The Renegade Hero

Brigadier Brightlight races away from Bedlama with Mumbo Jumbo and Buzz-Saw on his tail, and Stargazer activates Hawk Haven's warp shield in time to keep the Mob out. Brightlight brings bad news: Governor Zander, the leader of Bedlama, is taking orders from the Mob. While Steelwill patches Brightlight up, the SilverHawks set off to investigate.

At Bedlama's space port they find armoured space vehicles and mega-missiles by the ton, enough to conquer Limbo. Bedlama City is locked up and empty except for Mumbo Jumbo and Buzz-Saw, who have been ordered by Mon*Star to stay out of fights; the SilverHawks beat them anyway, only to be stopped by the governor's police for assaulting innocent visitors. The governor apologises for the misunderstanding and insists his people are the most peaceful in the galaxy, but his shadow gives him away as Mo-Lec-U-Lar. He traps Quicksilver, Steelheart and the Copper Kidd on his balcony in molecular tar and calls in Buzz-Saw and Mumbo Jumbo for target practice. Steelheart breaks free with Steelwill's help, and Bluegrass brings a hyper laser welder down from the Mirage for the others.

Brightlight, recovering, tells them Mo-Lec-U-Lar has turned his own police force against him and that Mon*Star is holding the real Zander. Mayday, the Sonic Hawk, switched to tracking mode, leads the team to an asteroid in the Delta Group, where the governor sits with no guards in sight. On Brim*Star, Mo-Lec-U-Lar reports to Mon*Star, who is counting on Melodia to stop the rescue so that Mo-Lec-U-Lar can go back to Bedlama in Zander's form. Melodia throws up a wall of sound, Bluegrass holds it down by putting his guitar into negative feedback, and the others bring Zander out. Mon*Star tells Melodia to take more music lessons. On Bedlama, the space troopers are back under the command of the governor and Brightlight, the mega-missiles are defused, and Zander thanks the SilverHawks on behalf of his people.

The Mob takes over Bedlam, and prepares to overthrow Limbo.

Steelheart: "Yes, I'm okay. Just strained my telepathic circuits breaking out of that stuff."

"Finding Governor Zander should be as easy as follow the birdie."

"Because next time I want you to harmonize the SilverHawks out of the galaxy!"

Leonard Starr's script never says who the renegade of the title is, but the best candidate is Brigadier Brightlight, who opens the episode running from his own planet with Mumbo Jumbo and Buzz-Saw on his tail, and whose news, once Steelwill has patched him up, is that Governor Zander is taking orders from the Mob.[1] A soldier who flees his own government to warn outsiders is a renegade, and the rest of the episode sets out to show why he was right to go.

An office and the man sitting in it are two different things, and the Mob's plan depends on nobody noticing. Bedlama's police, its space troopers and its stockpile of mega-missiles all answer to the governor, and the Mob's plan is to replace the governor, so that all of it answers to them without a shot fired. Mo-Lec-U-Lar takes Zander's form, and from then on the police take their orders from an impostor. When the SilverHawks capture Mumbo Jumbo and Buzz-Saw in the empty streets of Bedlama City, the police arrive and charge the heroes with assaulting innocent visitors, and the Mob's two heavies become the injured party!

The unmasking is the best piece of plotting in the episode. The false Zander is all warmth and apology, sorry about the misunderstanding with his police and keen to show off how quiet and secure his city is, and he is caught out by his shadow: "Look at his shadow." A shapeshifter is hard to catch, and Starr gives the team a way to see through him that only needs somebody to look at the floor. Mo-Lec-U-Lar can copy Zander's face and his manners, but not his shadow.

The standout moment is smaller, and it belongs to the Steel twins. Trapped in Mo-Lec-U-Lar's tar, Steelheart forces her way out with her brother's help, and afterwards she admits she has "Just strained my telepathic circuits breaking out of that stuff." Then she thanks him, and there is a brief, warm exchange between a sister and her little brother that we rarely get from this pair.[2] Bluegrass has the other good turn, holding back Melodia's wall of sound by putting his guitar into negative feedback, and admitting "Yeah, but I don't know how long I can keep this up, Skipper."

The weakness is the second half, which settles the Bedlama plot offscreen. Mayday tracks the real Zander to an asteroid in the Delta Group, the rescue is guarded by Melodia alone, and Mon*Star's plan to send Mo-Lec-U-Lar back to Bedlama in the governor's form never gets its chance.[3] The planet is handed back in a single report from Brightlight, with the troopers under his command again and the mega-missiles defused. The likely reason is the slot: a cold-open chase, a street fight, an unmasking, a trap and a rescue leave no time for the scene the premise promises, in which the real governor faces the police who stopped his rescuers.

It closes on the soldier. The real Zander offers the gratitude of his citizens, and Brightlight has his troopers back. Bedlama's police followed the false governor without question, and only Brightlight ran. A neat idea, resolved in a hurry.

1 ^ Brightlight met the SilverHawks on Bedlama in Magnetic Attraction, where he had caught Poker-Face.

2 ^ The exchange is "Thanks, little brother." and "Anytime, sis." Earlier, while she struggles, someone reassures her with "Little Will is helping!"

3 ^ Mayday is switched to tracking mode for the search, the radar tracker the Steel twins built him to be in The Fighting Hawks. The Delta Group asteroids, according to the space charts, are being bought up by rich folks for vacation homes.

1. Brigadier Brightlight returns from Magnetic Attraction; by the end the space troopers are back under his and the governor's command.
2. Mo-Lec-U-Lar spends the first half as Governor Zander and is found out by his shadow; he traps three SilverHawks with what he calls his molecular tar.
3. Mayday's radar tracking from The Fighting Hawks is used here, switched to tracking mode to find the kidnapped governor.
4. Steelheart says breaking out of the tar strained her telepathic circuits, and the twins call each other sis and little brother.
5. Hawk Haven's warp shield keeps the Mob out in the opening chase.
6. Bluegrass counters Melodia's wall of sound by putting his guitar into negative feedback.
7. Mumbo Jumbo and Buzz-Saw are under Mon*Star's orders to stay out of fights, especially with SilverHawks, and fight anyway.
8. The closing quiz picks up on Mars from the previous episode's lesson: carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and water in the form of ice.

5 names enter the series in this episode.

• Bedlama Police Force
• The Governor of Bedlama
• Delta Group
• Brigadier Brightlight's Vehicle
• Armored Space Vehicle

Appearance lists compiled from the episode articles on the ThunderCats wiki, checked against this site's encyclopedia. Names we have no entry for are shown without a link rather than left out.