After a two-month break, Volume 8 is back with the episode ‘Dark’, which also happens to be the 100th episode of RWBY as a series. While the first half of the season has mostly been build-up, this episode focuses more on the action that was promised in the Volume 7 finale.
‘Dark’ opens up in the holding cells where Qrow, Robyn, Watts and Jacques are held. They briefly talk about the violence that is going outside, before the side of the room explodes. Qrow narrowly avoids it in his bird form while Robyn seemingly gets crushed. Though it grabs the audience’s attention in the beginning, it loses some of that impact by not being relevant until the end – but more on that later.
Meanwhile, in the Schnee manor, Nora and Penny are being tended to by Klein, when a bombing run of Atlas knocks out the power to the building. May briefly checks up on Ruby’s group, and even though a good portion of this scene goes over what the audience already knows – Ruby laments about how things could have gone so bad with her allies comforting her by telling her to do what she can – the visuals of May’s airship flying through a battlefield of flying Grimm and the Atlesian air force is stunning, however brief it is.
With the power out, Willow Schnee mentions that the manor has a backup generator that isn’t attached to the city’s power supply. Whitley also comes up with the plan to save the people of Mantle – if he could get access into Jacques’ computer, he could use the Schnee Dust Company’s fleet of unused cargo ships and automated drones to help the people in the crater below Atlas to escape to safety. Even if Whitley was the heir to the company, it’s hard to imagine Jacques passing the reins of the business over to his son already. This is just a minor note though, as it is an interesting plot development.
As Ruby and Blake go to reactivate the power, there is finally some much needed character development between the pair. There hasn’t really been much relationship-defining moments on screen between Blake and Ruby – the only one that comes to mind is the conversation they had about naïve idealism back in the first volume. However, even if the dialogue feels a bit clunky here and could be trimmed down a little, it’s nice to finally see a development between the team members, especially the fact that Blake sees a lot of her younger self in Ruby, something that fans have theorised about before this moment.
“I know you don’t always know what to do, but that’s never stopped you doing something. I was like that as a girl, but time and a lot of other things took their toll on me. Then, I wasn’t sure if a girl like that could actually survive in the world… until I met you. It was a little strange at first because you were younger, but I’ve always looked up to you, Ruby. And I still do.”
Now this is where ‘Dark’ really comes into its own. RWBY has always worked best when it takes inspiration from the horror genre, and ‘Dark’ is stronger because of it. As Blake turns smiling towards Ruby, she notices a large form in the window behind her, which leads into a fight scene with the Hound. It quickly grabs hold of Ruby, growling ‘take the girl’. The people inside the manor can hear the commotion outside and Willow panics, disappearing deeper into the building.
Elsewhere, it looks like Watts’ programming is starting to take over Penny. Upon first viewing, it was a little disappointing to see how tame she is when malfunctioning. At first, it looks like Penny is going to violently attack Klein when he tries to tell her to relax, but she just pushes him out of the way. Maybe it’s just a point of personal preference, but seeing Penny go full psycho would have been a strong addition to the horror elements of ‘Dark’.
As the fight continues outside, Weiss joins to help her friends while a new Grimm – an insect-like beast similar to a Centinel with giant claws like a praying mantis and the ability to project acid – starts to attack Blake. The Hound notices Penny in one of the windows of the manor and drops Ruby. This seems to be written as if it was a fake out, but the audience already knows that Salem charged The Hound and Cinder with getting Penny. So why show him having such an interest in Ruby in the first place?
The next scene felt a bit odd. As Penny is fighting with her programming, Nora holds her hand and tells her that no one can make her do what she doesn’t want to do. It will almost certainly come up later in the volume, where Penny’s soul fights against Watts’ programming, but here, amongst everything else ‘Dark’ has going on, it felt a bit cheesy.
When the narrative catches up with Willow, she’s in a new room of the house, looking to replace the bottle of spirits she lost earlier. However, she is startled when she hears the Hound break into the main foyer of the manor, Weiss close behind it. There are a few brief moments where Weiss listens for the creature, but Willow warns her daughter via her scroll just before the creature attacks.
Turns out Willow has discarded the bottle of spirits she was looking for and is instead tracking the Hound via the manor’s camera feed. It’s a nice brief piece of character development, watching a character who had previously emotionally abandoned her children to an abusive father discard her vices and swallow her own anxieties in favour of helping her family in their time of need.
Willow and Weiss work together to track the Hound, which happens to be just outside the room Whitley is working in. Again, there is another brilliant moment of horror, as Whitley quickly hides behind a desk as the Hound quietly stalks the room, followed by a chase where the Grimm hunting a fleeing Willow – who was able to distract the creature long enough for her son to escape, but not before he could activate SDC cargo ships – and her son, who are only able to escape the creature as Weiss is able to temporarily block off the creature’s path of pursuit with a wall of ice.
In the courtyard, Blake is still fighting the giant insect Grimm, but it’s clear she’s only just able to hold her ground. She pleads for help from Ruby, who is seemingly unconscious for her fall. However, at the last minute, she saves Blake just as it looks like the creature is going to kill her. It makes for some decent action, but it’s really affected by the dialogue – first, Blake’s comment about the Grimm being ‘more disgusting’, then what she says to Ruby:
“I don’t know if you can hear me, but I need you, Ruby! We all need you… Please… get up.”
“I could hear you.”
Back in the manor, Watts’ programming has taken over Penny, and she moves to leave the manor, only to be struck unconscious by the Hound. None of the group can get close enough to save her, but Ruby uses the power of her silver eyes to knock the creature back through a window, liberating Penny in the process. It doesn’t kill it however, as the group and the audience make a stunning discovery – The Hound crawls back up through the window, and under its flesh is a Faunus. He’s scarred and mutilated, but human. The human inside chants ‘Take the girl! Take the girl! Take the girl!’ as it makes a final lunge for Penny’s body. However, it is destroyed when Willow and Whitley push a statue on top of it, leaving the group stunned as the Hound’s remains disintegrate away to reveal a human skeleton.
‘Dark’ could have been fantastic if it finished off there, but the episode concludes with Cinder rescuing Watts from prison. The beginning and ending didn’t really fit into this episode – they feel so disconnected from everything else happening that they can only take away from an otherwise amazing episode.
However, ‘Dark’ is really strong overall. Though some of the dialogue writing could have used some trimming down, like in Blake’s conversation with Ruby or her courtyard fight, the writers showed their one of the show’s greatest strengths with having the Hound hunt Ruby’s group throughout the manor. It’s an amazing reopening to the rest of the volume.
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