Departure

Hannah is going fishing by the City in the Sea while Jack and Kirgo watch from the docks. Jack notices a fence being erected around the sea; Kirgo states that's Scharnhorst's new safety measures to keep predators out of the dock's waters. It's powered by batteries and needs turned on every time the alarm is activated, and is low-voltage so it's only enough to ward off any creature, but it's never been tested before.

It's about to be given a crash course - there's a thresher approaching! It tears straight through the fence before it can be activated and streaks towards Hannah's boat!
 

The crew bail as the thresher tips it over, prompting Jack to head out on a speed boat to pick them up. He manages to rescue Hannah just before the creature leaps into the air and ploughs through the ship.

Hungry for more chaos, the thresher proceeds through the canals and into the city - Hannah believes it's hungry as the fishing boats are no doubt disturbing its food supply, though Jack believes the city is the last place it'll find food. Guess again - there's a fish market taking place on the pier, which the thresher gatecrashes and gobbles up the goods.
 

Jack blasts a bridge overhead of the creature, causing debris and rubble to fall on its noggin, but that only prompts it to go after him instead. his attempts at blasting it with a smokescreen fail due to the creature's speed, though it decides enough is enough and simply dives beneath the waves, leaving the city. Hannah believes something needs done about this thresher problem, and if need be, she'll be the one to do it!

She, Jack and their buddies head to the cliffs overlooking the ocean where a herd of zekes have stationed themselves. Jack is reasonably dubious of Hannah's scheme, but goes ahead with it, propelling a head net overhead, ensnaring all of the flying beasts and then pulling them up the cliff.

Taking the zekes back to the docks, they dump several barrels of fish into the ocean and unleash the zekes, who begin chowing down and setting up a new home on top of a nearby building. Jack continues ribbing Hannah on her idea, reminding her that Scharnhorst isn't going to be happy, but she mentions that recently she received an invitation to return to her home of Wassoon to start a marine research project. She feels she's appreciated back home, and would take the job in an instant.

Needless to say, Scharnhorst stomps in to chastise Hannah about allowing these flying vermin into the city; Hannah tries to convince her that having the beasts around would make for a better early warning system than the electrified fence (worded in the kindest way possible, of course), but Scharnhorst's having none of it. She wants the zekes out of the city, though Hannah tells her that if the zekes go, she goes.

"Don't let me keep you from packing, dearie."

OH NO SHE DI'INT

Later at Jack's garage, she stomps on over to vent about her scuffle with Scharnhorst, though he basically agrees with the governor, stating that her stupid idea of turning the city into an "oversized birdhouse" was asking for trouble. Enraged that even the closest person she has to a friend is calling her a dunce, she takes a spare jeep from his garage and drives out on her own, returning to Wassoon.
 

Jack, in a moment of childish behaviour, ponders if it was something he said that caused her to leave, but he knows she'll come crawling back sooner or later. After a moment of thought, he feels he has finally touched a serious nerve with Hannah, and drives out in search of her.

Hannah is having difficulty in the rough terrain, and having accidentally wandered into a shivat's territory, is not having an easy time. She hopes to slip by without a sound across the bumpy road...

... only for her car to lose traction, slide down the slope and crash.
 

She remains unscathed despite this mishap, though Jack arrives on the scene to remind her that she won't survive for long out in the wilderness. She begrudgingly allows him to follow after, but doesn't want to be spoken to. He tries to convince Hannah that she's acting pigheaded and isn't listening to reason, but she just turns the insults back on him.

Back in the City in the Sea, the electrified fence is nearly repaired, though Scharnhorst is not happy at all about the zekes still lingering around her property. Captain Noc and company step in to try and force them out, but comically inept individuals armed with big sticks are no match for winged scavengers, and are simply chased back the way they came.

Hannah's car engine eventually overheats due to her desire to stay away from Jack, and he uses this opportunity to try and calm her down - the City in the Sea is a place where her ideas and talents can help a lot of people, and although they may not appreciate her now, all it takes is a little time for her to win them over. However, a comment about her idea being "bird-brained" pisses her off once again, and she insists upon returning to Wassoon.

Jack lets her go ahead with it and goes back the way he came... only to get corned by not one, not two, but three shivats! ... shivats that then proceed to scarper after a moment's delay. He eventually discovers the reason - a huge battle tank is approaching fast!

Hannah is still on her way, muttering about how ignorant city-dwellers are, but upon hearing what sounds like a booming cannon from far behind her, she fears for Jack's safety and turns back. Tenrec is on the run from the humongous tank, which is firing explosives at him with reckless abandon. Similarly reckless driving keeps him in the safe for a while, but a lucky shot flips his car over.

