THE PENULTIMATE EPISODE of Voltron: Legendary Defender, “Best Laid Plans,” is what this recap is about. By this point, you should know not to read a recap before you watch the episode or not to blame me if you choose to.

So here we go! With an episode title like “Best Laid Plans,” I certainly expected everything to go udders up when it comes to the heroes carrying out their plans, but uhh, it all actually kinda worked okay. Not 100% okay, of course, but quite well, considering. And for a season that had the pall of death over it a lot of the time (they kept cutting back to Zarkon an awful lot for everything to be totally hunky dory), one can’t hope for much more than that.

The episode began with Allura wishing the official coalition between herself, the Blade of Marmora, and the other planets such as Balmera and Olkari can be rebuilt after and if they win. The bummer, though, was that while the good guys were all feeling good about their chances, their inside man, Commander Thace, was currently being tortured for information. Were he to give up anything, the whole scheme would be ruined. As it stood, the Galra high command–and most worryingly Witch Haggar–already knew some attack was forthcoming.

And what exactly is that plan? Shiro explained: the Black Lion would lure Zarkon to a specific spot while the cloaked teludav got into position, readying to wormhole the command vessel away. Meanwhile, Thace (but not) would take down the power to the command vessel and the other Blade of Marmora members–Kolivar and Antok–would upload a virus to keep the power to everything out for a good ol’ long time. Then, once the ship was incapacitated, the teludav would wormhole it millions of lightyears away to the middle of nowhere and Voltron would finish it off. Pretty sweet plan. But, again, Thace. Kolivar was worried about his mole not checking in, and they had to go forward believing Thace had been captured or killed.

So who would shut off the power? Keith stepped up. Given that he is part Galra, he can get around the fleet’s scanners with ease. He believed it to be his destiny, what he was meant to do. As he readied himself to travel in a cloaked shuttle to the Galra base, Allura visited him in the hangar and apologized for being a real jerk to him ever since she learned he was Galra. She let her fear and hatred of the entire race get the better of her. With allies in the Blade of Marmora, and a true friend in Keith, she realizes she’d been acting irrationally. Funny how being opened minded can make everything better, huh?

And so the plan was hatched. Keith entered the Galra flagship and attempted to get to the power room, not getting very far before he’d been spotted. Shiro showed up in the Black Lion and began zipping around fighting ships. Zarkon ordered fighters to be launched; he hella wants that Black Lion for himself. While the Galra were distracted by Shiro, the Castle Ship and the massive teludav lens got into place, just waiting for Keith to do his part. And do his part quickly he needed to indeed. Eventually, Keith found where Thace was being held and throws his Marmora blade into the wall where Thace is tied, and it grows to full size, freeing Thace. Thace knew an ally when he saw one.

While the two of them made their way to the power room, the other lions joined the fight to protect Shiro and cause general havoc. (Sidenote: General Havok needs to be a character in this show.) The longer Keith and Thace take, the more Slav had trouble holding the power to the teludav. If the cloak failed, they’d become sitting ducks. At the power room, Thace and Keith learn that the code had been changed, and Witch Haggar and her Druids arrived to attack. The cloak did indeed fail and Zarkon ordered all ships fire on the teludav, but not before Thace–whose idea it was to simply turn the power room into a bomb–sacrificed himself for the good of the cause. Keith flew out of the vessel and joined the others.

With Zarkon’s ship incapacitated, the virus could be uploaded. Now, dead in the water, and the teludav totally exposed, Slav was able to get just enough juice into it that it was able to send Zarkon’s ship through the wormhole. Going as fast as they could, the Castle Ship and the lions made their way through as well, for the final part of the plan: destroying the ship once and for all. After the jump, Shiro bellowed his usual “Form Voltron!” and the episode ended with the robot in full view, ready to fight.

Whoa, what?!?! That’s how you end an episode! What a cliffhanger. While we did lose Thace, and things did not go nearly as smoothly as they’d hoped, the fact that everything did in fact happen was a testament to the heroism and ingenuity of everyone working on this place. I wish Thace had been a bit more of a factor in the season. A cool character, he was seen in most every episode, but was only in a couple of scenes. As great as every episode was, I’d have loved a whole episode of just him aboard the Galra flagship trying to divert attention of a dogged Witch Haggar.

Still! How can you complain about an episode with that much action, that much heart, that much anticipation?! It was great. And the only thing left is to destroy Zarkon…but you’d be silly to think it would go any way as simply as all that.

Let’s chat about this awesome show in the comments below!

Images: DreamWorks/Netflix

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!