Full disclosure: “Home Again” is my favorite Time Bandits episode and it’s more than the 1996 setting. Nostalgia aside, there’s a certain finesse to the timey-wimeyness of the plot. Kevin (Kal-El Tuck) and Saffron (Kiera Thompson) encounter their parents as kids and connect like they never could in 2024. And extra props for having James Dryden and Felicity Ward play their respective characters’ parents in 1996.
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Meanwhile, being an effective demon huntress gets hilariously complicated when Fianna (Rachel House) literally gets in her own way. Add in the Time Bandits interfering with their own adventuring and Bittelig’s (Rune Temte) continued concern about Twonicorn’s well-being and it’s the most sophisticated (and ambitiously gratuitous) use of the time travel trope ever undertaken this side of Rick and Morty.
Time Bandits, “Home Again”
Kevin, Saffron, and the Time Bandits follow Widgit’s (Roger Jean Nsemgiyumva) directions to the portal. As they wait for the portal to manifest, Penelope (Lisa Kudrow) tells Kevin and Saffron that they mustn’t meet their past selves because it wreaks havoc with one’s self-image.
Widgit opens a flap and Saffron spots the portal. They only have 30 minutes to warn their parents because Widgiet’s sending them back to the night they met Kevin. The other Time Bandits are horrified because the Supreme Being (Taika Waititi) and Fianna were both at Kevin’s house that night.
Saffron refuses to be deterred and runs for the portal. Kevin follows, reminding the bandits that they changed the recorded history in his book when they encountered Mansa Musa (Hammed Animashaun) so he knows there’s a chance they can change his parents’ fate.
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Saffron and Kevin emerge from the portal through a refrigerator in a kitchen full of goths. Kevin asks a party attendee if they’re in Bingley. She says it is but doesn’t recognize the name of their street. Saffron says the Neanderthals always look for a central landmark to orient themselves when they’re lost. Kevin asks for directions to the shopping center.
Wisdom From the Future
Back in the Ice Age, the Time Bandits argue over going through the portal to help the kids. Suddenly a second portal opens and through it, they can see Penelope, Alto (Tadhg Murphy), and Widgit. Portal Penelope’s yelling at them to go after the kids. Bittelig wants to know where he is. Portal Alto tells Ice Age Alto he’s incredibly brave and makes a significant contribution. Portal Widgit tells Ice Age Widgit that his understanding of the map is greater than he realizes. “Time folds,” he says. Ice Age Widgit doesn’t understand.
Portal Penelope gets stern and insists they go immediately. The Ice Age Time Bandits get going. The Portal Time Bandits scream in terror as they close their portal.
No Thinking, Just Doing
At the Bingley Shopping Center, Saffron notices that it looks rundown and everyone is dressed in retro clothes. Kevin deduces they are in 1996, not 2024.
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Saffron realizes their parents are alive, just young. They can find them. Kevin worries they’ll do something that stops them from being born. Saffron is desperate to hug her mother and decides to go to see her. She sends Kevin to find their dad.
Back at the goth party, Penelope, Alto, Widgit, and Bittelig emerge from the fridge. As they try to get out of the house, they think Fianna’s there only to discover it’s a party attendee with very similar hair.
Kevin approaches his grandparents’ house and mistakes his 1996 grandfather (James Dryden) for his dad. His 1996 dad is sitting on the hood of the family car, playing on his Game Boy. He introduces himself as Mikey Haddock (Marley MacKrill) and Kevin introduces himself as Kevin Haddaway. Mikey jokes, “Haddaway? I had a way with your mum.” Kevin can only agree.
As they connect over the Game Boy, a ginger cat watches them from the sidewalk. Through its eyes, Pure Evil (Jemaine Clement) spots Kevin and believes he has the map. He orders someone to wake Fianna. A black cat at the goth party heads out back to the 1996 Fianna rock and Pure Evil calls to her through the cat.
Bossy
The Time Bandits wander the party. Penelope is preoccupied by how bossy her future self seemed. After establishing that she isn’t bossy, she orders Alto to blend in and figure out which people at the party are Kevin’s parents.
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Alto finds the woman who lives in the house and asks if Kevin and Saffron (“Savlon”) are her kids. She’s grossed out by the idea but mentions there were kids playing in the fridge earlier. Out in the yard, 1996 Fianna bursts out of her rock. The woman tells Alto the kids went to the shopping center.
As Alto heads to find the others, Fianna comes in the back door. The goth with similar hair asks her to dance. She growls and glows her eyes at him before heading for the front door. The door doesn’t open easily so she blasts a hole through it and leaves.
Playing Mum
Saffron approaches her mother’s childhood home and knocks on the door. Her grandmother (Felicity Ward) answers and Saffron makes up a story about moving into the area and trying to meet people. A little girl runs up and hugs Saffron’s grandmother and Saffron realizes it’s her mum, Lisa (Coco White), aged six. Her grandmother invites her in.
In the Ice Age, Ice Age Fianna finds a torch the Time Bandits dropped and sniffs it. A portal opens behind her and she heads through.
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The goths are examining the blasted door. The Time Bandits overhear the description of the person that caused the damage and realize Fianna’s here now. They rush out to find the kids before Fianna finds them.
In the kitchen, Ice Age Fianna emerges from the fridge. The goth with similar hair asks her to dance again. Ice Age Fianna blasts him across the room. Sniffing the air, she heads for the hole in the front door.
At her grandmother’s house, Saffron cleans her face and tidies her hair. Her grandmother and the child’s mum watch from the bathroom doorway. She tells them she hasn’t seen her reflection in years and has been brushing her teeth with sticks. Her grandmother suggests Saffron and Lisa play for a bit while she makes a phone call.
