Review: Unicorn: Warriors Eternal “Darkness Before the Dawn”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Warriors take a breather on a train after leaving Edred’s home, with Edred moping over leaving and pontificating what will happen to the three of them when their job of defeating the evil is finally finished. Their reflection is interrupted when they notice an attack on one of the train cars by a werewolf, whom Emma recognizes as Winston. They manage to settle him down and get him away from the moonlight, turning him back to human form. Upon waking, Winston optimistically believes that this form will mean he’ll be able to fight alongside Emma, though she is concerned.

Merlin reappears to report that Otto, the scientist who assisted them previously and may be the creator of Copernicus, is actually the Evil they’ve been chasing. Merlin then transports them all to a jungle that Otto has apparently been draining of resources to make robots. The jungle is protected by a talking tiger man named Rakshasa, who knows Merlin by reputation, but disappeared after their fight against Otto’s forces. The six split up into pairs, Merlin with Melinda/Emma, Seng with Copernicus, and Edred with Winston, much to their chagrin and the two soon get into a fight over Emma. Meanwhile, Melinda questions Merlin about Otto being the Evil, as he did not attack them when the group approached him about fixing Copernicus, but Merlin dismisses this as deception. Seng finds Rakshasa and connects with him in the spirit world, who tells Seng that “all is not what it seems”, soon confirmed when they come across Otto’s body and Merlin begins attacking Melinda, his eyes glowing green like the Evil.

OUR TAKE

Here we are, two episodes from the end of the season, and I still feel just as lost as ever. We still don’t know very much about the Evil the group is fighting, aside from a connection to Melinda’s mother Morgan, who apparently is not the Fox Lady. Said Fox Lady has not really made hasn’t made an appearance since she was seemingly unceremoniously killed a couple episodes ago, but said seeming killing apparently did not kill the Evil, and now the Evil is pretending to be Merlin to get Melinda alone. Even typing all of that out, none of it feels very clear, even in terms of a slow burn mystery. I’m not asking for all of the answers spoonfed to me right away, but with only a couple episodes remaining in this season, we should have some feeling of momentum towards an end point instead of adding new disparate elements with no clear goal.

Speaking of new disparate elements, we now have Tony the Tiger, protector of the jungle of Frosted Flakes, introducing the concept that there are giant tiger people (or at least one). Look, I get that this is a fantasy story with sci-fi steampunk elements, so there’s room for stuff like Otto’s robot army to fit alongside Merlin and Melinda’s magic and Seng’s astral projection. But then we have stuff like last episode with Edred’s warring Elf clans that have giants and necromancers and blood eating jewels, werewolves out for a random nighttime boat trip, and now tiger people. It’s becoming less like a cohesive Urban Fantasy setting and more like just a bunch of random stuff thrown into a blender and made to look like it fits together when it really doesn’t. I know this was pitched with the plan of multiple seasons in mind, but it could stand to take a page from Infinity Train, which DID manage to balance multiple seemingly disconnected aesthetics and elements while keeping the story focused on a clear and well paced goal.

And I couldn’t close out this week’s review without mentioning the return of Winston, who seems to getting quick control of his werewolf form so he can actually be part of the action. I still like him more than Edred, who starts off this episode whining up a storm about things that are entirely his fault and then goes on to be a possessive butthead towards Winston about Emma/Melinda, but I’m honestly over them fighting over her anyway. It’s not funny, it’s a stupid thing to fight about in the first place, and it just shows how little perspective Edred has come to have over his many years of existence. Here’s hoping either he or Winston mature enough to drop it, especially with Melinda now in danger, but who knows. All I do know is that I am getting real tired of this story and am increasingly waiting for it to just end. It’s not a terrible show by any means, but I will say the clutter and messiness are still an increasing issue, and I don’t see that changing as we approach the finale.