Episode 8 - Enzo the Smart

When watching episodes from the first season of ReBoot for this retrospective, I try my best to keep an open mind. I try not to compare these episodes to those from later seasons and try and enjoy them on their own merits. As a result, I've been able to find enjoyment within most episodes so far this season, even one that I thought I wouldn't like based on my memories of it (In The Belly Of The Beast). Even before starting this retrospective, I considered this week's episode my least favourite of the entire show, but remained open minded and thought that I might enjoy it a bit more this time around. Unfortunately, while there is some stuff in the episode that I do appreciate, it still remains my least favourite.

The episode starts in a grassy field with several stone towers. We're in the middle of a tower defence game. Dot fires a shot at The User, but he ducks, firing a shot at Dot's tower. Her tower explodes, but she’s able to flee just in time, going to Enzo's tower. Enzo has a large cannon he’s using to attack the User. After making a relatively successful shot, he decides he needs to use a bigger cannonball. This fails as the ball just rolls out of the cannon, with Enzo remarking that he should of used more gunpowder before him and Dot flee just before their tower gets hit by the User. Bob is using an incredibly tiny cannon, and using a telescope, spots that the User has explosive barrels on his tower. Bob uses Glitch to get the correct angle to hit the barrels before firing. The User fires shortly after, but Bob's shot hits the barrels, causing his tower to explode, ending the game just before his shot hits Bob, Dot, and Enzo. Bob and Dot are happy about their victory, but Enzo feels down about something.

Back at Dot's Diner, all the binomes are getting Bob to recite the story of how he defeated The User, then Dot points out Enzo, who’s sitting on his own looking miserable, saying he’s been like that since the game ended. Bob and Dot go over to him to find out what’s upsetting him. It turns out that he’s upset because he couldn’t work out how to defeat The User, and that he must be 'basic'. Bob and Dot try and cheer him up by saying he’ll get smarter later as he grows older. After they walk away, he monologues about how he doesn’t want to be smart later, he wants to be smart now. This gives him an idea.

At the Principle Office, Enzo and Phong are playing Pong but Enzo loses fairly quickly. Phong consoles Enzo, telling him he can try again later as he can on,y install his wisdom to those who beat him at Pong. After seeing how downtrodden Enzo is about this, he leads Enzo over to a wall. He tells Enzo that he’s going to show him something he shouldn’t show anyone, so he makes Enzo promise not to tell anyone. After Enzo agrees, Phong speaks the phrase 'Yaada Yaada Yaada', causing the wall to open up. Phong enters and Enzo follows behind him.

Phong leads Enzo into a room with a vid window in the middle of it. On the way in, they pass a giant lamp looking a lot like the mascot for fellow animation company Pixar. This room that Enzo is now in is called the 'Read Only Room', which has contained all information since the beginning of Mainframe. Phong explains to Enzo that his favourite way to get smarter is by reading, and let’s Enzo stay in there as long as he only touches the window. He tells Enzo to leave the way he came in when he’s done, pointing out that anything worth doing takes time. Enzo strives to read every file quickly and store every byte of data available.

Back at the Diner, Bob and Dot ask Cecil if they’ve seen Enzo, who points out that he’s 'not a nanny'. Bob tells Dot that he hopes she’s okay, and Dot reassures him that he’s probably fine. Back at the Read Only Room, Enzo gets bored, saying that it’s going to take 'millions of nanoseconds to process all this information, possibly even one whole second'. He brings up a file on speed settings, and asks for a way to become twice as smart as everyone in Mainframe. He finds out that changes in Sprite Speed must be made from the Clock Speed Room, and after enquiring how to get there, a yellow line emerges out of the window and goes out of the door. Enzo proceeds to follow the line.