The captain of the tank steps out to mock Tenrec, and the mechanic knows straight away who the man is - Lars Striker, former captain of the city guard, now exiled to the wastelands because of a failed hostile takeover. Obviously in the mood to dump exposition about his ideals and history, he kidnaps Jack and takes him to his chamber.

Hannah witnesses the whole event and follows the tank. Lars explains that he found this tank in the very wilderness he was exiled, and his time out there gave him time to think about the state of the council - it's weak! Lars believes they should use a stronger approach to governing the city, and with this huge toy and its many cannons, he hopes to take it over by force; that, or just blow the place up something fierce.

Jack cracks wise about how a little war is all the world needs, but Lars claims this will encourage progress and slaps him around for being a pacifist coward, just like the rest of the people in the City in the Sea. This little scuffle is interrupted by a crew member informing the captain that the engines are overheating again, and Jack is told to take care of the problem.

The mechanic discovers that the homebrew fuel used generates too much heat for the cooling system to handle; Lars and many others, however, are aware that Tenrec is known throughout the land for his secret fuel formula, and the mad captain wants it for himself. And he has ways of making Jack talk.

Namely, by throwing him off a freakin' huge cliff.

Despite falling god knows how many feet, Jack lands in a large river with barely an injury, but is knocked unconscious by colliding with a jagged rock. Hannah's on the scene and drags him to safety, but considers that her last act of gratitude before returning to Wassoon. After some nagging, she agrees to help stop Lars from blowing up the City in the Sea.

Speaking of the city, how's the zeke problem faring? Scharnhorst laughs at the idea that the city guard couldn't even force the creatures out, and decides to do it herself. After nearly being thrown off the edge of the building by one of them, decides that maybe just shooting them would make more sense.

Following the tank, Jack realises that once the tank is past the mountains, the City in the Sea will be within firing range, so they'll need to slow it down. Hannah hops in the jeep and speeds in front of the tank, despite Jack's claims they can't just talk the crew into stopping, she reminds him that she is a diplomat after all. He uses this opportunity to sneak aboard.

Lars asks why he shouldn't just roll right over her, and Hannah spews a load of rubbish about how the City in the Sea is defence-heavy these days, having gun turrets on top of every building and all manner of firepower. However, after Jack removes the cooling fluid and tinkers with the pipes to make the tank overheat a lot quicker, he's caught by a guard, spoiling Hannah's ruse.

The two are chained in the engine room and begin bickering with each other, but after getting chastised for her "gun turret on every building" claim, Hannah appears genuinely hurt. The two make up by Jack apologising for his hurtful remarks and Hannah stating she stole a weapon when the guards weren't looking.

Using it to release themselves, shoot the pipes and beat up the guards, Hannah and the rest of the crew bail out, though Lars grabs Tenrec before he can take the leap.

Lars Striker is not at all pleased that someone is opposing his will, and if he can't fulfil his desire, he can at least die taking Jack with him! He scraps with Tenrec as the tank thunders along towards the cliff, what with nobody steering the thing, but Jack leaps against the mad dictator...

... and pushes him off the tank and onto the ground, allowing them both to watch the tank slowly tip over the side... and then explode before it even starts falling.

Back in the City in the Sea, Lars is put in prison where he belongs, and Jack remarks that the rest of the man's crew are now just a bunch of worthless scavengers with no one to direct them. Noticing that the zekes are in a tizzy, Hannah tells the dock guard to sound the alarm - zekes feed off the remains that larger predators leave behind, and their current behaviour means that a thresher is approaching!

This warning is early enough for the guards to rush out to the fence and activate them just in time - they lightly zap the thresher enough to send it squealing back the way it came. Crisis averted!

Scharnhorst, however, has used this opportunity to set explosives in the zekes' nest, only to notice what's taking place on the docks. She stomps down to complain about Hannah returning, only for someone to inform her that the zekes alerted them of the thresher. Loving an opportunity for praise, she claims that was her idea all along! Hannah is miffed, but Jack assures her he'll try to make sure she gets some credit for the idea.

Back at Jack's garage, Jack finally, well and truly encourages Hannah to stay in the city - he claims she has talents and skills she can teach others and is a huge help, but after some goading from her, admits that he just likes having her around. She happily agrees she'll stay in the City in the Sea, but if Jack tells her that her ideas are dumb any time in the future, he'll be the one who needs to get out of town!

Written by David Wise. I might have to say this is my favourite episode of the whole series simply because of the fun interaction between Jack and Hannah, but the fact it's also got the best animation in the series by miles is another factor.

Would it be possible for four people to haul a huge swarm of pteranodons up a cliff? Although there's a lot of them and they are bigger than humans, Enchanted Learning gives an estimated guess that they only weighed around sixty pounds on average. Use maths to solve this question.

Jack and Hannah beat up two guards before they escape the engine room, and you never seem them carrying those poor sods with them. Did they get cooked when the tank blew up? That's harsh, man.