Amphibia Spoiler Review: Sasha's Angels/Olm Town Road
This week’s episodes of Amphibia were interesting as a background character stepped up into a leadership role and we dive into a brand-new location in “Sasha’s Angels” and “Olm Town Road.”
I am torn about how much to read into “Sasha’s Angels.” I’ve misjudged an episode like "Quarreler's Pass" for the simple plot and deeming it not important. As I’ll discuss in “Olm Town Road,” that’s a mistake to do because it’s so hard to tell in a show like Amphibia what will be important. Sometimes its straightforward, but other times, it’s sneaky. So while on the surface “Sasha’s Angels” seems like a cute side romp, I want to consider what it could possibly be setting up in the final six weeks.
We were introduced to a group of marauders led by Barry, the villain of the episode “Cursed” who is a rival of Maddie’s. While a menace to Sasha and the Wartwood resistance, this group is not really evil. If anything, they’re trying to survive the best they know how in a drastically changing, war torn world.
I could see these marauders become uneasy allies. Andrias and the Core are not going to care about these guys in the long run. Sure, they’re paying the marauders to round up resistance fighters now. But when their usefulness runs out, Andrias would absolutely target and enslave them next. It’s only a matter of time. In the lead up to the finale, Barry and his crew could form an alliance with Anne and Sasha in a “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” sort of scenario.
On a character level, perhaps we’re seeing a bit of endgame set up for Toadie. He reminds me a lot of Tyler from Gravity Falls, a show that Amphibia creator Matt Braly was a storyboard artist and director for. In the case of Tyler, he ended up becoming mayor of his city. Toadie is a similar character type in his kind-nature way of addressing problems.
In “Sasha’s Angels,” he got a boost of confidence and ended up being an effective leader in the wake of Mrs. Croaker being injured. Maybe we’re seeing a set up where Toadie ends up being the next mayor of Wartwood after the war is said and done.
I really love watching Anne and Sasha grow together as different types of leaders. Sasha is a planner and has more experience in the fight against Andrias. Anne, on the other hand, is very much the heart of the group. They balance each other so well as they bring very different skills to the fight. It also means that they can hold each other accountable. It’s such great character work watching these two grow into this partnership.
“Olm Town Road” was definitely the meatier of the two episodes. As I’ve stated in these reviews before, it’s so important not to deem certain episodes ‘filler’ because they don’t initially seem important. A good narrative takes time to develop. Matt Braly and his team are proving why they’re excellent storytellers. When I wrote my essential episodes of Amphibia article, I would have never picked "Quarreler's Pass" to be an important episode, but here we are back there again.
To continue to talk about Sasha, “Olm Town Road” was a fantastic example of her continued growth. The best way to show how a person has changed is when they impart their knowledge onto another. Sasha probably sees a lot of herself in the various olms. She used to be like Parisia in a way as she commanded power unfairly. But Sasha was also like Lysil and Angwin, having been judge for a single mistake and had to work to better herself. She really is the perfect character to recruit the olms, giving us another great moment of her journey.
I really love the design of Proteus. It’s a gorgeous new setting where the background designers clearly had a grand old time flexing their creative muscles. The olms are beautiful, especially Parisia’s design. And their entire civilization introduces an entire new slew of possible lore.
I have to wonder why Andrias would go after Proteus. They state in the episode that the city is built on iron ore deposits for his war machine. But honestly, I don’t think that’s the only reason.
Parisia states in “Olm Town Road” that she has ruled over Proteus for thousands of years. That means Mother Olm is even older than that, probably even older than Andrias and possibly pre-dating the Core’s creation. The knowledge that she has is easily one of the biggest threats to Andrias’ plans. Usually when someone is mentioned in a prophecy, being the one found in “Fight at the Museum,” that usually means they’re bad news for the villains.
My theory is Andrias has been searching for Proteus to stop Mother Olm or even kill her before she’s a risk to him. If he takes her out, he rids the board of one of his biggest threats.
Some random thoughts to round out Sasha’s Angels and Olm Town Road:
-Jack McBrayer really showed his range voicing Toadie this week. He’s such a great actor!
-It’s cool seeing all the background characters’ individual skills coming together. I always adored Wartwood, and watching each of the citizens grow into their own is such a treat!
-I squealed seeing Joe Sparrow! I’m glad he’s okay!
-It was so satisfying watching Maddie take out Barry for a second time.
This really was an interesting week. I don’t want to underestimate “Sasha’s Angels” as it could possibly come into play later. Then there was “Olm Town Road” setting up for what looks to be a stellar premise for the next episode. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
