On Big Hero 6 season 2, episode 10, Hiro discovered Baymax could function as a lie detector, and resolved to expose Liv Amara with his help – what could possibly go wrong?
1. Non-Stop
The cold open has Big Hero 6 pursuing a monster running through the streets of San Fransokyo: oddly, it looks a lot like Kentucky Kaiju – could Liv Amara be that precise with her genetic engineering? Turns out, it’s Fred in a costume – he would want to dress up his favorite movie monster for once – and that it was a training exercise. I feel like this is the show’s way of seeing, settle in, the team are going to be dealing with these threats all season. That’s interesting, but more pertinently I feel is, after Go Go subdues Fred, the team fly home with Baymax, except Wasabi, whose car is stuck in traffic, for the second time this season: the real takeway here is that Hiro really needs to install a flying machine for him.
2. Dishonesty
During a game of two truths and a lie, Baymax reveals he can tell if someone is lying from listening to their heartbeat and examining their pupil dilation. Hiro jury-rigs a lie detector in Baymax, which sounds the alarm whenever it hears anyone being dishonest – and I mean anyone, like when the rest of the gang refuse to admit Fred’s new beret looks dumb, or when Granville is trying to conceal the existence of next week’s pop quiz. It gets a bit old, but it does raise the topic of why people lie to avoid offending each other, which is really bold and complex thinking for a kids’ show. It’s a theme reinforced during the episode’s action scenes, where Baymax observes the villains being deceitful to gain the upper hand, and learns to replicate that to win later on.
3. Thunderball
Ah yes, action, this episode is full of it. Liv Amara needs gold – lots of gold – for her latest experiment, and sends Mr. Sparkles and High Voltage to steal a crate off a ship. Hiro and Baymax pursue them underwater, alongside with Go Go, who receives a new scuba suit that Hiro designed for her. Now, as any Bond fan can tell you, fight scenes underwater can come across as really slow: however, Hiro’s given Go Go jet propulsion in her gauntlets, allowing her to swim as fast as she can usually skate, leading to some really fun and dynamic imagery of her whirling circles around the mutated villains: I’m really keen to see what aquatic action sequences the creative team can design for the other Big Hero 6 members now.
4. BESSIE!
The episode’s climactic battle has Amara using bear DNA to turn the meterorite she stole from Ned Ludd – the one that shuts down all technology in its vicinity – into a bear-shaped rock monster; which is cool to say the least, bears are terrifying, a giant bear made of rocks able to shut off Big Hero 6’s tech, even moreso. My favorite part had to be when “Bessie Monster” started smacking around Fred like the Hulk in the first Avengers, a cultural reference that really sells how tough it is. And the team ultimately loses, with Bessie escaping with the gold it was sent to steal from the city bank – defeating this monster later is certainly not going to get any easier.
5. Oh
Hiro does manage to commit an act of ambush journalism on Amara, asking her if she’s behind the monsters just as she leaves her offices. However, her denial does not alert Baymax’s sensors, much to Hiro’s bewilderment and confusion, as logic has told him otherwise. So why didn’t it work? Well, in the final scene, it’s revealed the real Liv Amara is the sick woman in cryo, meaning – what? The villain we’ve been seeing all season is a robot? A plastic extension of her will?
Well, it’s gonna be a while before this mystery is solved, since the show has been on break since this aired at the start of May. When it resumes is almost as big a mystery, but rest assured, we’ll be there to explore it with you when it does. Until then: balalala.
