The second season of Netflix’s original animated series, My Dad The Bounty Hunter, has been released, bringing us all of the planet-hopping, gun-slinging, alien-battling adventures of the Hendrix family. While the first installment focused on Sabo Brok, aka Terry’s bounty hunter shenanigans, the second season majorly revolves around the personal struggles of Terry’s alien wife, Tess, or, as we later get to know her, Princess Janeera.
Although the introspective route raises some vital questions, the narrative flow of this season is way too jam-packed with the presence of a number of themes and subplots, to the extent that the conclusion seems unnecessarily stretched into three episodes. In the previous season, we also witnessed how the Hendrix family stood against the corporate giant, EHC, by destroying one of their operatives, the ruthless pursuer, Fixer. The EHC returns this season with a few more nefarious schemes up their sleeve, posing a threat that can change the fate of an entire planet.
Spoilers Ahead
Who Abducted Sabo Brok? How Did The Children Manage To Go To Space?
In the finale of My Dad The Bounty Hunter Season 1, the Hendrix kids Sean and Lisa got to know about their mother’s secret identity as an alien, and Terry decided to quit his bounty-hunting job to invest more time in the family. Months have passed since the events of the last season, and members of the Hendrix family have coped with reality in different ways. Sean is chronicling his space adventures into stories, which have found a fanbase in his school friends and teachers, while Lisa has become too disenchanted with worldly affairs after her unbelievable experience in space, and as a result, her grades are slipping. After reconciliation, Tess and Terry have moved in together, and as a stark contrast to his previous vocation, Terry has found a job as an employee in a shoe store in a local mall. In the first episode, as Tess calls Terry to check up on him, he states that it’s about time they shared one of their secrets with the children, and she conveniently avoids the topic, indicating she isn’t prepared to do so. Anyway, Tess later picks up Sean and Lisa from school, and the trio go to the mall during the end of Terry’s shift.
Meanwhile, by then, an alien bounty hunter had infiltrated the shoe store and, after a brief struggle, had managed to knock Terry unconscious. As Tess, Lisa, and Sean arrive at the mall, they see Terry being taken away by the bounty hunter in its spaceship right in front of them, and all they manage to do is watch helplessly. After returning home, Tess gets increasingly concerned about Terry’s fate, while the gravity of the situation doesn’t hit the kids as strongly, who are confident about their father’s abilities as a bounty hunter. However, Tess knows that Terry could be in mortal danger and prepares to venture into deep space to search for him. Lisa suggests that EHC might be behind Terry’s abduction and that Terry’s former contact, Kryll, might be aware of the details of Terry’s whereabouts. Lisa and Sean beg to accompany Tess in her search, but she is unwilling to take them into space. Once again, the kids try the old trick of hiding inside the car trunk, but to no avail, as Tess detects them early on and takes off after entrusting them to their grandmother.
Still adamant about following their mother, Lisa and Sean rummage through Terry’s stuff in the garage to find possible ways to go to space when they accidentally open the containment unit that captured the jelly-bodied alien fugitive, whom Terry had caught in the first episode of the first season. The alien tries to escape multiple times but gets entrapped every time, thanks to the containment unit’s recall button. The alien introduces himself as Blobby, a tech genius, and is forced to make a deal with the kids to take them to their father in exchange for his freedom. Using a few scraps inside the toolbox, Blobby makes a spaceship-detecting mechanism, which he uses to find out the cloaked spaceship of Fixer (which has remained stationary since the events of the last season finale), and operates it to take Lisa and Sean to the vast cosmos.
How Is Tess’ Past Connected With Terry’s Abduction?
In Glorlox’s spaceship (which Terry had stolen previously), Tess goes to Bucky Quanto’s to find out about Kryll, but that road seems to be leading nowhere as Kryll has passed away. She instead finds out about Glorlox, Terry’s former partner, who is now working as an employee at the Wings place. However, Tess’ past bounty is still active (which Terry was assigned with before he fell in love with her), and after one of the bounty hunters recognizes him, he alerts every other customer, creating a huge ruckus. Tess and Glorlox engage in a fight with the customers, and at the same time, Blobby, Lisa, and Sean arrive at Quanto’s as well. The Hendrixs, Glorlox, and Blobby somehow escape in Glorlox’s ship and decide to head towards the nearest EHC prisoner transfer station to search for Terry. Regarding the kids’ arrival, Tess remains furious for a while but later eases up.
The team infiltrates the EHC station by taking Glorlox as a prisoner, and he learns about the bounty hunter’s current location from one of the present aliens. Blobby helps Lisa bypass the digital security, and as he browses through the EHC database, he learns that Terry was not abducted by the corporation. As a distracted Sean secretly spies on the current EHC chief, Pam, we learn that the organization has created warp gates and also a new variant of AI bots. The team gets detected and rushes to return to the spaceship, and under Pam’s command, they are chased by a murderous AI bot named ‘Beta.’ The team reaches the spaceship in the nick of time, and Glorlox decides to stay to free his captive crew from the EHC station.
The team goes to the planetary counterpart of Las Vegas, Ocanom, where the bounty hunter who abducted Terry, Widowmaker, is present at the moment. In exchange for a large amount Tess and Blobby won at gambling (thanks to Lisa’s tips), they learn that the high council of Doloraam assigned him to capture Terry alive. The very name of the planet leaves Tess shocked, due to the fact that it is her home planet, from which she had fled in the past. The kids are surprised and elated to know that Tess’ real name is Janeera, the princess of Doloraam.
What Do We Get to Know About Doloraam?
