Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 5 Premiere Plot Summary:
Lotor (A.J. Locascio) continues to aid the Paladins with valuable intel, but the team questions whether the prince can be trusted. When Lotor provides information about the possible whereabouts of Pidge’s (Bex Taylor-Klaus) father, however, she and her brother mount a desperate rescue attempt.
Stories of evil empires and just rebellions are ubiquitous in our pop culture landscape; you can likely blame/thank Star Wars for their popularity. Given the abundance of such stories, though, one important rule is clear: shows and movies need to find new angles and elements to keep these narratives fresh and interesting. Much to my continuing pleasure, Voltron: Legendary Defender accomplished this task by introducing the Blades of Marmora and Prince Lotor. Yes, adding Lotor may have solved one trope by bringing in another trope, but I am a sucker for anti-heroes and allies with questionable reliability. The show’s fifth season begins by following the arc of this incredibly charismatic and enigmatic character and answering one of the longest running mysteries in the series.
While I was somewhat surprised and disappointed that we didn’t get to see Lotor and the Paladins meet face-to-face for the first time and process the prince’s sudden decision to assist the team, I believe the miniature time jump makes sense from a narrative standpoint and still provides the episode with plenty of dramatic opportunities. The icy conversation between Lotor, Allura (Kimberly Brooks), and Shiro (Josh Keaton) is full of wonderful tension and leaves viewers asking many of the same questions as the Paladins: can Lotor truly be trusted? Doesn’t his reasoning make sense? What does this development mean for the war overall? Voltron may be a show built on action and explosions, but this discussion proves just as exhilarating as many of the battles the series has produced.
Likewise, the promise of an end to Pidge’s series-long quest to reunite her family is thrilling (though perhaps a tad late). Pidge has long been one of the show’s more compelling characters because of her family drama and determination in the face of seemingly hopeless odds, but her search for his brother and now her father have consistently been on the periphery of the main conflict. If this episode truly represents the show’s intentions to move this storyline to center stage, we could be looking at an incredibly dramatic ending to one of Voltron’s most emotional but oft overlooked plot threads. While I would not consider Voltron to be a particularly emotional show, seeing Matt (Blake Anderson) search in vain for his father and watching Pidge break down hit a powerful cord rarely featured in the series.
Five seasons in, Voltron: Legendary Defender is both finding new ways to explore its characters and promising to solve mysteries that have teased fans from the very beginning. “The Prisoner,” despite some missed opportunities, is a testament to how far the show has come after two years and how the series continues to set itself apart from similar stories.
