What Happens in Reno, Stays in Reno is the sixth and final episode of the Knuckles X Skylanders miniseries.
Synopsis[]
The friendship between Knuckles, Spyro and the cadets is tested - as enemies, new and old, converge in Reno.
Appearances[]
Characters:
- Agent Mason (apparent death)
- Agent Willoughby (apparent death)
- Dylan Beagleton
- Gary N. Sinclair III Esq.
- Crystalwing Clan
- Knuckles
- Spyro
- Sonic
- Scratch
- Tails
- Stealth Elf
- Eruptor
- Jet-Vac
- Pop Fizz
- Master Eon
- Hugo
- Pistol Pete Brawl
- Tooth Quake
- Topsy Derby
- Blake
- Spike
- Dash
- The Buyer (death)
- Cynder
- Roller Brawl
- Hex
- Skull
- Flashwing
- Echo
- Bad Breath
- Food Fight
- Trigger Happy
- Wind-Up
- Chill
- Rosy Brawl
- Roller Brawl's brothers
- Raptor
- Razor
- Rayner
- Ranger
- Ryder
Plot[]
Roller informs Willoughby and Mason that Knuckles and Spyro are in the elevator to the penthouse. She tells them to release her mother and brothers when they have Knuckles and Spyro and asks them not to hurt her friends. Willoughby and Mason get into position and when the elevator reaches the penthouse, Willoughby fires her gun repeatedly and mercilessly. But when the smoke clears, Willoughby and Mason discover that all there inside of the elevator is Knuckles' hat and a red mascot costume, which confuses them. Willoughby and Mason hear a voice on the ceiling and see Knuckles and Spyro hiding there, Knuckles throws a punch that hits both agents while Spyro glides down and Roller then reveals that she had anticipated her father's betrayal, so, after telling her classmates of what had happened while making sure that she was telling the truth thanks to Hex's magic, Echo gave Spyro a wireless BlueTooth earpiece so that he and Knuckles could listen to what was going on. Flashing tells Willoughby and Mason that they messed with the wrong warriors as Knuckles and Spyro add that it was a big mistake.
Knuckles and Spyro then begin to fight against Willoughby and Mason and they easily dominate the fight as Spyro finally uses his chaos energy to amplify his powers while Roller and the other cadets sneak through the penthouse to save the vampiress' brothers and mother. Wind-Up tells them that since he had accidentally handcuffed himself many times, Eon gave him a master key to free himself. Wind-Up uses the key to free Rosy and Roller's brothers, but Ranger refuses to let Roller or her friends be the heroes and he prefers to use an FBI technique in which he dislocates his thumb to free himself, despite Rosy and a majority of the cadets telling him to let Wind-Up unlock the handcuffs.
Meanwhile, Knuckles and Spyro easily manage to defeat Willoughby and Mason and they tell them that everything will end at that moment, Cynder asks Knuckles and Spyro if they are okay and the purple dragon tells her to stay back. Using the distraction, Willoughby fires 2 rings to trap Knuckles and Spyro, but Knuckles doesn't fall into the trap again and punches the rings, which fly off in opposite directions. The rings open portals that begin to suck and spit everything out and the agents are dragged by the portals while Knuckles holds onto the ceiling and Spyro digs his claws in the ground at a fair distance away from the portals. Willoughby is sucked by a portal, which makes Mason laugh, but his amusement disappears when he sees her being spit out of the other portal and hits him, causing them both to be sucked in. The portals attract each other and close, disappearing Willoughby and Mason forever and possibly killing them.
As Spyro and Knuckles let go of their respective hold on the ceiling and the floor now that everything is settled down, the cadets tell the echidna that everything was awesome and that they can't believe the plan worked, to which Knuckles reminds Roller that the skating tournament is about to conclude and that it's her last chance to defeat the schmuck of Pete, which prompts Rosy to state that she would like 5 minutes alone with Pete in a trial by combat and Roller prepares to demonstrate her worth as a champion and warrior to prove herself as a Skylander. She is interrupted when Ranger manages to free himself from the handcuffs and shows everyone that he did it, Roller, her brothers and Rosy are disgusted to see his dislocated thumb as the cadets are either horrified to the point they look away, cover their eyes or go to the bathroom to vomit in the toilet from the sight and Knuckles praises Ranger's battle wound while Spyro shows concern over Ranger's wound.
At the tournament, Pistol Pete makes his entrance to the bowling alley. But after the commentators finish Roller's introduction, she still hasn't entered the alley. After repeating the introduction multiple times, Roller is still not there. Pete, thinking Roller was either distracted or killed by Agents Willoughby and Mason, concludes that Roller isn't going to make it, lifting up the trophy and announcing to the audience that he wins the tournament by default, much to the rest of Tooth Quake's anger. Suddenly, Roller shows up, telling Pete to put the trophy down, much to the happiness of her teammates. Pete insults Roller multiple times, saying nobody knows "who the hell she is". Despite Pete's attempts at making Roller surrender, she refuses to give up, starting the game and getting a shred on the first frame with her family and classmates cheering her on.
At the bar, Knuckles and Spyro watch the tournament on a TV screen. Knuckles comments to a blue mascot character sitting next to him that Skylands is "truly a strange little planet", to which Spyro agrees with but knows that it has its good sides. Knuckles orders a large challah bread to share with Spyro, possibly because he enjoyed it after having a Jewish meal with the Brawls in a previous episode. As the tournament continues, both teams compete fiercely, with each team member getting a perfect score. While Knuckles and Spyro are engrossed in the tournament as they have their snack, they suddenly hear a scream from outside the building. Rushing out to investigate, they are caught off-guard and beaten up by The Buyer's mech despite Spyro's best efforts to fight back.
