Sonic Prime, Episode 3.03: No Escape

Sonic Prime, Episode 3.03: No Escape

Original Release Date: January 11th, 2024

The previous episode of "Prime" ended on the cliffhanger of the Angel's Voyage sinking into the ocean as No Place collapses. "No Escape" quickly picks this up, with Sonic determined to travel to this dimension and save his friends, even if it puts himself directly in Nine's sights. He's soon joined by most of the rest of the heroes, pulling off a perilous but successful rescue mission. Yet, upon returning to New Yolk City, it becomes clear to Sonic that this won't end until he gives himself up to Nine. Which he does but that brings with it a whole new set of complications...

Over the years, a few characteristics have emerged as the defining details of Sonic's personality. Namely, his fastness, his snark, and his devotion to his friends. That final aspect is really emphasized in this episode. Sonic knows heading into No Place puts him in danger. He knows it's a risky situation for everyone. Yet he simply can't allow his friends to be in danger. Now, one can debate whether the Angel's Voyage crew are really close enough to Sonic to classify as his "friends." Yet this is still a nice moment. Sonic's love for his pals is what makes him a hero and that inspires the people around him to be heroic too. That's sweet. 

When "Prime" was announced, it was mentioned that Sonic would be doing battle with his own guilt as well as supervillains on this show. This seems to be an idea this last batch of episodes really confronts. "No Escape" has Nine outright ask Sonic if he's so determined to put things right because he knows the universe shattering apart is actually his fault. Sonic's response is simply to grimace to himself, an unconscious acknowledgement that Nine is right. This is certainly an interesting theme to introduce – that heroics are motivated as much by guilt over past mistakes as ethics – and, honestly, it's an idea more "Sonic" media could play with. (Looking at you, IDW, with the way Sonic constantly lets the bad guys get away.) Do I think Nine straight up saying this is not the most subtle idea to include this idea? Yeah but at least it's a theme. "Prime" has been seriously lacking in depth up to this point, so I'll take what I can get right now. 

If the push-and-pull between Sonic's devotion to his friends and his guilt over causing a multiverse splintering crisis is where the meat of this episode lies, one has to look at Sonic and Nine's relationship. "No Escape" opens with a "Sonic Advance" inspired, 16-bit flashback to Sonic and Tails walloping Eggman. That seems to foreshadow Sonic throwing himself on Nine's mercy later in the episode. Yet that brings up an issue I've continued to have with this show: Nine isn't Tails. Or, at least, he's not the Tails Sonic remembers. This is something the character has repeatedly stated but Sonic continues to ignore it. The final act here suggests that maybe Sonic is right too. Maybe there's more of Tails Prime in Nine than the angst cyborg is willing to admit. Yet everything the show has presented up to this point, especially Nine's most recent turn towards supervillainy, suggests otherwise. 

So which is it? Is Nine simply an altered version of Tails or a totally new character, with completely different motivations? The implication, I guess, is that Sonic is so important to Tails' life that just the mere absence of him is enough to turn the little fox into a totally different person. And that could be a profound idea, an "It's a Wonderful Life" style revelation that one person has more of an impact on the world than they can ever know. This would be better presented by Nine himself realizing that Sonic being kind to him, just in these few episodes, has changed him in some way. Instead, "No Escape" has Sonic show in the Grim, tell Nine that he's his friend no matter what, and the fox immediately switch sides again. It's rushed and sloppy, going back to the idea that Sonic can't tell this variant apart from his actual buddy than the unique bond these two specific characters have. 

Considering how frustrating I've found "Prime's" writing up to this point, I'm willing to give the show credit for trying at all. Honestly, the show works the best when it draws very little attention to these attributes. There's two, small moments here that really add a lot of depth to this world. When the Angel's Voyage is sinking, Catfish is fearful to jump from the ship's mast into the safety of the flying Kraken. Nobody judges the big cat for being fearful. Everyone just keeps encouraging him to make that jump. This shows how understanding Sonic and the gang are and that Big the Cat, in every universe, is no typical action hero. Another moment has someone waving at Rusty Rose in appreciation. The cyborg, previously shown to be coldly emotionless, then cracks a tiny grin and slowly waves back. That's a good, subtle moment that shows Rusty has a softer side that is slowly coming to the surface, the more time she spends around these folks. "Prime" needs more of that kind of subtly. 

I still have issues with this episode. "No Escape" repeatedly features the good guys being in some perilous situation, only for someone to rush in from off-screen and save them. It happens at least three different times, by my estimation. Thorn and Birdie swoop in to save Sonic from a Grim Birdie. The same evil robot is blasted away while good guys dangle off a ledge. The Chaos Council show up to give the Kraken a lift as it starts to fall. This is the kind of dramatic writing you can pull off once, maybe twice, an episode. To have the show repeatedly return to it so many times in one half-hour makes it seem like the writers only have one trick up their sleeve. 

Despite that flaw, I would say this is maybe the best episode of "Prime" yet. There's some cool action beats, of Sonic skipping across the water or Baton Rouge swooping around a ship. That opening, video game style flashback is really cool. The episode ends on a very unpromising cliffhanger that seems to be setting up another one of those dramatic alliance shifts that this show keeps doing and I keep hating. That makes me doubtful that "Prime" is going to nail the landing as it goes into its final stretch. But we will see. At least "No Escape," taken on its own, is a solid installment. [7/10]