Episode 2: Racing the Clock

As we make our way through this first season of ReBoot, you'll notice that the majority of the episodes are self contained, episodic adventures. Normally, these end with the reset button being pushed with all the episode's plot threads resolved ready for the next episode. While this isn't a problem in and of itself since this is what a lot of cartoons were doing at the time, it can make a lot of the episodes in this season feel like filler. In fact, some episodes are only really necessary watching because of later episodes bringing back characters from these episodes, but we'll get to those later. While The Tearing introduced us to the world of Mainframe and provided us with the start of the conflict between Bob and Megabyte, this episode briefly introduces us to a new character but doesn't really have any relevance to the storyline outside of that.

The episode opens at Dot's Diner with a tracking shot going through  the doors. There are lots of signs in the diner, which lead up to Enzo sitting at table with Vid Windows in front of him. He gets excited about a call coming through, answering the call as 'Enzo's Overwrite Delivery Service'. The caller is a zero binome named Jean Luc, an obvious parody of Captain Picard from 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'. This is the first of several Star Trek references that we'll get throughout the series. Seeing as I'm more of a casual Trekkie (i.e. I've seen Wrath of Khan, First Contact and a handful of episodes of both TNG and the original Trek series as well as knowing a few details here and there), there's probably a fair few references that I'm going to miss that more die hard Trekkies will probably spot in a heartbeat.

It turns out that the call is a wrong number since Jean Luc is asking for Dot. Cecil gets annoyed about the amount of signs, asking Enzo if this is 'a sign of things to come'. Dot and Bob enter the diner, with Cecil slamming the door in Bob's face as soon as Dot enters. Dot asks about how Enzo's delivery service is going, and he lies about how well it’s going. Bob and Dot go off to mend a tear that appeared after the last game.

Enzo falls asleep at his monitor, only to get a call from none other than Megabyte. He wants Enzo to deliver all his deliveries for him. While Enzo is initially hesitant since Dot hates Megabyte, he’s swayed over by Megabyte's promises of 'daring deliveries to exotic places'. After Enzo agrees, Megabyte gives Enzo a 'Test Program' to prove he’s worthy of delivering Megabyte's goods. He asks him to deliver a parcel to someone called Hexadecimal but he's not to tell her who sends it. Hack passes Enzo the package through a vid window, and then Enzo signs off. We then zoom up through Megabyte's Throne Room to see a round, almost feline like creature spying on him.

In the cellar of the Diner, Bob is using Glitch to locate the tear. After it’s located, the tear starts erupting and causing chaos. Bob quickly mends the tear with Glitch and the issue is resolved. They’re interrupted by Enzo excitedly running to tell them about his first delivery. While they’re equally excited at first, they show concern after Enzo let's slip that he’s delivering the package to Hexadecimal, stopping Enzo just before he heads off. Enzo lies after Dot asks him who sent it, telling her it’s from Jean Luc. Bob suspects it’s a bomb, so uses Glitch to X-Ray the package. It turns out to be a mask with a clock in it. Dot still won’t let Enzo go on account of it being too dangerous. After Enzo gets downtrodden about how his business is ruined, Dot delegates Bob with the task of delivering the package instead.

We then cut to a dark room where we zoom past a row of masks similar to the package Enzo is delivering leading to a mysterious woman sitting in the centre of the room. Her face is silhouetted, but we can see that she’s holding two of the masks, seemingly choosing between the two as she monologues “so many moods, so little time”. She chooses the mask with a smile. This is Hexadecimal, the recipient of Megabyte's package. Hexadecimal communicates by changing masks depending on her mood, only changing masks off camera or when her face is obscured. She’s approached by the feline from earlier, whom she names as 'Scuzzy'. She gets frustrated with him for 'interrupting me while I’m putting on my face'. She makes a hole in the floor underneath him and he falls through. She changes her mind instantly and stops his fall just before he hits the sea below him. Scuzzy shows a recording of Megabyte and Hack and Slash. Hack is holding the package as Megabyte tells them that it’s a delete command disguised as a mask, and that he needs a poor unsuspecting fool to deliver it. We can see a file of Enzo on the vid window he’s looking at. Upon learning this, Hexadecimal says that she’ll delete Megabyte and his delivery boy before letting out a chilling laugh.

Bob goes to Los Angles, an island connected to Mainframe by an elaborate looking bridge. Unlike Mainframe, Los Angles is in a state of ruin and disarray. Enzo breaks the fourth wall to complain about how he 'misses all the cool stuff'. Bob goes through an archway only to vanish and reappear upside down a few metres away. Enzo says if he can’t do the delivery, he can always watch it. Bob is followed by a trail of nulls, small parasitic worm like creatures. This is what sprites and binomes degrade into when the user wins a game and they're caught inside, so essentially, these are all citizens of Mainframe who have lost games.

