Sonic Prime, Episode 2.08: Ghost of a Chance

Sonic Prime, Episode 2.08: Ghost of a Chance

Original Release Date: July 13th, 2023

And now we reach the final episode of “Sonic Prime's” latest season. If you're an old person, like me, you might remember the days when you actually had wait a week to see the new episodes of your favorite TV show. Ideally, your excitement would grow as the season progressed, climaxing with a riveting season finale that would bring everything together in the most satisfying of ways, while also leaving you eagerly anticipating the next season that would hopefully follow. Netflix completely obliterated this tradition with their “binge” model of dropping every episode of a season once. Of course, enough time has passed now that the weaknesses of the binge model are well known, to the point that most streaming services prefer a weekly release schedule now. 

In addition to causing a new show to just disappear into the slush pit of endless content after the hype passes, the binge model also has another side effect: It makes season finales matter way less. When you can just tear through an entire season in one day, all the excitement that could've build up simply doesn't exist. It's hard to have much investment in the journey a season of television takes you on when you can tear through the whole thing in a few hours. And I do mean “a few.” Since it's only eight episodes long, you could watch all of “Sonic Prime: Season Two” in about four hours. That's not even enough time to watch any two “Lord of the Rings” movies! 

Anyway, all of that aside, let's get into “Ghost of a Chance.” Sonic and Shadow stand up to the Chaos Council as they invade Ghost Hill. While the hedgehogs fight off the invaders, Nine works on reassembling the Paradox Prism. Somehow, the Chaos Council channel shard energy into their Eggforcers and other weapons, making them super powerful. Nine then does something similar, giving the super-powerful boost needed to fight off the bad guys. Even then doesn't work, as the Chaos Council summons a “Prismatic Titan” in the form of an enormous Eggman. This forces Sonic and Nine to go even further with charging him up. That's when the blue hedgehog and the multi-tailed fox get into a bit of a disagreement. 

When Nine first talking about injecting Sonic with shard energy, I was fully expecting “Sonic Prime” to introduce Super Sonic into its story. It's just become something of a cliché that every bit of “Sonic” media, during the most perilous battle, has to have Sonic go Super Saiyan to crush the gigantic threat he must fight off. “Prime” doesn't do that exactly. Instead, it introduces its own super form. Sonic gains pink eyes and a prismatic trail of color behind him. The catchy name of this super-form seems to be “Prismatic Sonic.” He moves so fast that he can converse with himself, speeding around in the blink of an eye. That's a neat effect and all, even if a new super-form is probably the last thing Sonic needs. 

And I mean that question even in the context of this single episode too. Does Sonic need a super form to defeat the Chaos Council? We are repeatedly told the energized Eggforcers and the Prismatic Titan are serious new threats. Yet, all throughout this episode, up to that point, Sonic and Shadow where tearing them apart with ease. “Prime” continues to showcase elaborately choreographed action scenes. When the heroes can destroy all the enemies with relative ease, however, the kind of tension and suspense that are necessary for an action scene to really be successful are never created. This becomes even more true once Sonic gets a power upgrade, meaning he can blow through these even bigger threats with similarly relative ease. “Prime” goes through all the motions of a compelling action story here but never really sells any of them. Everything is just too easy for Sonic.

I know this is not the first time I've made that point. I've had that criticism for “Prime” consistently across season two. Here's another criticism that continues to stand with each episode: The Chaos Council aren't very creative as villains! Once again, when granted near-limitless power by the magical MacGuffin they've been pursuing this entire series, what do they do? They make their disposable robot soldiers a little more powerful. When that doesn't work, they create a giant Eggman out of shard energy or some shit. It shows such a total lack of imagination, from these guys and from “Prime's” writers and show runners. I know CGI cartoons only can only afford to create so many models but surely they could've thought of something better than this?

All of this is aside from my criticisms that the Chaos Council just aren't very effective villains either. Deep, Don't, and Done-It continue to be humiliated through this episode. But, whatever, that's an old issue by now. These guys suck on an individual level, even though the show continues to tell us they are a threat on a collective level. That's not really what's on my mind here. As I said, Mr. Dr. Eggman creates a giant prismatic version of Eggman to attack the heroes. How did the Chaos Council know what the original version of Eggman looks like, if they are the only Eggmen who exist in their universe? The exact relationship the Council has with Eggman Prime has never been established and this moment just further muddles the water. (The Council also doesn't know who Shadow is, which I guess makes sense. Though the exact bafflement they have over a second hedgehog seems a bit much.)

Last time, I mentioned that the show was clearly setting up some sort of conflict between Sonic and Nine. That comes to the front here. The obvious disagreement – that Sonic wants to restore Green Hills while Nine wants to recreate an ideal world on the Grim – nicely doesn't play out as cartoonish squabbling. Instead, both characters have good points. I even like the way Sonic is genuinely held at fault a bit, with the way Nine doesn't appreciate how he's seen only as a replacement for the “real” Tails, not his own person. Yet I wanted more, you know? At this point in the season, a good moment like this can't help but feel too-little too-late. 

And so “Prime's” second season ends in as frustrating a place as it began. We are sixteen episodes into this series and most of my complaints about it remain. The series has already been picked up for a third season, so we'll see a resolution to the cliffhanger here at some point in the near future. Maybe if “Prime” leans into Sonic and Nine's schism in the future, the show could finally come into its own. Yet I'm doubtful of that happening, at this point. I just don't know if I can ever get into this one, even as a lifelong “Sonic” fan. [6/10]