In the final moment of the tournament, Pete manages to get an edge, giving Roller a chance to score a shred and win. Pete challenges Roller, asking if she is strong enough to beat her own father. Roller responds that she has learned a lot from her family, friends and from Knuckles. Pete tries to undermine Roller's confidence once again, calling her a loser, but she proves him wrong by successfully performing a triple axel and winning the tournament. Just as Tooth Quake begins to celebrate their victory, Knuckles and Spyro are thrown into the bowling alley, urging Roller to grab her friends and have them get everyone to safety before Knuckles gets pulled back outside by The Buyer, prompting Spyro to chase after his brother. While everyone else runs away in a panic, Roller and the other cadets courageously rush outside to help Knuckles and Spyro.
The Buyer smashes Spyro to the ground and drains all of Knuckles' power, absorbing it into his mech, which knocks Knuckles out cold. The cadets stand up to The Buyer but realize that they are bluffing once his mech starts getting closer to him. Luckily, Tooth Quake, Rosy and her sons give Spyro and the cadets backup, giving them Agent Mason's gauntlets and some balls to throw at The Buyer's mech. The cadets encourage Knuckles, telling him everything they have accomplished throughout the adventure. Just as they are out of balls as the Buyer prepares to grab Spyro and take his own powers, Knuckles wakes up, saves Spyro and gets his power back from The Buyer's mech while declaring Skylands as his home, unleashing The Flames of Disaster. Knuckles performs a Drill Attack on the mech, destroying both its arms, and then jumps in the air. The cadets rush over and see Knuckles heading for the giant ball over the National Skating Stadium. Roller launches one of her gauntlets at the giant ball as Hex does the same with Skull, Food Fight with his tomato blaster, Echo with her bubble beam, Cynder with her electric breath and Flashwing with her crystal tail beam, causing it to fall as Spyro burns down the beams in front of the ball with his chaos energy-enhanced fire breath to help out. Knuckles grabs the falling ball and throws it on the mech, killing the Buyer.
Back at the stage, the skating commentators make a comment, saying how similar the incident was to a 1974 tourney where an extraterrestrial also showed up, but unlike Knuckles, it was not red. Pete makes an attempt to steal the trophy even though he lost, but is knocked out by Rosy, letting Roller pick up the trophy and celebrate the victory with Knuckles, Spyro and the other cadets as Rosy, her sons and the rest of Tooth Quake beat up Pete as revenge for his cruelty.
Shortly after this, Knuckles, Spyro and the cadets start driving back to Skylander Academy on their motorcycle while listening to Roller's new music mix that Echo helped her create.
Upon arrival, they are greeted by Eon, Hugo, Jet-Vac, Pop Fizz and the rest of the Crystalwing Clan, who are then told of what had happened. Scratch, having gotten a scolding from Eon about her earlier behavior, apologizes for being too harsh on Knuckles as Eon, inspired by the adventure that his students had as well as seeing how much the cadets have learned from Knuckles, allows the echidna to continue his teachings as long as he, Spyro and the cadets serve a month-long punishment of community service to make a class in the academy for Knuckles so he can keep doing his lessons to the students, to which they accept.
Later that night, Spyro visits Knuckles' room and asks his brother to talk about his tales about his time in his own clan, his homeland; the floating land in the sky: Angel Island, and his travels before becoming a member of the Crystalwing Clan, to which Knuckles accepts as he feels it would be keeping the memory of his tribe alive by telling other people about the history of the tribe.
Transcript[]
What Happens in Reno, Stays in Reno/Transcript
Continuity[]
- It is revealed that Spyro and Knuckles were tipped off by Roller Brawl about the trap alongside the rest of the other cadets, who planned it for happen after Roller Brawl secretly informed her friends of what was happening without Mason and Willoughby's knowledge.
- It also reveals that Hex's magic also allows her to detect the presence of lies in the words of those she listens to.
- Mason and Willoughby are defeated and sent to parts unknown.
- Tooth Quake wins the Championship, breaking Pete's winning streak.
- Knuckles defeats the Buyer with the help of Spyro and the cadets.
- Rosy, the other members of Tooth Quake and Roller Brawl's brothers stop Pete from stealing the trophy and the money Tooth Quake rightfully earned.
- Spyro now accepts his chaos energy and uses it as part of his powers since Who's Your Daddy?.
- Scratch apologizes for her behavior towards Knuckles in The Warrior, which is accepted.
- Knuckles, Spyro and the cadets return to the academy, where they are given a month-long punishment of community service by Eon to make a class for Knuckles so the echidna can continue teaching the cadets the ways of the echidna warrior.
Trivia[]
- The title of the episode is a spin on the phrase "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas".
- The Buyer's death in this episode is first character to die onscreen in the series.
- Notably, this episode is one of the rare instances of swearing in the franchise, as the words "Damn" and "Hell" are uttered several times throughout the episode.
- Coincidentally, similar to the previous "Trivia" pointer, Shadow the Hedgehog has said the word "Damn" before, most notably several times in his 2005 eponymous game.
- Knuckles' scream where he saves Spyro, Tooth Quake and the cadets from The Buyer was reused four times in Sonic X Skylanders 3: Project Shadow.
- The scene where Knuckles and Spyro both eat challah bread, and the scene where Bad Breath, Wind-Up, Food Fight and Trigger Happy say the line "The Flames of Disaster!", became internet memes.
- Unlike canon, the aftermath of the series is revealed.
- As of this episode, the series as a whole serves the prequel to Who's Your Daddy?, essentially having the timeline return to the main series.
- Eon's punishment of community service to have Knuckles, Spyro and the cadets to make a new class in the academy is identical to how Clavell repurposes Team Star's bases as training centers in Pokemon: Scarlet and Violet's Starfall Street adventure.