Sonic Prime, Episode 1.5: Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Sonic Prime, Episode 1.5: Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Original Release Date: December 15th, 2022

Picking up where “Sonic Prime” left off, “Barking Up the Wrong Tree” begins with Thorn and Sonic battling it out. Now gifted with the ability to grown huge trees whenever she wants, thanks to the Prism Shard bonding to her hammer, Thorn goes about her quest of restoring the forest. Through this conflict, Sonic learns how the Scavenger and Rose first went from friends to enemies and how she turned so suddenly on them. Sonic helps them talk it out, after the required amount of fighting and arguing. Yet Sonic’s multiversal adventures are far from over… 

They say that “power corrupts” and everything I’ve learned about human nature and history has taught me this is true. Yet it still amuses me that, the minute Thorn Rose develops a new ability, she immediately goes full supervillain. She does everything but cackle wickedly while running through the forest and spouting new trees wherever she wants. Her laser-focused intensity on this one goal, of protecting Nan's restoring trees, really makes her look like a total fanatic that was just waiting for an excuse to go nuts like this. 

This is questionable writing, which is not helped by the general rushed, shallow quality of the scripts here. (Rose keeps referencing protecting "The Green," like she's Swamp Thing or some shit, and what this means exactly is kept frustratingly vague.) Yet it does lead to some fun action sequences. Thorn's ability to instantly generate an obstacle in his path is a good way to counter Sonic's speed. Scenes of him getting tossed into the air by a tree sprouting under his feet or being imprisoned in a circle of roots are clever. Inventively designed action sequences continue to be the main draw of "Sonic Prime."

"Barking Up the Wrong Tree" does represent the closest "Prime" has come thus far to really winning me over. After a brief refresher of last episode's cliffhanger, Sonic recalls a memory. Playing out as a flashback, we see a time Amy threw a party for the hedgehog. A palm tree becomes a symbol of all the memories of good times he's had with his friends. Of the connection he's made with this found family. It's a little goofy and heavy handed but it's still the closest the show has come yet to actually making me feel anything for these characters. Sonic loves his friends. Seeing incredibly strange, mixed-up versions of them causes him distress and he's eager to get back to his home dimension. It really shouldn't have taken until the fifth episode to get to this point but, well, here we are. 

The power of friendship will be, I suspect, the primary moral of this series. Amy Rose's hammer swinging abilities may be her flashiest superpower but her role as the feeling, empathetic center of five-man band is her greatest attribute. As a further example of how much his friends mean to him, of how much he's learned from them, he uses an Amy style powwow to talk out the problems Rose Thorn has with the Scavengers. Their conflict is founded in understandable feelings, that where just taken too far in the heat of the moment. It's a win for conversational de-escalation. I even like how Sonic admits that Amy's method is a lot harder than it looks. 

It's a good ending but it's also one that feels a little rushed. After fifteen minutes of running and fighting and arguing, Sonic resolves all of the problems between Thorn and the Scavengers within a few minutes. The moment where Thorn collapses to the ground, realizing her campaign has gone too far, definitely feels like it comes out of nowhere. Yet the writer's heart is in the right place. I continue to like how Thorn's issues with the others stems from environmental concerns, from human nature's tendency to take more than we need. Always good when the "Sonic" writers remember this franchise's "Save the Rainforest" roots. 

Another reason why that emotional climax seems rushed is because the show still has more stuff to do afterwards. Sonic still has to race off and find the Paradox Prism shard. He has to have a vague vision of Shadow, who seems to be stuck in the spaces between dimensions, and he has to get launched back to the New Yolk City setting we just left. I guess it's fitting that a "Sonic" cartoon just can't slow down and is always running forward. Yet "Prime" continues to be frustratingly premise-driven, even in an episode like this that actually takes a little time for the characters. 

The comic relief continues to suck ass too. There's way too many jokes about eating tree bark here. A moment of Sonic pantomiming a conversation with hand puppets is almost unbearable. Big the Cat's role in the flashback made me roll my eyes. I did like a joke about Mangy attempting to speak though. And Sonic's love of chili dogs being a universal constant. More shit like that. Less jokes built around people acting like dumb-asses for no reason. 

If "Sonic Prime" had this balance, of action, character development, and plot from the beginning, my reaction would've been "Hey, this might turn into a good show eventually." Instead, we're more than half-way through the first batch of episodes and "Prime" is only now getting here. It makes me pessimistic that this show will ever find a satisfying balance. Yet, for the time being, "Barking Up the Wrong Tree" is my favorite episode of this program. [6.5/10]