In episode 9, Kaz suffers some bad luck at the hands of what I’m not entirely convinced isn’t a pirate mating ritual. There’s also the return of Mika Grey and the Guavian Death Gang. Read on for spoilers if ye dare!
1. Bad luck Kaz
Is overconfidence overrated? Maybe, but being a jerk about it definitely is, although it’s hard to determine who’s really at fault in this episode’s main scenario. Basically, Kaz goes on a winning streak and beats the pirates — fair and square, I might add, though his cocky attitude is a bit unnecessary — out of their (dubiously earned, I’m sure) credits, which goes over as well as you would expect. Hot tempered Leoz takes it particularly poorly and decides to seductively crawl across the game table to… lick Kaz’s forehead while reciting something indeterminable? It’s a strange way to come on to someone, I’ll give you that, but I guess it’s standard pirate curse practice (who even knew that was a thing?), because they’re all pretty tickled by it. To his credit, Kaz doesn’t immediately fall for the antics, but the rest of the episode’s events and doomsayer Neeku eventually convince him otherwise. What if… this curse… lasted… FOREVER?!
While I don’t personally condone cursing people, I do think he kind of deserved it after his “I’m on a roll” comment during the height of the dice game.
2. The return of Mika Grey
It’s funny, because I had been wondering what had happened to Mika Grey while watching last week’s episode. We spent an entire episode with her and then, poof, she disappeared into the bowels of the Colossus. What happened?
Well, apparently the relic hunter has taken on a second career as… fortune teller? She looms creepily in the background, spying on Kaz and Neeku, and then cons some poor dude (I think it was Gork?) out of 50 credits by giving him some fortune cookie nonsense on a vision of his death. I honestly feel the worst for this guy out of any of the characters in this episode. He’s clearly in the middle of an existential crisis and needs therapy more than he needs whatever assurances Grey is able to give (or not give) him. We revisit him later on when he has a nervous breakdown over a Grog in his soup, clearly the harbinger of his imminent death according to his interpretation of the vision. It’s played for laughs, but just makes me feel bad. Can someone please give this guy a hug and maybe a Xanax?
3. Neeku’s best friend, cursed!
Speaking of nervous breakdowns, Neeku really goes all in from the get-go on the pirate’s curse. It’s actually very cute how nervous he is about it on his best friend’s behalf, despite Kaz’s initial desire to just brush it off. It really speaks to Neeku’s loyalty, though, that he continues to follow Kaz around despite the very real threat of imminent death from all of the bits and pieces of ship that fall from the ceiling everywhere they go. It’s thanks to Neeku that Kaz eventually decides to confront Leoz about reversing the curse, which unfortunately results in another weird licking ritual and a — gasp — double curse! But then Neeku also convinces Kaz to go to Mika Grey, which eventually leads to the episode’s resolution so good on him.
Also, three cheers for Neeku for giving me my favorite moment of the episode. While Kaz is meeting with Mika Grey to work out this silly curse thing, the entire ship is rocked by a large impact — lights flickering, loud noises, debris falling, you know the deal. During this moment of uncertain danger, you hear Neeku immediately cry out above the noise and from what sounds like a distance, “is that the curse?!”
It wasn’t the curse, but we’ll get to that.
4. I’ll have a Guavian Death Gang on the rocks, please
The universe is a vast place, and yet there are no shortage of baddies looking to mess you up. This week’s antagonists take the form of the Guavian Death Gang, which to me sounds like a Caribbean resort cocktail, but whatever. You might remember these dudes from last season when they stalked Marcus Speedstar, as well as from The Force Awakens and their run-in with Han Solo (points for continuity, I guess). They’re the weird criminal organization with full-face red helmets and, according to Doza, a penchant for choosing extortion over killing people (which is why Doza decides not to fire on them despite the fact that they shoot them, because… all’s fair in love and war with criminals that have morals?). Alas, if only Rey and the gang had known.
Continued belowKaz’s bad luck gets the Colossus spotted by a Death Gang scout, of course, which causes problems that Doza and everyone are none too pleased with him about. But, at least Kaz gets his comeuppance when he falls out of his cockpit in front of everyone. What a Kaztastrophe!
5. Maybe the real curse was the luck we made along the way
Mika Grey’s solution to Kaz’s bad luck is to lecture him on the premise that basically curses are in the eyes of the beholder and then sells him some wonky talisman for a hefty fee. Convinced the talisman has cured him, he heads to the hanger and then of course accidentally drops it along the way. It isn’t until he’s in the middle of round 2 with the Guavians that he realizes his mistake. Not wanting to mess things up for everyone again, he’s forced to buck up and push past his fear of the curse, which of course works. Kaz comes up with an ingenious plan to deal with the Death Gang ships and the Colossus lives to see another day. Hooray!
The whole thing is a lesson in confidence. In the end, Kaz shows Leoz and the pirates he isn’t afraid of them or their dang curse. He even manages to trick them a little bit by fibbing that the talisman carries a curse of its own as he tosses it to them. I’m not really sure why they believe him considering there was no licking involved (an important aspect of pirate curses if this episode has anything to say about it), but then again, I’m no expert on black magic. Who’s to say?
