that Antoine is occasionally useful and that's why they keep him around, that would have been just swell. Instead, helping save Sally's life causes Antoine's ego to swell considerably. That would've been a cute moment and totally in-character for the guy. Instead, the episode still has to utilize Antoine as the wacky comic relief. When he gets captured, thanks to his own incompetence, Snively interrogates him. Not with jumper cables or thumb-screws but by taking minor shortcuts when cooking traditional French cuisine. Now, this moment definitely breaks up the seriousness of what is otherwise a fairly tense episode. However, hearing Robert Paulson and Charlie Adler scream manically about margarine is pretty funny. So I'll give it a pass.

If you're in the game for action though, “Spyhog” might be slightly disappointing. The only really notable action beat occurs when Sonic swoops in to rescue Uncle Chuck, spinning into a tornado that throws Robotnik, Snively, and all the SWATBots away. Not only is the science behind this stunt dubious at best – think of how fast the wind Sonic generates would have to be going to throw a big metal robot across the room – it's also not a very exciting visual. No, “Spyhog” is focused more on suspense then anything else. We get a peek of that during that earlier infiltration sequence, where Sally nearly falls from the tanker ship. This is certainly far from the first time “SatAM” was more effective when focusing on sneaking than on Sonic's crazy action hero theatrics.

Of course, what made “SatAM” good is, more than anything else, the strength of its characters and the depth of its emotions. Several times in this episode, Sonic begs Uncle Chuck to come back to Knothole with him. At the episode's end, with Chuck's cover being blown, Sonic implores his uncle to come with him again. Both times, Chuck declines, saying he needs to stay in the city where the conflict is. After a tearful hug, Chuck asks Sally and Bunnie to watch after her nephew. Which takes a meaningful moment and makes it even sweeter and more touching.

That scene is what really pushes “Spyhog” from being a merely decent episode to a really quite good one. I wish the script was a little tighter and the use of comic relief was a little more conservative yet I can't deny that this one works for me pretty well. The episode ends with the text “Next Week: Doomsday” popping up on the screen, which meant Ben Hurst and his team were ready for an end, which they probably didn't know would be the end. However, that text can't come off as somewhat prophetic. The end is neigh. But more on that next time. For now, “Spyhog” gets a strong [7/10.]