Episode 39: The Love Epidemic

Click here to watch episode 39.

Plot
The episode begins with a brief recap of the first 34 episodes - the transcript of the recap is written below.

"A while back, in the peaceful land of Adrellia, all was well... until Brutus attacked, alongside armies of his evil minions. Infamous villains, such as the Dark Spirit, returned to wreak havoc. However, out of the blue arose two brave heroes who go by the names of Drake and Rachel, [sic] rid Adrellia and its neighboring kingdoms of evil."

Rory is seen at a Red Carpet event, presumably following the appearances of Drake and Rachel. King William anxiously appears, but has his pants pulled down by a hooligan. Scared, he dashes into his castle, and ends up passing by the animal training room.

The Turtums, alarmed, cause a stampede and eventually end up breaking some of the equipment belonging to the Adrellian Castle.

King William, after reading a poem to the Adrellians, realizes how empty his life has been without his wife. Alan enters the room and informs him of the Royal Ball some of the ladies in the castle have been planning. King William agrees to the Royal Ball, as "they'll surely go out with the king."

King William, as the host, anxiously makes a speech on the stage to officially begin the Royal Ball. Sad, he goes to get himself a drink, but runs into Christina, whom he falls in love with. The scene ends with a short music video to "Close to You" by The Carpenters.

Meanwhile, Brutus awakens, and orders that his assistant, Simon, drafts an outline of a comeback plan to show Adrellia and the other kingdoms that he wasn't dead as they thought he was.

Drake, Rory and Rachel are at the apothecary, in search of a cure to the epidemic in Trellutor. Phillip, the apothecary owner, leads them to two unhelpful nerds. Phillip then directs them to Medrellia, and to his brother who makes maps, for a map to Medrellia. A "To Be Continued" screen is shown.

Reception
Episode 39 received very mixed reception. The average review score was 7.6/10. It's been noted by some that it was the best episode of the series yet, and that the animation, plot and structure was good. Others, however, noted that the animation, plot and structure was poor. The voice acting has been mostly praised, and the episode attracted a few more fans.

It passed judgment with a peak score of 3.85, and won the award with a 3.76.

Trivia

 * It broke episode 7's record of longest episode, with a whopping length of 7 minutes and 54 seconds, including the credits.
 * It's the second daily award of the series, and of the second season.
 * Episode 39 could pass as the season premiere, as it does a fairly accurate job of recapping the previous episodes.
 * This episode is the most voted on episode of the series as of March 24, 2013.
 * This episode marks the return of the "In the previous episodes..." screen.
 * This is the first episode to have more than one author on Newgrounds.
 * The Dark Spirit was a callback to the older episodes, as he was briefly mentioned in episode 7.
 * The summon sound effect and image was taken from Kingdom Hearts.
 * The waterfall stock video was also used in an episode of Strawberry's Break.
 * The "MISSION_AV39" screen's image was from the preloader of episode 13.
 * Some of the jokes (such as the poem of the pie-loving goldfish) were conceived a year before episode 39 was even worked on.
 * Episode 39 went through several rewrites.
 * The "Close to You" music video was very loosely inspired by this: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/501691

Goofs

 * When Rory is walking through the forest, it's barely noticeable, but the graphic loop of his arms resets itself.
 * The starting point of the zoom-in on the Dark Spirit was completely different from the initial shot.
 * When the two hooligans are high-fiving, we can see the unfinished drawing of the guy on the right.
 * The boxes that said "EAS" and "EL" respectively are reverted to two boxes that say "EL" when the crayon dropping destroys the cardboard easel.
 * In one shot in King William's private chambers, a table with a Monopoly game that has King William's face on it is seen. However, it disappears in the following shots.
 * Nat's part glitched because of the excessive shape tweens.
 * In the shot of the moon, there is a purple border at the bottom.