This episode introduces fan favorite, Lance, into the foray. In truth it’s actually his strongest episode in the whole series, but we still got some flaws to cover.
Summary: An old childhood friend and partner-in-crime of Eugene's, Lance Strongbow, comes to Corona to ask him for help. Cassandra, naturally, does not trust Strongbow. Eugene reluctantly decides to aid his childhood accomplice, but learns that they have broken into the basement of "the Baron", an old enemy of theirs.
The Writers Didn’t Really Plan Out the Timeline
We open up to a flashback to 8 years ago, back to Eugene’s thieving days, and the characters also verbally confirm that it was 8 years ago twice more, but events here are then contradicted by two different episodes in season 3.
We’ll go into greater detail on those particular contradictions once we get to those episodes, but suffice to say, the writers constantly use the passage of time as plot points but then fail to be consistent with it.
Speaking of not planning things out...
The Writers Didn’t Think Though Rapunzel's Actions Here
On the surface this looks like a nice thing to do, running a charity drive for the orphanage. Until you remember that Rapunzel is rich. Not just rich, she is the richest person in the whole land. She literally owns everything in the entire kingdom. There’s absolutely no reason why she couldn’t just buy everything the orphanage needs and then some, but we don’t see her donate squat.
This is basically the cartoon fantasy equivalent of those cringey charity drives where celebrates and billionaires ask for poor people’s money instead of just doing it themselves or lobbing for better laws to fix the problem.
This scene would have gone over so much better had it been an adoption drive to raise awareness for actual adoption, since that’s not something you can just fix with money. Don’t matter how rich you are, you can’t just be expected to raise children if your not ready to do so.
The end result of all of this is that Rapunzel comes across as looking hypocritical while Lance, the conman, winds up being more generous because, in the end, he gives away everything he had just gained.
Funny Joke, but...
I don’t mind innuendo in cartoons, but it is a little hypocritical that Disney will allow a threesome joke but not a conically gay character in their show. Just saying.
The Baron Has a Home in Corona
The Baron is an old enemy of Lance’s and Eugene’s who happens to run a crime syndicate. Even in Corona, where Frederic has had a harsh crack down on crime for the past 18 years. So either the Baron left Corona and his goons just hide out there, or Frederic only targeted poor people and left the rich guy running things to go about his business. Given Frederic’s incompetence, I’m inclined to believe the latter. Which is yet another thing he is never called out for.
Speaking of Frederic being awful...
Even Frederic’s Own Family is Afraid of Him
So we get three instances of Frederic's family being so worried of how he’ll react to things that they are willing to lie to him. First Eugene, then Rapunzel, and finally Arianna who goes through with the deception.Now pair this with his other past actions, and this show is not painting a picture of a good and kind man.
Conclusion
Like many season one episodes, this is a pretty strong stand alone story. It’s the devil in the details that lets it down. But I’ll point out one positive that really ups my esteem for the episode and the show as a whole.
This homage to Lotte Reiniger is fucking awesome.
In fact the art direction on the show is some of the best on television right now.
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