Sonic Prime, Episode 3.02: Dome Sweet Dome

Sonic Prime, Episode 3.02: Dome Sweet Dome

Original Release Date: January 11th, 2024

"Dome Sweet Dome" begins with Shadow launching Sonic into the void between realms, Nine's giant robotic birds quickly taking chase. The hedgehog soon ducks into the New Yolk City portal. There, he finds that every realm in the ShatterVerse is breaking apart... And that Nine's nearly complete Paradox Prism has given him God-like powers. Luckily, two unexpected parties appear to help Sonic. The alternate versions of his friends from across the ShatterVerse show up, each coming through the doorways the Chaos Council have opened. Secondly, the Council itself decides to help the heroes, realizing they can't conquer a multiverse that doesn't exist. A plan is quickly formulated to protect the worlds and drain the last remnant of Prism energy from Sonic, which has unforeseen consequences for the hedgehog. 

I suspect a redemption arc will come eventually but, at this moment, "Prime" is playing Nine as a full-on supervillain. Power corrupts but it seems to have corrupted the angsty fox very quickly. "Dome Sweet Dome" sees the alternate Tails appear as a floating, holographic head over the city that appears primarily to gloat at and taunt Sonic. Once he starts showing off his ability to change the nature of reality itself, it seems to me that None is ready to graduate to Evil God status. Once again, I feel the need to point out that, in-universe, all of these changes occurred over the course of a few hours. I guess Sonic didn't know Nine nearly as well as he thought – and still seems to be confusing him with the Prime version of Tails – but all of these changes still strike me as happening very suddenly. 

If nothing else, the show continues to sharply depict the difference in philosophies between Sonic and Nine. Nine's isolationist beliefs have him tearing the universe apart to create a perfect world. Sonic, meanwhile, has friends come to his aide when all hope seems lost. That Sonic's pals are all from different realities shows how far they are willing to go to help him out. This moment would mean a lot more if the alternate versions of the team, and their relationship with Sonic, were more fleshed-out... But it's the closest this episode of "Prime" comes to actually having a moment of meaning. 

This structure of a greater threat to everyone emerging does present what is always a solid narrative hook: The good guys and the bad guys putting aside their differences and forming a temporary truce. The Chaos Council appearing to back Sonic up is another solid moment, if only because it's fairly unexpected. From everything we know about the greedy and single-minded Eggmen, we certainly don't expect them to ever help out the hedgehog. Whether "Prime" will play up on the natural tension that emerges from such a temporary truce – will the Council betray the heroes when an opportunistic moment presents itself? – can't be said right now. Yet it is a good idea to introduce. 

Throwing so many different groups together allows for something else: Some fun bickering between these opposing parties. A repeated highlight of this episode is Renegade Knucks – who continues to give me extremely strong Raphael vibes – threatens to start fights with the Council. Later, Mangy Tails pokes at a computer console and ends up improving some readings somewhere, a cute joke about how all versions of Tails are apparently naturally technological whizzes. If there continues to be lots of interplay between the different parties as "Prime" heads towards its finale, that would certainly be a good thing. 

There's a moment in this episode that, perhaps, crystalizes why this show's approach to it's characters and world has constantly disappointed me. While Sonic is running through New Yolk City, Nine uses his near omnipotence to turn the entire city sideways. Now, Sonic has to run across the sides of the buildings and grab innocent bystanders as they fall from their homes. While watching this, my main thought was "This would be a cool moment in a video game." It would subvert expectations for a level and present new challenges for the player. But the disconnect here should be obvious. Yes, "Sonic Prime" is inspired by video games but it's not a video game. Is this why this show seems to constantly foreground action scenes over anything else? Is that what WildBrains and Man of Action and the rest of the production crew thought "Sonic" fans wanted? I don't know but it definitely presents a problem when you wish you could pick up a controller when watching a TV show. 

"Dome Sweet Dome" ends with a barrage of technobabble, all about energy and domes. Several minutes are devoted to figuring out how to protect the variants of Sonic's friends from the continuing effects of the ShatterVerse breaking up. As well as extracting the last bit of Prism energy from Sonic. And, I don't know about you guys, but I don't give a shit about any of this stuff. The rules guiding "Prime's" comic book-y science already seem to vary with the needs of the story, making me wonder why the writers felt the need to justify them. If you look at all of "Prime" as one big, long movie – which is how most modern, serialized TV shows are written, much to my annoyance – we are currently in the last half of the second act. The heroes' situation is getting to maximum hopelessness, in order to make their eventual triumph all the more meaningful. So that's all this, Sonic collapsing and the rest of the good guys being endangered by some bullshit, is. I can see the machinery and that's never a good thing. 

Still, I guess I would rate "Dome Sweet Dome" – they didn't put any effort into those titles, did they? – slightly higher than the first episode of "Prime's" third season. Mostly because I like Knuckles shit talking the Eggmen. More of that next time, please! [6/10]