Episode Synopsis
(This Episode was originally aired as “Episode 10″, even though it’s actually “Episode 8″ in continuity)
As we join our heroes, we see them huddling over a broken down Coyote, trying to fix a proprietary power cable. They call a tow truck, which proves to be of no assistance, but he apparently “knows a guy”. Soon, the Joe Renegade soldiers end up in a chop shop buying underground equipment. But before they know it, the shop is surrounding by police.
A scuffle ensues, and while Snake Eyes uses smoke cover to assist most of the team, Duke finds himself tossed into the paddy wagon and driven off to jail. Still unable to fix the Coyote in time, the Joes can do nothing but let him get driven away.
While Scarlett tries to work around the local law, she runs into several dead ends…all while the Joes experiment with fixing the Coyote and discover a “holographic mode”. When Scarlett returns from her failed missions, the Joes all put their heads together to come up with a plan.
Inside the prison walls, Duke quickly learns that there is more to this jail than meets the eye…and the warden is behind it all. We find out that the Warden is running an underground “fight club” and uses the prisoners as his own personal entertainment. We also get a glimpse of “Levigne”, a policeman who doesn’t seem to be quite on the same page as the others. As Duke gets a first hand look at the “Arena of Sport” as he gets on the wrong end of some of Sully’s fisticuffs. Duke stands firm and doesn’t fight back, which accomplishes nothing except making the Warden mad.
Back where the Joes are gathered, Scarlett sets up Roadblock to be captured alongside Duke in order to provide reconnaissance. Now, Duke got arrested and managed to stay under the radar…but once Roadblock gets nabbed, it shows up on Flint’s register. He and Lady Jaye look into it, and discover that the Warden is covering something up.
Roadblock ends up inside the prison walls and quickly gets put up against Duke, and Duke breaks the news that he wants to take down the fighting ring, and doesn’t plan on leaving the prison until that happens. Scarlett is annoyed, but decides to go along with it. In one of the greatest performances in the episode, Scarlett goes right in the front door of the prison disguised as a pregnant girlfriend. Buried down in the jail cells, Duke and Roadblock are being forced to turn up the heat, or never leave the cage again.
Flint is hot on the heels of the Warden, so he decides to cut his losses and bury the fight club. But Snake Eyes strikes first making short work of the guards and cutting Duke and Roadblock free. Up in the prison yard, Tunnel Rat blows an escape route as fire erupts between the prison guards, the prisoners, and Flint’s military team.
When the chaos fades, with some help from Levigne, Duke and his team are disguised as MP’s escorting Scarlett out and back to the Coyote in disguise. They lay down some rubber and take off into the night, leaving Flint and Lady Jaye in their dust.
Episode Review
Well, I wasn’t a huge fan of the overall theme of this episode. As someone at HissTank pointed out, this episode was literally pulled from an episode of the A-Team, and I think the comparisons are blatant enough anyway without actually lifting stories.
That being said…I thought the music and the dialogue in this episode were exceptional. Even as the actual plot didn’t really rock my world, there was plenty of humor scattered throughout that was actually hilarious. The repeated barbs involving Scarlett’s pregnant disguise were awesome, and the pace of the action alongside the terrific soundtrack made a huge difference.
There were small bouts of action scattered throughout, and each one was pretty cool. Flint’s vicious clothesline of one of the prisoners was excellent, and Snake Eyes did a great job dispatching a pair of convicts himself. The inclusion of Law and Order was totally expected, given the shots we saw of the German Shepard in promo videos, but the way he was handled was damn near perfect. As one of the only noble guards amongst a crew of corrupt cops, he helps the Joes, and even throws out the term “Law & Order” while he’s doing it. Quality.
I will be honest. I’m getting a little tired of the side stories with no mention or sign of Cobra anywhere…but I can appreciate that there are other threats in the world besides them. I only hope we kind of get back on the Cobra trail soon (and judging by the promos for next week’s episode, it surely looks like we will) and stay on the trail. The best episodes by far have been the ones with Cobra, and I want to see that continue.
Still, even as much as I wasn’t wild about the episode plot and content itself, the music soundtrack, the dialogue, and the action all made up for it, and gave “Busted” a little bump in quality. Far from perfect…far from the best we’ve seen from Renegades, but not bad overall.
Screenshot Gallery (Courtesy of HissTank.com)
Episode Details
Original Airdate: January 28, 2011
Writer: Andrew R. Robinson
Director: Scooter Tidwell
Easter Eggs
- The Warden calls his fighting ring “The Arena of Sport” a term which was made famous by a similar concept in the original G.I. Joe miniseries from Sunbow
- One of the guards goes by the name Levigne and has a German Shepard partner. Both of these qualities match up with G.I. Joe Military Policeman Law & Order
I’m not too surprised about it being another filler-esque episode with no direct ties to Cobra. Assuming the episodes and pacing had been written with the original 10/10/10 schedule, Busted would have been saddled between the Arashikage two-parter and the Christmas two-parter, or just after the latter and not immediately the Dreadnoks one. Both, the Arashikage and Christmas episodes were pretty intense story-wise and so having a few breather episodes around them is unsurprising.
As for the lack of Cobra involvement, only 2/10 episodes are pure filler and without Cobra’s involvement. If you ask me, an 80% plot-relevant rate is pretty good given the cartoon’s setting.
As cliched as it was, I really enjoyed this episode. I think the whole thing though came together when Scarlett comes in as the “Jerry Springer” reject looking for her Baby-Daddy. Hilarious! Good character interaction all around, and Flint grudgingly deciding to help out during the riot played well for me too. Glad to see Cobra is back next episode, but this was much better than ‘Dreadnoks Rising.’
While this episode and the last do seem to have the old school “A-Team” vibe, G.I.JOE:Renegades ,at it heart, is basically the A-Team. “Framed for a crime they didn’t commit.”, kind of says it all. A good episode, especially Scarlett’s white trash performance, and her even being hamstrung in her efforts to get Duke out of the slammer thinking the local law enforcement would be ignorant of proper police procedure. Shooting that old show-biz stereotype down to bits. Both episodes a nice vacation from the mythology eps, and no complaints seeing that we’ll getting back to Cobra this week.
Yeah, as one of the few who has never even seen an episode of The A-Team, I liked this episode. Not amazing, but it was fun and the dialog picks it up out of the standard pile. I know running gags aren’t the popular thing, but I’d love to see Scarlett’s disguse come back for ridiculous reasons. But hey, I’m used to being the outsider on things!
Think this was a private (Cobra) prison/ jail?
Even though everyone got busted at the chop shop, and there’s only so much that can fit into a cartoon. But still, it still seemed like a fairly rough Jail. I say Jail, but it even looks like a full security prison, and I won’t say “judicial process” at all since it is a cartoon. The first chop shop “con” that went in the cage with Duke seemed to be familiar with the wardens routine. (viper training candidates?)
With Cobra into many other aspects of daily living in the Renegades universe, I’m thinking this was maybe connected to Cobra. Will the warden end up being a Cobra character we know?