Whenever a show splashes out on such expensive garnish such as an all-CGI character, there’s inevitably at least one episode where money is frantically saved by the most obvious means. Be it the creation of an all-new human character to be the mouthpiece of the alien Covenant in Halo to an entire episode of Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters that featured absolutely no monsters in it, purse strings obviously have to be tightened somewhere – it’s just a shame that it’s always so bloody obvious.
Enter Knuckles: Episode 4 who, in a single installment, flips the whole concept on its head by delivering a virtually Knuckles-free episode that not only is the best episode to date, but is somewhat revelatory in the way it side-steps the need for its title character by delivering a kid-friendly fever dream that’s as innovative as it is completely sodding bonkers. Prepare to go on a vision quest the likes of which you’ve never experienced before – now with added rock opera!
After the battle that left his family’s house looking decidedly open plan – a bloody great hole in the side will do that – Wade has reached a whole new level of peace after his mother and sister have now accepted him again. Obviously, the contributing factor was a bright red warrior echidna who helped bring everyone together by beating the crap out of attacking bounty hunters, but Wade awakes the next day, wrapped in his Ninja Turtles bedspread, full of peace and hope.
Yeah, well, good luck with that, because Wade’s about to have another scrape with a bounty hunter in the form of pony-tailed ex-bowling partner and former best friend, Jack Sinclair, who does a little man-hunting on the side and kidnaps Whipple by lassoing him off of his front porch and dragging him off behind his motorcycle.
However, while you’d normally expect the headstrong Knuckles to dive into the fray and rescue his friend, the coffee sipping brawler reasons that this is the perfect test that Wade needs in order to gain his warrior spirit. If he can free himself from Jack’s clutches (not to mention an electrified cage), he’ll finally be ready to head to Reno to challenge his estranged father in that bowling tournament. However, a mortified Wade doesn’t quite see it that way.
The only way Wade can hope to escape his predicament is to meditate in order to seek guidance from echidna elder, Pachacamac, to learn Knuckles’ origins and discover where the Warriors gets his strength from. Of course, his vision quest doesn’t just tell him the answer; no, Wade has to figure it out by participating in a deranged, low budget, rock opera where he plays the role of Knuckles.
Can Wade figure it all out and defeat his former friend in a spot of sword jousting? Only one way to find out.
I have to admit, some of the opinions I’ve been seeing about Knuckles has left me a little surprised, a lot of people seem to think that a show based on a video game character made for children is a little too childish for their tastes. Worse yet, the lack of Knuckles has also brought forth a fair bit of internet ire, which, while understandable to an extent, isn’t actually much of a problem when you get episodes as mental as this getting streamed onto your device.
As that old David Chappelle sketch goes, modern problems require modern solutions, and the way the Knuckles team gets around the fact that they tell the main character’s back story without the main character even being in it, is truly inspired. For a start, the show makes the extraordinary wise choice of bringing back Julian Barrett’s boastful Jack Sinclair to be Wade’s foil and one of the reasons that the episode’s subsequent surrealism works so well is because it feels highly reminiscent of Barrett’s mighty work on The Mighty Boosh. Even before we get into deranged, rock opera vision quest territory, Sinclair is an immensely fun character for Adam Pally to play off as Barrett struts around the pace without a shred of subtlety. Not only does he come complete with painfully white dentures, a flame decorated leather jacket and a pony tail that somehow just screams douche, he also has a ton of other businesses on the side and is even in the midst of entertaining a family with his party limo business while he’s transporting Wade in an electrified cage that he’s towing behind him.
However, this isn’t even a hint of what is yet to come, as Wade manages to within himself (ew) and connect with Knuckles’ ghostly elder, Pachacamac – once again voiced by Christopher Lloyd – who appears to him while working behind the desk of a bowling alley; aka. Wade’s preferred battle ground. From here, things get really strange as the vision suddenly takes the form of a rock opera that sees Wade dressed in a Knuckles costume and running along a makeshift stage made up to look like the Green Hill Zone from the first level of Sonic The Hedgehog, complete with rings and loop de loops. It’s silly, it’s weird and its awesomely wonderful and it keeps getting better as Sinclair shows up as the manifestation of Long Claw, the leader of the race of owls who we know battled the echidnas back from the opening of the first Sonic movie. From there on in, it’s rock ballads, giant puppet fire demons and vocal solos from none other than Michael frickin’ Bolton, that initially made me worried that Paramount had suddenly snuck into my flat and spiked my drink. Simply put, it’s absolutely marvelous and funny as hell and even though Knuckles isn’t actually part of telling his own tragic past – which comes complete with a dead father as standard – the episode is so ballsy and ridiculous, you can’t not be utterly charmed by the audacious lunacy of it all.
In fact, what with all the faux-crap production values, expansive musical numbers and that vocal Bolton cameo, I can’t help but wonder if it wouldn’t actually have been cheaper to put Knuckles in the whole episode after all; but the upside is, the experience is so endearingly out there, you don’t really care.
And with that, it’s back to reality and Wade going one on one with his temporary nemesis in a duel involving swords, motorbikes and a bike borrowed from a child that rounds of a truly original episode of television that I’m genuinely annoyed that some people won’t embrace as an act of total genius. Yes, there may be the odd storytelling issue at hand here for the season on a whole – considering the big bad is supposed to be Rory McCann’s villainous Buyer, we’ve barely seen him once over four entire episodes – but when a show brings this much pizzazz to an episode that, by all rights, should have been a drag, you just have to rock out and roll with those awesome punches.
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