Sonic Boom, Episode 2.20: Give Bees a Chance

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.20: Give Bees a Chance

Original Air Date: March 25, 2017

The "Sonic" series has a long history of bee or wasp-themed enemies, from the iconic Buzzbomber of the first game onward. Knowing this, it is unsurprising that we would get a whole bee-inspired episode of "Sonic Boom." "Give Bees a Chance" begins with Team Sonic watching as another powerful Ancients relic is unearthed. In this case, it's a fancy rock called the Fregosi Sapphire. Eggman immediately shows up to steal it, bringing a horde of BeeBots with him. One such machine is left damaged but still functional after the fight. Amy convinces Tails to patch the robot up and she begins to take care of the machine. Amy soon develops a bond with the robot insect, even naming it "Bea." When Eggman sees that one of his minions has become the pet of his enemy, he begins the process of automatically recalling Bea using a homing chip installed on every Badnik. Loosing her new friend breaks Amy's heart, allowing Eggman to steal the Fregosi Sapphire back. Now, Amy and the gang have to stop the villain's latest scheme and rescue her adorable little bee buddy. 

While reviewing "FiendBot," I commented that the episode reminded me a little bit of "Buster," in that it featured one of the heroes bringing home a robot, the machine filling something of a pet-like role while also annoying the hell out of everyone else. "Give Bees a Chance" does something very similar again. Once Amy has nursed Bea back to full health, the robot follows her everywhere. This earns the distrust of Sonic and the others, who assumes that having one of Eggman's minions buzzing around is a bad idea. The ever-fearful villagers don't trust the machine either. And much like Buster, you do have to wonder why Amy has gotten so attached to the ersatz Buzzbomber. She tries to teach it to play a simple game of catch and it doesn't quite work out, suggesting Bea is kind of a dumbass. Then again, my dog being a dumbass doesn't make me love her any less...

Considering another recent episode, "Blackout," featured a big magic rock being dug up – in fact, season two has been using the left behind relics of the Ancients as a plot device a lot lately – it would be easy to dismiss "Give Bees a Chance" as a derivative and formulaic installment. Instead, "Give Bees a Chance" keeps doubling up on its ideas and ends up getting the audience more invested in Amy and Bea than they ever were in Sonic and FriendBot or Sticks and Buster. There's more focus on the emotional bond Amy has with Bea than in those other scenarios. When the robotic minion gets called back to Eggman, Amy's resulting heartbreak sets up jokes... But, interestingly, her sadness isn't the joke itself. Rather how everyone reacts to it. This has the surprising effect of getting us to actually care about Amy's love for her robot bee. Which the structure, of having Amy bring Bea back from Eggman's clutches and sees the bee prove her loyalty to everyone, further enforces. The episode ends on a surprisingly sincere note, which is totally unexpected for "Boom." And yet, the episode pulled it off. Within ten minutes, Bea goes from being a slightly annoying gag I felt like the show had done already to a character I actually cared about and liked.  

The question of why Amy is so determined to rehabilitate this Badnik remains. And that really has two answers, one of which is supported by a minor subplot here. When Knuckles grabs the Fregosi Sapphire, he immediately starts to baby it, to the point that he even names it "Herman" and starts carrying it around in a papoose. Combined with the way Amy takes care of Bea, feeding it oil by doing the airplane trick with a spoon and covering the machine with affection... Is the implication that Amy Rose has a bit of baby fever here? Obviously, her relationship with Bea is clearly more akin to the bond you sure with a pet. Yet it's not like lonely women never fill the void in their lives left by a lack of a child with an animal. I get the impression that this was an intentional bit of subtext and not just me reading way too much into an episode of children's broadcasting like I always do. 

The other reason Amy becomes so attached to Bea is a bit more philosophical. After the opening fight, she looks over the remains of the robots they just smashed and considers the morality of what they've done. It's been proven over and over again that Eggman's machines are sentient. Orbot and Cubot are obviously fully formed individuals and even the lowly Badniks have displayed glimpses of personality before. This raises the question then: If the Badniks have identities, personalities, and quirks of their own, is it ethical to ruthlessly smash them to bits? Considering how close Amy and Bea becomes, the obvious answer seems to be a resounding "No." Not that I expect a series as light-hearted as this one to really delve into the implications here, that Sonic commits a hate crime every time he smashes a robot. Yet it is an interesting idea, to give us a bit more perspective behind even the cannon fodder. 

As happens every time "Sonic Boom" bases an episode around Amy, "Give Bees a Chance" left me wondering what this version of Amy's defining characteristic even is. The aspect she most shared with Sega Amy is that she's a super girly, empathy driven female except when you piss her off, then the hammer comes out. "Boom" has also frequently characterized her as a grumpy mom to the rest of the team, who has to tell everyone to stop having fun or annoy people by constantly standing up for the rights of the downtrodden. And sometimes that is exaggerated even further, to the point where she's a slightly crazy perfectionist overachiever. In this episode, the emotional side is played up more, the smallest thing reducing her to tears after Bea goes away. She loves Bea so much, that she's even willing to blow right past the Gogobas' attempts to guilt her, which seems kind of out-of-character for a deeply empathetic people pleaser like her. I don't dislike this take on Amy. Honestly, I much prefer Bee Mom Amy to her being the Team Spoilsport or a grumbly straight woman. It just goes to show how uncertain Amy's characterization in this show is. All the "Boom" versions of the gang have their established personas shift depending on whatever the show's comedic needs may be in an episode. Yet it feels like Any gets it the worst, to the point where it can be hard to figure out what her personality even is sometimes. I guess this is what happens when you take a character conceived as just being Sonic's fawning fangirl and decide to tone that element way down, if not remove it all together. 

And speaking of removing a defining element of a "Sonic" character's personality! This episode has a good joke about Knuckles picking up the Sapphire and saying that people complain about him not protecting precious stones enough. It's another one of the program's trademark meta jokes. You see this in an earlier moment, when Sonic responds to the word "Roger." That line is part of a fast-paced montage of jokes that also includes cracks about everyone always being so sarcastic and Sonic's fear of commitment. It's a good scene and sets up what is a very funny episode overall. Eggman having trouble with a password and having to call customer service is one of those jokes I love, that contrast the mundane and the fantastic. The sequence devoted to Sonic and the others trying to cheer Amy up and just repeatedly making it worse is also very solid. The quality gags continue right up to the end, when Amy's scrapbook is revealed to have a picture of her scrapbook inside it. The Gogoba Chief even made me laugh here and I fucking hate those guys! Good stuff. 

That this episode gives Amy a juicy arc and is so heavy on the pithy dialogue is probably owed to it being written by Cindy Robinson, Amy's voice actor. I guess Cindy must be a pretty big classic sitcom nerd because... When I first heard them refer to the magic rock in this episode as "the Fregosi Sapphire," I wondered if it could be a homage to an episode of "The Munsters." This show has referenced sixties sitcoms before but I figured it was probably a coincidence, because the odds of them pulling out a callback to an obscure episode of such an old show seemed unlikely. But then Knuckles names the rock "Herman," so there's no way "The Munsters" wasn't on someone's mind while making this one. There, I managed to find a connection between Sonic and the Universal Studios Monsters! Anyway, this is a pretty funny, well done episode even if I continue to feel like "Boom" can figure out what exactly to do with Amy. [7/10]