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kcwcommentary · 5 years

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VLD3x05 – “The Journey”

3x05 – “The Journey”

This episode introduces what will eventually be revealed to be a clone of Shiro. For the purposes of my commentaries, though this character is not Shiro, I’m still going to refer to him by the name Shiro. If at any point in any episode I want to discuss something that requires a differentiation between the clone and the real Shiro, I will be specific in those respective discussions.

This episode opens with a long-haired Shiro gaining consciousness in a Galra facility. (He’s got a little bit of facial scruff, so either his facial hair doesn’t grow at anywhere near the rate as the hair on his head, or he’s been periodically shaving.)

I didn’t notice this in the first couple of times I watched this episode, but he sits up and calls out Ulaz’s name. That references 2x03 “Shiro’s Escape” and Ulaz helping him get away from the Galra after his year in captivity. That makes me feel bad that all this show ever gave us of Ulaz was that single episode. Contextualizing the whole of the clone story, we know this clone of Shiro has Shiro’s memories. This little moment of calling out Ulaz’s name suggests that whatever the source for the memories put into this clone had to have come from Shiro after Ulaz helped him escape. Whether you read the moment as real Shiro or clone Shiro, his calling for Ulaz is him asking for help.

Disoriented, Shiro leaves the room he was in, walks down the corridor, and comes to another room with an open door. Inside, he sees Galra working around what looks like another Shiro on an examination table. I think the show wants first-time viewers to assume that Shiro is hallucinating; however, given that we know by the end of this plotline that there were multiple clones created, Shiro here is probably actually looking at them working on another clone. The camera then goes first-person, and we have the memory of Shiro placed into some stasis pod that fills with liquid, and we overhear a Galra say, “Operation Kuron, stage one: successful. Begin stage two.”

Back in that hallway, Shiro comes under fire by some Galra sentries. He runs, taking several out with his hand as he goes. He makes his way to a shuttle and escapes the Galra cruiser. The shuttle is hit as he heads toward what I’m assuming is supposed to be a planet, though it looks like a large, slender ice shard (why this show can’t have planet-looking planets… sigh). There’s a cut to an unknown Galra who says that “Operation Kuron stage three is under way.”

The ice shard has an atmosphere, which the shuttle plummets through until Shiro crashes. I like the disorientation of Shiro having landed upside-down but the camera starting oriented as if he was rightside-up and rotating around. It feels cinematic and gives me a moment as a viewer to mentally reset. The shuttle is on the edge of a cliff. The creaking sound of the broken shuttle sounds really nice coming out of a good speaker (I’m watching this episode with a significantly better speaker than I normally use). Shiro frees himself from being pinned in and has to run and jump for safety as the shuttle falls over the edge and off the cliff. The slow motion shot of the shuttle falling after Shiro jumps out and how small Shiro looks in the shot both give that shot a lot of weight. He barely grabs hold of the cliff edge, and while it is a cliché, it doesn’t quite feel it in the moment of watching it.

He climbs up and lays for a moment face-up in the snow, exhausted. I like the animation of Shiro’s foggy breath and that the show gives a first-person perspective shot of just the snow falling above him. He gets up, his leg is hurt, and he starts to move on.

Meanwhile, Haggar is standing weirdly and menacingly in the center of a room, where she orders a new Galra to spy on Lotor. I remember we see Haggar standing like this in this room several times through the show, and though it felt like her being there was supposed to have some special significance, I never understood what it was. I know there are canisters of purple quintessence on the shelf, but it still just feels like a mostly normal room. So her just standing in the center of the room doing nothing is always odd.

Shiro continues struggling through the snow. The injury on his leg has been wrapped in white bandages. Where did he get the bandages? They’re white, so they haven’t come from any part of his clothing. The episode then cuts to nighttime with Shiro having taken shelter. He’s built a substantial fire. We haven’t seen any trees on this planet, so where did he get the combustible materials for a fire? He unwraps the wound and cauterizes it with his glowing prosthetic hand. The shot zooms out to show his place of refuge is within the ribcage of the skeleton of a giant, deceased animal. He screams in pain as he burns the wound.

