It's been forever since I did one of these.
PG-13 Ninjago Pilot Season Episode 3!!!!!!
We start off with Kai walking through Four Weapons on his own, back in his old clothes. There's no one around, but he hears the hammer banging in the blacksmith shop.
Kai jogs in, excitedly calling, "Nya!"
Turns out there's no Nya there. It's Samukai, who throws a pair of knives at Kai and he gets pinned to the wall as Samukai saunters toward him, a third knife in his hand. Kai tries kicking and breaking free, but screams to know where Nya is and what Samukai did to her.
Just as Samukai goes to stab Kai, he's slapped awake.
Yeah, another dream, but it was Jay who woke up Kai, because the new kid slept in and they need to go. Mission today to get the map, so they need to haul ass.
Kai gets up and dresses, still a little drowsy, and asks about breakfast.
No breakfast.
Now that he's waking up for realsies, he has ANOTHER question: how are they getting there?
Cole barks that they're taking the carriage and tells Kai and Jay to hurry the hell up.
Kai jumps up, excitedly asking if they're REALLY taking a carriage, like RIDING IN A CARRIAGE, and Jay gives a small smile and shrug.
And we cut to the ninja pulling a carriage as Wu meditates, Cole in the front with Jay, Zane, and Kai behind him, Kai remarking that when Jay said they were taking a carriage, this was not what he was thinking at all.
Jay chuckles and admits that it at least got him out of bed, right?
Kai groans and changes the topic:
Where and how did Wu find these three?
Cole bites that if it weren't for Wu, the four of them wouldn't be caught dead together. To completely answer Kai's question, though, Wu found Cole twice before Cole decided to go with him; he'd been testing himself physically and got offered the student plan to Wu's spinjitsu academy.
Jay backs Cole's story, even though there are parts he's not saying, which he should say now that they're a team. Cole barks that Jay should focus more on pulling the carriage instead of running his mouth.
Jay groans that he's just trying to help their new brother feel welcome and explains to Kai that he was testing an invention and Wu was there when he crashed.
Before Kai can ask Zane, Wu tells him(Zane) to run and scout ahead.
Zane obeys and parkours out of the carriage, racing ahead of them.
Jay gives it to Kai up-front: they don't know where Zane came from. One day, Wu just left and came back with him. They've tried asking Zane about it, but he's had a seizure every time, and it always leaves him in terrible shape afterwards.
Kai wonders if that's what has him acting so weird, but Wu shouts for them all to stop and hide the carriage.
Kai sighs, glad to not be running anymore, but Jay shushes him as they hide the carriage and hide behind some rocks next to Zane.
In front of them are the caves of despair, having been given the name because of all the randomly falling rocks the Scythe of Quakes causes. Samukai and his army are mining for the weapon, but Wu's old man memory kicks in as he sighs that they're in the wrong spot.
Even so, the team needs to be extremely careful. Not only is the landscape easily disturbed, there are skeletons EVERYWHERE, and a dragon.
Cole's eyes widen as he echoes, "Dragon?" But there's one more thing they need to be careful of:
Kai, who's already raced ahead.
Zane drops his head onto the rock, Cole facepalms and shakes his head, and Jay remarks that that’s one way to get to the map, as he’s just rushing in head first.
New plan: Keep Kai from getting them all killed, THEN get the map and the scythe.
The ninja agree and rush out, Wu staying behind to cause a distraction for the skeletons to make their mission easier.