Hanging With Dad
At the other house, Kevin and Mikey listen and sing along to Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity” on the radio and practice the dance moves. When Kevin offers some trivia about the concept of flying cars, Mikey is impressed, which delights Kevin. Mikey’s dad comes out, yelling that the music is too loud. Kevin rushes to shut off the radio, inadvertently blurting out, “Sorry, Granddad.” This sets his future grandfather off. He takes Mikey’s Game Boy away as punishment.
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Kevin repeatedly apologizes, unable to stop adding “Granddad” each time, winding his grandfather up further. He storms into the house and slams the door. Mikey is really impressed now with Kevin’s cheekiness. He tells him he’s really cool, making Kevin euphorically happy.
Here a Fianna, There a Fianna
1996 Fianna stomps through the streets of Bingley, nearly meeting up with Ice Age Fianna as she heads in the other direction. Ice Age Fianna notices something odd in the air.
Left alone with Lisa, Saffron suggests they play “Babies and Mummies” with Lisa being the mum. Saffron takes the opportunity to apologize to Lisa for all the things she did when her mum was alive.
At the shopping center, the Time Bandits split up to look for Kevin. Bittelig confides in Penelope that he can’t die yet because he hasn’t done anything important with his life. Penelope advises him not to be distracted by his foreknowledge. She wants him to stay sharp because she can’t afford to lose him.
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She sends him out to find the kids. Meanwhile, out in the plaza, Alto makes friends with a couple of chatty pensioners, oblivious to 1996 Fianna stalking past in the background.
A Great Moment
Kevin and Mikey are playing catch in the yard. Kevin cherishes the experience of sharing time with his dad, saying it’s a great moment. When picking up the ball, he sees 1996 Fianna approaching. He rushes back to Mikey and thanks him effusively for the day.
Mikey sees Fianna and asks who she is. Kevin urges him to go inside because she’s a demon. Mikey scoffs but when Fianna burns up the laundry on the line with her flame gaze, he runs for the house. Kevin runs off, telling Mikey to “Remember her!” and “Be afraid!” as warnings for the future.
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Alto’s learning all the local gossip when he spots Ice Age Fianna through the crowd at the shopping center. Excusing himself from his elderly companions, Alto scurries to a toy store and pushes a wheelie bin of rubber balls across the plaza to distract Fianna. She follows it and comes face-to-face with Bittelig.
Letting Lisa Go
Saffron is still apologizing to Lisa when some people knock on the door. Her grandmother has called Social Services to take Saffron into care. Saffron overhears their conversation when she goes to the window. Looking to the driveway, she sees Kevin waving. When the adults come to see her, she takes Lisa and runs.
Kevin tries to dissuade her from kidnapping their mother. Their grandmother and Social Services people come and ask Saffron to let Lisa go. Saffron asks Lisa for a final hug and Lisa agrees. They let Lisa go back to her mother and take off only to run into 1996 Fianna. Kevin runs but Saffron decides to trash-talk Fianna a bit first. Kevin pulls her away before Fianna blasts the swingset.
A Multiplicity of Fiannas
In the shopping center, Bittelig dodges Ice Age Fianna’s blasts while the shoppers scream and run. At the other end of the plaza, Alto sees Kevin and Saffron running back, pursued by 1996 Fianna. He gets up and intercepts Fianna, giving the kids time to run to the music shop and hide.
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Widgit realizes there are two Fiannas. Bittelig insists they all escape out the back door while he fights them. He believes this is the important thing he’s meant to do. The Fiannas come face-to-face with Bittelig in the middle. They begin talking to each other, but Bittelig interrupts, and they start punching him.
As they run through the alley, Saffron asks if they can give the map to Fianna to save Bittelig. The others tell her they can’t let Pure Evil have the map. They return to the goth party house. Standing in the kitchen, Widgit finally realizes what his future self meant. He opens the folds in the map to open the portal back in time so they can warn themselves in the Ice Age.
After they have the exact same interaction as before, screaming because they see the goth with Fianna hair and shutting the portal door, Bittelig walks in with a bag of medical supplies and a book on how to triage Twonicorn. He tells them that he slipped away when the Fiannas started arguing with each other.
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The Fiannas walk in together, discussing temporal dissonance. Alto spots them as he’s closing the fridge and screams Fianna’s name. The huntress demons walk over but the fridge is just a fridge now.
The New Reality
Back in the Ice Age at the Neanderthal camp, Bittelig gets to work setting Twonicorn’s leg. Kevin’s glum because he’s failed to save his parents again. Penelope tries to comfort him. She and the other Time Bandits tell him about trying to use the map to save their friend Susan. No matter how many times they tried, they always arrived after she fell off the cliff and the giant boulder fell on her.
Kevin opens his fanny pack and discovers the coal lumps are gone. As they all consider whether they managed to alter history, a roar startles them. The saber-toothed cat leaps at them, then freezes in mid-air and they hear Pure Evil’s voice. He demands they give him the map in exchange for Kevin and Saffron’s parents.
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Their dad (James Dryden) and mum (Felicity Ward) are shackled to Pure Evil’s wall. They explain that Mike’s recurring nightmare of Fianna prepared him to surrender the moment he saw her again while Lisa’s childhood near kidnapping experience had motivated her to get training in hostage situations. Fianna had no reason to coal them.
Pure Evil demands they bring the map to the Fortress of Eternal Darkness. The call ends and the saber-toothed cat unfreezes and runs away. The bandits explain the fortress is in the time of legends.
The bandits prepare to leave the camp. They gather around Widgit and the map and discover that the missing corner is exactly where they need to go. Kevin states determinedly that they need to find that corner and marches off. Saffron follows and orders the rest of them to come, too.
Time Bandits streams on Apple TV+, with two new episodes dropping every Wednesday.
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