Sonic X, Episode 3.08: Trick Sand

Sonic X, Episode 3.08: Trick Sand

Japanese Title: Shadow Rebirth

U.S. Air Date: October 29th, 2005

Japanese Air Date: April 6th, 2020

From the moment he "died" at the end of "Sonic Adventure 2," fans were eagerly anticipating the return of Shadow the Hedgehog. In the time between the release of "Adventure 2" and Shadow's official return in "Sonic Heroes," there was sooo much fanfiction devoted to bringing the black hedgehog back to life. Usually involving amnesia or Shadow coming back as a hero. Obviously, Sega suspected the edgy anti-hero would be the game's breakout character, which is why they wrote a "death" that could be so easily weaseled out of. Unsurprisingly, Shadow's inevitable resurrection would follow a path not dissimilar to a lot of those fanfics. 

Since season three of "Sonic X" would air after Shadow's return would became a foregone conclusion, but still felt the need to faithfully adapt the game, the show also had to deal with Shadow's return. The eighth episode of season three would finally return the fan favorite to the show. The Japanese title would be upfront with this, naming the episode "Shadow Rebirth," while the U.S. title went with a goofy pun revolving around the Metarex villain of the week. 

Since "Sonic X" has gone off on its own weird tangent at this point, it does not adapt "Sonic Heroes." Instead, this episode starts with the Blue Typhoon detecting a Chaos Emerald on a distant planet called Hobidon. They immediately warp there and discover a dead world, with a crashed space station embedded in the ground. While Chris and Cosmo try and figure out what happened here, Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles search for the emerald. What they find is a house filled with traps and a villain with an insidious power. Meanwhile, Rouge makes a shocking discovery of her own aboard Eggman's ship: Turns out the doctor has (an unconscious) Shadow on-ice aboard his craft and has been working unsuccessfully to revive him. 

The episode begins by recapping Shadow's sacrifice during season two, which is then revealed to be a dream Chris Thorndyke is having. Chris has held into Shadow's inhibitor ring all these years. He's still attached to Shadow and thinks of him often. Ya know, this is an idea "Sonic X" has run with that I've never bought. Chris' fixation on Sonic makes sense, because of his fucked-up relationships with authority figures. Chris' longing for Shadow never made much sense to me, considering he tried to kill the kid a few times before his heel-face turn. Unlike his attachment to Sonic, the show has never really delved into Chris' crush on Shadow. It's something we just have to accept, to make these plot points plausible. It's a pivotal part of this episode. Maybe Chris just has a hedgehog fetish... 

But that's not really what I want to talk about. As a lifelong horror nerd, I've repeatedly bemoaned the lack of creepy "Sonic" media. "Sonic X" dipped its toes into the spooky side of things during an infamous season one episode but has mostly played things pretty straight... Until now! (Which is maybe not surprising considering how much darker season three is anyway.) "Trick Sand," at least for its first half, is essentially a haunted house episode. Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles step into a spooky abandoned building. They discover traps and secret passageways. They are cornered and attacked by an otherworldly villain. The episode repeatedly returns to the image of a creepy, giant starring eye. This Halloween-y tone is set up early, as even Sonic is off-put by the setting. An early scene has him freaking out while crossing a rickety bridge over a stagnate body of water. 

If this episode has an "old dark house movie in space" premise, it definitely pays homage to the greatest "old dark house movie in space." Outside the spooky old castle is that crashed space station. It's circular design obviously recalls a number of fictional space station but the episode lingers on its rusty, ruined curves. Chris and Cosmo step inside and discover a remnant of a dead civilization. In the form of a rickety old recording – itself a common horror trope – depicting a strange alien warning anyone watching this about the Metarex and explaining what happened. The alien on the footage looks more like Kimba the White Lion than the space jockey but "Alien" still seems to be a pretty obvious influence here. No Xenomorphs appear in this episode but the villain does take the form of a set of ravenous jaws at one point. 

Let's talk about that villain. Instead of just being another blocky giant robot with a new superpower, this week's Metarex baddy has a more interesting gimmick. Metarex Deserd is, in fact, made up of a collection of nanobots. He's a shape-shifting grey goo that can take on any number of forms. The Metarex are already harder to kill than most of the adversaries Sonic has faced on this show. Such an implacable power makes Deserd – whose name is presumably a mangled translation of "Desert"–  one of the more interesting one-off villains to appear in this season. I even like the way he speaks in a booming voice, mocking his enemies as he lashes out at them. 

Unfortunately, "Trick Sand's" appeal dissolves the minute it shifts from trying to be spooky to trying to be action-packed. It looked like this was going to be another episode where Chris zaps a new pair of fancy shoes at Sonic and he saves the day with them. This time, it's a pair of rocket shoes that can travel along a "bridge" of Power Rings. This leads to a very goofy looking image of Sonic rocketing through a golden tunnel. This does not save the day though and instead it's up to the recently resurrected Shadow to resolve things. That is even less satisfying than Sonic's doozy new sneakers saving the day, as Shadow has nothing to do with most of the episode! It doesn't help that the animation in the action scene is kind of wonky. The second half of this episode feels "off" in a number of ways. 

This episode also builds on another lingering plot point. After Rouge finds Shadow in a stasis tube inside Eggman's ship, the doctor walks in on her. He reveals that he's known she's been on the ship the entire time and even tries to integrate her into his plan. I, personally, don't believe this. Eggman got so fucked up by Rouge's last few plans that I think he's just trying to save face by saying "uh yeah, I, uh, totally knew the whole time." The show has been humiliating Eggman so relentlessly here of late that it's hard to buy him as some sort of devious schemer. Which the weirdly serious scene of him talking with Rouge seems designed to do. But at least that goofy subplot is resolved and Rouge will no longer have to make Bokkun uncomfortable. Unless she wants to, as Rouge can do whatever she wants. 

By the way, the scene of Chris and Cosmo discovering the footage of the planet's precious residents really has no effect on the plot! It's just there for ambiance. The Tezuka-inspired alien – referred to as a Hobidon in the info card – is pretty memorable though. I'm not surprised there's a decent amount of fan-art out there of this character. Even though he's only on-screen for a minute and is, in fact, dead long before the events of the story happen. Anyway, this episode starts off really strong before falling apart at the end. I still enjoyed those haunted house vibes though. [6/10]