With Kai, he, quite poorly, sneaks around the skeletons with the rest of the ninja following with much more stealth, even taking down a guard that spots Kai.Â
They catch up to Kai on the tower, and Zane smacks him over the head, and contemplates kicking him off before Jay stops him and gestures for him to get the map when Samukai has his back turned.Â
Zane does just that, tying a rope to one of his shurikens and using it to get the map.Â
He hands it to Cole, who examines the map and confirms what Sensei Wu was saying. The skeletons are digging in the wrong place because they were reading the map upside down, so the weapon is actually of the other side of the caves.Â
Kai states that he’s on it and begins leaving, but Cole snags the back of his gi and tells him to hold his horses, unless he wants to get caught and possibly killed.Â
Before Kai can protest, the ground shakes, rocking everyone and everything and making the ninja fall off the tower. The rest duck for any kind of cover because it starts raining boulders and no one brought a steel umbrella. Maybe we get a visual gag of Kruncha and Nuckal hiding under the conveyer belt that was being used to mine and Nuckal is gnawing on a doughnut shaped rock he found because he doesn’t want to be turned into bone power.Â
The quakes stop and we return to the ninja, Cole sighing as Zane and Jay hug each other, still trembling; Jay just got some anxiety triggered and Zane has never dealt with an earthquake before.Â
Kai isn’t reacting because he vanished, having raced to the other side of the caves.Â
Cole groans and tells the two scaredy cats to keep up, though Jay groans/cries out for what Kai’s problem is because he’s always in a rush to get himself in trouble.Â
Speaking of Kai, we cut to him as he tries to open the stone door to the golden weapon, only stopping when he gets a rock thrown at the back of his head.Â
He turns around and sees Zane with another rock at the ready.Â
He doesn’t get a chance to throw it because Cole reminds Kai to not run off because, unless he’s forgotten, they’re a team, and whether he likes it or not he’s a part of it, so no more running off and doing things on his own.Â
Kai groans that he’s got it and they all get the door open.
The cavern is alight in warm gold and the ground is hella cracked and broken down, all courtesy of the Scythe of Quakes, which rests grip/handle first in the mouth of what looks like a dragon statue, one that’s covered in dirt and sand.Â
The ninja are all amazed, and Jay almost shouts that what he’s seeing is very cool, almost because Cole covers his mouth and shushes him before he can be heard by anyone outside.Â
Kai goes to grab it, but Zane pulls him back and hands him a blanket to use to grab the scythe with; these things are sometimes too powerful for mortal hands, so best to be safe than sorry.Â
Kai wraps the blanket around the scythe and tries to pull it out of the dragon’s mouth, but find he can’t because it’s too heavy.Â
Zane gives it a try and can’t either.Â
Jay takes a swing, calling both of them paper handed(which means they’ve never lifted anything heavy like an engine or something like that) as he tries and eats his words. Too heavy.Â
With a groan, because the statue looks real as hell, Cole gives it a try.Â
And the scythe slides out easy as a knife through cake.Â
Some magic energy stuff swirls around Cole and causes the ground to shake one last time, just a gentle little quiver, and then finally stop.Â
Cole gets down and looks down at the weapon with wide eyes, Jay asking what all of that was Cole shakes his head, but doesn’t think on it, because they need to get back to Wu.
Speaking of Wu, he's fighting a hard as he can to defend himself against a bunch of skeletons, some fighting him as their own distraction, the rest leaving to get to the caves.
The ninja all wander through the caves and wonder where the exit is, at until Cole takes the lead and starts to show them the way outside. Jay asks if he used to study caves, but Cole denies it, admitting that caves always freaked him out as a kid.
He ends up leading them back to the room the weapon was stored in and notice the statue is gone.
Kai's equal parts annoyed at being led in a circle and confused at the statue vanished, offering that it crumbled into sand.
No time for theories because they come face to face with Samukai and the rest of the skeleton army.
ACTION TIME!!
The ninja all jump into action, fighting the skeletons while defending the weapon. Despite doing well, they still get beaten., even Kai, but he's new, so it's forgiven.
Jay, however, is thrown against the wall and slumps to the ground as skeletons surround him. His vision is blurry, but he also seems flashes of blue lightning. His body recharges and he stands lokking down at his feet as he does a circle with one foot and continues to spin with the momentum.
Cole sucker punches Kruncha away, which sends him FLYING, and races over to Jay to try helping him.
No need, because we and the other ninja are Jay is spinjitsu- ing and knocking away skeletons.
The ninja are surprised, Kai asking how Jay is doing that.
