Back at the SWAT Kats' hangar, T-Bone and Razor are repairing the Turbokat, and have a conversation that leads to a rather stupid exchange, with Razor commenting: "This is all too weird, Chance. I mean, Dark Kat, Feral, it’s like deja-vu." To which T-Bone exclaims "Deja-
who?" Bright, T-Bone ain't. Clarifying, Razor says that not only are they going after Dark Kat, but they also have to rescue Feral (although for all
they know, Feral could’ve already saved the day by now, so their total lack of faith in the guy is pretty obvious). As we’ll soon see, Razor calling this situation "deja-vu" is somewhat dubious.
Razor asks if T-Bone remembers "what he to us that day." Whether he means Feral or Dark Kat is unclear at the moment. "Remember?" T-Bone replies. "How could I ever forget!" The picture gets all wavy and, ooh, it’s flashback time! An unknown number of years ago, we see Chance and Jake as part of a squadron of Enforcer pilots chasing after Dark Kat. Ah, finally, three episodes in and we get the title characters' backstory! And since "
The Wrath of Dark Kat" was actually the fifth episode made, this means Hanna-Barbera waited until they were five episodes into the show before bothering to explain how Chance and Jake became the SWAT Kats! And in a flashback, no less! This episode was written by Jim Stenstrum and was one of only two he'd ever do for the series, the other being "
The Metallikats," which also relies heavily on a lengthy mid-episode flashback. And boy is this one a doozy.
Anyway, Dark Kat, flying a purple fighter jet that looks like a smaller version of the Fear Ship, is gunning for the newly built Enforcer Headquarters. To showcase how brave and skilled our boys are, despite Headquarters being in danger, the other pilots accompanying Chance and Jake bug out (!) and flee rather than continue pursuing Dark Kat. Such valor! "You two are nuts!" cries one. "We're breakin' off pursuit!" Why? All Dark Kat has done so far is fly between two skyscrapers, a maneuver easily replicated by Chance. I can't decide if the other Enforcers in this scene are idiots, cowards or both. After some drivel where Chance mocks them for refusing to continue accompanying them in the defense of their own HQ ("Get yourself some donuts!"), he and Jake close in on Dark Kat, who is preparing to fire a missile at "the justice machine that protects Megakat City." We finally get a good look at Enforcer Headquarters here, and it's one of the most impractical-looking buildings ever, featuring a runway built some thirty or forty stories off the ground!!! Not only is it one big target, but imagine being some poor Enforcer pilot whose jet malfunctions during takeoff. Once you clear the runway, you're a goner. Just forty stories straight to the pavement. I'm unsure why the Enforcers don't have their own airfield in a different part of a city without so many tall buildings rather than deploying all of their aircraft from this one building that's just begging to be blown the hell up.
Jake fires a missile, which he of course announces aloud, showing us he had this habit long before he was ever a SWAT Kat. Though because it's a regular missile that doesn't do anything except blow up, he just yells "Missile deployed!" The missile hits Dark Kat's jet, and for some reason, hitting it in the rear area near the engines knocks out his weapons. Big D is most displeased to discover he can't shoot. As Chance moves in closer so Jake can finish the job, Commander Feral, evidently flying by himself without any wingmen or even a navigator/weapons officer of his own, flies in behind and kind of beside them and demands that they back off and let him finish off the villain. Chance protests that they can't because they've already achieved missile lock. I admit I don't know enough about fighter jets, but it was once explained to me that once a missile has been locked in on a target, it's difficult if not impossible to disengage it; you
have to fire it or else. So when Feral ignores Chance's protest and repeats his demand ("I'm
ordering you to back off!"), he's being very much the idiot the show wants us to believe he is (more on this in a bit) and Chance is very much in the right, order or no order. The argument continues for a bit before Feral just decides to disregard Chance's insubordination and fly past him and Jake.
What occurs is open to interpretation. "
The Wrath of Dark Kat" is not one of the episodes we have much behind the scenes material for, which is a shame, as that stuff would really help figure out what the hell happens here. What happens is that Feral passes too close to Chance and Jake's jet and he knocks them aside. What's not clear is whether this was done on purpose or on accident. Admittedly, neither interpretation paints Feral in the best light, but if it's the former, then he's an asshole, and if it's the latter, then he's just reckless. Because he's one of my favorite characters and because of how he generally acts elsewhere in the series (more on this in a second, as well), I choose to believe he was just being reckless and impatient as opposed to deliberately trying to ram his own men aside and out of his way. But, as mentioned, neither interpretation really makes Feral look very good.
Anyway, upon being knocked out of control, Chance and Jake have to eject, and their pilotless jet flies nose-first into the top floor of Enforcer Headquarters, resulting in a huge explosion that engulfs the entire top portion of the building. The explosion distracts Feral, and when he turns to look at it, Dark Kat takes this opportunity to escape. When Feral looks back, the enemy jet is gone. "Dark Kat's gone! All because of those two young hotshots!" Well, more like due to
your hotheaded impatience, Commander, but whatever.
Another thing to comment about is that throughout this entire sequence, the visors on Chance and Jake's Enforcer helmets go up and down. They're down in some shots, hiding their eyes, and up in others, letting us see their eyes.
Whatever.
Later, Chance, Jake and Feral are standing down on the sidewalk looking up at the raging inferno that used to be Enforcer Headquarters. Chance and Jake comment that it's a "heckuva loss" and a "monumental disaster." Feral, waving around a piece of paper that I'm assuming is supposed to be the repair bill (how did he get it so soon?), says he's glad they agree, "Because this is the last act of vandalism you are ever going to perform on this city!" Hoo boy is he ever wrong! Chance gets angry at Feral putting all the blame on him and Jake, and tells him it would've have happened if he hadn't butted in and demanded they back off. Feral loses his temper even more than before and promptly fires them. "That's it! You're off the force! Both of you!" Now, this is where the blame shifts from it being all Feral's fault and falls onto Chance and Jake's (Chance moreso than Jake) shoulders.
