Shorts Review: Red vs. Blue Season 13, Episode 15 ‘Armonia, Part One’

Spoilers Below:

A multi-part episode usually signals the beginning of the end of a season for most series, and Rooster Teeth’s Red vs. Blue just dropped “Armonia, Part One” on us. Since the show doesn’t usually announce ahead of time how many episodes will air in a season (though the past two have had 19 each) the finale could be nigh. If not, they sure seem to be setting up for it.

As the battle began, the good guys decided to evacuate Doyle and Tucker, while the armies clashed with the mercenaries at the capital, giving our friends home-field advantage – a home field that includes a reactor that they’re prepared to blow up for the greater good.

Doyle, Tucker, Sarge, Simmons, Grif, Caboose, and Doc held their own (thanks to a rocket launcher), but in the midst of strategizing, Carolina, Kimball, Wash, and Church encountered Sharkface. He agreed to let the others go in exchange for Carolina, and two began a face-off.

Carolina started by apologizing to Sharkface for what happened to him and his friends (the freelancers), but he rebuffed her as the episode closed, attacking while snarling, “Something’s gotten into you, and I’m gonna rip it out!”

In Case You Missed It:

1) Palomo: “I think these guys are gonna need a hospital” / Bitters: “Just…no.”

2) When Simmons shouted, “Dammit! We suck at hiding,” not only could you could clearly see every soldier, but Caboose didn’t seem to have attempted to hide – or move – at all.

3) Also, was Doc disguised as a snowman in that scene?

Light on the quotable moments, aren’t we? Of course, the reasoning is clear. This is a set-up episode. I felt that way a bit about last week’s installment, but this one really brought things to the beginning of the real action.

The clash of the warring forces is obviously the main conflict in the story, but fans might be more interested in the showdown between Carolina and Sharkface. I was slightly surprised to see her try to reason with him at first – given his inherently evil personality – and in the end it was all for naught, as the sinister soldier started his attack.

Aside from this major focus, we only got a brief glimpse of what each of the other big players were up to, but that was also clearly a set-up, as we will likely touch base with each of them again next time.

So, given the low amount of plot content, action, and funny dialogue, is there anything at all that elevates this above an average score? Yep. One thing. The scene where the Reds and Blues attempted to hide was one of the funniest visuals in a long time. (It’s actually the picture above.) The humor of the show is at its best when viewers are reminded how stupid these “expert” soldiers really are, and nothing expresses that quite like failing to do a task as simple as hiding.

Of course, the show is at its best as a whole when this humor is coupled with some actual shit going down, but I suppose we’ll have to hold on just a little longer for that.