Recap / Voltron: Legendary Defender S2E7 "Space Mall"

Zany space mall adventure and near death experience, all in one episode!

Allura: What did you do? Take a nap?
Shiro: Not exactly.

Coran and the Paladins go off to find more teleduv lenses needed to repair the castle's wormhole while Shiro stays behind to strengthen his bond with the Black Lion. While the Paladins end up with a crazy adventure at the Mall, Shiro comes face to face with Zarkon in order to fight for control over his Lion.

Tropes for this episode include the following:

• Aliens Steal Cattle: The Grey-like alien also sells Earth cows.
• Anti-Villain:
  • Vrepit Sal, the chef that forcibly hires Hunk for eating his food. He understandably wants payment for the "free samples," and is won over when Hunk reveals his cooking talents.
  • Varkon the mall cop who's just doing his job by chasing down what he thinks are space pirates in disguise.
• Astral Projection: When Shiro faces off with Zarkon for control over the Black Lion, they fight on a form of astral plane.
• Big "NO!": Pidge's screams can be heard from outside the ship upon realizing there's no way to play the game she and Lance bought^note fortunately, later episodes show they managed to daisy chain a bunch of adapters to make it work.
• Black Comedy Burst: The only other restaurant employee is an old alien who tells Hunk she's been there since she was a child.
• Breather Episode: For the Paladins, at least, this is a fun trip to the mall. For Shiro and Coran, however, their missions are very important.
• Calling Shotgun: Lance calls this when they're headed to the mall.
• Chekhov's Gun: Coran uses one of his Olkari cubes to purchase the lenses that they need.
• Chekhov's Skill: Hunk's Supreme Chef skills get him out of trouble when he makes the mistake of eating food without paying.
• The Comically Serious: Varkon takes his job seriously, even as the outer-space equivalent of a mall cop on a Segway.
• Denser and Wackier: This was the silliest episode of the show so far, until "The Voltron Show!".
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Coran didn't consider that the Paladins may need money to go shopping for lenses. Not that his currency helps, but still.
    • Adding to this, he never considers taking his 10,000 year old currency to an antique store to see if he could sell it for modern currency.
  • After digging in the mall fountain for loose change to buy a rare Earth video game, Pidge realizes that the Castle has no outlet in which to plug the console, or a television.
• Do You Want to Haggle?: Coran when he tries to get some lenses from a store clerk.
  • The knife-seller tries this with Keith, but he keeps repeating that his knife wasn't for sale.
• Fat Flex: Varkon does this in his introduction, briefly posing with a Heroic Build before his belly plops back to normal.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Coran tries to act like a pirate and bribe an alien girl at Information to find out where the black market is. The only problem? Ten thousand-year-old currency gets you nowhere.
• Girls with Moustaches: The blue-skinned alien that Sal employed before Hunk claims to have been there since she was "a little girl" and has a long grey beard in addition to speaking in an old woman's voice. This could just be Bizarre Alien Biology at work and caused some debate from fans on whether the character is either female or not before the novelization of the episode confirmed that the alien is indeed female and due to her voice actor being a woman.
• Greasy Spoon: Vrepit Sal's diner sells grotesque food prepped by a malfunctioning robot, until Hunk persuades Sal to let him cook.
• The Greys: The alien that sells Earth stuff resembles one.
• Heel–Face Town: The mall was originally a Wretched Hive full of smugglers and pirates before the Galra got ahold of it and turned it into a mall. The mall is so free of corruption (with the exception of one shady dealer), that the only security it really has is what amounts to a mall-cop on a segue.
• Honor Before Reason: Despite the fact that they have no money, Keith refuses to sell his rare knife to the swords dealer.
• Insignificant Little Blue Planet: Which is probably why the Grey-like alien wasn't able to sell anything.
• Lethal Chef: The robot chef at Vrepit Sal's made meals that didn't seem appealing to the diners. Hunk was shown eating free samples in the food court, but when he ate Sal's cooking, which he thought were free samples, he seemed unimpressed.
• The Mall: Where Coran and four of the Paladins spend the episode.
• Mood Whiplash: While the Paladins and Coran are shopping, or window shopping at the least, Shiro battles with Zarkon for control of the Black Lion.
• Mythology Gag: The show the mice do for Allura resembles a ballet show the mice do for the young princess in the original Go Lion/Voltron series.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Paladins ditching their pirate garb alerts Varkon to their presence. He deduces that they are space pirates and goes after them.
• Not So Above It All:
  • Allura wants to go shopping with the Paladins and Coran. Coran tells her no, to her dismay.
  • Pidge chides Lance for window shopping at an Earth store, the one place where the teludav lenses won't be. She then changes her tune when she sees a rare Earth video game.
• Old Money: You can't bribe people with currency that's ten thousand years old from a place that no longer exists.
• Pet the Dog: The mice put on dinner and a show for Allura to cheer her up when she's not allowed to go to the mall.
• Properly Paranoid: Coran ended up making the right call in not letting Allura come along, since Varkon the mall cop is Galra. If his sensors had picked up the Paladins ditching pirate disguises, they certainly would have alerted him to the princess.
• Punny Name: Vrepit Sal's is a play on the Galra phrase "vrepit sa".
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Varkon believes the Paladins are a threat to the Galra Empire because they're probably space pirates.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: A knife seller offers a large amount of money to Keith for his knife. Keith, who was only trying to figure out where it came from, says that it's not for sale.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Inverted and played straight with the main and subplot. Shiro, arguably the leas comical character of the main cast, isn't present on the hilarious mall trip to focus on his serious story involving the Black Lion.
• Shout-Out:
  • There are plenty of these inside the episode, starting from the Paladins' pirate costumes. Keith's outfit consists of Dragon Ball Z shoulder pads, Pidge has Kamina's glasses, Lance is wearing Vash's glasses and Taichi's goggles, while Hunk's armor looks similar to Alphonse Elric.
    • Keith's mask also appears to be Char's mask.
    • Hunk's mask looks a lot like a Psyco's.
  • The Alien selling Earth goods looks like the stereotypical little green man, with a 51 hat referencing Area 51.
• Tap on the Head: Lance gets knocked down by the mall doorway while he's gloating at Varkon during the team's escape. Varkon considers it a victory.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: When the food court's chef robot breaks down, Hunk offers to cook in its place. He ends up doing a better job, to the point that there's a queue.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • Coran finally finds a proper swap shop with the lenses that he needs.
  • Varkon manages to chase the "space pirates" away and sees Lance get hit on the head.
• "Which Restroom?" Dilemma: Pidge faces this when she's unsure of which bathroom to take, but just gives up and saying she'll just hold it. Even Hunk seems to be having trouble knowing which restroom to hide in. Keith just chooses one, implying he either asked, or just didn't care.
• Work Off the Debt: After Hunk mistakes priced food as free samples, the restaurant owner chains him to a dishwasher and makes him work dishes. He manages to pay it off by cooking for him instead.
• Your Mind Makes It Real:
  • If Shiro or Zarkon were to die in the alternate dimension, they would also die in reality.
  • Shiro believes the Black Lion had taken him outside the castle, but after fighting Zarkon, the lion reveals that they had never left.

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