Dragons Defenders Of Berk Reviews: Episode 16 - The Eel Effect

In the Great Hall, it appears that everyone has a bad case of the flu. Everyone's coughing, just all around look like shit and appear to be hanging on by a thread. They're feeble attempts to fight it with 'anecdotes' are fruitless. Hiccup, who's perfectly healthy, looks upon this pitiful display and thinks to himself,  "Better them than me." Fishlegs qppears behind him and informs him that Astrid has brought Gothi, the village shaman in case ya forgot, is at the Academy.

When Hiccup arrives he asks Snotlout and the Twins if they're ready to leave. Snotlout thinks that question is incredibly stupid, since it's either that or stay in Berk during an Eel Pox outbreak. If it were up to karma alone, Snotlout would be staying in Berk whether he wanted to or not. The Twins are eager to leave as well since they don't want to get sick. Ruffnut says when Tuff gets sick, she gets sick. She manages to trick Tuff into beating the shit out of himself based on the logic that since they're Twins, they can feel each other's pain. Kinda like in that movie I Know Who Killed Me. 

Only in this movie, it's not
supposed to be a joke.

What a stupid fucking movie that was. 

Anyway, Stoick decides to send Hiccup and the others off before they leave. Hiccup tell him he needs to stay in the Great Hall and rest up. Stoick thinks that's a crock of shit, he's no dog to get cuckold in a damn kennel! Though his sneezing all over Snotlout (though that just might be Karma working it's charms after all) and Hiccup does kinda prove Hiccup's point. 

Astrid comes with Gothi and a list of shit that can be used to cook up an antidote. The downside is, it's a big-ass list. With no time to waste, Hiccup tells the others they're going to find those ingredients cause that medicine ain't gonna make itself. Stoick insists on going with them, but Hiccup tells him that Berk needs a healthy chief not a sick dragon rider. And besides, he'll bring the infection to them as well. So Stoick has to hang back and stay with the rest of the helpless dogs in the kennel. 

Hiccup and the gang leave to find those quality ingredients! The Buckthorn root, which has to be slightly roasted.

A dozen Rock Blossoms, one handful of Goat Weed, and One Wild Daga Plant.

There's gotta be an easier way to do this?!

Of course there isn't! Keep climbing!

After getting all those ingredients, Hiccup is in a flush of confidence and he boldly asks Gothi if they've got everything they need. But it's only 3 minutes into the episode you don't need Gothi to tell you that they don't got everything they need. The last ingredient, dramatically inconveniently, is not on Healer's island. What they need is a Bloodbane Eel, and when asked where to find it, she points to the most blatantly obvious place. The Ocean. As of to say, there's where you'll find them, good luck to ya'll. You'll need it. 

Tuffnut thinks they'll have to take the whole weekend off for that shit, then Gothi beats his ass for opening his whore mouth while she draws lines in the sand. Fishlegs backs Gothi up, telling Tuffnut to shut the fuck up! He interprets the drawings, they have to go North to . . . 

 . . .

 . . . 

. . . 

. . .

Eel Island!!

Wow, Eel Island? Why didn't they think of that before? And the names for these Islands are starting to get really unimaginative. But they're no there to discuss whether or not they're name are unimaginative, they're there to find a cure for their people. And the only ingredient left is an eel on an Island full of eels, and none of the dragons will touch that shit. Hiccup decides that he and Toothless have got to go it alone. 

Toothless ain't to thrilled about that, but Hiccup tells him that he's the fastest dragon, so they can just grab an eel and split in no time. He bids farewell to the others and takes to the air. Astrid tries to stop him however, turns out he has the other ingredients. But Hiccup can't hear her and is already gone before he can. Fishlegs is sure that Hiccup will be back soon. 

As Toothless and Hiccup get closer to the Island, Toothless gets more agitated. Hiccup looks at his map and finds the Island dead ahead. Toothless is all like 'Man, do we have to do this?'. Unfortunately for Toothless, they most certainly have to. It doesn't take too long to find a whole river of them, and Toothless is already done with that shit. Hiccup manges to hook one with his shield, but it turns out to be one strong motherfucker and nearly manages to pull Hiccup off Toothless! When Toothless pulls away, the eel flies right into Toothless' face. This leads to a clusterfuck that sends Hiccup into the water where one of the eels tries to choke him. 

I'm gonna make you my bitch, boy!

Toothless manges to dive into the river and bite the eels head off before it can drown Hiccup. Toothless also gets Hiccup out of the water, but he suddenly starts panicking. Hiccup tries to take a look at him, but Toothless refuses to let Hiccup even look at him. That eel is fucking with him a many nasty ways, it's like he's on LSD or something. Toothless is wierded out by a monstrous looking Hiccup and runs off. 

