Well, I promised that Latho wouldn’t show up in this chapter, and I feel I’m still keeping my word here: For one thing, it’s not even entirely sure that it’s Latho inside that space-egg. It might be some sort of relative or fellow bizarrity of them – or just some monstrosity who patronizes the same space-egg dealer.*
And for the other thing, they didn’t give whatever was inside that egg any chance to get out of it while on planet Earth. So whatever it was, it remained ‘unborn’ and thus not technically ‘in’ the chapter, right? So, yeah. Clearly true to my word here.
I don’t think I have to explain the gang’s reasoning in shooting the egg straight back into outer space, it’s pretty obvious. Only the Professor and K’ip are surprised by it, because their rather marginal involvement with the previous chapter. Obviously, Mopey and Co. never took the time to tell those two the long and winding tale covering Latho’s prior stay on earth. In their defense, it would have been a long and winding tale…and moreover, in order for it to count, they would have had to tell it on-screen. Off-screen transmission of information, no matter how obviously it is that it would have taken place, is not a thing that is real. And add to that defense that parts of that tale wouldn’t have cast a highly flattering light onto our heroes, so they had double reason to only give the two new-comers/returners only a cleverly redacted CliffsNotes version of events.
Have a safe trip, Latho.
More on Thursday.
* Likely Stan’s Previously Owned Star-Eggs, it goes without saying.