Review: Nomad of Nowhere “Eagle Canyon”

Nomad of Now-Here!

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Don Paragon frantically tidies his chambers and his men in anticipation of the arriving emissaries of the Governor of the West, Toro (Sungwon Cho), who communicates with them through some sort of smoke magic. He’s asked for this meeting because of recent news of the Nomad’s whereabouts, but Don plays dumb in hopes of finding him first and gaining a governorship of his own. He sends out Toth to investigate a tip, and she and her team head out, but not before coldly telling the still injured Skout to stay behind and rest. She’ll have to work fast though since Toro is sending his greatest champion to lead the search.

Who is this champion? WELL, apparently it’s not important enough to show this episode, so we move onto the Nomad hanging around in what I assume is Eagle Canyon, where he comes across some sort giant bird with rocks on its wings. A Canyon Eagle? A Rock Hawk? A Rawk? Whatever it is, it’s got a spear in its wing, so the Nomad pulls it out (when he should have PUSHED IT, as many commenters have noted). The bird is somehow unharmed, and the Nomad’s chest glows to indicate this was, in fact, a good thing to do, but in trying to save the bird’s falling egg, he catches the eye of Red Manuel and, by extension, Toth. She quickly gets him cornered and piles on the guilt to get to his conscious, even though the falling egg is pretty distracting. Eventually, the bird joins the fray to protect the egg and the Nomad, but Skout arrives to bargain by holding the egg over a cliff. But she’s too much of a cinnamon roll to go through with it, and the Nomad catches a ride out as the bird takes off and the egg hatches.

Toth and Skout have it out, leading Toth to realize Skout is simply a weakness that she can’t afford to keep protecting while she has a job to do, so she reassigns her.

OUR TAKE

Well, after nearly four months of waiting, I guess we’re back to more of…this. Yeah, the designs are still as plain as ever and we’re still in a desert wasteland, but we’re back! It looks like we’re in the beginnings of a new story arc (or rather, the first actual story arc) to mix up the status quo. Including the follow-up to the major turn in Skout and Toth’s relationship, we also meet Toro, the first of the four Governors who we saw in that weird exposition vision from the last episode, played by Sungwon “ProZD” Cho, who is now in three RT animated productions (King Atlus in RVB 16 and Brian in Camp Camp), and all three are different characters with distinct performances. You can tell well enough by checking his Youtube channel, but the dude has the range, to say the least. Can’t say how much we’ll be seeing of him for the rest of the season, but it’s neat to see that he’ll be in a bigger role later on.

And while it is intriguing to see dueling factions within a villain group, it really doesn’t bode well to just keep teasing it after a four-month-long wait. You would think Toro’s champion, who may or may not be the Disc 1 End Boss of this first season, would show up here to properly this episode to demonstrate how his and Toth’s hunting styles differ. We even see Toth showing an oddly sympathetic side towards the Nomad that would’ve contrasted well with what I assume will be a more ruthless tactic used by Toro’s MVP, but no such luck. I understand we still have another five episodes to fill, but more shenanigans in the desert is not going to help the already lukewarm at best reception this show is getting. Yeah, yeah, the Nomad’s chest glows when he does good stuff, but what else?

As has probably made the rounds by now, creator Georden Whitman left Rooster Teeth during the hiatus due to “creative differences” (DUN DUN DUNNNN). They say he left on positive terms and I honestly believe that’s the case, but it doesn’t suppress my worries that this show is struggling. There were already delays and issues with it during the first six episodes, and twelve episode seasons don’t go on hiatus for nearly a third of a year when things are working at optimal efficiency. Whatever retooling Nomad of Nowhere needed in that time, I hope it got it, because now it’s gone big or go back to Nowhere.