Another episode, another bad title with Sonic in it. In this case, Sub-Sonic. We open to see Robotnik drilling into the ground to pump the oil from underneath Mobius. These drills are actually robot snakes, so Robotnik at least put some thought to his creations. Unfortunately his snakes awaken some sort of subterranean beast, and destroys a rather beautiful looking land below causing the waters of Mobius to be polluted.
Meanwhile, the freedom fighters aren't doing too well with their plant lif as their vegetation and trees are dying. Sonic is busy fishing and singing with his electric guitar. Hey, this isn't Sonic Underground. Cut that out! Sonic reels in a giant fish and hangs on as the fish drags him halfway through the great forest. Unfortunately he loses the fish. Sonic tells him of his fish tale. Removing some of the water in Sonic's ears causes a nearby flower to grow. So, whatever got in the water of Mobius is some sort of counter agent to Robotnik's pollution. Neat.
The freedom fighters search the water to find the water, but since they're on a boat, they conveniently head to a nearby whirlpool, sending them underground. They arrive in a polluted underground lake. Nicole is no help since the place isn't on any map. And to make things worse, their boat breaks. Oh, and they lose Antoine. That's bad too. Maybe.
After Sonic saves Sally and Rotor from a fall into a waterfall, the trio face a worse peril as the water boils and destrots the boat. they hang on the vines above to make their escape. They make it into the forest we saw earlier. After a tussle with carnivorous plants, Sally is the next to go missing. Sonic and Rotor discover a throneroom amongst a pile of rubble. Sonic hears a noise and investigates.
Leaving him to be caught by this pleasant fellow.
The creature blames Sonic for the pollution caused to his world. Rotor ends up falling to the pit below and finding the mysterious water. He manages to fix the issue with the dying trees while the other three are stuck in a muck pit. Antoine blames Sonic for this whole mess, which I guess is true. He's the one who brought up the whole growth water situation to begin with.
While Rotor avoids Robotnik's drill snake, he discovers the others close to drowning. He tries to get to them, but gets caught by a green tentacle. He manages to escape amd pulls out Sonic's power ring, allowing for Sonic to save Sally. Oh, and Rotor saves Antoine. The trio thank Rotor for saving them as they have to plan their escape due to the snakes. However, they end up caught by the creature again. He tells them that they will die like his people have. He was king of a beautiful world, but his people were destroyed by the pollution. They trell him of Robotnik being the culprit as the snakes attack the creature.
Sonic heads to the surface to stop the drill, which ruins a ratehr happy day for Robotnik. he activates all of the snakes, but Sonic makes it in time ot destroy them and the rig. Rotor uses the green water to remove the pollution from the underground lake. The creature gives Sonic and the others a little bit to help with the withered vegetation. It manages to work, thus saving the day yet again.
Sub-Sonic is a pretty solid episode overall. The story was engaging, dealing with the dangers of pollution and its effects both above and below ground. The animation was solid throughout and the episode felt like more happened than in most Sonic episodes. It felt super rushed like most Sonic episodes (right down to the origin of the creature), but there was just enough going on to remain engaging for the 22 minutes. I especially like that the episode gave Rotor a chance to shine as a hero. He always felt like more of a background character, very rarely given a chance to shine (outside of Harmonic Sonic) so seeing him have heavy involvement in the adventure was a nice touch. Overall, for the penultimate episode in the season, it was far more enjoyable than I remembered.