WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Sonic the Hedgehog 2, now playing in theaters
Sonic the Hedgehog is inherently a weird concept, focusing on anthropomorphized talking animals not only coming to Earth but quickly revealing an entire universe of strange figures and extreme powers, but to the film's benefit, it tends to lean into these elements well. The weirdest sequence in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 largely doesn't focus on Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Doctor Robotnik (Jim Carrey) or Knuckles (Idris Elba). Instead, it's the extended sequence centering around the false marriage between Rachel (Natasha Rothwell) and an undercover agent, which eventually overtakes the film in a truly weird -- but nevertheless entertaining -- scene.
While most of Sonic the Hedgehog centers around the titular blue blur, a minor subplot in the film initially seems to just be a distraction for the majority of the film's human cast. Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter) are invited to Rachel's wedding in Hawaii, while Sonic remains behind to mind the house. At first, this seems to just be a simple thread, with occasional cuts to this subplot used primarily for comedy at Tom's sake, but the plot turns out to be far more relevant to the main storyline when Rachel's fiancée Randall (Shemar Moore) is revealed to be undercover agent of the newly minted GUN organization.
Due to her connection to Tom and Maddie (and by extension Sonic), Randall was planted into her life to get close to the hedgehog. Although Randall is heartbroken -- having seemingly developed genuine feelings for Rachel -- he ultimately takes part in the operation and helps briefly arrest Sonic, Tails and Tom. This leaves Maddie and a vengeful Rachel to use Tails' various gadgets to fight against the GUN agents, building to Rachel creating a massive distraction by driving a golf-cart through what remains of the ceremony. In the end, she's enough of a distraction to give Maddie her opening to free the others -- and she even reconciles things with Randall, who admits he's fallen in love with her.
The entire Rachel subplot is bonkers and largely sidelines Sonic, Tails and the primary plot of the film, becoming nothing more than a comic aside for Sumpter and Rothwell, who admittedly go for it. Rothwell in particular seems to relish the chance to amplify her comedic anger from the first film, at one point drinking champagne straight from a bottle while walking away from an explosion she just caused by crashing a golf-cart into a stage. It has almost nothing to do with the rest of the film, is referenced again afterward and takes on an almost '90s film level of goofy comedy. Seriously, the entire sequence could be cut from the film with little actual change, save shaving some of the film's two-hour runtime down.
But it's also bizarre, silly and overall entertaining. It speaks to the overall strengths and weaknesses of the film as whole. The sequence is divorced from the overarching plot, slowing down the pacing of the film to explain what GUN is and why it matters.
However, when the film shifts gears into an explosive action-set-piece starring where the actor just causes sheer chaos to the tune of Heart's "Baracuda," it gains a new layer of bonkers comedy that's hard not to enjoy. Even compared to the rest of the film's plot twists and characters, the Rachel subplot remains one of the oddest -- and strangely enough most memorable -- parts of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
To see the Rachel's solo sequence for yourself, check out Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in theaters now
