Metal Urgency

The Metallikats escape from their creator Professor Hackle, who intends to “program out all [their] criminal tendencies.”

In search of their armored hovercraft, the Metallikat Express, Mac and Molly wind up at the salvage yard near Jake and Chance’s Garage , where they discover SWAT Kats headquarters! In a unique action scene, Clawson and Furlong, still in their civvies, must defend their own base from the robot gangsters. The SWAT Kats destroy the Metallikats’ bodies, but the tin- plated thugs survive as two disembodied heads crawling around on spider-like legs, and they soon continue their rampage by taking over two huge space exploration robots. There’s mayhem aplenty in this episode, but there’s also some of SWAT Kats’ best dialogue, as well as two character-driven scenes involving Commander Feral.

First, Feral and Callie Briggs finally have The Big Argument over the commander’s hatred of the SWAT Kats. Then Feral redeems himself at the end of the episode; in a powerful scene, he chooses his principles over a chance to capture his hated rivals. All this and a cameo by Hard Drive , who could ask for anything more? A+

In-Jokes: 1. Early in the episode, Professor Hackle and the Metallikats watch the SWAT Kats capture Hard Drive on TV, making a fool of Feral (as usual):

Hackle: “Such senseless violence. It’s all so disheartening.”

Mac: “Wow, Molly! That Feral hates the SWAT Kats even more than we do!”

Molly: “Why shouldn’t he, Mac? Those fighter jocks make him look stupid at least once a week!”

2. Hackle plans to turn the de-criminalized Metallikats into servants , Mac, a chauffeur, Molly, a housekeeper. He even buys uniforms which the Manges destroy when they escape his lab. However, Hackle must have had two spare uniforms, because they’re shown in the second season’s “Deadly Pyramid.” Appearances: Burke & Murray harass Jake & Chance yet again while the Metallikats watch. (Mac refers to the four as “dueling lowlifes.” He should talk!) Star Wars fan Lance Falk says, “Comedy characters aren’t my forte. I put [Burke & Murray] in there just so I could meet Mark Hamill.”

Lance Falk: “I wanted to do a big, blowout episode, and I wanted to do something with Feral. I thought Feral was kind of one-dimensional.” Falk expanded on Feral’s personality in “Metal Urgency”‘s finale, where the Commander refuses the defeated Metallikats’ offer to exchange the SWAT Kats’ secret identities for their freedom. “I wanted to show that jerk though he may be, he’s got a code , he has a line that he won’t cross, and that line is he doesn’t deal with scum. He doesn’t need to know anything bad enough to owe the bad guy. That moment is my favorite moment in the whole series, and I think it’s my best character writing for the show. I know it’s a kids’ cartoon, but that scene was really important to me, and all the other stuff was just a device to lead to that last scene.”

Animato summary written by Mark Lungo