Before the three can be caught, they're rescued by a stranger named Griff. He leads them to Lower Mobius, a refuge for other Mobians who tried to escape Robotnik. On the way there, he tells the trio of the dangerous Rat-Bots, including a powerful mutant one. They arrive to the underground village of Lower Mobius, powered by an energy chamber, that already seems to be on its last legs. Sonic's main focus in this strange new land is to feast on the chili dogs.
But his feast is cut short when he has to deal with some rat bots. They are essentially giant rats with electric tails. He manages to easily best them with his arrogant athletic skills and a useful steam pipe. When the mutant arrives, Sonic whips out the power ring to make the save. The sight of the power ring interests Griff most of all. He inquires about the ring's power and asks to see it while Sonic goes off to consume his chili dogs. In other words Sonic just gave his source of power to someone he barely knows to do whatever intentions he has in mind. This is one of those "Sonic doesn't use his brain too well" episodes.
Griff's intentions with the ring become clearer as the power chamber is losing power at an accelerated rate. And instead of trying to reason with the Freedom Fighters to help somehow, he suddenly doesn't trust them, and his best idea is to woo Sally, much to the jealousy of Antoine (I guess that's a valid enough reason for him to be on this mission?). With Sonic learning of the wooing, this becomes a triple threat woo-off. From flowers, to bad poetry to essentially fighting amongst both Antoine and Sonic. So, in order to show griff as a major a-hole, Sonic and Antoine just engage in a sausage fight, annoying Sally.
Griff takes the trio back to Knothole. Sonic is ready to ditch Griff, while Sally is fine to bring him along. Griff breaks his own vehicle as she takes him to the power ring pool. Even despite Antoine's discretions, Sally shows Griff a power ring. That night, while Antoine sleeps at the lake (proving his amazing guard skills), Griff sneaks into the pool to find the rock that generates the rings, and steals it.
While Griff steals the rock, Sally and Sonic engage in some sarcasm tennis over the issue of Griff and Sonic's patented arrogance. Antoine finally awakens and informs the two that the power ring pool isn't working. After Sonic swims to examine it (killing what feels like so much established "Sonic can't swim" canon), he sees the proof himself and the three come to the conclusion that Griff grifted them.
As Griff powers the town, the ratbots return, causing damage tot he town. Despite Griff's best effots, he can't take them out. Sonic, however, manages to easily best them. Griff manages to finally apologize, telling him that he needed it for the generator. Sonic takes him to task over what happened, and breaks the stone in half, giving Lower Mobius their needed power.
"Warp Sonic" is a decent episode. Definitely one with a stronger story than most this season. But something about it feels... unsatisfying. Maybe it's the lack of Robotnik, or the general sense that the conflict feels forced. Griff's turn does feel a bit forced, especially since he seemed to be fine enough with the Freedome Fighters before any real conflict with the power rock began. And thus we create a conflict where a character who shouldn't be considered a villain does a villainous act in the name of saving his town, but potentially dooming the rest of Mobius. It just doesn't gel well with me. Plus, giant robot rats don't come off as interesting foes either. Really could have used Robotnik here. Despite that, I did like Griff despite his actions, there was some decent humor in Sonic and Antoine vying for Sally, and some of that great sarcasm tennis between Sonic and Sally. That's enough to make this episode still worth a watch.