"The Thundercats discover the entrance to the Tower of Omens that contains Book of Omens. Its a race against time as the group must pass all the traps ahead of them before Mumm-Ra gets to the book first...'
Lion-O begins to practice with the Sword of Omens and struggles with mastering his Sight Beyond Sight ability. Meanwhile, Mumm-Ra forces Jaga to show him the location to the Tower of Omens, the hiding place of the Book of Omens. It's also revealed within a Mumm-Ra flashback that the Thundercats of the past actually worked for him and retrieved the Eye of Thundera under his orders. Meanwhile, out in the jungle Snarf accidentally reveals the entrance to the tower. Upon entering, the Thundercats face different puzzles that involve keys, traps, water floods, and finally a outside area that seems like a complete dead end. Lion-O uses Sight beyond Sight to discover that there is actually a switch below them, which Tygra hits with his whip. After reaching the Tower's main area, Mumm-Ra appears and transforms into his true form so that he can reach the Book of Omens before the cats. Mumm-Ra takes out each of the heroes, with Lion-O finally ending up helpless against him. However, the captured Jaga uses the last of his remaining power and sacrifices himself to force Mumm-ra to retreat. Thanks to this the Thundercats are left with possession of the book, but Lion-O opens it only to discover that the pages are blank.
This series never ceases to amaze me about what it will bring to the table with its vast world and many colorful creatures. I never ever thought that Mumm-Ra would actually have been the commander of the past Thundercats, and he once traveled in outer space. I guess if there is a show that involves talking cats with swords, it's not a stretch for spaceships to exist somewhere in this setting. The strength of this episode is that it was really just one big adventure that flowed beautifully. The different traps that the Thundercats encountered within in the tower were well designed and I liked all of the interactions and teamwork done to solve them.
However, I can't help thinking that they found the Tower of Omens too easily. This tower is supposed to be designed so that nobody would be able to find it. The sensible way to find it would have been for Lion-O to get a hang of Sight Beyond Sight, but instead there's a random discovery out of nowhere. I know the writers just want to get along with the plot, but having it to be so convenient just makes the story look bad. It also didn't look right when right after Jaga gave up his life, the group seems to quickly get over it as if it never happened.
On a good note, I really enjoyed the fight between the Thundercats and Mumm-Ra here. Mumm-Ra is a villain who actually isn't completely all powerful, yet still a very formidable foe. Villains like this are great and can be much more interesting than the simple idea of being the ultimate force to stand in the way of the heroes. The ending also delivered a great cliffhanger to conclude things on a good and mysterious note.
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