Spoilers Below

In this week’s episode of ‘Out There’, [entitled] Enter Destiny, we first find Chad walking alongside his best bud Chris, who is carrying around a mysterious new briefcase (which ends up being chock full of dope spy gear and helpful whats-its). Damn, when you’re 15 what’s better than a briefcase?? A briefcase full of spy gear bro. Don’t try and sit there and act like you’re too cool for espionage, I see through your web of lies. Just the sight of a walkie-talkie is enough to drive a young man wild  (…Chris absolutely has a pair if you’re wondering). Secret messages? Important long distance tasks? I got you covered bro, –got the ‘talkies on deck.

This episode introduces Destiny, the stereotypical overly emotionally exposed daughter of a rich artsy couple, who becomes Chad’s new lab partner. While spy gear is undoubtedly cool, having a wild young piece of lady doting on you, well that’s a whole ‘nother world my man.  Back in those school days. having a lady lab partner was a big deal, I mean… what if this is your shining moment to win her over (because shes already forced to be around you, so surely eventually she’ll notice how awesome you are)?!

Things seem to be going well for Chad (we really have no idea how Destiny actually feels about Chad at this point, besides just enjoying that he is a new source of stimuli with a pulse) until his path crosses with Jaybird’s newly self-appointed tormentor (who has a strange name but demands to be called Nightshade… and since that’s easy to remember, I’m going to just call him that). Chad swoops in and defends his lil bro by knocking Nightshade down into the sandbox, and guess who comes running to his rescue? Nightshade is TOTALLY Destiny’s brother (PLOT TWIST DUUUUUDE!!!!11!one!). Chad, you done fucked up now. Chad goes on to do a non-existant job of trying to explain himself, and in turn, Destiny storms off with her brother in hand, scowling at Chad as she leaves.

THIS. KILLED. ME. Ugh, if there is anything that drives me up the wall, it’s when characters could have prevented half an episode by just opening their mouths. When you watch an episode of Seinfeld, and something goes wrong, the character stuck in a bind makes AT LEAST a desperate attempt to justify their situation in the heat of the moment “I was in the pool! I WAS IN THE POOL!!!“ So when I watched Chad let Destiny walk away without even TRYING to explain that her brother was actually in the wrong, I was in physical pain. To make things even worse, at no point in the rest of the episode does Chad EVER try to explain why he ended up pushing Nightshade to begin with. I am hoping that this is because the writers truly believe that Chad is too awkward to be able to remedy such a situation (please let that be true, I’m begging you, if it’s not just lie to me). /Rant

For the sake of time, (as this review is approaching the tl;dr threshold), things end up working out for Jay as Nightshade (in a “I think this happened on Saved By The Bell once” scenario) finds himself being bullied by bigger and badder dudes on the playground (on sitcoms they call this irony). As for Chad, in the first time EVER in the show so far, things do not end up working out as he would have hoped (between him and Destiny). Destiny is just far too outside the box for him, and he knows it– enough to decide to let her go. Smarter than most boys his age, so hats off on that one.

All-in-all this is actually one of the more fun episodes of ‘Out There’. Enter Destiny has a refreshingly fast pace and features a lot of fun animation gags that really spiced things up. There’s also an entertaining Terry subplot going on that is pretty hilarious (god I love that sound that Terry makes when he’s excited). Unfortunately I was really rubbed the wrong way by Chad this episode (as a character) which did bring down the episode’s overall score. I just don’t get the same level of believability from him as I do from the other characters and I’m still not sure if it’s the writing or the voice acting quite yet.

 

Keep your head up ‘Out There’ –first I’m sour, then sweet, in no way like Sour Patch Kids.

(8 out of 10)

 

@Achilles_Word