So much going on...
Where to start? Of course everyone knew Raj and Divya were not going through with their wedding plans. I felt like it was kind of a copout for her to use the fates and the plague as the reason for her decision but it was there all along. Their nitpicky fighting while learning the tango would have been how their marriage was.
Jill leaving for six months just when she and Hank seemed like they were rekindling their relationship was fairly unexpected. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I like Jill very much but not necessarily with Hank. This tied to the medical part of the show with Hank catching a misdiagnosis of Ben with Lyme disease which had been confused with MS. That guy did not seem very appreciative almost like he was reluctant to give up the MS and his slogan, "I am not my disease".
What about Eddy? His difficult decision to do the time or accept Boris' offer of a life of freedom without his family. We'll have to wait and see... This show has become one of the best on TV. Too bad it is buried in the summer slump.
Far from the worst...
This installment had a lot of firsts for the series but the monster / storyline seemed pretty formulaic. We have now learned the female agent's name is Mitsuko. Someone must have told the writers to get her more involved because for three episodes, she barely existed and now we have a story that revolves around her since it is her brother who is in peril in Arabia that they must save. We also learn the secret Unicorn ID process and that all Gargoyle agents have a bomb in their chests that explodes when they begin to give information. Giant robot uses the radion eye ray attack for the first time. It was strange how he struggled with the neck chain from Ligon-Tyrox and then had no effects from the forehead drill penetrating his outer shell. The plot to destroy the oil fields seems very prophetic in retrospect as the world has been held hostage by oil since the early 1970's. Where did Johnny get the genie clothes and bomb from? Same level of cheese as usual from the squad but with the change in venue to the Middle East and a somewhat tight plot line this episode isn't too bad.
Gone campy
If I didn't have such fond memories of this show from my childhood, I probably would have jumped off here. This episode was way too campy. The show looked like it started taking some cues from the American Batman TV series that would have been on at the same time. There were screen pop-ups and even Spider had a lame scene where he coughed smoke after the briefcase had exploded.
The Gigantic Claw...hmmm...well it wasn't the worst we've seen until this point. It did have a few special attacks when it shot missiles and also launched some kind of rope that ensnared giant robot. Started to get a bit confused about giant robot's link to Johnny Sokko. Sometimes giant robot fights perfectly normally without Johnny there. At others, he can only perform basic moves. In another case, he went to a complete standstill. Just saying.
The special effects here were terrible. Pay attention to the spinout of the Gargoyle car. The claw was not as bad as the normal miniaturization effects. Finally they seem to be getting the monster right. It was really good to see U5 have a part in the story and get some decent screen time.
