Darkness Shall Rise

Darkness Shall Rise is the first episode of season 3 of Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu. It aired on July 18th, 2012.

Plot:
The episode starts off with the Ninjas rebuilding Ninjago City when Sensei Wu and Nya ride up telling them they need a new house. Meanwhile, Skales is attempting to convince the Serpentine to let him be their leader when Lord Garmadon appears and tells them they should follow him. After reconstructing the destroyed Destiny's Bounty and creating the Black Bounty and threatening the Serpentine to follow him, they agree. However, instead of flying the Bounty to Ninjago City, Garmadon is flying in the opposite direction to the Golden Peaks to unlock the full potential of the Four Golden Weapons. He tells the Serpentine that he doesn't plan to destroy Lloyd, but the ninjas and Sensei Wu so Lloyd won't reach his True Potential.

Meanwhile, the Ninjas are house hunting. The only house they can afford turns out to be a one bedroom, one half bath apartment without lightning. Jay and Kai argue they need a better place to train Lloyd, and agree to buy an expensive hero suite that's way out of their price range. To make enough money for rent, they each search for jobs. Jay takes up a job delivering pizzas, Cole becomes a security guard at the bank, Zane becomes a chef at a restaurant, and Kai is hired to be the entertainment at a kid's party. However, the jobs end up being so difficult that when they return home, they're too tired to train Lloyd and they're nowhere close to making rent.

Meanwhile, the Serpentine generals are not about to let Garmadon lead the Serpentine and brainstorm on a diabolical plan to convince the Serpentine to follow them. While delivering a pizza to them, Jay overhears their plan but is captured before he can alert the other ninjas.

The first step of the plan is for the generals, minus Skales, to rob the bank. Since Cole was too busy napping, he was unable to stop the generals until they got away, but overhears them saying they're heading for the subway. Kai and Zane are instantly alerted, but are fired when they leave or are distracted from their jobs and head off to stop the Serpentine, and Cole is consequently fired for sleeping on the job.

The three ninjas head to the subway and manage to infiltrate the Serpentine's train and fight the Serpentine, but have difficulties without their weapons. However, they reveal their plan wasn't to steal the money, it was to distract the ninjas so Skales could kidnap Lloyd.

In the apartment, Lloyd is alone, playing a video game, when Skales breaks in. Although he attempts to get out, the door is locked and he can't unlock it. Just before Skales could get Lloyd, they both hear Sensei Wu and Nya on the opposite side of the door.

Back on the train, Zane shows the others the makeshift weapons they can use to fight them off. The ninjas manage to corner them, but before they can defeat them, Cole notices the train is heading straight for Jay. They find that the train is automatically controlled and pull the break before it can hit Jay, although the Serpentine get away.

The four head back to the apartment to find it empty. They instantly regret taking the jobs and agree that loosing Lloyd was their greatest loss. However, Sensei Wu and Nya appears in the doorway with Lloyd. The ninjas realize they didn't need all of the fancy stuff and only need each other. Realizing this, they move to the crowded apartment they were first shown so they wouldn't be distracted and could train Lloyd. When Kai asked what happened to Skales. Sensei reveals that he's been thrown in jail, but he swears to return.

On the Golden Peaks, Garmadon successfully manages to merge the four weapons into the Mega Weapon. Although it appears to be painful, he tells the Serpentine he's never felt more powerful, stating he will destroy the ninja once and for all. The episode concludes with Sensei Wu stating he "feels a great disturbance in the force".

Trivia

 * Sensei Wu's line at the end of the episode was a reference to Star Wars.