The episode starts in Dot's Diner. Dot and Enzo are leaving, but Dot is reluctant to leave since she has a lot of business related matters to check up on. Enzo insists that she needs a break, and she eventually relents. Outside the Diner, we see Bob in his car, and Dot is surprised that it’s actually running (although Bob has to hit it in order to keep it in the air). Dot runs back inside while Enzo isn't looking, and Bob and Enzo decide to carry her to the car before leaving.
We cut to the bridge leading to Los Angles, where we see Megabyte's limo going across the bridge away from Los Angles, stopping in front of Hack and Slash. Megabyte gloats about how he now has something called 'The Medusa', some kind of powerful weapon created by Hexadecimal. Hex interrupts them, storming out of the ground in outrage, asking for the Medusa back. After Megabyte refuses, she says that she’ll have to destroy them all, and she commands a barrage of nulls to attack. Hack and Slash break off a section of a bridge, causing the nulls to fall down into the energy sea below. After Hex vows to smite him herself, Megabyte leaves while ordering his forces to show her some of their own toys. Megabyte's tanks get into formation, preparing to fire. Hex seems unfazed by this, but the tanks fire anyway. After the smoke clears, we see Hex is still in one piece, cheerfully waving. Her mask changes to an aggressive, creepy smile as Hex prepares two energy blasts from her fists, causing the tanks to flee in terror.
We then cut to Silicon Tor, where Megabyte's lieutenant giving a report in the battle via a vid window, saying that Hex disappeared after saying she was bored. After he signs off, Megabyte monologues about how Hexadecimal's increased security lead him to discovering and acquiring the Medusa. He then activates it, but then it starts turning his arm to stone. Upon realising that this is a viral bug, he starts searching for a diagnosis on his computer, only to be told this is an unknown file type. Hexadecimal appears on a vid window to gloat, and Megabyte furiously realises that the whole thing was a trap before fully turning to stone along with the rest of Silicon Tor. Hex seems conflicted about if this was the right thing to do before letting out a chilling laugh.
At a park, Dot is relaxing while Bob is trying to fix his car. Turns out he broke down not too far from the Diner. Enzo spots Frisket being chased by the Medusa, which is turning everything in it’s path into stone. It eventually catches up to Frisket, turning him to stone. Enzo tries to rush off after him, but Dot holds him back. Bob tries to get a reading with Glitch, but it comes up as an unknown file type. After realising that they’re going to be next, Bob uses Glitch to start the car, but it’s still not starting. Dot manages to start it just in time, with Bob jumping in at the last minute. Enzo is upset about Frisket, and Dot says that there’s no use trying to help if the same thing happens to them, and that they’ll be back once they know what they’re dealing with. Dot asks Bob what it was, and he responds by saying they need to see Phong immediately.
This time, Phong doesn't insist on them playing pong in order to give advice. Or at least, it's not shown on screen. However, I'm going to assume that considering how drastic this situation is, Phong understands that now is not the time to withhold his knowledge unless they beat him at Pong. He tells them that it’s a bug that will infect everything in its path, but Bob might be immune due to being a Guardian. Enzo believes that Megabyte is behind this, and says that they should crash his tower. Bob isn’t so sure as it’s too unpredictable and dangerous for Megabyte, leading to the conclusion that Hexadecimal is behind this, which backed up by Phong revealing that even the Tor is infected, but Hex's island isn’t. Bob states that he’s worried and will need everything they've got to stop this. Phong reveals that the longer something is infected, the faster it decays, with low energy items being the first to go with Sprites being the last. Enzo panics about Frisket's potential fate. Phong tasks Dot and Enzo with getting the citizens out of the bug's path while he and Bob look for something that could stop this bug. Bob asks Phong for some high tech tools to destroy the bug only to be reminded by Phong that this isn’t the Super Computer. The best they have is a primitive Viral Erase Command (shaped like a rubber), Bob decides that it might work if he boosts this with an add on.
