The last episode of season 6 being a special was made to spite me specifically…especially considering that right now I’m entering finals season. But we persevere! You know, I actually remember "The Clash of Triton" premiering, at least I think. It’s a very hazy memory, so could be false theoretically. Honestly, this entire episode is a hazy memory, even after rewatching it.
And that’s a perfect segue into my main issue with this episode—it’s boring. Good god it’s boring. How can you make an episode with the return of a character we haven’t seen in literally 10 years (outside of one gag) boring? Oh I know, by not focusing on that character at all. Like Neptune is a perfectly fine and interesting character, why are we focusing on his son? The plot itself does not really interest me because I do not care for the drama of a character we already barely see. I just feel like this episode misses so many opportunities to do something legitimately interesting. Such as the first bit at the Krusty Krab when Mr. Krabs assumes he’s being pranked. It could’ve been funnier to hear Queen Amphitrite’s side of the conversation, or for things to be a lot more dramatic and expressive. What we got was just meh.
The fact that I’m halfway through the episode and have only written like 2 paragraphs, should tell you all you need to know about this episode. It’s quite unremarkable, and I feel like I’m just sitting here waiting for something to happen. When SpongeBob finds Triton, we’re forced to watch a very uncomfortable and unfunny scene. And it’s also during this scene that I realize that Triton literally does not have an interesting character whatsoever, which adds to the boring vibes. And then Patrick enters the episode, which both excites me and fills me with concern. I’m excited because yay something new to shake things up. But I’m concerned because this season has not had a good track record at making SpongeBob and Patrick work well together. It actually turns out fine, but again nothing much happens. They free Triton, go on a joyride, and then Triton turns out to be just as bad as his father when it comes to treating people like crap. So I guess that means the cage punishment actually worked? Unfortunately it also means that I really don’t care about Neptune or Triton, so…yeah.
And then the episode completely switches gears because it wants to flex that it is, in fact, a special. And see I wouldn’t even mind this conflict if I was actually interested in what was going on. But as I’ve been saying this whole time, I really don’t care LMAO. None of these guest characters are pleasant. I also just think the pacing of this episode is kinda really bad lol. I mean Triton only gets freed like…15 minutes in, and he only starts destroying stuff like 17 minutes in or so. So, not that great for an episode called “The Clash of Triton”.
Now, the episode isn’t a complete failure at any and all things, not even close. For as much as I say it isn’t funny, it does have its moments. I liked that gag with Patrick at the beginning when SpongeBob’s being all dramatic with the spatula (which I’m choosing to see as a reference to “Neptune’s Spatula” because if this episode really went for its entire runtime without a reference to that…idk what I’ll do), or Mr. Krabs’ quip about paying SpongeBob and Squidward. I also liked the way the episode parodied people obsessed with a certain royal family. SpongeBob’s complete obliviousness to the problem of mentioning Triton ended up being more amusing than I expected too. The secret entrance bit was nice too. I also liked the reference to the movie with the Triple Gooberberry Sunrise part, so at least we got one much-needed reference. And then the ending of the episode was great too, so that helps to not end things on a sour note.
I guess another “problem” with this episode is that it uses the exact opposite arc as the one we saw in the first movie between King Neptune and Mindy. I know this show doesn’t care about consistency, which is why I don’t regard this as a real problem, but it does feel a little weird for this episode to be borrowing from the movie in such an important way, but then switching it up. In that movie, Mindy taught Neptune how to care for the people he rules over. In this episode, Neptune is teaching Triton not to care. It’s weird. And again, this episode makes both of those characters incredible jerkwads, so it’s not like I care about what happens to them at all.
Boring, boring, and a little more boring. That’s what “The Clash of Triton” was to me. There was soooooo much missed potential here to do anything even remotely interesting, because what we got truly was not it. And there was at least an attempt here to make the boring entertaining, but it wasn’t enough. I won’t say it’s “Mediocre”-tier just because the episode, believe it or not, does not actually irritate me, but it is so very dull, so a low “Okay” is exactly where it needs to go. For as much as this show usually has good endings within episodes, it rarely seems to stick the landing when it comes to seasons.
Episode Tier: Okay
Episode Score: 6.3/10
And that’s a wrap on season 6! Can’t believe it’s already about that time, feels like just yesterday I was reviewing “Krabby Road”. Ah well, we all know the drill by now. Season overview will be out tomorrow, and then we’ll begin with season 7!
