Rogue Trip

Daniel, Vince and Larmina combine their own vehicles into a giant robot and settle on Awesome-Tron. A hungry Hunk and a plate of anchovies give them the excuse for a pizza run to Earth. Back at the Castle, Pidge pulls the Nexus out of the Black Lion to study it, and the Lion bolts, shuts off its homing beacon and hides. The others set out to hunt it.

On Earth, Larmina drifts off to a skate park and enjoys a childhood she never had, while Daniel and Vince are taken home by Dudley, a fan with a garage full of Voltron gear. When they try to leave, Dudley turns on them with a giant robot of his own. On Arus, Allura asks King Alfor for help and hears that the lions are a pride and Black is its alpha. Larmina rejoins the others, the robot is wrecked, its sword proves a toy, and the cadets bring pizza home.

Voice cast, as credited on this episode's closing titles (role, then actor).

Keith: Giles Panton Lance: Andrew Francis Allura: Ashleigh Ball Pidge / Alfor / Dudley: Sam Vincent Hunk: Ty Olsson Daniel: Vincent Tong Vince: Doron Bell Jr. Larmina: Shannon Chan-Kent Lotor: Mark Hildreth

"Slow isn't in my vocabulary."

"To be fair, your vocabulary only has about six words."

"It needs to be something that just shouts awesome."

"I never had a real childhood." -- Larmina

"My dad knows a guy." -- Dudley

"Dudley, we just spent 90 minutes reading your Voltron fan fiction."

"Hunting requires Patience, Lance." -- Keith

"The lions are the pride. And Black is their Alpha." -- King Alfor's hologram

"He's the leader because... he carries himself like the leader."

"Speaking of unexpected excursions, where's Keith?"

Transcribed from the episode's subtitle track, which we checked against the audio, with misspelled names corrected. Speakers are named only where the dialogue or the picture makes them clear.

Dudley can tell you everything he owns. His garage holds a replica of the Castle of Lions control room, a uniform he swears is Sven's and "the real deal," a blaster he says is Keith's, and eight of the ten pistols ever made for a Drule soldier costume. The control room and the uniform come with the same explanation: "My dad knows a guy." None of it makes him a member of the Voltron Force, and the episode knows it. It keeps returning to that gap between owning a thing and being it, once with the cadets and once with a Lion.

The Black Lion half is the quieter and better one. Pidge pulls the Black Lion's piece of the Nexus for study, and the Lion runs. The original pilots conclude that since it has shut down its homing beacon they will have to hunt it. What follows is odd for a series about giant robots, because Keith argues that everyone is so surrounded by technology that nobody notices what is in front of them. He walks through tall grass wearing a cyan visor while Lance complains about hiking boots and Pidge reaches for a sonar beacon. "Hunting requires Patience, Lance," Keith says, but Lance, who points out they are traveling at five miles an hour, is unconvinced. Then Allura asks King Alfor what to do, and the answer is the episode's spine: "The lions are the pride. And Black is their Alpha." Alfor asks whether Black fought or bargained his way to that position. The reply, that he is the leader because he carries himself like the leader, is the only definition of the job the episode needs.

The cadets' half is the louder one, and it is built to rhyme. Dudley recognizes the new Voltron Force cadets on sight and is so taken with the idea of them that he has little use for them as people. His tour is a catalogue of provenance, and his finale is a giant robot he trains in so that he can be Voltron's sidekick. The cross-cut is neat. The veterans, stuck on the hunt, say they could use Daniel's speed and Vince's strange connection to the lions and that they are glad to see what the cadets offer. The cut that follows lands on Dudley telling the cadets they have nothing to offer the Voltron Force! The sword he forms for the climax is a limited edition toy.