He ponders the skeleton and wonders what killed the animal. The next day, he continues trudging through the snow until he comes upon a liquid lake, where he eagerly drinks water. A giant crab or insect like creature comes out of the water to attack him. Shiro uses acrobatics and his bare hands to fight. He uses his glowing hand to cut into the head of the creature. It throws Shiro off, tackles, and restrains him. As it’s trying to strangle him, Shiro lets out a little, “Help.” The voice acting behind that one little word gets to me.

From offscreen, someone shoots the creature with laser blasts. The creature retreats into the water. Shiro’s weak, and, as he’s losing consciousness, he sees two aliens who talk about having seen Shiro’s pod crash. While unconscious, Shiro dreams about Galra examining him and one saying that he was “approved for use in Operation Kuron.” He then regains consciousness. The aliens are in a different room than he is. He’s tied to the wall and instantly starts trying to escape until they look in on him. He overhears one asking if the other put “the clamp” on his arm. Apparently, they are familiar enough with the technology of Shiro’s arm to know that it can be used as a weapon. That is substantial knowledge I would not expect them to have. I guess they saw him using the hand when fighting the creature and maybe examined it while he was unconscious.

One of the aliens calls Shiro a traitor, which he initially reacts strongly to the accusation until he realizes that the two aliens are rebel fighters. He tells them who he is and that he’s a Paladin of Voltron. “I was captured, I think,” he says. I know the show is setting up that this is a clone of Shiro, but the ambiguousness of this line is problematic. From our perspective as viewers, of course Shiro would have to have been captured to be here now, so for this bit of dialog to suggest he possibly wasn’t undermines the illusion that this is Shiro. The aliens don’t believe Shiro could have been fighting Zarkon. They fear that Shiro is a trick by the Galra to locate and reveal this rebel base. Shiro asks them to contact Voltron or the Blades of Marmora to confirm, but the aliens say no.

Lotor’s ship detects the Galra who’s been trailing them. Lotor realizes that if the trail had their scanner protocols then they could avoid detection. They fire in the general area of the Galra until he moves to avoid being hit, revealing himself. Lotor captures his ship and brings him aboard.

The aliens on the ice shard are monitoring communications and overhear some message about Lotor and Thayserix. While they’re busy, Shiro begins to try to free himself from being tied up. The next communication they intercept is about having received orders from Lotor to help fight Voltron. These two pieces of communication place this scene as sometime prior to the final stage of the battle in 3x03 “The Hunted.” I love the narrative connectedness between this episode and the events of 3x03. Shiro overhears the name Voltron in the transmission, and the aliens, now having heard the name Voltron, go to question Shiro. He’s not in the room when they enter though.

The aliens search their base inside and out. Eventually, they fight a bit. Shiro rips “the clamp” off his prosthetic and uses his glowing hand to block the blast from a rifle of the alien. They accuse him of being on the wrong side of the war, but he tries again to tell them that he’s a Paladin of Voltron fighting against Zarkon.

The episode then turns ludicrous for a moment. Shiro says, “I know that no matter what I say, you won’t believe me,” and points the rifle at them. We’re supposed to think he’s going to shoot them. This attempt at a fake-out is so hollow it’s ridiculous. Thankfully, it only lasts a couple seconds. Shiro throws the rifle down at them. He asks them for help.

They give him information about Thayserix and tell him they only have a shuttle designed for docking with orbiting ships, nothing he could use for long distance travel. Shiro proposes hitching a ride on a Galra cruiser passing by on the way to Thayserix. He dons a spacesuit and uses the aliens’ shuttle to get to the Galra ship (which means the aliens now have no means to get off the ice shard). Shiro pilots to the Galra ship, which blows up the shuttle, but not before Shiro can exit and float in space. His comparative small size makes the Galra sensors think he’s nothing but debris. He enters the Galra ship, which then activates its hyperdrive.

(I just now realize that though ships have been shown to use a hyperdrive/jump space travel mechanic/convention, the show really hasn’t ever done much to specify that as a form of technology. The show has been far clearer in establishing the use of wormholes for interstellar travel, but not this hyperdrive technology. It’s not really that big of a deal, I guess, but it would have been nice to have had the two types of interstellar travel more clearly identified early in the show.)

The Galra cruiser arrives at Thayserix, where the Galra and Voltron are fighting. Shiro jumps in one of the Galra fighters. The Galra cruiser orders an abort to the launch of fighters due to Voltron now being out of range. Shiro takes his fighter and blasts his way out of the cruiser. He sees Voltron and desperately tries to pursue it. Voltron is too fast, and the fighter falls behind. The sadness and desperation in Shiro’s voice as he screams, “No!” as Voltron recedes from his vision is heartbreaking.