Enzo goes into the Clock Speed Room, which is a dark room with a giant pendulum. A voice asks Enzo if he’d like to be twice as smart now or later. Enzo says now, and the room starts shaking and a large light comes out of the middle of the room. Following this, Enzo is disappointed to find that he’s not any faster. However, once he leaves the Principle Office, he’s shocked to see that everything asides from him is now 8 bit.

Enzo asks Phong about this, who’s crashing back and forth into a wall. Phong asks if he knows Enzo. Enzo's first assumption is that a game landed while he was in the Read Only Room. He heads to Dot's Diner only to be greeted with cheering when he enters the building, with everyone saying that they’ve been trying to get out forever. Bob pounces on Enzo, declaring him his hero. A delivery person arrives with a zip board for Dot, and Bob presumes he’s a dangerous villain so starts attacking him. Dot presumes the zip board is a hat, and instantly tries selling it. This is when Enzo realises that while he hasn’t made himself smarter, he’s made everyone else dumber. He decides to go back to the clock speed room to reset everything, taking one of Dot's zip boards. Dot is at first amazed at their proper use, but then gets annoyed about Enzo not paying for it. Bob vows to catch the thief.

Enzo heads off with Bob, Dot and several binomes in pursuit. He’s just about to reach the Principle Office when a voice announces 'Warning, Incoming Game!', and a game lands right on top of him. Bob, Dot, and the binomes are in the game as well, but they don’t know how to stop the zip boards, causing them to crash into the wall of the game.  Mike the TV (who is exactly the same as before the clock speed change) acts as the game's commentator, and it turns out the game is 'video athletes', an Olympic sports style game. The rules of the game are the players rack up as much points as possible, with the team with the most points getting a head start in the final challenge known as ‘ The Eliminator', with whoever wins winning the game.

Enzo ReBoot's as the teams coach, meaning he’s unable to participate in the events unlike the now half witted Bob and Dot who are taking part in the events. To make things worse, after Enzo explains the game to them, Bob asks what points are. What follows is a montage of the Mainframers trying and failing at various sports.

Just before the Eliminator, Mike the TV is interviewing Enzo in a talk show like setting, pointing out that The User has a head start, and that it’s very likely that they will win the game. Enzo then decides he’s not going to let his team mates prevent him from winning, so he rips off the coach lettering on his jumper as well as his whistle and decides to do The Eliminator himself.

The Eliminator takes on the form of a giant race through fields, a ping pong machine, and a cavern filled with lava amongst other obstacles. Enzo is constantly slowed down by his teammate's attempts to help him win the race. Once The User reaches the final lap, Enzo decides to tell his teammates that he’s transferring them to The User's team as he 'really needs their help to win'. This is able to slow The User down just enough to allow Enzo to win the game.

As soon as the game ends, Enzo goes back to the clock speed room to set everything back to normal. Following this, Phong tells him that shortcuts lead to dead ends, and Enzo vows to take his time to build his knowledge. At Dot's Diner, Enzo is reading a read me file and both Bob and Dot think something’s up since he’s not normally this quiet. Enzo puts down his file, saying he’s done enough for today as this stuff takes time, then proceeds to pounce on Bob.

As I said in my opening paragraph, this is easily my least favourite episode of ReBoot. While it has some interesting ideas, the plot isn’t very interesting and lacks any urgency with regards to the threat. Even the threat of everyone turning into nulls in a game cube is downplayed with more emphasis being placed on the humour, which doesn’t really work for me in this particular episode. While the previous two episodes have had a great sense of humour as well as relatively enjoyable plots, the humour in this one mainly falls a bit flat for me. However, the game at the start of the episode is a small highlight as it makes for a fun sequence, seeing Mainframe rendered in 8 bit looks pretty cool, and the moral that things worth waiting for take time is one that’s very relevant even in adulthood, so there is a handful of things that make this episode worth watching even if the episode as a whole is a bit lacklustre.

Next week: Bob, Dot and Enzo get stuck in a Dungeon Crawler with Mike the TV in 'Wizards, Warriors, and a Word From Our Sponsor'