| "Turning Point (Spider-Man episode)" | |||
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| Spider-Man (1994 TV series) episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 41 |
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| Written by | Marty Isenberg Robert N. Skir James Krieg John Semper |
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| Production code | 310 | ||
| Original air date | November 16, 1996 | ||
| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Spider-Man episodes | |||
Turning Point is the season finale for the third season of the Spider-Man animated series.
Contents |
Spider-Man decides to stop taking orders from Madame Web. At OsCorp, Norman Osborn, with his Green Goblin suit on but his Goblin mask off, has just completed changing the Time Dilation Accelerator. Then he gets on his glider and creates a portal with the Accelerator and goes through it. Later he attacks an armored truck and begins stealing all the money, aware that Spider-Man would arrive but wondering what is taking him so long. Just before the villain leaves, Spider-Man punches him, causing him to fall down on his back and the villain is pleased at his arrival. The Green Goblin throws a pumpkin bomb towards the wall-crawler to distract Spider-Man, allowing him to take off on his glider. After the villain leaves, Spider-Man searches around the city for the Green Goblin. But, the Green Goblin is following him and every time Spider-Man turns around, the villain goes into one of the portals he creates with the Time Dilation Accelerator. Spider-Man then goes into an alley to change back to Peter Parker and his identity is revealed to the Green Goblin as he was still following him around. Then he gets into his portal, promising he will concoct a plan to finally kill Spider-Man / Peter Parker.
Meanwhile, Harry is having a birthday party. Peter and Mary Jane are finally a couple and go to the party. Peter wonders if Norman Osborn knows that he is Spider-Man. Peter intentionally sets off the fire to create a diversion in order to prevent Norman from revealing his secret. Everyone escapes but Norman is left behind at the burning house. The Green Goblin appears and kidnaps Peter. Peter breaks free and puts on his Spider-Man costume. A battle erupts just before the Green Goblin leaves to kidnap Aunt May. Spider-Man arrives on time and the Green Goblin decides to switch targets from Aunt May to another person. Mary Jane, thus, becomes the new target. Later, at Mary Jane's house, Mary Jane and Anna Watson are talking about Peter. The Green Goblin arrives and attacks. Mary Jane and her aunt try to escape, but the Green Goblin activates his knockout gas. Spider-Man arrives but it's too late since the Green Goblin has already kidnapped Mary Jane.
Spider-Man then swings off to save Mary Jane and follows the Green Goblin all the way back to the George Washington Bridge. Spider-Man jumps on the Goblin and knocks off the Time Dilation Accelerator from him. The web-slinger then notices that Mary Jane is half awake and can fall off the Bridge at anytime. When he tries to save her, the Green Goblin, laughing menacingly, throws a few bombs at Spider-Man that knock him off. Luckily, he grabs onto one of the cords that hold bridge together. Meanwhile, the Green Goblin starts climbing to get to the Time Dilation Accelerator but accidentally has the rest of his remaining pumpkin bombs fall off. He ignores it and gets back to getting to the Accelerator. Unfortunately for the Goblin, Spider-Man saves Mary Jane from falling off the Bridge. Mary Jane finally wakes up. The Green Goblin is furious about Spider-Man beating him to the roof, so he activates his glider by taking out his remote and has it fire out a pumpkin bomb towards Spider-Man and Mary Jane but Spider-Man dodges it as whilst also picking Mary Jane up. The bomb misses, hitting part of the ground of the roof, splitting it apart, causing a quake in which both Mary Jane and the Time Dilation Accelerator fall off. Mary Jane falls into one of the portals the Time Dilation Accelerator accidentally created when it fell off, sending her into limbo and Spider-Man arrives too late and does not see her fall into limbo.
Spider-Man blames the Green Goblin for Mary Jane's supposed death. The superhero attacks him on his glider. The Goblin tries to create a portal to save himself but the Time Dilation Accelerator glitched and created an unstable portal. It cannot be turned off with the Time Dilation Accelerator. The Goblin activates his glider again with his remote to have it sneak up on Spider-Man and push both of them into the portal. Spider-Man lowers his body to the ground and Green Goblin is pushed in, also destroying the Accelerator on his chest and the portal closes with the Goblin's scream being heard. Spider-Man calls Madame Web and she instantly appears after yelling that it cannot end like this. He asks her if she can bring both of them back, promising that he will do anything she wants but Web says she is unable to help. Web says this is path he chose and once the decision is made, there is no turning back. She also says this is yet another thing that he has to learn. Spider-Man unmasks himself yelling that he's tired of Madame Web, her riddles, her lessons and her supreme arrogance, and that she should leave him alone. Web tells Peter he's still the Chosen One and, when the time comes for the Ultimate Battle, she will return and send for him. As Web disappears, she says Peter cannot escape his destiny. After Madame Web disappears, Peter still mourns the loss of Mary Jane. Meanwhile, Mary Jane falls around the mysterious dimension and tries to call Peter for help.
This episode takes elements from three Spider-Man comic stories. The first is Amazing Spider-Man #39 when the Green Goblin figured out who Spider-Man was, kidnapped him and flew him around in the sky on his glider in public with his Spider-Man suit on but his mask off.[1] The second is Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #2 where Norman Osborn held a dinner party with the intention of exposing Peter Parker as Spider-Man. Peter similarly staged a diversion and fought Osborn.[2] The third is Amazing Spider-Man #121-122 in which the Goblin kidnaps Gwen Stacy, and takes her to the Brooklyn Bridge. During the ensuing battle, Gwen fell off the Bridge. Spider-Man caught her with a web but the sudden stop broke her neck and killed her instantly. Spider-Man blamed the Goblin for her death and almost killed Osborn for revenge, however he stopped himself from doing so as it would have made him just as bad as the Goblin. The Goblin died anyway later when he tried impale Spider-Man with his glider. Instead, Spider-Man dodged it and the glider impaled the Goblin himself (he managed to survive the incident, however, due to a healing ability).[3]
Due to the show's censorships of characters not getting killed and since the show's creators did not want to introduce a character like Gwen Stacy who would die, they replaced her with Mary Jane Watson.[4] Instead of killing her and the Goblin off, they simply had them fall into limbo, caused by portals created by the Goblin's Time Dilation Accelerator.[5]
This episode was reviewed by many fans and critics as being the best episode of the entire series, because of the good acting, the drama and emotions about how Spider-Man thought Mary Jane was dead and tried to kill The Goblin, the intensity due to the action, and that the episode served as a turning point (hence the title) in Spider-Man's life, as Mary Jane fell in limbo and Spider-Man would never see her again in this series, which also adapted the famous storyline in the comics, The Night Gwen Stacy Died.[6] This episode currently holds a score of 9.2/10 at TV.com.[5]
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