Doloraam is this universe’s counterpart to the MCU’s Wakanda, with its proud people of color adhering strictly to their tradition and culture and depending upon a mystical crystal named Kalatite, which is only found on the planet and powers their defenses, infrastructure, and many other sectors. The Doloraami also share a special connection with the Kalatite, which enhances their physical capabilities during a tactile connection. Doloraamis are in an uneasy alliance with a feline humanoid alien species named Vunaari, whose leader, B’Caala (a tiger humanoid with jheri curls), was betrothed to Janeera. Representing the EHC, Pam has time and again approached the King and Queen of Doloraam, Odoman, and Gurira to gain their trust and subsequently gain access to Kalatite crystal, which can power their galactic expansion of warp gates, but to no avail. Secretly, Pam and EHC want to wrest control over the administration, trade, and every major sector of the entire universe using the warp gates, much like the real world colonizing European nations. B’Caala is also in cahoots with Pam and EHC, as he wants to see his ambition of becoming the king of Doloraam fulfilled.
Fed up with her predetermined responsibilities as a princess, Janeera fled from her home planet two decades ago, and at the same time, Terry was in his prime years as a bounty hunter, whom the Doloraamis had assigned to capture her. Terry and Janeera fell in love and settled on Earth, and years later, when Terry once again resumed his hunter job for EHC, the Doloraamis took notice and abducted him. Now, on the planet Doloraam, Terry is undergoing a series of rigorous trials for his betrayal, and his unwillingness to disclose Janeera’s predicament is only worsening his situation. However, when a despondent Odoman appears in front of Terry as a helpless father and pleads to know about his daughter Janeera, Terry reveals the entirety of it to him.
On the other hand, Tess, Janeera, and co. go to planet Veeger-79, where they meet her old Doloraami friend Adja and seek her help. Adja is unwilling to help Janeera as she reprimands her for abandoning her family, friends, and all forms of responsibilities, stating that she has abandoned the Doloraami way. In the meantime, Beta tracks down Lisa and Sean from surveillance footage and takes them away, and in efforts to stop it, Blobby’s other half gets taken away with Beta’s ship. Using the connection with his other half, Blobby leads Janeera and Adja to the EHC station, where the kids are held captive, and successfully leads them to their rescue. However, by connecting the dots regarding Doloraami’s situation and Janeera’s past escapades, Pam realizes her true identity and uses this opportunity to gain the favor of Odoman and Gurira by reuniting them with their daughter.
Did Janeera Reconcile With Her Family?
The moment calls for a celebration as not only the long-lost princess of Doloraam has returned, but also the Hendrixes have reunited after a prolonged separation. Janeera’s parents are elated after learning about her life on Earth, her family, and her experience as a mother. It is to be noted that Sean offered Blobby his freedom initially, but the alien chose to stay anyway and helped them in their escapades throughout. Janeera is still adamant about returning to Earth, which she identifies as her home now, much to her parents’ dismay.
B’Caala, whose ambition of becoming Doloraam’s ruler has been squandered in the aftermath of recent events, challenges Terry, who is the legitimate successor to the kingship, in a trial for the throne. The duo battles, but Terry loses while being distracted in his efforts to save a Vunaari child. Despite B’Caala’s win, the Vunaari disavow him for his petty, honorless conduct, leaving him alone and furious.
Recognizing Pam’s and EHC’s contribution to reuniting her with Janeera, Gurira rewards them with riches instead of adhering to their demand for Kalatite. Realizing peaceful negotiation is out of the question, Pam goes into full offensive mode as she uses the warp gate to bring in EHC’s cavalry to lay waste to Doloraami in her efforts to seize control. The Hendrix family, Adja, and the Royal family of Doloraam, along with their forces, engage in a vicious battle with EHC’s death bots, and soon as it seems the Doloraamis are getting overpowered, Glorlox and his crew come to the rescue. However, the Deathbots, operated by Pam through a neurotic interface from a cloaked mothership, prove to be too strong opponents as the Doloraami forces start getting decimated and the Kalatite quarry gets invaded by mining bots. B’Caala witnesses the devastation and decides to help Doloraamis, as it was never his intention to bring ruin to the place he wanted to rule. While Vunaari starts laying waste to the bots, B’Caala informs Janeera about Pam’s location.
Meanwhile, Blobby and Sean infiltrate one of the warp gates to stop the tirade of EHC forces, and Beta confronts them. Blobby makes several failed attempts to stop it, but Beta manages to corner Sean at gunpoint when Sean suggests it take control of itself by relinquishing the command of its’master,’ Pam. Beta almost gains sentience when Pam overrides its control and prepares to knock out Sean, who is momentarily saved as Bogdog, one of Glorlox’s accomplices. Thanks to them, EHC’s endless supply gets cut, allowing the Doloraamis to gain momentum in battle.
Janeera confronts Pam and destroys the bot control, which at once turns thousands of bots on the battlefield ineffectual, leading to the victory of Doloraamis. The duo engages in a brawl, and the mothership crashes into a swampy cavern. As Pam leads Janeera inside the cavern, it is revealed that she is a Rii’bau (Crocodilian creature) in disguise. By incapacitating Janeera, she almost manages to break her. However, letting go of her uncertainty, Janeera finally manages to connect with the Kalatite connection and kills Pam using the flair of her Kalatite necklace. A month later, back on Earth, all of Hendrix’s space associates—Blobby (who is now a part of their family), Glorlox and his crew, the Doloraami Royal family, and Adja—have joined in a house party. Janeera is now trying to strike a balance between her life on Earth and Doloraam, and the season ends with the extended happy family engaging in a game of rugby in the alleyways. However, their adventures are far from over, as in a tease for the third season, another warp gate is seen to be opening in space, allowing entry to an unknown space vehicle.