The best writing is smaller than any of that. In a diner booth Larmina lists her childhood, which consisted of private tutoring, etiquette classes, holosculpting and intensive martial arts training, and then she hears herself: "I never had a real childhood. What did I miss out on?" It is the one place in the episode where a joke about her royalty turns into a wound, and it also explains why she is happy to vanish onto a skateboard. When she returns and Dudley gushes about the Voltron Force, she answers with a blank "VO-what Force?", like a girl who has just discovered what teenagers do. He decides that girls are intimidated by his vibe. [1]

The weak point is the Black Lion, which the episode treats as an A-plot and then stages mostly at a distance. The pilots watch a stand-off from the sidelines; the actual resolution arrives as a punchline, with a question about where Keith is, the answer "Bonding," and Hunk biting into a slice of pizza. We would have liked a scene in which Black is seen deciding, rather than being asked to assume it, because the logic of the Alpha speech deserves one. [2]

In the season's run this is a lighter hour that still hands the Nexus plot forward. The code is ancient, highly advanced and mathematical, Pidge cannot read it, and he suspects the Lion ran because the module was threatened. The episode also gives the cadets a warm moment of belonging, in the form of a fan's endorsement and a pizza nobody at the Castle expected! It is a small win, yet it lands.

1 ^ Larmina is seen in a blue cap and white jacket at the skate park, and at 18:36 she holds a blue plush penguin. The farewell at 18:39 ("We have to get back home to our families") seems to prompt her admission that she has one to return to.

2 ^ The sidelines stand-off runs roughly 19:07 to 19:55, where the Black Lion strides toward the camera and Hunk, Lance, Allura and Pidge look on in a split panel; Keith is not among them, and was last seen sitting on a rock beside Allura at 16:50.

1. The pizza run is a payoff nearly three months in the making. In Hungry for Voltron (August 18, 2011) someone tells Larmina "you've never had pizza on Earth", and she finally tries it here, in the episode that aired on Thursday, November 10, with "It's official. This is the best thing I've ever eaten." and the answer "Told you."
2. Nicktoons billed the Voltcoms as wrist devices that work as keys to the Lions. Dudley takes a swing at them for that, calling them "some lame wrist gadget where all you have to do is press a button", and Vince fires back that "Our Voltcoms aren't activated by a button."
3. The cadets' combined machine gets its name by elimination: "Neutron" is "Too geeky", "Ratgar the Destructor" is "Too evil" and "Voltronomous Prime" is "only semi-cool", so "Awesome-Tron!" wins. Fans on the Voltron wiki credit this episode with introducing it, and it returns in I, Voltron with "Clearly Awesometron was designed for the cadets."
4. Dudley's family gag runs the whole visit. "My dad knows a guy?" gets "Who knows a guy?" and later, about Sven's uniform, "My dad knows a guy." followed by "Who knows a guy?" and "We get it." There is also "my dad's kind of a big deal" and "My dad's garage is much bigger."
5. The cadets skip the usual build-up. Asked "Don't we need to slow down for some sort of activate interlock spin?", the answer is "Nope. I say we go with a simple... Let's Voltron!" Compare the real ritual, which in "Flash Form Go!" is timed at "36 seconds".
6. King Alfor tells Allura that "The lions are the pride. And Black is their Alpha", and Allura works out that he leads because "he carries himself like the leader." That idea comes back in Black, where the new Black Lion pilot notes that "the black lion pilot is the leader of the Voltron Force."
7. Dudley insists his copy of Sven's uniform is "the real deal", and Sven does turn up in person in "Ghost in the Lion". Fans on the Voltron wiki read the uniform as confirming that the Force once wore flight suits like the original show's. The finale gag is "Form blade!" followed by "It's a toy?" and Dudley's wail, "It was the limited edition!"
8. Keith's quiet hunt for the runaway Lion gets teased ("Well, you better have Patience when you're traveling at five miles an hour"), and the episode ends on the best one-word payoff: asked "where's Keith?", the answer is "Bonding."

Voltron Force, the 2011 continuation, in which the 1984 pilots take on cadets.