Haggar remains standing weirdly in the center of her room when Lotor shows up and throws the mechanical arm of the Galra who she had spying on him down at her feet. Haggar accuses Lotor of having “ideas float[ing] through [his] head, just like [his] father.” She then says the Galra need a leader. She couldn’t have made it sound any more like she wanted to use Lotor as a puppet ruler if she tried. Lotor counters, “I am the leader, but I’m not my father.” So, we know that Lotor has some major contention with Zarkon, which reaffirms the discussion the Galra had in 3x01 “Changing of the Guard” about the differences between the two. I also continue to just not be able to see Haggar as a compelling character whatsoever.

Shiro continues trying to follow Voltron. He keeps a vocal log of his travel. One day from Thayserix. Four days. No food, no water, no signs of anyone. Seven days. Low oxygen, no fuel. “This will be my last entry,” he weakly says. His breath on the glass (I assume it’s glass and not some clear plastic, but it’s sci-fi, so who knows) of his helmet is a great bit of animation. He closes his eyes and thinks of Keith talking to him outside Keith’s home on Earth in 1x01 “The New Alliance,” about holding an unconscious Lance in his arms, about Pidge hugging him, about Hunk’s gunfire sound effects, about Allura using the Castle’s spatial scanning map, about being identified as the Black Paladin in 1x02 “From Days of Long Ago,” and about all five Lions sitting together proudly.

The desperation with which this clone, with Shiro’s memories, tries to get to Voltron demonstrates that, despite the insulting and offensive way the show resolves the clone plotline, this clone is not some “evil thing.” Team Voltron means something to him, even if they are the real Shiro’s memories. Being the Black Paladin means something to him. First-time viewers are supposed to interpret this scene as Shiro’s mentality, so we know he’s dedicated to Voltron, he cares about his team, and he is the Black Paladin. Recontextualizing the scene with knowing this is a clone, even if he has Shiro’s memories, the clone has his own mind and is acting out of his own desires. He too cares about Team Voltron and being the Black Paladin.

The Black Lion, however distant from where the fighter is, senses Shiro (senses the clone) and roars for him. She shows Keith the fighter on a display. For a first-time viewer, we’re supposed to read the scene as Black being drawn by her bond with Shiro to him. But recontextualizing the scene, we know that Black is reacting to the clone. We also know that Shiro’s soul is currently within Black’s psychic space, so it’s not like Black is desperately wanting to find Shiro. She knows exactly where the real Shiro is. She’s reacting to the clone, and she has found him worthy. That’s why it’s offensive that at the end of the clone plotline the show eventually labels the clone an “evil thing” and treats his body like it didn’t belong to a valid, unique being, a being whom the Black Lion wanted to rescue.

“You’ve found him,” Keith quietly says to Black, a slight smile on his face. Keith in Black gets the Castle Ship, and they wormhole to the fighter’s location. I love the quiet shot of the fighter floating unpowered in space with the Black Lion floating in front of it.

There’s a small moment of the two aliens on the ice shard eating some hot noodles before the episode ends. (And now, I want some noodles.)

I really love this episode. For me, it is easily the absolute best episode in season three. The two aliens on the ice shard were some of my favorite guest characters in the show. I loved the way they acted off each other; I totally buy that they’re two, solitary coworkers who have a history with each other and that we’re just getting part of that. They’re characters that feel lived in.

The least thrilling part of the episode were the scenes with Haggar and/or Lotor. They’re competent enough scenes, but they were so inconsequential compared to everything else that happens in the episode. At least they’re short scenes and aren’t too distracting.

Mostly, I love the return of Shiro. Whether the episode is viewed as Shiro himself, desperate and struggling to survive and return to Voltron, or truly as the clone of Shiro, who’s still desperate and struggling to survive and get to Voltron, it is a story that wrenches my heart. I want him to survive. I feel his struggle, his desperation. I love that Black senses him and roars out for him, and I’m so glad that we see the Black Lion and the Castle Ship having come for him at the end to provide relief of the tension of Shiro’s struggle.

#voltron legendary defender #voltron #vld #voltron criticism #vld criticism #voltron critical #vld critical #vld season 3 #vld 3x05 #commentary

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