Back at Berk, Fishlegs and Astrid return to the Great Hall with Gothi. Stoick asks them if they've got the shit they need. They tell him that Hiccup's got the ingredients, prompting Stoick to ask them where Hiccup is. They thought Hiccup would have been back by then. Stoick decides they should go look for him, since they can't withstand this Eel pox any longer, it's getting hard to think straight. The Gobber . . . 

 WHAT THE FUCK AM I LOOKING AT???!!!!!!!!!

Gobbber . . . uh . . . walks out of the Great Hall wearing flowers and acting like a woman, which is something I hope never to see or hear again. Stoick uses this as a point for urgency. The other wholeheartedly agree, they think this is creepy and unnatural. So they scurry off as quickly as they can and leave Stoick to deal with a Gobber who thinks he's a woman. That's a sentence I never thought I'd write for this show. 

Back at Eel Island, Toothless is all drugged out. He's running for dear life from anything and everything. He's also literally running into anything and everything. After the 20th crash, he puts up his ears, makes a scared face and listens to the sounds of the forest. He ears everything from bird's chirping, to Flies buzzing. He starts to get freaked out by all these heinous noises and lets out a fire bolt to shut them all up, a red coloured fire bolt that is. 

Hiccup manages to catch up to Toothless and tries to clam Toothless down, but with Toothless in his drugged out state, luck ain't exactly on Hiccup's side here. 

STAY AWAY FROM ME YOU HIDEOUS CREATURE!!!!

Toothless ain't having none of Hiccup's hand crap, as far as he can see Hiccup is an abomination straight from the puckering asshole of Satan himself! He fires a warning shot at Hiccup and . . .  JEEBUS!!!!!

STAY BACK YOU SAVAGE!!

OH GOD!!!

Holy FUCK!! That new fire bolt of Toothless' is awesome!! Is there some way Toothless can be cured of the more LSD aspects and keep the red nuke bolts? Hiccup has no time to ponder this question however, as he needs to wait for Toothless to exhaust his six-shot limit (wait a minute? Toothless has a shot limit?). When Toothless expends his last shot, Hiccup gives a sigh of relief that he wasn't nuked and tries to calm Toothless down. Jokes on him though, Toothless has plenty more in him. 

Back on Berk, Fishlegs and Astrid check in with Snotlout and The Twins who appear to have caught the Eel Pox. They notice the rather conspicuous absence of Hiccup. They ask the Three Goofs if Hiccup got back yet. The Three Goof's ask them if they're sure he's not back, cause they could use a fix of that medicine. Astrid decides to take Gothi and prepare everything for when Fishlegs gets back. Fishleg's is confused by the mention of his name in that manner. Astrid tells him he's going to Eel Island to find Hiccup, Fishleg's doesn't take that too well. He takes off for Eel Island. 

Guys, that fever must be kicking in, because I swear I just
seen some dude on a dragon! A Dragon! Can you believe that?!

Things are not going too well for Hiccup either, except he's not going through the equivalent of being on drugs. Toothless is going nuts with his nuclear bolts. He actually manages to hit Hiccup with one of his bolts and knock his ass out. Toothless snaps out of his rampage to check on Hiccup. Hiccup is slipping out of conciousness, and in a scene that pulls on the heartstrings, Toothless can't believe what he's done and runs off. 

Hiccup wakes up hours later and calls out for Toothless. He hears a noise in a bush nearby and ready's his shield for another nuclear bolt. But it turns out to be Fishlegs, the first bit of good luck Hiccup's had all day. Fishlegs asks where Toothless is and why the the forest around Hiccup looks like Vietnam? Hiccup explains everything, the Eel, the Nuclear bolts, the whole Shibamb. Hiccup decides to set up a netter trap for Toothless, but Fishlegs seriously questions whether the trap can hold Toothless. Hiccup says that Meatlug could always sit on him if push comes to shove. Fishlegs tells Hiccup that Meatlug can hear him and she doesn't appreciate that. 

zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hiccup has had quite a rough day and he doesn't know how it could get any worse. Fishlegs lists a couple ways it could; For one, Toothless has the satchel with all the ingredients and he doesn't even want to tell him what's going on back in the village. He has a point, because Snotlout has turned Socialist! Calling for a dragon worker revolution against the Viking One Percenters! The situation has truly gotten dire! Though in Snotlout's case, it's kind of an improvement. 

After Hiccup sets up the trap, he and Fishlegs head off to track Toothless. On the way they see a rather familiar looking burn mark in a clearing. Fishlegs gets excited at the prospect that Eel Island would be a perfect habitat for Typhoomerangs since they eat eels. Hiccup gives him an unimpressed look, Fishlegs gets the message and realises that's not a good thing. 

Fishlegs asks Hiccup what the symptoms of Toothless' LSD trip are. Hiccup tells him that his skin was warm and he had a super cool nuclear cough. Fishlegs thinks it has to be the Eel pox. Hiccup thinks that if they give the medicine to Toothless, then maybe it'll cure him. Fishlegs thinks that's stretching it, but since he's got no better ideas he goes along with it. 