Jay calls back in his spinjitsu mode that he just saw lightning and spun with it.
With one more good turn, we transition into an anime-magical girl-esque transformation fully of fun visuals of lightning spiraling up Jay's body and then shooting outward as he plants his feet into the ground. His gi turns blue and the gold emblem turns to the lightning one we see him wear in the original, the storm cloud-looking skull with lightning in place of its teeth.
The skellies back off in fear while the ninja are very impressed and shocked.
Samukai gives no damns and orders his men to kill the ninja and take the scythe.
Zane walks ahead of the ninja and agilities his way to the skellies, spinning with the snowflakes he sees.
It also transitions into Zane's transformation, where he lands back first in snow and ice covered water. We follow him in the water as he falls upside down, though the camera turns until he's right way up. The dark water becomes lighter as snow or ice whirls around him starting from his ankles to his head. He keeps rising until he breaks through ice, revealing that his gi is now white and his emblem is the same as the show version, the ice sharp/snowflake looking wolf/dragon.
Zane spinjitsus the skeletons as well, even tag teaming with Jay, who smiles and laughs while Zane smiles with his eyes.
While he holds the Scythe of Quakes, Cole and Kai struggle with the skeletons. Jay and Zane are too busy beyblading to notice, but, out of options as Kai is almost knocked unconscious, Cole takes the scythe out of the blanket and slams it into the ground handle first.
The ground shakes and cracks even more. The skeletons are blasted back and Cole's transformation happens.
The earth aroind him rises over him ant then breaks.
... Same black gi, but at least he has his earth emblem now, the earth/stone-esque stone/mask. And he has orange eyes, which are a subtle hint to his true potential. While everyone's stunned, Kai spots Samukai and charges toward him, shouting his name.
Skeleton archers shoot at Kai, but he turns, once, twice, thrice, many times, flames growing around him as his own spinjitsu begins to work.
We dive into the flames and see Kai running, literally catching fire on his gi and causing it to burn, the black turning red. His emblem to the flaming lion.
The arrows meant to pepper him do nothing and Kai gets out of his sponjitsu out with sword drawn.
Samukai, always ready for a round 2, draws his knives.
The two clash, Kai doing much better than he did in Four Weapons, this time being on the offensive while Samukai is left simply blocking him as much as he can while Kai demends to kniw where Nya is and what was done to her.
The other ninja do much better as well, Cole alternating between his normal scythe and the golden scythe, Zane getting higher jumps and better agility, and Jay going much faster than he usually does, circling around a group of skeletons and then running at and through them once he's going fast enough, to incapacitate them all.
Samukai eventually kicks Kai away and gets gets on the offensive as well, the two semi-evenly matched.
Well, at least until he looks up and behind Kai and pushes him back, slowly backing away.
The other skeletoms do the same and Samukai retreats.
Kai begins to gollow him, but Jay stops him, telling him not to worry because they got the weapon and are one step closer to saving this Nya girl.
Kai supposes so, and the team takes a breather, Cole removing his hood to breathe better and re-wrappong the scythe in the blanket, mentally patting himself on the back for not losing anyine of getting them all killed.
That relief VANISHES when he hears breathing over his a a broken skull falls on his head.
He looks up and his face drops and pales, freezing in place.
The other ninja are too bust boasting to notice, but Zane is using his thinking cap for a second.
Wasn't there supposed to be a dragon guarding the weapon.
They hear a rumble behind them, and Kai turns, telling Cole to be more careful with the scythe.
Jay follows and gasps, Zane doing the mannequin challenge and freezing in a pose.
It was not the scythe that did that, and that statue that moved wasn't a statue.
They just pissed off one of the elemental dragons.
Cole scooches back before slowly rising to his feet, weapon in his hands.
The dragon watches and growls at him even more.
Kai asks what they do and Zane stays frozen, Jay has an even better idea, one of his best ever:
"RUN! RUN LIKE HELL!!!"
The team break for the door, but the dragon is faster and smashes its head against the ground, sending them all back as the ground shakes.
