Original Air Date: October 3, 2015
The episode opens up with the Milano, their ship, being chased by what I believed to be Fing Fang Foom, which later it’s confirmed. The team is freaking out and Star-Lord is confused since the map lead him there. He shows the map off and Groot is the one that tells him it’s upside down. Oops. Then the focus shifts to Rocket as everyone is asking him to fix everything. Gamora points out that they wouldn’t if he stopped building things like Star-Lord’s neck massager. Rocket takes the helm and flies the ship straight toward Fing Fang Foom and bomb him and in the process launch them into space.
Groot helps Star-Lord understand the map.
Rocket is once again fixing the ship with the help of Groot. I’m going to take a moment and mention that Groot doesn’t require a space helmet and he has the tools attached to his arm. How Cool!! Drax makes a remark that sets Rocket off and he starts punching Drax, his effort was wasted since Drax just sort of rolls his eyes. Meanwhile Groot is about to flip a switch,but before Rocket could say anything the switch is flipped causing the ship to power down and open the air lock throwing Star-Lord and Gamora into space.
Groot has no clue about tools. But is always willing to help.
The Collector (voiced by Tom Kenny) shows up to “save” the team but instead his robots begin salvaging the Milano. Not cool. So the Guardians fight back and here we get to actually see The Collector for the first time in the series. He does look very close to his movie counterpart, a thing which this show does well actually. Rocket piques The Collector’s interest as Rocket is tinkering with stuff so The Collector proposes a deal. He tells Star-Lord that the Spartax box he has requires something else, a Pandorian Crystal. The trade is Rocket for the location of the crystal. And no one wants that. But before they leave Groot gives Rocket a flower, which is more of a tracking device/spy device that let’s Groot know how his best friend is doing.
Groot doesn’t do friendship bracelets, instead he goes with tracing flowers.
After the rest of them leave The Collector places something on Rocket, it sorta looks like the triangle on the Iron Man suits, before taking him to the lab and where his plasma cannon collection was. The team lands on the planet where the crystal is but in an Indiana Jones style like Star Wars reference the cave reacts to the crystal being removed and starts closing its mouth.
Haven’t we seen this before?
Once the planet starts digesting them they try to find a way out, and call Rocket as well. He ignores them which causes the team to have to think like he does, AKA #WWRD or #WhatWouldRocketDo. They end up finding a way out, through the butt. Seriously more butt jokes? The crystal is then added to the box and the drone that The Collector lent them streams the map to him. It focuses back on Rocket as he finishes building a giant destructive robot that goes on a rampage destroying parts of The Collection. It’s then when we find out for sure that Rocket is now part of The Collection.
He’s a bit too excited about this.
Back to the rest of the Guardians, Groot feels that something is wrong and tries to tell the team, they don’t fully understand him so he does the next best thing. He generates leaves in such a way to give him a tail and a raccoon head to tell the team what’s up. So off they go back to The Collector. The Milano comes in and wreaks havoc before everyone jumps out. Using the flower Groot begins to trace where Rocket is supposed to be, except since it is Rocket he already found a way out. Which he then frees everyone else, including Fing Fang Foom, did I mention he was collected or that he was the last of his kind?
Groot alerts the team in the only way he could.
The fight continues, but not until Rocket grabs a snack. Rocket is on lead this time around which is really cool because Star-Lord initially tries but Rocket says no it’s my lead. Fing Fang Foom destroys more of The Collection causing The Collector to lose his mind. Rocket has a genius idea and has Groot throw him onto Fing Fang Foom with the controller that Rocket had earlier. He takes control and now The Collector begs for mercy and a compromise is struck. The Guardians take the prisoners to their home worlds while The Collector still plans to use them to get the Cosmic Seed. Rocket is officially back on the team and pulls out a device that he stole from The Collector that releases a bunch of food for Rocket in the Milano.
Rocket’s in Paradise
Final Thoughts:
Another fun episode, especially after all the weird jokes this episode. The series is actually looking quite well even after 3 episodes and that is a good sign. Problem is that it hasn’t received the attention it deserves. The number of viewers are growing but episode 2 broke half a million. Hopefully the show sticks around so it can grow its legs even more. I do look forward to more fun and silly adventures in the future.
Guardians of the Galaxy airs Saturdays only on Disney XD