Review: Final Space “Chapter Five”

To Infinity and Beyond Good and Evil.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Galaxy One speeds off to investigate the anomaly while Gary investigates his chances of getting it on with Quinn, which she very quickly shoots down. Tribore contacts her again to give her the coordinates to breach, though she can’t figure out why the Infinity Guard would want to cover something like this. Gary is quick to point out they are probably corrupt, but Quinn isn’t as quick to throw them under the bus as she probably would be for Gary. Footage notes massive energy firing into the breach to increase it, though if it keeps going, the Earth (and the rest of the solar system I assume) will be engulfed.

Thanks to Gary’s “finesse”, the ship crash lands on the surface, though this just gives Quinn more reason to distrust him. She finally relents in letting him and Mooncake come along with her and Avocato, while Gary instructs KVN to repair the ship. Guess how well that goes. If the answer was “about as well Cato giving Gary flirting advice to try on Quinn”, then you’d be correct, because that also happens. But it’s not like she hates him, she just doesn’t want to keep babysitting a guy who is very clearly coasting on his main character plot shields.

And because we got “fighting robots on a spaceship” last week, this week is “Flash Gordon style alien wildlife combat in a Technicolor nightmare forest”, as a weird moth creature manages to bite Cato and shrink him down to feast, followed by a swarm. They manage to lose it, running across camouflage covering up the giant laser shooting at the breach. Surrounding it are droves of armed Infinity Guard soldiers, and soon after, a giant hologram of the Lord Commander, who they now serve.

Quinn now knows that the only person she can trust is herself, but obviously, everyone else is coming along. Sneaking inside, Quinn recognizes Superior Stone from the second episode (voiced by John DiMaggio) commanding the troops. She tries to convince some of them to stand down for the sake of not destroying Earth, their home (but weirdly not for the people currently living on it), but they politely decline. Quinn is devastated, but saved by a regrown Cato. This win is soon wasted by Stone, who stops by to make them listen to his evil monologue about how going to Final Space will change the galaxy, mostly by killing everything. And it’s thanks to Quinn’s notes in the first episode. Gary then changes his galaxy by sucking him into a black hole.

Gary has Mooncake destroy the laser, but this causes the station to collapse. Gary finally gets Quinn to trust him, but her world is still shaken by the revelation of the Infinity Guard’s true motive and her part in allowing it. But now, she has a new team that will help her get to the truth.

Meanwhile, Little-Cato tries to get his coordinates out from his prison, but the device keeps shorting out. Luckily, his mysterious partner allows him to escape and make it to a transmitting station. UNluckily, that partner turns out to be the Lord Commander in disguise, using Little-Cato’s naiveté to make the signal go out to Cato, Gary, and most importantly, Mooncake, before using his mind powers to make the Steve Yuen-voiced cat become completely under his control.

OUR TAKE

I think this show has finally found its stride. The plot has kicked into full throttle, the character development is constant and various, and visuals continue to impress. What doesn’t quite do the same is the actual plot, which is unsure at times whether it is a straight sci-fi or a parody. Superior Stone’s motivations are that of any stock crazed villain driven mad by some big scientific discovery, and I can’t imagine the Lord Commander’s full plans being much deeper. On the hero side, Gary continues to widdle away at my patience with his constant jabbering, but luckily we have Quinn and Cato to balance out the act as straight men.

All in all, another solid entry. We’ve reached the halfway point and things seem to have settled into an equilibrium, so now’s the time to REALLY shake things up next week.