We see loads of vehicles evacuating everyone to the Principle Office. Bob zooms off to try and stop the bug. Hex observes through her looking glass, stating that this will be interesting. Bob throws the erase command, creating a large fire that cures everything engulfed within it. However, this is short lived as everything reverts back to stone once the fire stops. Bob is worried, asking 'Where's a Game Cube when you need one?' Bob returns to the Principle Office as the citizens of Mainframe take refuge inside. The shields are raised, but the Medusa is able to break this down and the building (along with everyone inside it) is turned to stone.
Bob screams ‘NO!' as the stone casing around him comes off. Turns out that Bob is immune after all. Bob says he won’t let Hex get away with this. Inside her lair, we see Hex has decorated the lair with some of the Medusa's victims. She tries to converse with Scuzzy, but he’s been turned to stone as well. Bob arrives, riding in on a zip line and kicking Hex off of her throne. Bob tries to infect Hex with the Medusa by throwing a stone teddy (previously a Bob plush toy) at her. Hex stops this mid air with her powers, commenting on how disappointing it is that Bob is immune to the Medusa before saying she’ll have to kill him the old fashioned way. Bob tries to escape via a line as Hex lunges at him only for Hex to have him suspended in mid air with a choke grip. Bob then tells her how he likes all the changes Hex has made to Mainframe and how predictable and peaceful things will be now. Hex is horrified by this and snaps her fingers to reverse the Medusa's effects. Back at the park, Bob, Dot, Enzo and Frisket are relaxing, but after Bob decides to have a nap, a voice announces 'Warning, Incoming Game!'
When this episode initially aired on ABC, this wasn't the ending that aired. At the time of this episode's airing, there were no other episodes that had been completed. Because of this, ABC decided to show a version of the episode that instead had the Medusa Bug come back at the end of the episode. In the intervening weeks between episodes, ABC aired short bumpers which follow on from this ending. Basically, this new Medusa Bug was created by Megabyte, and Bob needs to go to the Super Computer to find something called the 'Trias Effect' in order to cure it. This is non canon, of course, but it helped to keep the show in the minds of the viewers while they were waiting for new episodes.
YTV aired the episode with the ending we have now, and just re ran those four episodes in the intervening weeks while the next few episodes were in production, and the ratings only got stronger the more the shows aired (in fact, the show performed best in a Prime Time slot). Instead of re running the episodes, ABC decided to air 'Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad', a Power Rangers cash in using footage from the 'Gridman' series spliced with new, American shot footage. This is a little ironic considering what we ended up getting with last year's spin off series 'ReBoot: The Guardian Code' (I'll get more into my thoughts on that at the end of this retrospective, but in short, it's incredibly mediocre).
This is easily the best episode so far in this first season. The stakes here are rather large in comparison to what we've got in previous episodes, and the story is much more engaging than the previous few episodes. We truly get to see how much power Hexadecimal has and we can see that, if she wanted to, she could have control of Mainframe. Even in her first scene this episode, we can see that she has control over the nulls, and that she has access to energy blasts she can fire out of her hands as well as the ability to form a force field around herself to shield her from attacks directed at her. Heck, in this episode, she nearly destroys the whole city. It was only because Bob appealed to her love of chaos and unpredictability that she was convinced to reverse the effects of what she’d done. This is also the first time where we see the show break away from the formula established in the previous three episodes, with the Game Cube not showing up until the end of the episode and isn't seen on screen.
The only real downside is that this is the last we're going to see of Hexadecimal until next season. It's a shame as she’s a great character who potentially poses more of a threat to Mainframe than Megabyte, raising the stakes immensely when she’s involved. While it’ll be a while until Hex plays a major role in an episode again, it will definitely be worth the wait once we get there. On it's own merits though, this episode holds up incredibly well, combining the charm and great characters we've got in previous episodes with an engaging plot.
Next week: Bob and Dot fall out and we get to see guns that shoot bubbles in 'The Tiff'
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