Episode 7: The Brotherhood of Night
Thundarr, Ariel and Ookla are riding through the haunted forest of Washington DC when they hear the sound of people in peril along with the howling of wolves. Turns out that the people, who live in the ruins of the Capitol building (too soon?) are being menaced by a werewolf pack who are culling the tribe to add to their numbers, but the heroes manage to drive the werewolf pack into retreat. At Dawn the werewolf pack transform back into humans, and their leader, Lord Zeeban, reveals his intention to bring the wizard Infernus into their fold, which according to him will make them invincible.
The heroes arrive at a village not realizing that the villagers that greet them are actually the werewolves, and a fiery phallus known as a lava worm erupts from the ground, prompting our heroes into battle. Thundarr tricks the lava worm into destroying itself by cutting a hole in a nearby bridge with his sun sword, and the worm’s master Infernus appears on his sky sled and admonishes the heroes for defending the secret werewolf villagers. Infernus makes a halfhearted attack on Thundarr before fucking off on his sled, and Thundarr, being an idiot wizard bigot, pledges allegiance to the duplicitous Zeeban and his pack. But after a day of traveling night falls and the pack changes into werewolves literally behind the heroes’ backs, and during a quick battle Thundarr is scratched, transforming into a werewolf at the shocking commercial break.
The admittedly badass Thundarrwolf attacks Ariel but Ookla intervenes, and Ookla chases Thundarrwolf across a fallen Washington Monument and into the cleansing waters of the National Mall pool. Thundarr is transformed back to a human and Ariel posits that the water is somehow magical — with the spirit of America? — and is the key to reversing the werewolf curse. They track the pack to Infernus’ robot fortified volcano lair, and seeing it under attack they side with Infernus to help him fight off the werewolves. But Infernus is an ingrate and betrays them with a magic staff, trapping them in the stronghold as it sinks into molten lava. Thundarr frees them with the sun sword and the heroes race to their horses, who appear to be hovering in mid air for no reason, and escape the volcanic death trap.
Infernus retreats to the Smithsonian, but the pack follows him and attacks him near the dinosaur display, turning him into one of the pack. The heroes arrive and battle the now “invincible” pack, utilizing questionable Smithsonian attractions such as a blue whale display, to their advantage. Werewolf Infernus uses his magic staff to re-animate a dinosaur skeleton that attacks Thundarr, but the boastful if dim-witted barbarian climbs on top of it and severs its skull with his sword. Infernus then fires a fireball at Thundarr, but Thundarr deflects the fireball back into the magic staff, stripping the werewolf wizard of his power and ending the battle.
The heroes cure the werewolf pack in the magic waters of the National Mall pool but Infernus remains an ingrate, though now a powerless one. Lord Zeeban transforms back into his original form — that of a snarling wolf — and Ariel remarks that he must have been the werewolf originator. Thundarr is just relieved that the nightmare is over, and the heroes leave our nation’s capital in a better place than when they found it.
Post apocalyptic werewolves in Washington, what’s not to love? Only drawback is that the Thundarr as werewolf segment was too brief for my liking, there was more drama to be minded there. 5 stars.