The Zippleback Experience

The Zippleback Experience is an episode from Dragons: Race to the Edge, and is the sixth episode of Season Two of Dragons: Race to the Edge. It was released on Netflix on January 8, 2016.

Overview
After Hiccup and Toothless heroically save Barf and Belch. the grateful Zippleback tries to repay it's life debt by abandoning riders Ruff and Tuff.

Plot
The episode starts out with the riders setting up a watchtower to the north of the base. The riders are interupted by the twins riding Barf and Belch down the hill. Hiccup noticed they are about to be overwhelmed by ice. Fishlegs and Astrid grab the twins while Hiccup and Toothless grab their dragon. While getting off Toothless, he slips on his bent metal leg, and he changes it. As a punishment, Hiccup gives the twins the first two shifts of patrol duty.

Hiccup enters his hut and cries out in alarm as dozens of fish fall on his head. Hiccup decides that it must be the twins and goes out to find them. They are knocked out of the sky by Barf and Belch, who grab Hiccup, leaving Toothless to fall. After Hiccup falls, they plummet to the ground. Hiccup gets his 2nd leg bent in the process. Hiccup realzes they left him all that fish, and he wonders who is guarding the island.

The scene changes to show the twins, who are arguing over who drove their dragon away, Ruffnut saying it was Tuff's attitude, Tuffnut saying it was Ruff's smell. Hiccup arrives and explains where they've been, and pushes Barf and Belch towards them, saying they belong together. He leaves, and Barf and Belch fly after him.

Toothless and Hiccup realize Barf and Belch are behind them, and perform several manuveors to try and ditch them, to no avail. They come home, and Hiccup sitting up in bed. He lays down and tries to go to sleep. Toothless burns his peice of wood. The zippleback watchs, and attempts to do the same thing, causing a miniature explosion in Hiccup's hut.

Gobber is fixing Hiccup's legs, while Barf and Belch 'dote' on Hiccup. Gobber says that it's a life debt, that Barf and Belch will "Now serve Hiccup for the rest of their lives, until the debt is repaid, whichever comes first." The twins and Hiccup have different viewpoints on this, Hiccup saying they could be stuck with Barf and Belch, the twins saying they could lose Barf and Belch.

Hiccup tries to convince Barf and Belch that he is in danger by tying himself upsidedown, but instead, the Zippleback plays 'Bat the nut' with him. Afterwards, the twins help him by being in danger by rolling logs down a hill, straight for Hiccup. This worked, but the Zippleback hit a tree and got knocked out. Toothless saves Hiccup.The next scene shows the twins plotting more near-death experiences for Hiccup. They finally come up with a plan: with Snotlout ambushes Hiccup the next morning, knocking Hiccup down with a punch, and taking a couple swings with his axe, but Hiccup declares he is not going to fight him. Snotlout taunts him, saying the "Future cheif is a coward! Come on, hit me. You know you want to." Hiccup punches him, knocking him out.

The scene changes to Hiccup pacing in front of the twins and Snotout. They argue about what happens, which ends in Hiccup he'll figure it out, by himself. He leaves Toothless, and everyone else, to take a walk alone. He strolls through the woods, but when he's captured by Berserkers, he thinks it's Snotout and the twins. Eventually, the bag is taken off his head, and he realized he has been kidnapped by Dagur and Ryker. Dagur taunts him, saying that it doesn't take much to put in a watch tower, which they were starting constuction of at the begining. Dagur wants Hiccup to take them to every island the Dragon Eye has led him to. When Hiccup asks if he doesn't, Ryker replies by pointing his sword at him and saying that he hopes he doesn't. They are interrupted by Barf and Belch spraying and igniting gas aroung the ship. Hiccup moves to stand in front of the Zippleback. They snap his bonds and as the first wave of hunters/berserkers are demolished, he grabs and axe.

Back on The Edge, the riders are worries about Hiccup, who is missing, and Toothless is staring out on the horizon. Their worry is increased when they see Barf and Belch's distress signal, pushing them to go towards it on their dragons. The twins hitch a ride on Toothless, much to his displeasure.Hiccup is holding off hunters/berserkers well, untill Ryker knocks him down and is about to strike, but the Zippleback knockes Ryker away. Dagur tries to shoot them, but gets gassed. Hiccup flies away with Barf and Belch, and nearly collides with the other dragon riders who don't notice him- until he is crashed out of the sky again by the twins, riding Toothless. Hiccup gets on Toothless okay, but the twins and the zippleback crash into the ocean, where the dragon is scooped up by Dagur. Ruff&Tuff manage to free their dragon.

All is well and normal back on Dragon's edge. "Normal for us, anyway." Astrid remarked, seeing the twins play Bat the Nut and Snotlout attack Hiccup again.

Transcript
The transcript for this episode is here.

Trivia

 * Hiccup is revealed to have several spares of his metal leg. He even has one that resembles Gobber's (wooden leg)
 * Snotlout calls Hiccup "Hiccup Haddock" in this episode. Though in the books and other information sites, Hiccup's full name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III.
 * Barf and Belch knock Hiccup side to side when he's hanging by a rope, which the twins call Bat the Nut. They learned this in Zippleback Down.
 * This is the fifth time Hiccup has been captured/kidnapped, and the first time in Race to the Edge.
 * This is also the third time Hiccup has been tied up when captured, fourth if you count an incident that occurred in the comic series.
 * The scene where Snotlout tries to get Hiccup to fight him is reminiscent of How to Betray a Dragon's Hero.
 * This episode proves that along with height, Hiccup has grown stronger, as he was able to knock out Snotlout and his three teeth with one punch and hold off Dragon Hunters.
 * Technically, Ryker was the only Dragon Hunter in this episode. All of the men were in Berserker attire.