Guys, this is a recap of the 11th episode of the second season of Voltron: Legendary Defender. At this point, you HAVE to know there are spoilers herein. Just go watch the show first. Or don’t; it’s your life, but you’ve been warned.

I’ve been really in the weeds with all these Voltron: Legendary Defender recaps, and I love the show so stinking much. But it has come to my attention—as my colleagues who don’t watch the show copy edit me—that this is a DENSE show. For being ostensibly a “family” show, with all the comedy it has, there’s a very complex mythology and universe of characters that rivals even Tolkien or Martin. The fact that the premise of the end of this season is “the paladins of Voltron hoping to use the teludav made by the Olkarians to destroy Zarkon and the Galra fleet to avenge the fallen King Alfor of Altea” has not been lost on me. Anyway, it’s only weedier in this, the pen-penultimate episode, “Stayin’ Alive.”

While Keith and Hunk got the teludav crystals and Shiro, Lance, and Pidge freed the engineer Slav, Allura was on the Castle Ship playing charades with her Altean mice while the ship travels to the planet of Balmera, the living planet (it was last seen in the season one story arc involving Hunk having a crush on the local Balmeran woman). Coran, meanwhile, was on Olkari building the massive teludav to send Zarkon’s flagship through. Allura needed the Balmerans’ help to get a giant crystal to power such a device. It’s very important. After performing a ceremony to grow the largest crystal ever conceived, the RoBeast that had been trapped within a crystal since that episode last season broke free and began wreaking havoc again, even without a head. Allura quickly called for help and the paladins came a-running, though they currently only had two of the five lions.

At the aforementioned Galra fleet, the investigation into who the mole is ramped up. The Druids discovered an encrypted chip that was used to transmit messages to the Blade of Marmora. As we know, that mole is Commander Thace, who was very close to getting found out in the last episode. Witch Haggar decided the Druids should put the chip back and see who picks it up. Naturally, it was Thace, and it seemed as though a very important part of the plan—one that requires a man on the inside—will be a no go.

Still, no time for that now. The Yellow Lion held off the RoBeast while the Blue Lion drops the others back at the Castle Ship to get their own lions. The Yellow Lion rammed the RoBeast, but got totally incapacitated by its laser beams. The monster was making pretty short work of the lions on their own; they needed Voltron but couldn’t get the time needed to form up. Luckily, Pidge was able to get to the Green Lion and fire a vine beam at it, making a huge plant structure grow from out of the RoBeast to stop it enough for the paladins to form Voltron. In one of the more convenient endings in the season, Voltron used the power sword and was able to kill the RoBeast immediately. Whew, that was lucky!

Now, all of the pieces of the plan were lined up (aside from that whole Thace got discovered thing). As the episode ended, the five paladins were left to reminisce about the crazy journey they’ve been on. They recalled particular adventures from the first season and felt like they’d finally come together to form a new family, as each of them were alone in their own way. Shiro then reminded them, nicely, that if their plan is a success, it’s very likely the universe won’t need Voltron anymore, and that, to quote Tolkien, their fellowship will be at an end. That is a mighty sad thought, but for now, the battle was nigh.

At this point in the season, you just want things to head to the climax, and this episode was important for showing a.) the last prong of the master plan was happening, and 2.) the relative calm before the storm. It didn’t necessarily matter that the threat of the episode was pretty easily dispatched, because the next two episodes will be nothing but the battle of their lives. Can’t wait!

Now, let’s discuss this episode in the comments!

Images: DreamWorks/Netflix

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