Review: RWBY: Field Trip (episode 8, Season 2)

Welcome to Beacon Academy’s job shadow program!

 Spoilers Below

We are thankfully back to the story as we deal with the fallout from the dance. This episode takes place on two fronts, Team RWBY, and the Beacon staff.

The first part of the episode deals with the upper staff’s reaction to the break in the night of the dance. In reaction to what happened Ironwood is ready to break out the troops and practically go to war while Ozpin wants to be more discrete about looking for whoever infiltrated the school. This starts setting up a conflict of ideas between the two, but in Ironwood’s words, we find just how much he can really do in this situation. Although he is a powerful man, This is not his territory and Ozpin holds more of the power here than he does. It’s been hinted at with Ironwood’s military might, but this may end up leading to a big butting of heads and forces if things escalate any further.

Ruby drops in and gives some hints of information she and Team RWBY have learned in their adventures. Even though she clearly says that the masked woman she fought didn’t say anything (and is even called out on it) Ruby tells Ozpin, Glynda, and Ironwood that she said something about a base in the east, just beyond the kingdom. Although the others wonder about it, Ozpin takes this info in stride and doesn’t directly show that this is a dire bit of information. This is a sign that Ozpin seems to have a grasp of the situation more than he is letting on, at least to me.

Later on, Ozpin makes his views on what is going on a little more clear. After the announcement that teams would be following a real Huntsman on a mission, he finds team RWBY trying to find a mission in the east. Being locked out for being too dangerous, Ozpin tells team RWBY he doesn’t know how they ended up on the dock last season. He changes the mission, knowing they were just going to break the rules and go there anyway, but with a warning. This ties in perfectly with a line Ozpin told Ironwood earlier about when he goes into battle, what does he send in first, the flag bearer or the scouts? Ozpin either thinks highly of his team to send them out on a mission that is far more dangerous than even they understand, or he is opportunistic to take advantage of what he knows the team is going to do anyway and figures he could gain valuable information from it, damned the students. I don’t think Ozpin is that much of a heartless dick, but he knows he’s got his hands full and is very aware of what is going on.

The flipside of this episode focuses on Team RWBY themselves. When Ruby returns after dropping the hints at the meeting Blake commends her for it. Something that transpires next makes me wonder if something bigger isn’t going on here as Ruby and Yang receive a letter from home saying their father is leaving the island for a while. This can’t be a random plot point and I have a feeling that we may see more of Ruby and Yang’s father, but in what way and why remains to be seen. Of course, this leads to the introduction of the sisters’ pet dog, Zwei. Weiss falls in love with him almost immediately, but Blake, of course, doesn’t like him very much, being a catgirl. The gag of seeing a dog and a month’s worth of canned food in what appears to be a tube made me laugh, especially when Blake and Weiss were shocked by this. Ruby sneaks him into a backpack it seems and takes him to the meeting…where we never see the backpack again. Umm, gotta wonder if there was a jump there or someone forgot the dog. Ozpin announces that the first year teams will be sent out on missions with real Huntsmen. These missions are tough and shouldn’t be taken lightly. The girl’s want a mission in the east to explore this base beyond the kingdom and with a little help, they do. Of course, they find the Huntsman they are being paired with isn’t some stealthy ninja or huge muscley slayer, but a skinny Dr. Livingston-looking, safari leader with a British accent.

It’s good to be back into the storyline. We got a lot out of this episode. We find where Ironwood and Ozpn stand on things. It’s apparent that Ozpin isn’t going to stand in Team RWBY’s way too much, whether he is trying to undermine Ironwood or not isn’t as known. I can’t help but feeling that something is up with Ruby and Yang’s father. The writer’s of this series are clever people and wouldn’t drop a hint like that unless it went somewhere. I expect a lot of comic relief from Zwei, unless it turns out the dog is a secret weapon of mass destruction or something. Beyond the story, the pacing was very good and these folks use it very well. This episode had a great flow to it and outside the mysterious disappearance of the backpack with the dog everything worked out well. The animation was the usual and I enjoyed the cartoony bits of humor where the motions were made to look sillier.

I love how this series has less time than a normal cartoon from TV, but doesn’t feel rushed and takes its time better than a lot of 30-minute shows do. We are getting to something big, but we aren’t rushing into it in a full gallop. The events are being laid out carefully and you aren’t completely sure where pieces will fit when the full picture shows itself. It is a great blend of humor and serious story and this episode was a great example. There wasn’t the fast-paced action or drama that some of the past eps had, but it was still enjoyable and played its part.