Freak Out

"Reminiscence Whirlpools" and "Fear Whispers" focus on Trouble Contractor Kain's hidden childhood. When he revisits his home planet, Millie meets the retired space pirate who loved Kain's grandmother--and helped raise him after her death. Kain's wistful return is interrupted by the appearance of the icy blond villain who killed his grandmother 10 years earlier. His mere presence reduces the usually happy-go-lucky Kain to gibbering terror. Kain gets a lesson in exorcising personal demons from his old mentor Atlas McMahon, who was traumatized in a failed attempt to retrieve valuable chemicals from a planetwide industrial waste dump three years earlier. Atlas and Kain complete their aborted mission, achieving closure. Roy Glen attempts to use experimental matter-transmission technology to destroy the Swordbreaker in "Nightmare Appears." Canal foils his plan while Millie and Kain battle the whip-wielding Kali. After three hard-hitting episodes, director Takashi Watanabe gives viewers a breather in the fourth. Millie leaves the Swordbreaker in a huff and tries to return to her old haunts, only to realize she belongs with Kain and Canal aboard the ship. The Swordbreaker is a long way from Kansas, but Millie, like Dorothy, learns that there's no place like home. Unrated; suitable for ages 10 and up for alcohol use and some violence. --Charles Solomon