It doesn't take too long before they find one of Toothless' nuclear explosions. They set down on a cliff while Toothless blows shit up indiscriminately. Hicup tells Fishlegs to bring him in close. Fishlegs then asks Hiccup if he's got a minute, Hiccup asks him if it can wait. Fishlegs says it could, but he doesn't think it will. 

Surprise Motherfuckers!

A big ass Tyhpoomerang comes in to further complicate an already very complicated situation. Toothless' inaccurate nuclear blasts don't do much to help him, as he can't fly and he's trapped in a gorge. Hiccup orders Fishlegs to bring him in and to distract the Typhoomerang. Fishlegs doesn't think him and Meatlug against a Typhoomerang is very fair.  Hiccup agrees, 'the Typhoomerang doesn't stand a chance!' he yells as he jumps onto Toothless. 

He manages to land right into Toothless' saddle, but Toothless resists violently. Hiccup ain't letting go for shit! The Typhoomerang sees an opportunity and tries to have a Night Fury BBQ. Fishlegs shoots it in the face and draws away its attention. Hiccup is still struggling with Toothless, to make matters worse Toothless tries to run off the cliff into the ocean. Hiccup finally gets his metal leg into the thingy and can fly now.  But Toothless still an't having none of that. 

Fishlegs has his hands full with the Tyohoomerang. he prays to Thor to send Astrid to help him. He says he'll even take Snotlout, he'll even take the fucking Twins!

You see, the rock drops faster than the feather!
Your Hypothesis was correct! Science!!

As if this episode couldn't get any weirder. 

Hiccup and Fishlegs have got their hands full. Toothless is trying desperately to shake Hiccup off, and Fishlegs is close to getting eaten by the Typhoomerang. Just when Fishlegs think he's had a bit of luck when the Typhoomerang runs out of fire, it eats a bunch of eels and does it's fiery spin of death. Fishlegs decides he's had enough of this shit and that it's time to bring out the big guns. Meatlug does a litte trick where she spinds around fast and smacks the shit out of the Typhoomerang. The Typhoomerang has had enough and Fishlegs is ready to spill his insides out through his mouth. 

Meanwhile, Hiccup is still struggling with Toothless. He recalls when this shit was easy. he sees the clearing with the Netter Trap. He steers Toothless into the clearing and manages to trick him into the trap. Hiccup apologises for the trap, but Toothless wasn't made for constraint. He burns a whole in the trap and . . . 

Wow, that actually worked?

With Toothless restrained, Hiccup and Fishlegs quickly cook up a bit of medicine for Toothless. Toothless smells it, then is about to shoot his nuclear blast! Hiccup chucks the medicine in there he can. Toothless throws Meatlug's fat ass off himself then stares down Hiccup. He's still drugged up, but then he pukes up the eel he ate earlier. Toothless is back to his old, puppy-dog eyed, lovable self. Fishlegs suggest they hold off on the reunion since there's Typhoomerang's roaring in the distance. 

Hiccup and Fishlegs make it back to Berk, and the first person they meet is Astrid. She's relieved that they're okay, Hiccup assures her that both him and Toothless are okay. They bring the cure to the Great Hall and Stoick and Gobber distribute it the village. 

Snotlout is talking to his Terrible Terror that they could have been kings among men and dragons, but they lost it all! Gobber suggests a double dose for him. The Twins come in and announce their discovery that you can freeze milk on a stick and dip it in an assortment of flavours. They then argue whether to call it Ruffcream or Tuffcream. Gobber thinks a triple dose for them would do. Who would freeze milk?! Gobber's never heard something so barbaric in his life!

Hiccup and Fishlegs are writing the new information they gained into the Book Of Dragons. The symptoms of eel eating and why dragons, except the Typhoomerang, don't eat eels. Hiccup thanks Fishlegs and Meatlug for their help, Fishlegs is very grateful for the compliment. 

Group Hug!!!

Summary

This one's a 10'er for sure, probably even one of the best episodes. This was just another perfectly executed and paced episode with great writing. I swear, the writer and/or directors must have just decided to go all out insane with this one. Well, for a lot of the comic bits at Berk anyway. I feel like I should hate those segments, but they're just so ridiculously out there that they somehow work. Snotlout as a socialist was incredibly funny. 

But the best part of the episode was Hiccup and Toothless. There really aren't enough episodes focused on Hiccup and Toothless, but this is one of the best that does. If not, the best. Toothless showed a lot of personality and there was quite a few heartfelt moments. Hiccup of course does whatever he can to help out his best friend. 

The action with the Typhoomerang was a blast and Toothless' Red Fire Bolt was so fucking cool that I honestly wish it was Toothless' actual main attack. Oh well, it was cool while it lasted. 

10/10