Review: Red vs Blue “Previously On”

Comedic flashback montage.

Spoilers Below:

Andrews and Jax arrive at a small base, calling out for the Reds and Blues. The team members begin to appear one by one, acting like their usual, comedic selves. Andrews manages to get a hold of Griff and passes on the news that Caboose has died. Griff is more impressed that they managed to kill Caboose rather than act upset by the news. Nobody else seems particularly worried either, to the frustration of Andrews, but Caboose miraculously appears by their side unharmed. He claims that landing on his head preventing him from being severely injured since that’s his most durable part.

Carolina and Washington appear, and demand that Andrews explain what she’s doing here. Andrews introduces herself and explains her story on the attacks and the missing Freelancers. They want to know more about the Freelancers, but Andrews insists that they give her the information she needs first. She asks what they’ve all been doing since Chorus, and both teams have a lot to tell.

They felt like they needed some time off after the large battle at the end of the season, so Kimball set them up on an isolated moon where they could relax. In the meantime, they:

• Partied at Temple of Procreation
• Discovered and were nearly consumed by native life forms (dinosaurs) but Caboose befriended them
• Donut burned down the bases
• Ate mushrooms which were like ‘crystal meth on crystal meth’
• Sold off their movie rights
• Built a water park but Donut burned it down
• Formed a band, where Carolina terrorized her way into performing lead vocals
• Sarge built a robot army, but the robots malfunctioned attacked dinosaurs
• Griff convinced Simmons that Game of Thrones really happened
• Sarge started a fight against gravity
• Debated new form of government, somehow decided on ‘malarkey’
• Caboose got stuck in another dimension
• Donut ‘dies’, and they buried in grave but  it turned out he was just skinny dipping
• Washington grew a beard

Semi-satisfied, Andrews accepts their story but is curious about what happened on Chorus. The team is apprehensive and notes that it’s a sensitive subject. They all seem rather down about the loss of Church.

Andrews tells them what has happened in the meantime. She describes the attacks, and how the Freelancers have all gone missing or been killed. Upon hearing that the UNSC is about to invade Chorus, the team asks if that’s why Kimball sent Andrews over. Andrews denies it, and passes along the message that Kimball gave her.

Epsilon appears in the message, distorted. He says that some emergency has happened, and asks for help before the message abruptly ends.

Synopsis:

The Reds and Blues are doing just fine. Even off-screen, they have been having plenty of absurd and comedic adventures. However, they are still down about having lost Church. When Andrews calls him Epsilon, they sternly correct her. They all refer to Church’s memory with varying degrees of fondness.

Based on Washington’s surprise at the news, he hasn’t heard of the attacks, despite them being huge news throughout the galaxies. The Reds and Blues seem to have deliberately cut off any contact with the outside world, which makes them prime targets for identity theft. The joke on Washington’s new appearance is helped by the fact that we’ve never seen his face. Since the main group has never taken off their helmets, stealing their identities is rather easy.

On the last message, Epsilon appears, first calling himself Church, and then calling himself ‘Alpha’. Epsilon-Church has never referred to himself as Alpha before, so this introduction raises a lot of questions. It’s unclear if it’s Alpha sending the message, or what Epsilon’s general status is since his supposed death. Either way, some part of Church has survived, and no doubt the Reds and Blues are going to find out what happened.

All in all, a hilarious episode with a good segue into a plot twist.