When we last left our heroes, they were hurtling across the vast cosmos, all thrust toward different corners of the universe by way of an inconveniently placed wormhole. For all of you who have been waiting with bated breath to find out where the five lions wind up at the beginning of Voltron: Legendary Defender‘s second season, producer Joaquim Dos Santos took the opportunity of New York Comic Con to announce that the upcoming string of episodes will hit Netflix on January 20. Of course, those of us lucky enough to attend the NYCC panel got an early glimpse on what is yet to come: a pre-release screening of “The Depth,” the second episode of Voltron season two.

SPOILERS FOR THE EPISODE BELOW. READ AHEAD WITH CARE
The episode follows the post-wormhole exploits of Lance and Hunk, who crash land upon the seabed of an ice planet, which has left their lions inoperative. Notwithstanding the inherent dangers of their situation, plus their inability to contact their fellow Paladins, Lance’s primary focus at this juncture is the beautiful mermaid he spots in the distance… naturally. He and Hunk follow the kindly sea dweller to her nearby civilization, an ostensibly benevolent monarchy that centers its culture around a presumably Avatar-inspired (James Cameron, not Airbender) all-nourishing Bakku Garden.

After luxuriating in the bounties of the civilization—air bubble helmets, octopus stage shows, and a buffet of Bakku-grown treats, all offered generously by the seraphic queen, Lance and Hunk become suspiciously endeared to this new lifestyle… that is, until a trio of jellyfish-headed revolutionaries (one of whom is voiced by Weird Al Yankovic, by the by) kidnap Lance, clear his mind of hypnotic toxins, and clue him into the queen’s wicked plan to brainwash and kill the inhabitants of her city.

Despite his captors’ unavoidable eccentricities, Lance teams up with them, dons a toxin-blocking jellyfish hat (which does a number on his face), and heads back into the queen’s castle to rescue Hunk, retrieve their lions (which she has taken in under the pretense of repairing them), and get out of dodge. Things go awry when Hunk, totally under the queen’s power, tries to take Lance down; after a heated fight sequence, Lance manages to snap his pal out of it by way of a handy blowfish potion handed to him by the revolutionaries. Together, they fend off the queen’s herculean mermanservants before apprehending their newly repaired lions, rallying the revolutionaries, and wrangling the queen to stop her nefarious deeds.

But, as they say, twist. It turns out the queen herself, newly brought to sanity thanks to a well-timed konk on the head, was under the spell of the Bakku Garden all this time. And the Bakku Garden? It’s a freakin’ dragon. Cue a terrific action sequence in which Lance, Hunk, and their respective lions take all efforts to lay the menacing monster to waste.

The episode ends with an image of hope: the now totally-back-to-normal queen conjuring an energy beam from a tremendous clam, which launches Lance and Hunk back safely into space. Because science.
END OF EPISODE SPOILERS. MOVE ALONG.

Somehow, the good people behind Voltron didn’t think it was enough to show our crowd an entire new episode; we also got a taste of where we’ll find Pidge at the beginning of next season. Unlike Lance and Hunk, she’s stuck on her own out in space, passing time solo among a sea of wrecked spaceships while her lion rests. No longer the lone wolf she once was, Pidge begins to go a little stir crazy, going so far as to build replicas of her Paladin teammates out of spare junk… and try her best impressions of the lot of them. (It’s quite funny.)

While Dos Santos and company couldn’t give us any further hard info about the new season, he did tease bigger and better things. “The show does continue to evolve and get bigger and be more inclusive of the entire intergalactic universe,” the producer said.

Jeremy Shada, the actor who voices Lance, said, “Even Lance starts getting to have some leadership qualities, and have moments of seriousness.”

On the topic of her character, Bex Taylor-Klaus said, “Pidge has always had under underlying path… She wants to find her family, and that hasn’t gone away.”

Clearly, there’s plenty to look forward to come January 20th. What do you hope to see in Voltron season two?

Images: Netflix

Michael Arbeiter is the East Coast Editor for Nerdist. Find him on Twitter @MichaelArbeiter.