Bob is then blocked off by a bomb. The nulls approach him, and Bob tells them to 'find someone else's energy to eat' before getting sucked into a hole in the ground similar to how Scuzzy was earlier. He falls through an elaborate tunnel before emerging in Hexadecimal's Lair. They great each other, and Hex says that she didn’t expect the delivery boy to be him (seems particularly happy to see him). Bob gives Hex the package while acting surprised, breaking it open to reveal the delete command. She says that she already has a mask, and that Bob needs to return it to Megabyte. After Bob learns that Megabyte sent the mask, he tries to get Hex to keep it, but she plants the mask on Bob and uses her powers to send her flying out of her lair.

Enzo's standing right by where Bob vanished and sees Bob flying from The now re emerged hole. Enzo uses his Zip Board to stop the hole from closing and listens in. Hexadecimal monologues about how the bomb should go off just as Bob reaches Megabyte. Enzo of course panics, and blames himself for this. Dot sees Bob flying through the air just before Enzo pounces on her ranting about how they need to save Bob and that the mask was from Megabyte. Dot stops him, and then says they need to warn Bob while there’s still a Bob to warn. Bob doesn’t want to deliver the package to Megabyte, and slows down, using Glitch to form a propeller. Dot and Enzo approach just before a voice announces 'Warning, Incoming Game!'

Binomes run in panic and traffic goes haywire as the game emerges. Bob heads towards the game as Dot and Enzo do the same, only just making it. The game is a Formula 1 game. Bob ReBoots, but the mask gets attached to the front of his car. Dot and Enzo ReBoot themselves and give chase (Enzo initially goes in reverse before correcting his mistake). Bob overtakes all the cars with the User's car not too far behind. He’s knocked back by the user knocking another racer out the race as his car faces the racers coming from the other direction. Luckily, they all drive right past him. Bob reverses and turns around just before another racer collides with him.

Bob is now in 18th place, but uses Nitros to catch up. Enzo tells Dot how to use Nitros. They catch up to Bob, and she tells him his car is a bomb. Bob misunderstands, and as Dot tries to explain this to him, she flies up a ramp and off the course, landing on top of a tent. In lap 2, the cars become hover cars. Enzo picks up Dot who falls in. The user leaves mines on the track. Bob manages to swerve past the mines, but the binomes behind aren’t so lucky as they all hit the mines one after the other. Dot manages to avoid most the mines by looping over the track, which impresses Enzo. She gets distracted by this and hits a mine, destroying her hover craft.

Lap 3 has the vehicles turn into jet planes as the track forms loops. Enzo is down about Bob being unaware of the bomb, but Dot has an idea. She takes a truck into the road, getting Enzo to drop its load on the track. Bob ejects just before the plane hits it, detonating the bomb. Dot and Enzo assume the worst. A massive tear appears in the middle of the track as a voice announces 'Warning, Game Corruption!'

Bob levitates down and exclaims that 'This is not good!' Bob yells the others to run as the tear expands and obliterates the game area, creating a hole that sucks everything down. The corrupted game cube shrinks until disappearing, revealing that Bob, Dot, Enzo, and all the binomes are okay. Enzo pounces on Bob as soon as the game ends, telling Bob that he should have 'copied and pasted the truth from the start'.

As they walk towards the Diner, Bob seems happy that Dot risked his life to enter the game and save him. Dot responds by telling him that she couldn’t let anything happen to Bob as Enzo wouldn’t have been able to forgive himself otherwise. Bob quickly chases after her as we see Megabyte appear on a Vid Window to Enzo, telling him that he’s been 'fired' and that he’s now using Hack and Slash for his deliveries. We then see Hack and Slash holding a giant torpedo as they explain to Megabyte that Hexadecimal said she already had one. The torpedo goes off as wee see fire erupt out of Megabyte's fortress, and Megabyte chastises them for this.

Much like The Tearing, this is a pretty fun episode. The game is an interesting take on Formula 1, and there’s some fun jokes and humour to be found. Hexadecimal comes across as ambiguous and creepy. We don’t see much of her this episode, but what we do see gives a lasting impression. We don’t know what her intentions are, but she’s definitely not an ally of Megabyte's. She also seems to be a little unstable, and appears to have a large amount of power, which could become a problem if anyone stands in her way.

However, again, what let’s this episode down for me is the simplistic story. This is probably going to repeat a lot throughout the majority of episodes this season, but while the episode is held together by its charm, the jokes, and Hexadecimal's presence, the story just isn’t super engaging. Plus while it’s great to see Hexadecimal, we'll get a much better demonstration of this character in a couple of episodes time. This makes this episode feel a bit like filler since it doesn't really add anything to the story. At least with The Tearing, we got the impression that it was the first time Bob and Megabyte had an encounter of the sorts and set up future conflicts between the two, but this one just feels like business as usual, and the only time events of this episode are referred to are in a later episode when Megabyte makes a one off reference to Enzo being a delivery boy. With that said, while this episode has it's fun moments, you won't be missing too much if you skip it.

Next week: Magnets, Slow Food, and Dragons in 'The Quick and The Fed'.