Review: YOLO: Silver Destiny “Jamberoo”

Overview:

A heat wave in Wollongong takes Sarah and Rachel to the Jamberoo water park in a wet effort to cool off and beat the heat. Unfortunately, Rachel and Sarah’s savvy hydration efforts coincide with Lucas’ latest love potion developments, catapulting the lot of them 300 million years back in time. Rather than sweat the small stuff, the trio find themselves with separate goals that will benefit them all in the present–if they ever get back there, that is.

Our Take:

YOLO: Silver Destiny has always been treated as Sarah and Rachel’s story. That being said, Lucas has been a vital player who’s been around since YOLO’s inception and this season has promoted the character to an unofficial lead. All of YOLO: Silver Destiny has celebrated Lucas with a greater sense of purpose, but “Jamberoo” really puts the character in the spotlight and lets him drive the story forward instead of being a passive passenger. It’s a satisfying change of pace that helps “Jamberoo” make its mark as a standout installment in what’s already been an excellent season

Time travel is a big deal for YOLO: Silver Destiny, yet it becomes surprisingly mundane for a show that gleefully features spectacles like the Terry Cup or Planet Horoscope. Time travel is the most normal aspect of an episode that includes a sentient self-help book and a romantic “Mega-Bilby.” At the same time, I absolutely love that YOLO: Silver Destiny can do something as radical as sending the characters hundreds of millions of years back in time and yet the events still amount to the series’ standard bush rave where anomalistic creatures rock out together. The character designs in YOLO are always a joy to take in, whether they’re simplistic polygon oddities or incredibly detailed buff wildlife, and the members of this Apocalypse Party showcase the wide range of weirdos that populate YOLO. 

“Jamberoo” is an episode that’s never been done before when it’s considered from its broader strokes, but the party pit that Sarah and Rachel join could be found in any episode of the series. This may as well be Bushworld’s Ute Party. That may sound like a complaint, but it’s oddly reassuring that YOLO is confident enough in its voice that it can make these bold, silly decisions that don’t get caught up in the nitty gritty specifics of an 11-minute absurdist cartoon. 

“Jamberoo” has a lot of fun and raises some thought-provoking ideas, but its final message leaves something to be desired. Sarah’s told to be proud of her creations, even if they’re completely useless. It’s a shaky moral that doesn’t exactly instill the positive theme that it believes that it does. However, what is important about this conclusion is that it’s Lucas who bolsters Sarah’s confidence in the end, not Rachel. 

While it may not be groundbreaking storytelling, I still like the idea that Lucas’ heightened time travel efforts that are in service of winning over Sarah end up pushing Rachel one step closer to her destroyer destiny. It’s entirely possible that whatever apocalyptic fate awaits Rachel in the season finale wouldn’t be possible without Lucas’ inadvertent help in the matter. YOLO has consistently teased the idea that Rachel and Sarah are cosmically linked together, whether that’s a healthy dynamic or not, but “Jamberoo” argues that Lucas’ destiny is just as intertwined with theirs and that they collectively represent a triforce of fate.

Any episode of television that traffics in time travel must consider the possibility of whether it’s worth devoting some of the runtime to an altered present that’s the result of changes from the past. “Jamberoo” doesn’t go all “Time and Punishment” from The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror V.” There’s no doubt that YOLO would have plenty of fun with this premise, but it avoids this temptation for a more streamlined story that doesn’t feel like it lacks this dimension. If anything, Lucas’ relatively minimal difficulty in crafting a functional time machine means that another trip to the past could still be possible.

“Jamberoo” is the best Lucas episode of YOLO, but there’s also a strong case to be made that it’s this season’s strongest entry. “Jamberoo” finds the perfect balance of nonsense, sincerity, and surreal silliness that celebrates what makes this absurdist series work, but also allows for genuine moments of growth and catharsis that hint at big things in what’s to come. Every episode of YOLO: Silver Destiny has been a delight and “Jamberoo” proves that these episodes have even more to say when there’s half-a-season of story to pull from.