Spectacular Spider-Man Episode Nine: The Uncertainty Principle

The Uncertainty Principle

First Aired: May 10th, 2008

Synopsis: Halloween is coming up, and there's going to be a carnival in Manhattan. The Green Goblin attacks Hammerhead's car and captures him, but Hammerhead refuses to work with him. Later, the Green Goblin meets Tombstone in his office and reveals that thanks to Hammerhead he has a drive with evidence of Tombstone's crimes on it, and that he'll release it later that night - Tombstone will know where. Meanwhile, with Harry Osborn's increasingly erratic behaviour worrying Gwen, she asks Peter to look for him, and as he's heading over to the Osborns' as Spider-Man, he runs into the Green Goblin, who lets him know about the drive before losing him. When Spidey gets close to the Osborns' he sees the Green Goblin enter, and upon going inside sees Norman emerge from a secret entrance, shortly before Harry returns home. Not sure what to make of it, Spider-Man decides not to see Harry immediately and instead calls him and asks to meet him at the Halloween carnival. Shortly afterwards, Norman returns to Oscorp, but while he's copying some files from his computer it gets attacked by the Green Goblin. Shortly afterwards, some pumpkin fireworks announce the Green Goblin's presence at the Halloween carnival, and Spider-Man and Tombstone follow them to the factory where Hammerhead is being held - at which point it's revealed to all be a trap by the Goblin; there was never a drive with evidence.

The molten steel that the factory uses is soon spilled all over the building, and Tombstone has to save Hammerhead from it before escaping, while Spider-Man fights the Green Goblin; their fight eventually spilling outside. Spider-Man tells the Green Goblin that he knows who he is - Norman Osborn - but the Goblin just laughs it off. When Spider-Man launches a pumpkin bomb back at the Goblin he lands heavily and starts limping, before flying away. Spider-Man goes to the Osborns' place, where he finds the Green Goblin, who unmasks and reveals himself to be Harry Osborn. Norman comes in - walking normally - and discovers that Harry's been drinking Globulin Green, an experimental performance enhancer that he must have stolen from Oscorp. As Harry snaps and attacks Norman, Norman speculates that he went after The Big Man since he knew that Hammerhead was putting pressure on Norman; it was his way of trying to protect his father. Although Norman says he'll claim that he was the Goblin, Spider-Man can't ruin the Osborns' lives like that; instead he looks the other way while Harry gets the help he needs. The next day Peter goes to school and discovers that Mary Jane has transferred there, while Harry is taking a leave of absence to recover.

Subplots:

• John Jameson's shuttle gets into trouble, and while he's eventually able to land it successfully, it brings with it a mysterious black substance. 
• As a result of Jonah focusing on the shuttle and being dismissive towards him, Peter decides to sell his Spider-Man photos to the Daily Globe, a rival newspaper.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• At the Halloween carnival, the jocks from school dress up as cheerleaders. It's a nice continuity bit - Flash did agree to do it if Peter actually brought a date to the Fall Formal, which he did.
• At the Halloween carnival, there's also someone wearing a Black Cat costume. Foreshadowing, or an easter egg? I honestly can't remember!

Review: This is an incredibly dense episode, as it's building on things that have been built up quite heavily over the last few episodes, and to be honest, I don't think that my synopsis has done it justice. While the show's clearly been hinting that Harry's the Green Goblin in the last few episodes, there's been enough ambiguity that it's easy to think it's a fake-out (hell, even in this episode, we get Norman leaving a mysterious room at the same time that Harry gets home). It's a fantastic twist to reveal that, no, all of that really was foreshadowing; just in case you still doubt it, we see Norman and the Green Goblin at the same time, we see Harry walking with a limp while Norman isn't, and we see Harry completely snap. It's hard to see how it could be anything different.

Not just satisfied with that twist, the show is perfectly happy to shake up the status quo a bit, on top of it all. Harry's now gone, in a way that leaves the door open for when he's ready to return, Mary Jane's now going to be in Peter's life a lot more - and furthermore, she rejects Flash Thompson at the Halloween carnival. Peter's now selling photos to the Daily Globe, and of course, we all know what that mysterious black substance that's on John's shuttle is, don't we? Even if you're unsatisfied with the conclusion of the Green Goblin's story for now there's still a lot here to look forwards to.

Even looking at the episode in a vacuum, it's fantastic. The Goblin's trap works well - there's something hilarious about Hammerhead being exasperated that Tombstone would really think he gave him up - and the fight scenes are incredibly dynamic and exciting, feeling like a video game in all the right ways. It's undoubtedly the high point of the series so far.