Sonic Boom, Episode 2.12: Knuck! Knuck! Who's There?

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.12: Knuck! Knuck! Who's There? 

Original Air Date: January 28th, 2017

During a standard battle with Eggman and a handful of easily destroyed Badniks, Knuckles flies cranium first into a rock. This gives him a case of sitcom amnesia which is quickly cured but leaves the echidna with a lingering sense of familial emptiness. Knowing he's the last of the echidnas, Knuckles seeks out a family willing to adopt him. He goes through several homes, none of which are very welcoming, before ending up in the arms of his would-be archenemy, Charlie. Charlie and his wicked wife Belinda quickly decide to turn the home-sick Knuckles against his friends. 

For most of its existence, "Sonic Boom" was one of those self-aware sitcoms that poked fun at the hoary clichés of the genre but rarely did anything to actually defy them. The show might goof on the idea of doing a "Groundhog Day" episode or an unlikely roommates premise but that didn't stop them from actually doing those episodes. So when Knuckles got hit on the head in the opening minutes of "Knuck! Knuck!" and forgot who he was — and Tails cracked a line about how that only happens in cheesy old sitcoms — I really expected the show to run with the easy amnesia idea. Giving credit where it is due, the "Boom" team quickly discard this setup, simply using it as the beginning of another stock sitcom premise. That would be a story of someone not realizing that they already have a found family until after exploring other options. Still, the swerve did catch me off-guard at first. Kudos are in order for surprising me, even if it was just for a second. 

The inevitable moral about Knuckles cycling through a couple of rubes who treat him badly before finding himself back with the people he's always belonged with is slightly undermined though. Not so much by how Sonic and the gang have treated Knuckles like a big dumb pet in some previous episodes. We just aren't meant to think too hard about that. No, it's that each of the people Knuckles ends up with are familiar background players in this show. We know that the crazy old wolf lady, previously seen scamming people, will only use Knuckles as a prop. As soon as the echidna is in the Gogoba village, we know that they will just guilt him excessively. That's the only thing those characters do! This gets especially sweaty when Knuckles briefly tries to become the daughter of the prissy Lady Walrus. (Let's not examine the gender fluidity at play in this moment too closely...) Obviously that's not going to work. Charlie and Belinda flat out announce their evil plan when Knuckles appears to them. 

This really isn't the fault of Natalys Raut-Sieuzac, "Boom's" ever present director getting one of her rarer writing credits. It's rather a consequence of "Sonic Boom" being a CGI animated cartoon on a TV budget. The reason the show constantly brings back characters like these or Dave the Intern for easy gags is because they are assets the animation team have already created. Yet knowing exactly what's going to happen with Knuckles when he meets up with these people dilutes the comic payload of the punchlines. It's an unfortunate example of "Boom's" budgetary limitations running into its tendency to play with sitcom tropes. You can't really tell a story about Knuckles realizing his friends already love and value him if the only people he has to play off of are one-note background players. But that's literally all the show had to use, because there probably wasn't any money left over to model some new cast members. This is a problem that a comic book or a traditionally animated show probably wouldn't have had to deal with. 

Another way you can tell that a lack of money might've impacted this episode is that it looks like shit. I mean, it's not just me, right? Even by standards of "Boom's" frequently lackluster animation, this one looks a little unfinished at times. Especially whenever we get close-ups of the characters as they talk. Something about the way the mouths move and the teeth sit in their jaws looks off. When we get to the action scene at the end, it's especially stiff and slow. The episode tried to cover for this by having shock waves spiral out of the ground every time Knuckles punches it but that just makes things look cheaper. Once again, I can't help but wonder how "Boom" would've been improved if it had just been done with ink and cells, instead of computers and polygons. 

Despite these shortcomings, "Knuck! Knuck!" is still a pretty decent episode. First off, the script gives us more insight into the "Boom" version of Knuckles' backstory than we've ever gotten before. Ya know, most "Sonic" characters have vague origins, at least in the video games, so "Boom" could get away with never mentioning them. Knuckles is one of the few classic cast members that actually does have an explicitly referenced home land. The show got away with never discussing Angel Island, the Master Emerald, or the extinct echidna race before because, well, it's not that kind of show. That stuff isn't relevant to the wacky hijinks "Boom" usually occupies itself with. However, if nothing else, this episode does confirm that "Boom" Knuckles does come from Angel Island and is the last of his kind. I doubt that information will ever come up again but now we know. I'm still going to assume the Chaos Emeralds don't exist in this universe though...

Finally, the other reason this episode is worth seeing is because the gags are good. This is one of those "Boom" installments that pack the jokes in. I suspect another writer might have helped sharpened Raut-Sieuzac's script, as her entries usually aren't this quippy. Not a minute passes in this episode without a snippy line of dialogue or a goofy sight gag. Some of these are actually pretty good, the characters being especially quick-witted here. I really liked small lines about old-timey photos, skeletons, and awful shoes. As for the bigger jokes, some of these are fairly sharp too. Such as a montage of Knuckles opening doors in town which is subverted at the last minute, Knuckles crying on a couch like a little kid, and a random silent movie interlude. Good shit.

By the way, this is apparently the third time in “Boom” where Knuckles switched sides temporarily. He did it in the first arc of the comic book too. I guess this is another example of how pliable Knuckles' child-like mind really is. Anywho, “Knuck! Knuck! Who's There?” isn't an all-timer but it got some honest chuckles out of me. Even if an episode about Knuckles loosing his memory probably would have been just as good... [7/10]