Review: Final Space “Arachnitects”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Something is wrong with Mooncake. Gary misinterprets his discomfort for puberty and gives the superweapon “the talk.” And since Little Cato also never received “the talk,” Gary lays it out for everybody. It turns out, Gary had a strange sexual upbringing so his talk didn’t really help anybody, especially Mooncake who got sucked into space soon after.

After a shrunken Bolo tells them Mooncake was purposely pulled into another dimension, Gary—desperate to get his little buddy back—relies on an unusually helpful Clarence. The old schemer guides the gang across an expansive planetary chain gang with each party sending them to someone of higher authority. The last member of the chain even sends them to Tribore, who left the Crimson Light only hours before in order to reignite the resistance.

Tribore, wishing to help, spends the entire episode trying to build up the resistance’s numbers despite inadvertently retreading the grounds of a single bar, upsetting the temperamental bartender each time. His new team doesn’t succeed and eventually disbands after taking a few photographs for posterity.

Meanwhile, Clarence assures Gary that his horrible niece is able to open up their only dimensional key so they can leap into a dimension controlled by a master race known as the Arachnitects. After a ton of nonsense from Clarence’s “opener of realms” niece, the team is able to enter into a giant spider web where Mooncake is all trussed up. The Arachnitects are exactly as their name implies: spiders and architects. In fact, they’re the ones who created Final Space (the cosmic concept, not the television show).

These expositional sages explain how they created the titans and ensnared them in Final Space when they grew too powerful—except for Bolo who never (allegedly) turned evil. They also reiterate how John Goodspeed closed the vulnerable hole between our universe and Final Space, creating Mooncake in the process. Knowing the little green guy is actually a small fragment of Final Space, the Arachnitects plan to destroy him.

Gary, refusing to give up on a friend, rescues Mooncake who regains his super-weapon powers in order to save Gary from certain doom. Impressed that the cute little weapon could use his powers for good, the spider-demigods allow Gary and the Crimson Light crew to look after Mooncake on a trial basis.

Later, we learn that Clarence had been so helpful because he and Mooncake often play late-night games of space chess. And also, that Mooncake can hear a sinister female titan in his head as she promises to wreak havoc on his friends and the rest of the universe.

 

Our Take

There was some filler and cyclical storytelling in this episode, and even though the narrative joked about just how cyclical it was being, it was still sinful. The parts of this story that weren’t filler or repetitive were exciting enough and I would’ve much preferred to see more character and scene work than rote, dry passages played as internal jokes.

Again, I was impressed by how they used Clarence, especially since I considered him a useless character as recently as three episodes ago. He acted as a bridge between Gary and the crew who haven’t experienced much of the universe. He also introduced them to new people and different settings that might come in handy later. That guy with the multiple hands might be particularly useful since we’ve already come across him earlier this season. We definitely have our many eyes on his many eyes (and hands).

Ash continues to stand out and is great in the clutch, while Fox, her brother, still has a fair share of character development to go through. Having already visited Ash’s home planet, it’s weird to imagine her people throwing a celebration as basic as senior prom. And from how she described it, it sounded very similar to our Earthly proms. She and Gary are developing a nice rapport that I’d love to see more of.

Last week, I wished for more tender moments between Gary and Mooncake; this week that wish came true in spades. Gary’s original Mooncake—a caterpillar in a jar—was killed by a couple of bullies which set Gary on a lifelong quest of sticking up for the little guy. His compassion really shines through when it comes to Mooncake and it’s fantastic that the creators are continuing to explore that relationship, along with Gary’s relationship to Little Cato and the newer members of his crew.

Now we need to talk about the 6,000-pound titan in the room. So far any answers are left wide open, but pretty soon we need to find out what these creatures are up to. Do they have a plan and any deeper emotions beyond revenge? I hope so. But so far, they are intimidating while existing primarily in the shadows.

The Arachnitects weren’t as profound as they were made out to be, and I hope their power is nothing compared to that of the imprisoned titans. The information the spiders gave seemed like retreads from earlier in the series. Even though nobody said John Goodspeed created Mooncake out of Final Space, it’s been implied and strongly hinted at since season one, so a lot of what the Arachnitects said seemed a little hollow or unimportant. However, for a semi-filler episode, this wasn’t too bad of an outing and it included enough exploration and character growth to hold my attention throughout.