Goblin War, Part Two
First Aired: November 17th, 2019
Synopsis: Harry takes Peter to his family tomb, where he's found footprints matching Norman's and some hidden stairs. They go in as Spider-Man and the Hobgoblin. Meanwhile, Spider-Girl and Ghost Spider are looking for goblins when they're approached by Doctor Octopus in a spider-bot. Although he tries talking to them about how he's looking for Spider-Man since he thinks he's being led into a trap, they don't listen to him and they destroy all of the bots. They soon find a goblin who they beat up, and the equipment they find on them lets them find a nearby lair of goblins. Unbeknownst to them, Ock follows them in another spider-bot. At the same time, Spider-Man explains to Harry what happened with him and Doctor Octopus, but as they continue going through the secret passage Spider-Man realises that Harry's been here before. Harry denies it but admits that he never actually left New York after his father's death.
Harry explains that he found designs for a mech that his father designed, intended to protect the world, and he's built it. Spider-Man's thinks it's dangerous and that he shouldn't have done it, which hurts Harry, but they then find themselves in a secret factory for manufacturing goblin gear, alongside the Goblin King and some goblins. Spider-Man assumes that Harry led him here into a trap for some reason, while Harry asks the Goblin King why he's doing what he is. As Spider-Man fights the goblins he recognises their speech patterns and identifies them as the Wake Riders, meaning that the Goblin King must be Adrian Toomes, the former Vulture. Vulture admits it and reveals that his plan is to get respect, then takes control of Harry's armour and badly injures him. The goblins all leave and blow the factory up, but Spider-Man gets Harry out safely, of course. Once they're out Spider-Man's able to receive a call from Doctor Octopus, who says that Ghost Spider and Spider-Girl went after some goblins but he can't get a reading on them - as such, he fears that they're gone.
Review: I think that I want to like this episode more, but when I sit down and actually think about the content, I realise that I'm kind of disappointed with it. Putting aside Anya and Gwen's subplot, which is adequate enough, a lot of the tension and conflict in this episode comes from Peter not trusting Harry. Come the fuck on - haven't we seen this enough times already? It would be one thing if the evidence was stronger, but Peter leaps to some pretty wild conclusions based on what he's seen - Harry guessing a password after several failed attempts, the lights reacting to Harry's unintentional verbal command, Harry hearing about a train that was shut down as a result of Superior Spider-Man's actions. The worst part has to be when they enter the goblin gear factory - Harry is shocked to see the Goblin King, and Peter somehow reads this as meaning that Harry's led him into a trap.
Speaking of the Goblin King, while not making him Norman Osborn works well enough for a twist (and also means that my prediction last episode was wrong, fair enough), there's something weirdly off-putting about it being Adrian Toomes. Who would have thought that the Wake Riders episode, weak and easily dismissible as filler, would actually turn out to be relevant all along? Deep lore! The reveal that Adrian has set up the Goblin Nation all so that he can improve his reputation is laughable, though, and I definitely feel like the Goblin Nation feel less interesting in this episode compared to the previous one.
Ultimately, I'm annoyed at the episode going back to the old well of Peter distrusting Harry, as well as the fairly lacklustre fight against the goblins at the goblin gear factory, but I'm glad that we've gotten a bit of a reveal about the goblins and whatnot at least. And hell, even if Peter being wary after all that he and Harry have been through makes me roll my eyes, at least the show stuck to its guns and kept Harry a good guy through and through. I think I'd overall say that the general plot beats of the episode work well enough, it's just some of the individual scene executions that could do with some work.
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