Episode #41 - Turning Point
Original Airdate November 16, 1996

Peter Parker and Mary Jane are finally a couple, but there happiness is short-lived as the Green Goblin, armed with a time distorter and the true identity of Spider-Man, seeks to destroy Spidey, by any means necessary.

Credits
Story By: John Semper
Written By: Marty Isenberg, Robert N. Skir, James Krieg and John Semper
Music Composed By: Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahchi
Animation Services By: Toyko Movie Shinsha (TMS)
Guest Starring: Christopher Daniel Barnes as Spider-Man/Peter Parkr, Mark Hamill as The Hobgoblin/Jason Macendale, Neil Ross as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, Roscoe Lee Brown as The Kingpin, David Warner as Landon and Jennifer Hale as Felicia Hardy.

Review: This episode is easily my favourite episode of Spider-Man ever, possibly my favourite episode of any cartoon. Back when I first watched this, I remember eagerly anticipating this episode, simply from the wanting to know what would happen after Goblin War. I didn’t have Internet back then, so there were no spoilers to be scared off, everything came as a surprise. I remember being shocked when she fell through the portal. It’s kind of creepy when you think about it I mean, she never really came back. We saw her floating around in the limbo, presumably for the rest of her life.

While it wasn't a season finale for us here in the UK, as season 4 started straight away, Guilty, the aftermath of this episode was executed well, but the series never again lived up to this episode, in either writing or TMS animation, which was beautiful throughout. Especially the end, with Peter unmasked on the bridge talking to himself, with an absolutely perfect delivery from Chris Barnes. I think this episode is easily Barnes' finest performance as both Spider-Man and Peter Parker. It probably helped that the dialouge, which had slipped considerably from the opening season, was back to top form here. The Goblin himself had some outstanding lines and Ross absoloutly nailed every one of them.

While it was tedious seeing the long, drawn out flashbacks to the bridge scene every single episode for a couple of months the execution of this episode was flawless, changed enough from the comics to remain fresh, so the sense of "We've been here before" didn't overbear the scene. The episode had absloutly perfect pacing, which is where this series usually slips up on.

As said above, the voices also seemed to be of higher quality here, particularly that of Barnes, Spider-Man and Ross, The Green Goblin. He was downright classic at the dinner scene, a perfect mocking/temptation tone whilst threatening to reveal Peters secret to his friends. I always loved that scene. Especially Peter setting the house on fire, and the two of them fighting in the garden. Visually, this episode was one of the betters.

I loved Spidey's speech at the end. It perfectly summed up what this episode was about. Thankfully, they added a small scene with Madame Web in. I thought this was his best scene with her, and actually managed to get rid of her for a few episodes. This episode however, the censors once again proved to be the bane of the series. FOX should have let them push some boundaries; this episode would’ve been so much better because of it. For example, Superman: The Animated Series: Apokolips Now! episode threw the rulebook out the window, and the episode is highly regarded as series best because of it. If Spider-Man and The Green Goblin’s final fight were allowed to do the same, we would’ve had a phenomenal episode on our hands.