Chance is angry, and rightly so, and up until now he and Jake have been in the right. However, if he'd kept his mouth shut and accepted whatever punishment Feral planned to hand out to them (his dialogue suggests he was going to ground them) and worry about proving themselves in the right later, at a time when tempers aren't so high and in a place a lot less public than the sidewalk out in front of Headquarters, they could've salvaged their careers. Instead, Chance gets in his commanding officer's face, accuses him, however justifiably, of incompetence and blame-shifting, and apparently expects no consequences for this act. If he has such a problem with authority, it makes me wonder why he became an Enforcer in the first place.
Chance and Jake say that they don't need "this crud" and try to pull the old "You can't fire me, I quit" reversal on their C.O., taking off and tossing away their helmets and walking off, prompting Feral to point out that they're "off the force, but not off the hook." The repairs to HQ are going to be quite costly, and he intends to make them pay for it by sentencing them to work it off in the salvage yard. Which seems like something that would have to be ordered by a judge or something, not arbitrarily handed down by the commanding officer of the police force. But then again, this is a world of talking cat people, so whatever.
Anyway, this flashback is often used as ammo by fans who hate Commander Feral to point out what an unreasonable dick he is, and that his entire motivation is not protecting the city but his own personal glory. And they're right. Feral is like that... but only here in this flashback. In the entire rest of the series, including this very episode (!), Feral is arrogant and short-tempered, yes, but no glory hound, and his problem with the SWAT Kats isn't that he's jealous of them, but that they're reckless and cause too much damage (to say nothing of making him and his men look like idiots). Jim Stenstrum does say Feral is jealous of the SWAT Kats in his script for "The Metallikats" (or at least that this is Callie's interpretation for Feral's hatred of her heroes), but he appears to be the only person working on the show (besides whoever wrote the very unflattering bio for Feral in the press kit, where he's described as "power hungry) who thinks that. As noted, everywhere else, Commander Feral hates the SWAT Kats because he thinks they're reckless and irresponsible. He doesn't agree with their "ends justify the means" approach to defending the city. So he's ordinarily a much more nuanced character outside of this flashback, even in this very episode. Another interpretation of how Feral is portrayed here is that the flashback is from the SWAT Kats' (primarily T-Bone's) P.O.V., and so naturally it's going to be one-sided and kind of self-serving and paint Chance and Jake in the best light and Feral in the worst one. As further evidence of this, see the above mentioned incompetence/cowardice of the other pilots who give up the chase early on for no clear reason.
We cut to Chance and Jake driving to the salvage yard in a green car that we never see them use again (a generic model recycled a lot throughout the show), where they're greeted by Burke and Murray, who mock them as "those hotshots who wrecked the new Enforcer building." Burke gives them the keys to the yard and Murray taunts them that at their salary, "it should only take a thousand years" to pay off their debt. Then, after he explains that they'll be checking on them and reporting back to Feral on their progress, he and his brother get into their big ugly dump truck and drive off.
Chance starts angrily kicking random junk around, complaining, "We’re pilots, not junkmen!" Jake however has a solution, noting that "there’s enough military salvage here to build our own jet." Uh-huh. So they built the Turbokat
from scratch?!!?? Chance, being sensible for once, asks what they would
do if they had their own jet. "Get back in the air and get back at Dark Kat, and all the other ugly criminal scum who rear their heads in Megakat City," replies Jake. “Only this time… we do it our way!” Boy, I miss heroes who did heroic deeds because of a sense of duty, not because they’re out for personal revenge. Anyway, Chance and Jake high-five one another as the flashback finally ends, and we return to the present to see that T-Bone Razor have also high-fived one another. T-Bone says, "Time to take care of Dark Kat! But this time, we do it
our way!" Funny, I thought they’ve
been doing it their way for the past three episodes…
Cut to the interior of Dark Kat’s secret volcano lair, which is appropriately dark and spooky with lava flowing everywhere, and the Fear Ship sits parked in front of a tunnel whose opening is a big demonic mouth with fangs and such. A portion of the floor pulls away as what looks like a big bomb rises up into view on a wheeled platform. Dark Kat approaches it, talking an offscreen Commander Feral, identifying the weapon as the "Doomsday Device." Boy, this guy sure likes the word "doomsday." We now see that Feral is bound and gagged nearby, looking really worried for a change as Dark Kat rants, "In less than one hour, I will destroy Megakat City. From its ashes I will create a new city, where lawlessness is the law of the land: Dark Kat City!"
Okay, I have to admit, as far as evil schemes go, I rather like the idea of a megalomaniacal supervillain being so in love with himself that he wants to build his own city and name it after himself, crafting it in his own image. And Dark Kat is certainly in love with himself, if the big, monogrammed "D" on his metal shoulder guard is any indication. Still, a bomb plot is rather passe once we’ve already had stuff like dinosaurs and mutant bacteria monsters.
As for Feral, he's tied to a rock and gagged, and not very happy about it, either. And for some reason, he's really afraid. I dunno. I mean, yeah, Dark Kat is a big guy, and his plan will kill a lot of people, but he's no danger to Feral himself right this second. If he was going to kill him, he would've done it already (and, no, I have no idea what he hasn't). So Feral's over the top, bug-eyed reaction with profuse sweating is pretty unintentionally hilarious.
