This is, believe it or not, a lower-key episode. Yeah, in this show. Well, at least it’s one for the most part.
The meat of the episode sees Bisco and Milo once again encounter Jellyfish, finding her frozen in ice after her helicopter (she got another one) was shot down. They save her, and in return she tags along for a bit, helping negotiate a good deal with some native tribesmen and, when they find the subway, fixing an engine for the pair to ride to their destination.
A lot of the episode has the three characters relating to one another as we learn more about them, particularly about Jellyfish herself. We get that she’s had an extremely rough life, even with some particular incidents in the past like the job where she earned her mechanical expertise. Her experiences have certainly left her scarred, but her prickly demeanor indicates that she’s still got fight left in her despite being beaten down by the awfulness she’s had to endure or even engage with.
Naturally, she has a kind of vitriolic relation to Bisco and a bit of a crush on Milo (he has that effect, after all), but overall things seem a lot more fun. She even gives her proper name – Tirol – as they’re ready to go their separate ways, and breaks through some of her barriers to say “thank you” (not that the pair can hear it by the time she spits it out).
After that, we get a quick action sequence fighting off some random monsters in the tunnel, because the show would feel naked without one, and emerge at the location where the legendary Rust Eater can supposedly be found. Specifically, it seems to grow on the alpha predator of the area, a flying sea serpent dragon sort of monster with fingers or human limbs for fringe that, it turns out, is large enough to eat other giant monsters for breakfast. As Bisco attempts to engage the creature, Pawoo appears, determined to strike him down, and the episode cuts.
So, while the vast majority of the episode, in terms of run time, is just slower and calmer talking scenes with Tirol, quite a lot is actually accomplished: We work through some of Tirol’s issues, see Milo’s growth as something of an apprentice Mushroom Keeper (having learned to mix mushroom spores and chemicals to great effect, and overcoming his weakness at shooting a bow), and reach if not the Rust Eater itself at least the location where the Rust Eater can be found. And, while in a hostile manner, we’ve even reunited with Pawoo.
This oddly makes me rather hopeful. Sure, it’s possible that the rug will be pulled and we’ll have to go traveling again once more in search of the Rust Eater, but if the show wants to tell a contained story in 12 episodes, getting the Rust Eater just past the halfway mark seems like a good time, giving us several episodes to bring it and the cure it promises back, dealing with the thug governor in his home turf. And, it’s quite clear that even should Milo and Bisco acquire Rust Eater medicine, the journey isn’t over, both because things would have ended the first time the Mushroom Keepers found the dang thing if it was easy to address a whole rotten world with it, and because we’ve gotten hints of something bigger and darker (likely to do with the thing that allegedly started it all) waiting in the wings that will probably become relevant when we presumably stabilize Pawoo and Jabi and can start moving forward without a tight deadline.
We might not get to that part by the end of the show, but we can get through the Quest to Cure Jabi, which is a very encouraging thought.