WARNING – SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO
Thunderbirds Are Go went on its latest mid-season break back in July of this year, following the broadcast of “Avalanche”. This latest pause during the show’s third season caught everyone off guard, due to the fact that we’ve had to endure a mid-season break already, and that the show won’t return until the new year. Having broadcast 18 of the season’s 26 episodes already, a mere 8 episodes remain to polish off both the season and the show itself, with the season 3 finale functioning as the grand climax to Thunderbirds Are Go. With that in mind, the sheer volume of narrative content Thunderbirds Are Go has to resolve places a heavy burden on this upcoming final batch of episodes.
Season 3 aims to resolve the key plot-point that’s been a feature of Thunderbirds Are Go since its first series back in 2015: the disappearance of International Rescue founder and head of the family Jeff Tracy. Seasons 1 and 2 were peppered with references and callbacks to Jeff, some slight, some substantial, but with much of the Tracy family assuming that there’s little hope of his return. Head writer Rob Hoegee had previously mentioned how Jeff wouldn’t appear in seasons 1 and 2, ergo hinting that season 3 will feature Jeff more predominantly than before. So far, the season hasn’t disappointed. The finale’s stage has now been set thanks to a loose four-parter; “SOS Part 1”, “SOS Part 2”, “Signals Part 1” and “Signals Part 2”. Throughout this pair of two-parters, we discover the reasons for Jeff’s vanishing. “SOS” sees I.R. rediscovering Brains’ robotic chum Braman, whose been sending out a distress call on behalf of the Calypso space vessel. Braman’s continual sending of a distress call leads to the Tracy team discovering a hidden coded message, one that could only have come from Jeff Tracy.
Following on from this, “Signals” sees I.R. recovering the escape capsule of the experimental star-ship Zero X, which is revealed to be the reason for Jeff’s disappearance. When attempting to prevent the Hood from stealing the craft some years prior to the events of Thunderbirds Are Go, it’s presumed that the craft destructed mid-air, taking Jeff with it. However, with the aid of the escape capsule’s own camera, it’s discovered that the craft didn’t detonate, but merely ignited to become a runaway vehicle, flinging itself deep into the cosmos, taking Jeff with it. It’s decided therefore to build a new Zero X, the result possibly being a combined form of all the core Thunderbird craft (a cheeky reference to Thunderbirds 2086?) and launch into the stars in search of Jeff. Doing so leaves Tracy Island vulnerable to attack, allowing the Hood to unleash a master-strike that’s been teased in the official premise for season 3. All suitably epic-scale stuff, but what else is there to be resolved?
Firstly, there’s the small matter of the Mechanic. He stands as perhaps the greatest waste of material Thunderbirds Are Go has ever done. Brought into the series in season 2 and presented as an anti-Brains figure under the Hood’s control, despite teasing that the Mechanic knows who Brains is, we never learn much more of the Mechanic himself. Now being re-positioned as a helping figure to I.R. for this ultimate rescue, it feels too little too late. A fun fan theory suggests the Mechanic could be Kyrano, who hasn’t been seen so far in the show. Whoever the Mechanic is, the momentum for his identity feels rather redundant now. His revelation (if there was ever meant to be one) felt like it should have been delivered in season 2’s finale, “Brain vs Brawn”. Instead, we got a jumbled brawl between the Hood and the Mechanic, and who was really in control of who. It was an unsatisfactory end to a character beefed up to have an intriguing connection to the Tracy family.
Elsewhere, the Hood’s latest cronies, Fuse and Havoc, are undergoing their own arc. In “SOS Part 2” and “Chain Reaction”, demolitions expert Fuse shows signs that he’s not as invested in his master’s plans for world domination as first thought. His visible concern for the chaotic actions he and Havoc cause suggest a turn of loyalties down the line, possibly during the Hood’s final attack on Tracy Island. The Chaos Crew are proving to be more creatively successful as characters than the Mechanic. Presented as being an extension of the Mechanic’s anti-tech mentality, a firmer grip on their arc and a greater sense of respective personalities make them a winning pair, whilst Fuse’s own development gives them the depth that really should have been there for the Mechanic. A bit of backstory for the Hood himself wouldn’t be amiss. Beyond his sly giveaway to him being a cog in a larger machine by referring to himself as agent 79 in “Legacy”, we know so little of his motivations. Was agent 79 a hint of things to come, or just a cheeky callback to how he describes himself in the classic Thunderbirds episode “Martian Invasion?”
The very act of rescuing Jeff himself is set up as being a lengthily procedure in itself, as I.R. have to find him, rescue him, and return. In the space of 8 episodes, and given everything else Thunderbirds Are Go has to juggle, this seems a Herculean act of story-telling resolve. This is also presuming that the 8 episodes will be interlinked somehow. It’s possible that there will be the usual mixture of story-arcs and standalone episodes, surely filler at this point. In a now-deleted post on their website, practical effects company Scale Studios revealed a hefty and gorgeous-looking model of the classic Thunderbirds mecha the Crablogger, to be used in an upcoming episode of the series. How the Crablogger may tie into Jeff’s story-arc is a mystery (it’s particularly odd since we’ve already now got an episode named Path of Destruction from earlier in the season), but the real reason may be that it’s not tied into Jeff’s story at all, and that the mecha’s presence indicates that further standalone stories are indeed on the way.
Given that fans will be tuning in to see story-arcs set up all the way back in 2015 resolved, we’ve surely had our fill of adventures. This is the story that’s been waited on for nearly half a decade. Will Thunderbirds Are Go be sufficient and coherent in delivering the goods? It’s done so before, but it also hasn’t (i.e. the Mechanic…). There’s a gargantuan balance of material Thunderbirds Are Go has to maintain in this final batch of episodes. Given how this story has surely been mapped out in some form for some time, there’s little doubt that season 3’s finale will be roaring with the rapid-fire adventure Thunderbirds Are Go has proven it can expertly and entertainingly deliver. Jeff’s eventual comeback will shift the equilibrium of the show to the extent that his return (triumphant, hopefully) itself will mark the end of Thunderbirds Are Go. Whether it pulls everything else off in a satisfactory manner remains to be seen.
Are you excited to see all of this resolved when Thunderbirds Are Go returns next year? Let us know in the comments section below or send us a Tweet!
