Review: RWBY Vol.8 “Dark”

Overview

So after waiting six weeks, we’re finally back with the 100th episode, and what better way to begin the other half of this season than with a loud bang! Or at least that’s what happens at the Atlas prison but that’ll be touched up much later. While the previous episode established Yang’s Team-B attempting a rescue mission for Oscar within Salem’s air-fortress under the watchful eye of the Ace-Ops, the primary focus of course is on Penny Crash-landing at the doorstep of the Schnee Manor. Despite having the Schnee butler known as “Klein” back to do some medical treatment for both Nora and later Penny, we begin to see that nothing is what it seems with Penny after her crash-landing.

After May straight up ditches everyone to meet back with the rest of the Huntress’s on her own, the real problem begins to rear its ugly head when Ruby & Blake proceed to turn on an extra power source while Whitley attempts to use his hacking skills for something that’s surprisingly useful for everyone. Of course, they encounter the highly advanced Grimm known as “The Hound” and this is the first time Ruby’s Team-A has ever had to face it, since Yang’s Team-B tried, and failed to stop it when it previously captured Oscar.

For a good portion of this episode, it starts to become a decent suspense thriller in terms of how the Hound attempts to terrorize everyone like a Slasher villain within the Schnee Manor, and everyone is pretty damn shocked at how smart it is, or the fact it can speak but understandably they’re mostly in shock at how hyper-capable this creature seemingly is. As the Hound attempts to finally steal Penny, Ruby uses her trump-card leading to a big twist involving the Hound itself being revealed, but the episode ends when we follow back up with the Atlas prison break with Cinder rescuing Watts and asking him for a favor…

Our Take

Damn, that was intense! I’m glad we’re back after the 6-Week Hiatus, and so much happened during the course of this mid-season premiere. With the big reveal of what “The Hound” actually is, we’re left with many disturbing implications about Salem’s twisted experiments that surprisingly half-confirm several fan-theories. I think what also shined the most for me in this episode was Whitley finding creative solutions to help our heroes, while the Schnee matriarch (Willow) does something a bit proactive for once.

Also after what’s currently happening to Penny, I’m curious to see how far this hacking will take over her robot mind before she goes full red-eyed and starts taking orders from Watts who in a previous episode has a secret method to control her. And given her Winter Maiden powers, it’s easy to put the pieces together in regards to what Cinder actually wants from Watts.

Overall,  While this was a decent continuation of the previous episode that revealed a few twists and kept the audience on its toes, It sadly doesn’t do anything to commemorate the fact that this is supposed to be the 100th episode. Most TV shows would often treat this as a big deal as it’s rare for any cartoon or show, in general, to reach such an achievement, especially on Rooster Teeth’s end. I’m sure if the late Monty Oum were still alive, he would’ve done something bigger as his way of giving back to his fans or at the very least, spoke about reaching this accomplishment on social media. At this point, who knows what the Rooster Teeth animation team has in store for us for the rest of Volume 8.