Rocks fall just as they see Wu coming racing toward them, the rocks blocking them off from each other.
The Earthe dragon snarls and circles the entrance, but Cole, using his new, super slick, earth powers, leads them to a tunnel they took earlier.
The dragon gladly follows.
The team sprints away as the dragon races after them, roaring and snarling after them.
Cole looks back and continues running, even shrieking at the fact he's being chased by a real living dragon.
Zane, Jay, and Kai are all panicked as well, Zane screaming, Jay babbling and making random noises, and Kai shouting.
We get a gag of Cole rounding a corner, still shrieking and hilding the golden scythe, followed by Zane, who we hear really use his voice for the first time as he screams/howls, Jay right behind him as he shouts, sorry if this is hard to read for everyone, "WHYISTHEREADRAGON!?SENSEINEVERSAIDANYTHNGABOUTADRAGONSOWHYISTHEREADRAGONINEVERSIGNEDUPFORTHISTHISISNOTOKAYWHATTHEHELLISGOINGONWHYISTHISHAPPENINGIAMNITOKAYWITHTHIS!!!!!!!!!" and Kai finishes the train as he screams and scrambles after them all, shouting for them to wait up.
The dragon rounds the corner as well, shaking the ground as it runs.
They eventually find their way to an exist and leave the caves, though the dragon still follows them out.
Kai, thinking quickly, takes the scythe from Cole and smashes it blade first into the ground, much to everyone's objections.
It shakes the ground and Kai enough to make the dragon retreat and avalanche of rocks to occur(a rock slide?). The ninja are still for a minute before screaming and leaving again, spinjitsu-ing away until they're back near the carriage.
They look back at the carnage and let themselves breathe for real, congratulating each other on a job well done.
That's when they see Wu scowling at them, and he asks what they were thinking.
Kai tries to salvage this operation and shows that they got the scythe.
Wu's glad for that, but they still USED the weapon and almost got themselves killed, expressing disappointment in both Kai and Cole for not thinking before acting.
Cole takes it, because you don't talk back to Sensei Wu, but Kai still defends himself in saying they were surrounded by skeletons and needed a way out, and they got the weapon, so he shouldn't be complaining.
Wu spells it out for them: if they just took the weapon and left, everything would've been fine, but since they used the weapon, they attracted the attention of the dragon, which has been known to attack on sight.
Wu drops ot and commends them for a job well done, upon seeing the weapon for himself, seeing they learned spinjitsu and seeing the map Zane nabbed, and tells the ninja they'll head back to the monastery after a little bit of rest.
The ninja agree, save for Kai, who's staring in disbelief and confusion as Wu pulls Cole aside, the earth ninja explaining what happened in the caves.
Jay walks up to Kai and pats him on the shoulder, advising that Kai really shouldn't talk back to Wu, because the guy could very easily kill him, if he really wanted.
Kai asks how a cool guy like Jay is here with a teacher's pet like Cole and... Zane, who's saying, 'fuck my safety and wellbeing,' and walking and climbing on the rocks that crashed down and almkst killed them all.
Jay shrugs and admits it's something you get used to, but it's worth the time.
Kai politely doibts it and just hopes he can save his sister.
Jay perks up at this, asking if she has a boyfriend, if she likes blue, all that jazz.
Kai grabs him by the collar and pulls him close, growling at him to back off.
Cole pulls Kai off of him, just on time, too, because Zane was sprinting over to dropkick Kai, and warns that they can't be tearing at each other, not when the other three weapons need to be found.
Kai concedes, but adds one more thing they all need to understand:
He'll stay, but only until those weapons and Nya are found. After that, he's gone.
Cole, already done with him, snarls, "Good."
Wu calls them all over and they huddle around the map as Wu informs them that the next weapons are the shurikens of ice, and they're close, but they need a boat and supplies, and need to return to the monastery.
The team agree, and ready themselves with the carriage, Cole and Kai glaring at each other before they leave.
The episode ends with the ninja running to returning to the monastery.
