Sonic X, Episode 2.04: Heads Up, Tails!

Sonic X, Episode 2.04: Heads Up, Tails!

Japanese Title: Battle on the Egg Carrier

Japanese Air Date: October 26th, 2003

U.S. Air Date: October 9th, 2004

The previous episode of "Sonic X" ended on something if a cliffhanger, as Tails forgot to install landing gear in his airplane's new bad-ass fighting mode. Our heroes might've crashed landed on the hull of the Egg Carrier but they seem fine. Sonic does enough damage to the ship to cause it to slowly plummet. Eggman sends Gamma to stop the hedgehog but Amy talks him out of smashing the machine. Big and Chris rescue Froggy but Eggman simply grabs the frog — along with Amy's little blue bird friend — and yoinks their Chaos Emeralds. He feeds them to Chaos, who grows into his most powerful form. It's not so powerful that Sonic and Knuckles — who has grabbed the last few Master Emerald shards — can't beat the monster into submission. As the Egg Carrier falls, everyone makes their escape in different directions... But we still aren't done yet, as Eggman deploys a huge missile on Station Square as revenge and Tails has to disarm all by himself. 

If the above plot synopsis didn't make it apparent, this is an extremely plot heavy episode. Honestly, I'm kind of pleasantly surprised that "Sonic X" manages to sneak in all those events and keeps the episode just on the right side of overstuffed and incoherent. In fact, there's a few moments here that make this episode better than expected. The fight between Gamma and Sonic, unlike previous boss bottles, actually has some emotional stakes. We know Gamma isn't actually a bad guy and we also know that Sonic naturally assumes him to be just another Eggman robot. So it's compelling to see that play out. I even like the kind of corny conclusion, where Amy convinces Sonic in a minute that Gamma isn't so bad. 

This is not the only boss bottle in this episode. After we see Chaos 4 awkwardly crab-walking around the Egg Carrier's deck, he scarfs down some emeralds and turns into his toad-like sixth form. This fight proves interesting because it's quite different from its Dreamcast equivalent. In the game, you throw conveniently placed freezing pods into Chaos, so that his jelly-like body is rendered icy and smashable. Here, Sonic and Knuckles team up to stop the beast. Knuckles digs through his watery flesh with his Shovel Claw and Sonic then spin dashes the exposed core. Since the freezing pods never made much sense from a narrative perspective, I'm glad this cartoon found an alternative solution. There's also a brief scene of Sonic sliding on Chaos 6's tentacles, previewing a much-hyped ability he will presumably use in the "Sonic Adventure 2" adaptation.

Something about this episode that leaves me conflicted is the idea of the Egg Carrier slowly falling out of the sky. Sometimes, the episode convincingly uses this idea to create some tension. Oh no, our heroes are stuck on a giant aircraft that's going to fall out of the sky! Other times, it ignores this pressing event to focus on all the other shit that's happening here. I want to say that this creates a deadline, allowing for some suspense in the episode's back half, but that's not really true. Instead, there's some goofy comic relief — Eggman attempting to quietly row away from the sinking ship plane — and we never feel anybody is in any real danger. 

Nonetheless, I still mostly liked this episode. It has a lot of stuff to juggle and almost pulls it off. Such as Amy's on-going story. After running out of the interior of the Carrier, Eggman and his posse attempt to snag her. Sonic appears, tells a mean joke, and this reminds Amy that she's a hammer-swinging madwoman. It's a brief instance of "Sonic X" remembering that Amy was smashing shit with her hammer all throughout "Sonic Adventure." But this isn't the end of her arc just yet, as there's a mildly ridiculous moment where Lily reveals a photograph of her avian family. Amy is inspired once again to reunite the bird with her relatives. So, wait, is Amy focused on getting Sonic's attention or helping out her feathery friend in this storyline? Seems the show can't make up its mind.

If Amy's arc has gotten kind of scrambled but mildly effective, something similar is true of Tails' story. "Sonic X" continues to adapt Tails' confidence-gaining "Sonic Adventure" story line by focusing on his past. When time comes to disarm the missile, Tails has to find the inner strength to solve the problem on his own. (Which includes a "What Would Sonic Do?" moment.) As I've said previously, "Sonic X" Tails is already pretty confident, so this is a slightly awkward fit that still kind of works. Eggman dropping a giant missile on Station Square is from the game but they leave out Tails' final boss battle, presumably to keep this episode from feeling even more overstuffed. It still feels a bit like the episode suddenly gains an extra act, which is odd, but this scenario is more dramatically satisfying than Tails just smashing the Egg Walker to pieces. 

The episode still has more stuff to do besides this, as Knuckles endures another vision from Tikal. This is the most foreboding one yet, as he approaches a shrine in flames, sees Tikal on the ground surrounding by dead Chao, and briefly glimpses Perfect Chaos rising up. This is good foreshadowing for "Sonic Adventure's" actual secret boss bottle but is mostly effective because it's such a grim image. Tikal's dad murdered a bunch of little blue baby blobs in his quest for power. What an asshole! The episode doesn't linger on this moment but I'm still surprised it wasn't cut all together from the 4Kids dub.

Mystical happenings seem to be a going concern now,  as the episode ends with Sonic landing in the Mystic Ruins. This is proceeded with a bizarre comic moment of Sonic getting stuck in the ground, his stretchy ass and legs wiggling to free himself. This is far from the only oddball humor in this episode... Which brings us, once again, to Big the Cat. There's an odd moment of Chris calming a panicking Big by getting him a drink out of an Eggman vending machine, which is pretty funny. This is followed by Chris having to dangle from Big's fishing rod to rescue Froggy. Obviously, this was done to give Chris something to do in this story that didn't originally feature him. But all it succeeds in doing is robbing Big of his central gimmick and making him even more pointless than usual. This is also true of a later moment, where Chris and Big are sucked into Chaos 6's gelatinous body. Again, it's a desperate attempt to insert Chris into the proceedings that makes Big into an even bigger load on our heroes. 

Hopefully this rambling review has made it clear that this episode is overstuffed but I still found myself enjoying it. Considering the six different storylines "Sonic Adventure" juggled, I think this cartoon does an okay job of balancing everything in twenty-four minutes. They even managed to shove in a further humiliation for former White House Press Secretary Jerome Wise, who is now homeless. Which is still less humiliating than Sean Spicer going on "Dancing with the Stars." Anyway, I can't really give this episode anything above a six, owing to its convoluted nature, but I still mostly liked it. [6/10]