“Undercover”

Thunderbirds Are Go builds up to the season finale with a covert operation involving Lady Penelope, Parker and Kayo.

Last week was a really strong outing that built up some ideological differences between Kayo and the Tracy Brothers. This episode continues this theme as Kayo spies on an operation that Lady Penelope and Parker are involved in. It is mentioned that Scott allowed it to happen because of Lady Penelope and Parker’s involvement. This sort of mission makes him nervous as it takes him out of his comfort zone of performing rescues and saving lives. Sitting on the sidelines waiting for things to happen is something he really doesn’t like as well.

Based on how the characters have been developed over the season I think this story would have been better suited with Virgil in Scott’s place. Scott has been established as being the more reckless one where Virgil is the more cautious brother. Based on that I would think that Scott might be more willing to try a riskier plan where Virgil would have objections.

Naturally the job doesn’t go as planned and Parker finds himself captured so Kayo immediately springs into action to save him. She thinks quickly and manages to use some really cool aerial maneuvers to avoid some weapons fired at her. Kayo is never portrayed as anything less than competent though she is definitely impulsive and overconfident which definitely counts as a character flaw on her part. I like that character flaws are built into her as it makes her more interesting.

It helps that the villain isn’t a bumbling idiot as well. He is always in control of the situation and reacts calmly to Kayo’s pursuit. Always having a plan up his sleeve to deal with situations is good to see as it gives Kayo a very real challenge to deal with. Having evidence of Kayo’s familial connection with the Hood is brilliant proof of this and it forces her to finally be honest with the Tracy brothers about this.

She is also shown to having learned from the conflict last week when she reminds Scott that she has to go after the escaping criminal rather than deal with the fallout of what he does next. Scott accepts this but they have the luxury of Thunderbird 1 being close by to deal with the other problem so it doesn’t feel quite as urgent a choice. It still shows growth that Kayo would run it by him rather than simply acting without telling him.

The episode was pretty much one big set piece and the variety was excellent. There was peril, espionage, jeapordy and essentially a ticking clock so it managed to combine the rescue and spy aspects really nicely in a way that felt organic. Due to the competence of the villain his escape felt like a real possibility and bonus points for not dumbing down the main characters to accommodate this.

I had my issues with the humour from Parker and Lady Penelope but kids might have liked it. The fact that Parker forgot his own code name at one point is just ridiculous considering how good he is supposed to be at this sort of thing. It was good to see Lady Penelope doing something different by driving her own car and being more involved in the rescue but I could have done without her constant complaining.