Episode 87: Jiggity-Jig
Takes place February 8-9
Paul returns to Vega to check up on the situation, finding that Tamaran is peaceful and the Spider Guild Nest is fulfilling all its treaty obligations, but there's a war on Karna, with the previously enslaved karnans rising up against the gordanians. Seeking to minimise casualties, Paul negotiates a ceasefire, with a view to possibly exiling the gordanian clans.
However, while he is visiting the Crown Imperium to discuss the situation, he feels a disturbance in the orange light, and follows it to find the Psion Wombworld reduced to slag by a planetary bombardment. Adam Blake meets him there to inform him that in his absence, Blake already negotiated peace between most of Vega's factions, leading to this assault. Paul isn't bothered by the psions' deaths, but is upset that he wasn't contacted for help in evacuating their prisoners or reducing casualties among the assault force, and doubly so that he was in contact with several people who deliberately kept him in the dark.
The title likely refers to a nursery rhyme, "Home again, home again, jiggity-jig."
- Adaptational Heroism: Lantern Komand'r is showing far more contentment and general mental health than any canon; she's even been able to repair her solar powers (which had been damaged by an illness).
- Alternate Universe:
- Near the end of the episode, there's a chapter from Earth 12, with the Justice League reviewing their recent defeat at Paul's hands (from episode 85, Doppelgängered).
- The episode ends with Common Sense Paul finding loopholes in the Green Lantern Corps rules that may allow Alan to recharge from Hal Jordan's personal lantern.
- Artificial Meat: The local Spider Guild nest, in their new position as a vulnerable but valued ally of the other factions, has taken to cloning meat rather than hunting it. One of their officers admits to Paul that he isn't sure why they were commonly eating sapient species to begin with, except habit and cultural inertia.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Paul is kept unaware that Adam Blake negotiated a peace agreement among the powers of Vega that involved teaming up to genocide the psions until right after the deed is done.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Prince Ryand'r's public defection to the Omega Men pretty much forced the Citadel to retaliate in order to save face. In this case, by kidnapping his sisters for Psion experimentation.
- Not Hyperbole: When Supreme Commander Gaharrugh says that he'll accept the gordanian Grand Council's surrender when they crawl up to him and kiss his boots, he thinks he's joking. But as Paul points out to him, with the gordanians over a barrel, if that's really what he wants from them, it's not off the table, and he needs to seriously think about what to demand from them."Over what sort of distance do you want them to crawl? They'd have difficulty getting here from their bunker-."
- One Degree of Separation: The Earth 12 Justice League that Illustres Paul beat on Earth -14 comes from the same Earth 12 that Peter Wynn, the version of Paul who rehabilitates supervillains with money and no ring charge, comes from. In fact, it was Illustres Paul's voice sounding similar to Peter's that made Bruce Wayne look into Peter in the first place.
- Telekinesis: Paul and Lantern Xor meet up with Adam Blake, who is able to use his telekinetic powers to travel faster than light. It's the only type of travel that Tamaran isn't jamming, since he's nearly the only one who uses it. This foreshadowed the fact that FTL telekinesis was used to destroy Wombworld.
