Star vs. the Forces of Evil Review: Night Life / Deep Dive

"Now focus on my watch." "Hey, that's my watch!" "Dude, this is about Star, get over yourself."
Well, the last two episodes made for a nice break, because now we're back into full-blown narrative mode, and we haven't been going this strong through it since "Battle for Mewni."

There's a lot to try to extrapolate from "Night Life" and "Deep Dive" - they expertly fill in all of the questions left by "Sweet Dreams" while simultaneously allowing us to advance further as we're approaching the  midseason finale.

First of all, though, "Night Life" is an interesting episode. It starts out simple enough: Marco's running off on portal-closing adventures every night with Hekapoo and it's destroying his relationship with Star as he struggles to help either party out without harming the other. It's a simple beat that the episode dwells in for quite a while, but then, the episode changes. The focus shifts from Marco's inability to keep both sides of his life separate by forcing them to collide, and it becomes clear that the portals are a result of Star's dreaming, and everything starts to make a lot more sense.

I'll be honest: there's not too much to "Night Life." It's perfectly solid, but all it's really trying to do is set up "Deep Dive," which mercifully picks up right after. The episode is aware of that, too, which helps things moving along briskly, and this awareness is where it succeeds the most. It's the kind of episode that fills itself in as it progresses, leaving us trying to piece everything together the entire time until it all works itself out. Solidly written, but a modest affair all around.

The one part that does stand out, though, in spite of all of the tension throughout, is Marco's confrontation with Hekapoo regarding Star. There's a sincerity to it all and in his insistence that Star needs to learn about her newfound powers on her own; whereas "Sweet Dreams" suggested he was unsure and concerned, "Night Life" suggests a sense of acceptance. Sure, he's her squire and he has to protect her, but here, he's her closest friend, and he has to bend the rules for the sake of the greater good. (And yes, that means dragging out his adult voice to win Hekapoo over, against her better judgement.)

This sincerity is the cornerstone of "Deep Dive," but we'll get to all of that in a second.

First of all, it's nice to see Janna back. The appeal of her character has always been how frustratingly manipulative she is with Marco, and that's on full display here - chicken butt - but more importantly, it's nice to see her serving as a team player who's actually doing something in the episode.

And what a role she plays - with both Star out on her own and Marco understandably freaking out, she serves a far more grounded role over the proceedings, mediating between everything that's going on and quietly guiding the episode along by keeping Marco in check in her own hilariously deadpan manner.

There's also success in "Deep Dive" there, too: recent episodes, especially story-heavy ones, have struggled to use both Star and Marco in equal doses, with one of the two taking the lead and the other either non-present out of a lack of necessity ("Stranger Danger" or "Sophomore Slump") or compounding onto the other character's struggles ("Scent of a Hoodie" or "Lava Lake Beach"); the effectiveness here lay in both playing equally revelatory roles and the tension on both ends of the situation and what that causes.

On one hand, Star goes off into the great dimensional unknown for reasons she can't even fully comprehend, going far off the grid and arriving to the land of Magic; she's in a strange land and she doesn't know why. What comes out of her confusion is a strange ambiguity to what's truly at play as Star's motivations become cloudy and she nearly forgets her name. There's clearly something awry, but as always, Star vs. leaves it to us to deliberate on what's happening, especially with the characters unable to even do it themselves.

Simultaneously, Marco, in a last-ditch effort, uses the All-Seeing Eye to find and retrieve Star, and it's a fairly monumental moment. There's a sense that the show seems him as possessing some sort of worth, and whereas a lot of episodes have played around with the idea that Star and Marco aren't equals, their ability to both wield the wand's powers is an upfront demonstration of the contrary.

The fact, too, that Marco is able to snap Star out of whatever hypnotized state she's in, let alone make her realize her form-changing abilities, is equally powerful. Their compassion as a duo is stronger than anything else, and both characters save one another by virtue of their compassion, and not in some implicit way: it's pure, raw compassion. The fact that none of the scenes are emotionally overwrought, either, helps enormously in its sheer simplicity.

Narrative complexity aside, "Deep Dive" is a sign that Star and Marco still care about each other deeply. Whether or not you care for Starco as a ship, after the past week of break-ups and burgeoning make-ups, it's nice to see that the show hasn't simply lost its focus entirely. Whether or not the rest of the season will be as arduous on our two protagonists to navigate as the past few episodes have been, "Deep Dive" is a nice reminder that the show still knows what it's doing, and it knows where it's trying to get to.

So yes, we see Marco harness the wand, and yes, Star realizes her potential in her ability to shift forms at ease, but at the end of the day, it's the emotional pay-off that's so satisfying.

Notes and Quotes:
-"I'm at your service, m'lady." "Ahahaha, don't ever call me that."
-I'm probably alone in thinking this, but I feel like the show has struggled a bit with how to properly use Hekapoo in any capacity aside from as a counter to Marco. "Night Life" doesn't do too much to assuage those concerns, but it's nice to seeing the character utilized in some meaningful way within Star vs.' narrative regardless.
-Shout-outs to Talon Raventalon for being the perfectly absurd embodiment of those all-muscles, no-brains '80s tough guys. That worm guzzle was masterful.
-I just want to say that Marco's fainting in the hands of Janna's hypnosis was perfectly-timed and an excellent usage of the Comedy Rule of Three.
-Further, I'm hoping that Janna's return here means that we'll be seeing more of the cast from Echo Creek sometime soon; it seems odd that the show would just casually toss that many functioning characters aside, even if it is trying to expand its repertoire.

Final Grade: B+/A+. Over the past few episodes, I've complained about emotional manipulation and the show's awareness of its capabilities prompting sloppy ignorance, but both "Night Life" and "Deep Dive" work in how they wield everything with such a strong sense of legitimacy. There's no teasing and the show's not going for broke to try to win us over, and the results are a pair of tightly-written and masterful episodes that remind us that the show is still in its prime. I think I've worn just about everything else out by now, so let's just happily leave it at that.

For yesterday's reviews of "Death Peck" and "Ponymonium," CLICK HERE.

I'll wrap up the week with a final review of "Monster Bash" for tomorrow.

Chicken butt.