Tribes: The Truth About Messie

Plot Synopsis
In the town of Loch Mess in Netopia, a creature has been sighted and named Messie. It's gaining media attention everywhere, and the owner of the land, Rich Dotcom is taking advantage of the publicity to make a lot of cash. Rich also thinks the creature could hold ties to Mu and decides to search there for the OOPArt. Geo and Omega-Xis reach the same conclusion after Zack brings Messie to their attention. With nothing to lose, they head out to Loch Mess.

The town is overrun by tourists and local shops trying to cash in on the phenomenon, but one international documentary maker, Gerry Romero, thinks the whole thing is a hoax, and sets out to prove it. When he takes his crew out over the loch however, they're ambushed by none other than Messie himself, who turns out to be a left over Mu EM-Being! Messie possesses Romero and Wave Changes into the giant monster, Plesio Surf!

When MegaMan finally arrives, Plesio Surf starts attacking the village and Rich Dotcom. Surf is sick of all the noise from all the construction nearby, and wants to drive everyone away from the lake. MegaMan tries to ask him about the OOPArts, but Plesio Surf isn't in the talking mood. After blasting MegaMan with a tidal wave, Plesio Surf returns to the sea, figuring he's made a warning to the humans.

Geo decides to have a look around the town while he thinks of how to handle the situation, and he suddenly runs into Sonia, who is a little pissed that Geo didn't even bother to call her to come out to Loch Mess with him, so she makes him buy her lunch. As the episode comes to a close, Rich Dotcom comes up with another plan to use MegaMan for his own gains.

Critique
Plesio Surf's character got a pretty decent rewrite as well, and I suppose it makes sense not to have him as a recurring character. He's pretty much limited to fighting in the sea, and how many episodes do they really have time to work around themes like that? Romero is different too, being more of a genuine reporter than a glory hogging ratings monger. Neither of these changes particularly affect the quality of the show though.

There's more character interaction in this episode than straight up action, although it isn't particularly bad though. One of the strengths of this season is Sonia's character development, which was mostly sidelined last season, and you can see her developing an attachment to Geo, albeit passive-aggressively. She gets jealous and upset at things that she expects Geo to pick up on and the like, and you'd swear they were dating already. Just like Luna, Sonia is hiding her feelings through aggression. Geo is too popular for his own damn good.

Although there aren't any major developments in the characters, the tiny amount they squeeze in to the shows fast paced nature is nice to see.

Rating: Thumbs up!