Always Ask for Backstory

Always Ask for Backstory
Season	2
Episode	7
Overall	17
Broadcast Information
Airdate	April 10, 2025
Episode Guide
Previous	Never Get Out of the Truck
Next	Never Try the Cider

Always Ask for Backstory is the seventh episode of Gremlins: The Wild Batch, and the seventeenth episode overall.

Synopsis

Still on their western quest, our heroes are recruited to help an unusual town with their own supernatural problem: nightly haunting by a legendary ghost!

Plot

Sam, Elle, Gizmo and Chang stop in a tiny dessert town named Innocence because their pickup truck needs gas. Elle complains that they should ride horses like Cowboys, and is disappointed when Chang tells her there are no more cowboys.

Elle is tasked with getting water, and when she goes to the town pump, she encounters her mother there. Her condition is worsening and she fears she will only have a few days left before she becomes water. Margot can sense something is bothering Elle, and Elle admits that while she does want to save her mother, she does not want to abandon her friends when Margot is human again. Margot however hopes Elle will stay with her so they can be a family again. Meanwhile, Chang and Sam try to get the locals to give them some gas for free by exploiting Sam’s new status as The Kid in the Hat. However, as Chang is bragging about Sam’s hero status, he suddenly notices some villagers pushing the pickup truck away. Then the towns mayor confronts them and promises to give the group their truck back if they take care of a problem for them first. Elle and Chang are having none of it, but Sam agrees to help.

Then night falls and everyone in town flees to their homes in panic, after which the source of their problems arrives; the ghost of the legendary Wild Wests Marshall Bass Reeves, who has the power to throw silver coins that explode into green fire. As Reeves attacks the town, Sam recalls he knows a way to trap ghosts in an enchanted gourd, but he has to make one of those first. He can’t find a gourd, so Chang offers Sam a field flask as a substitute.

While Sam and Chang work on the trap, Elle confronts Bass Reeves. She first tries to scare him by claiming her umbrella is a magical weapon for capturing ghosts, but he doesn’t fall for her bluff. When Elle asks Reeves why he’s terrorizing the town, he reveals that Innocence was build by outlaws and thieves who fled here to escape justice. Elle tries to reason with Reeves that people can change can these outlaws clearly just want a quiet life now. Reeves seems to consider her words, but then Gizmo, suffering from another one of his violent moods, attacks Elle. Elle calms him down, but unfortunately Reeves thought Gizmo wanted to ambush him and continues his attack. He traps Elle and Gizmo in a ring of fire. Elle tries to reason once more, and is backed up by the mayor. Then Sam and Chang finish their trap and try to capture Bass Reeves, but Elle convinces them not to as Reeves is not evil. Elle tells Reeves about the situation with her mother and that they need to get to Kung Kung. Reeves reveals he has heard about Kung Kung, and claims that the god cannot be reached by car. Only the train between worlds can reach his prison, and he knows a station to board this train. After the mayor and the citizens of Innocence state once again that they have genuinely turned over a new leaf, Reeves agrees to end his nightly visits and go with Sam, Elle and Chang.

With that problem settled, Elle seeks out her mom at the pump to tell her the good news. She also states she wants to give being a family again another try once Margot is human again. However, once she is gone, Chang confronts Margot and admits that he noticed when she mentioned “wishes” instead of “wish” back in San Francisco. When Margot refuses to tell him more, Chang uses the enchanted flask meant for Reeves to capture Margot instead.

While all of this is going on in Innocence, Hon, Fong and Grandpa Wing are on board the train between worlds, traveling towards Kung Kung’s prison. When Hon demands an explanation, Grandpa Wing recalls what happened to him on his first and so far only journey to America. He and his seven friends came to look for treasure. It was in San Francisco that Wing met Jingwei, and fell in love with her. From her, he learned about Kung Kung and how the god was imprisoned in the dessert to save China from the many floods he caused. Jingwei’s ex-lover was one of the people that trapped Kung Kung. When Jingwei mentioned that Kung Kung would grand a wish to whoever freed him, Wing was overcome by greed. He stole the whistle for the train between worlds from Jingwei and used the train to bring him and his friends to Kung Kung’s prison. The prison however was boobytrapped and most members of the group got killed. Only Wing and two others remained, until they encountered Jingwei’s ex, who was still guarding Kung Kung. The man fought them to the death to keep Kung Kung imprisoned, and his sacrifice convinced Wing that perhaps freeing Kung Kung would be too dangerous. So he killed the last two members with bombs and left the prison, vowing to never return to America. Then Noggin, who had been listening in to the whole story, reveals himself.

Cast

• Yvette Nicole Brown as Mayor Hanson
• Keith David as Bass Reeves
• Gabrielle Green as Elle
• Yael Grobglas as Margot
• James Hong as Grandpa
• Simu Liu as Chang
• A. J. LoCascio as Gizmo
• George Takei as Noggin
• Izaac Wang as Sam Wing
• Ming-Na Wen as Fong Wing, May Lee
• B. D. Wong as Hon Wing, Special Conductor
• Eric Bauza as Liu
• Keisuke Hoashi as Rail Worker
• Jenn Wong as Jingwei

Trivia

• Margot only got a couple of days left to become with the water. 

Revelations and significant events

• Chang reveals that he indeed noticed Margots slip of the tongue back in "There's Always a Fortune in the Cookie Factory", and knows there's more than one wish to be obtained by freeing Kung Kung.
• Grandpa Wing once came close to freeing Kung Kung.
• Kung Kung cannot be freed by just 1 person, as each bond must be opened by someone else.
• A wish from Kung Kung will never bring someone back from the dead.
• Chang traps Margot in a bottle to get a wish of his own.

Continuity

• Elle mentions to Bass Reeves the time she was the pickpocket from season 1.