Amphibia Review: Night Drivers / Return to Wartwood

"Oh no! Who could have predicted this?" "Don't overdo it."

--

Hi! Due to my current circumstances of being in college during a particularly hectic semester, I'll be experimenting over the next few weeks with trying to find a way to write shorter, quicker, and more succinct reviews. While I'm sure there are some people dismayed by this change, I think this is far more ideal than not being able to push reviews out at all, and the length shouldn't come at the expense of quality. And if you're still upset: pay me! I'll do more if you pay me, and that's only a partial joke.

Anyway, the review! There's a lot of excitement surrounding how Amphibia would choose to kick off the next leg of its season, but perhaps it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that "Night Drivers" fires everything back up by sticking to its guns, unraveling its narrative, more than less, as you'd expect. I don't intend to sling mud, and to Amphibia's credit, it's a show that's so tightly-written that it's hard for an episode to truly go wrong. That can also serve as a restraint, though, rolling out episodes that are certainly pleasant but, in the long run, unadventurous and indistinct. "Night Drivers" is one such case, an episode that's satisfying in a vacuum, but just another speck in the crowd.

Right away, it's nice to see Sprig and Polly teamed up after their delightful coupling in "Quarreler's Pass," but without as much of a caustic give-and-take defining their dynamic, there's not a ton by their interactions with one another. Sprig continues to be charmingly naive, and Polly continues to be a handful, but they don't do much to amplify one another's traits. The element of adventure, then, becomes "Night Drivers'" backbone, with Sprig and Polly deciding to secretly take control of the f'wagon and lug Anne and Hop Pop home in their sleep. It's a fine move, and the episode is at its most successful when it gets atmospheric and spooky, but the plot itself is a bit too by-the-numbers.

Things pick up a bit more with the introduction of the episode's main "antagonist," a mysterious hitchhiker who Sprig and Polly fruitlessly attempt to shake off their tails, but it's a bit of a double-edged sword indebted to how Amphibia plots itself. We know he's going to turn out to be a good guy through some basic subversion, and as he intercepts with Polly and Sprig's driving, it's rather easy to tell where things are going. The fact that the sequence deprives Polly and Sprig of their agency, too, ensures that we're just along for the ride without any engaging character work to get things over more.

I recognize a lot of my thoughts about "Night Drivers" are negative, but I want to make a point out of saying that it's not bad. The reveal that the hitchhiker was Old Zechariah Nettles—a legendary guide for travelers in the days of old—adds a nice layer of mythos, there's some nice comedic moments (Anne and Hop Pop's dream sequences are certainly tagged-on, but they're so enjoyable that I can't be too angry about them), and the episode has some of the most frenetic action that Amphibia's ever had. I just think it's an episode that struggles to surprise, and ultimately, to truly captivate.

"Return for Wartwood," then, marks Amphibia's big return to form for me, demonstrating some cool ingenuity in its adherence to the show's formula. Even if it's an episode that arguably traces along the structure of an episode of the show more than the last, taking the form of the Plantars learning a lesson the hard way but everything being okay in the end, I think that also means there's more room for reinvention, moving around variables here and there to great little subversions by playing off of our expectations.

This time, Hop Pop and Polly realize as soon as they return to Wartwood that they failed to fulfill the town's wish list of souvenirs and paraphernalia, and, too afraid of disappointing the townsfolk, stage a freak accident instead of fessing up to their carelessness. It risks being a bit predictable, but "Return to Wartwood" maintains a fun vibe while always able to stay a step ahead with how it progresses. Part of that is the goodwill intrinsic to seeing season one's supporting cast back in action, but it's hardly a crutch for the narrative.

Whereas "Night Watchers" cements itself by the time it reaches its climax, "Return to Wartwood" finds the perfect subversion: though the Plantars summon the mythically-sassy Chickalisk to destroy all of their decoy presents, the townsfolk take it as an opportunity to fight on behalf of the Plantar's honor and generosity. It's the most delightful, cruelly ironic twist this side of "The Ballad of Hopediah Plantar," but unlike that episode, it works in how it feels so earnest and heartful... and how much that foresight stings. But everything has intentionality to it and there's not a cynical slant to everything so much as an unfortunate one—the Plantars had good intentions with their ploy, if misguided ones, and the townsfolk are operating off of their goodwill. Amphibia smartly tucks the deception aside for the episode's killer fight sequence, though. It's a great scene that grants everyone involved a nice moment to shine, whether that's Maddie being expectedly macabre, Ivy being an endearing chirpy foil to Sprig, or Toadstool using a petrified Toadie as a fireproof shield. ("Wait, he's stone?")

For however much the episode risks ending on a cop-out, I actually really liked its concluding notes because, as with the rest of the episode, it feels like it rings true to everyone involved. There's something genuinely heartbreaking about the townsfolk feeling as if they didn't fight hard enough for the Plantars and that they've let them down, and however much that's salt for the open wound, you can feel the weight of it. And funnily enough, the reveal that the gifts were all fake and that Hop Pop and Polly had forgotten about their obligations ended up being a huge relief. Everyone groans, sure, but after their long journey away from town, everyone's just happy to have some of that trademark mischief back in their lives. 

We don't know much about the episodes up ahead, or if the show is gonna spend much more time in Wartwood, but going off of some of the titles, I'm really looking forward to how Amphibia plans to draw the Wartwood gang back into the show's narrative (upcoming episodes include "Ivy on the Run" and, rather curiously, "Maddie and Marcy"). As it stands, though, "Return to Wartwood" is a fantastic reintroduction to the cast of the characters that, for so long, made up the series' backbone, and I'm looking forward to seeing how much they add to this new chapter.

FINAL GRADES:

"Night Drivers": B.

"Return to Wartwood": A-.

For my review of the last episode, "The Shut-In!" CLICK HERE.

If you like my stuff, be sure to follow me on Twitter @matt_a_la_mode.

If you think my articles are good, that's probably because of my editor, Glass! Follow them on Twitter @Glass_Shardon.