Episode 13 - Identity Crisis Part 2

Last episode, we got the first part of the two part season finale. As stated in my post on that episode, it presented us with an interesting plot and setting up things which appear in this episode, such as Dot's visions of a dystopian Mainframe and the Funhouse game. In the second part of this two parter concluding this season, Gavin, Ian, and Phil successfully paid off everything they set up in the previous episode to end the season on a high note.

Following a brief 'previously on ReBoot' montage, we pick up where we left off with Bob and Dot outside The Funhouse. Bob ReBoots into a clown, but Dot is reluctant to do so following her perceived failure in obtaining the PID's. She eventually does so after Bob's encouragement, ReBooting into a sad looking clown. Bob and Dot head off only to be attacked by exploding custard pies, which it turns out were being thrown by the User, taking on the form of a polygonal clown. The User heads to the first level, and Bob gives chase after him, grabbing the downtrodden Dot to ensure that she’s not left behind.

At Silicon Tor, we can see that Megabyte is halfway done encrypting Dot's file. His doctor tells him that they are on schedule, and Megabyte comments about how he cannot say the same about Dot, prompting him and Cyrus to begin laughing evilly. Back in the game, Bob is figuring out how to get into the Funhouse. The mouth of the entrance opens and a large tongue grabs Bob and Dot, causing them to slide down the tongue. Upon reaching the bottom, they head off and we can see that Phong can see inside the games somehow via vid window. He monologues about how Dot appears to be more affected than he thought, and he needs to do something to save them all.

Bob and Dot enter a hall of mirrors with lots of doors. Only one is the correct entrance to the next level, but the others lead to doom. Bob opens a door only to get grabbed by some strings that hang him up like a puppet, he says that it’s all up to Dot now as the door closes. Dot mopes about how it’s yet again up to her, and that she blew it last time. Phong appears over her shoulder and says he wants to show her something, grabbing the sides of her head. This prompts everything around her to slow down, including a voice saying 'Game Over, The User Wins'.

We cut back to Mainframe and we see Dot, now in her normal attire, pulling herself out of a pit. She comments that the whole sector has been nullified, but she’s somehow survived. We see that the sky is now an incredibly dark grey colour. Dot eventually finds herself at the viral prison camp she briefly saw in her vision. Asides from Megabyte's binomes, all the other binomes have barcodes instead of icons. Even Frisket has been captured and marked with a barcode. Some binomes immediately take interest in Dot due to her not having 'the mark'. The eye robot that Dot saw in another vision last episode shows up, prompting Dot to flee. Eventually, she evades the robot, but she discovers that her Diner has been rebranded as 'Nibble's Diner', named after Megabyte's pet null.

Dot walks into the Diner, and sees that it’s now a sketchy looking dive bar. She sits down, and spots Cecil, who’s now a faceless drone with claws for hands. Dot is initially happy to see him, but this fades once she realises that Cecil no longer has a personality or recognises her, even threatening her. Dot rants about how this is her Diner, which is the best in Mainframe. This causes the patrons to laugh, and for Cecil to correct her and tell her that this is, in fact, Megaframe. The commotion is interrupted by a teenage Enzo with a scar under his eye and stubble enters the Diner. His attitude is a lot more aggressive. Like Cecil, he doesn’t recognise Dot, saying that Dot got everyone killed in a game. After telling her that Bob is on Level 31 with Old Man Phong, he kicks her out the Diner and tells Dot to stay off of his turf. It's interesting to note that Teenage Enzo in this episode is voiced by the original Enzo voice actor Jesse Moss as opposed to Matthew Sinclair who took over the role from Talent Night onwards.  Megabyte then pops up on a vid window as the citizens of Mainframe bow to him, saying 'hail to the prince of power' in unison with each other.

On Level 31, Dot hears Phong's voice coming from an alleyway. Walking down it, we see a box with a picture of Frisket's face on it with the eyes cut out. As Dot approaches the box, Feathers McGraw from Wallace and Gromit walks past. Feathers McGraw is the star of one of my favourite behind the scenes ReBoot stories. He was initially only supposed to appear in this episode as the scene was a homage to The Wrong Trousers. However, the model remained in the archives where the models for the show were stored, and the animators would always find him and decide to put the penguin in the background. This would go by unnoticed until Gavin and Ian saw the finished episodes. Most times, they were able to pull him out of the shots, but he remained in a few. Eventually, Ian sent a memo around the studio demanding that the penguin was to be deleted from the archive.

Phong emerges from the box, and it turns out he’s gone a bit senile. When Dot asks where Bob is, he gets a caged blue null out of his box, commenting about how no one believes that Bob used to be a great Guardian. This sends Dot over the edge, ranting about how she didn’t even try to win the game, wishing for another chance. This prompts Phong to briefly return to his former self, offering wisdom on how the future isn’t determined by the roll of a dice, but the conscious decisions we make. Soon after, Viral binomes spot Dot, with one giving the command to inform Lieutenant Cyrus that they’ve found her.

Dot flees, but ends up getting cornered in an alleyway. As he virals approach, Cyrus in a viral army uniform pops up on a vid window to tell Dot that they’re here to help her. A security drone grabs her and forces a contraption onto her head. This shaves all her hair off and marks her with a barcode, prompting Dot to return to the game. Phong tells Dot that she still has time to win and she sets off through the correct door.

This leads to a giant winding bowling lane that needs to be traversed via a small unicycle. Dot gives chase after the User, making it down just after he’s reached the final challenge; shooting water into a frog's mouth to get it to the top of a tube. Dot is able to beat the User at the last second by holding onto the hose and releasing it at the last second, allowing a large volume of water to shoot out and end the game.

Once the game leaves, Phong explains what Dot experienced was through the use of a reality distortion device that sends ripples into the past. Dot explains that she saw someone who let everyone down by not giving up, only that it was her. Bob joins up with them to congratulate Dot. The three of them work out that there’s still time to stop Megabyte since the file is encrypted and it’s possible that Megabyte hasn’t managed to decrypt it yet. Bob and Dot set off to stop him.

At the Tor, Megabyte is one digit away from decrypting the file. He orders Hack and Slash to bring in the binomes. Back at the prison site, a Viral tank piloted by Bob and Dot pulls up. As soon as the prisoners are on board, the tank pulls away before any virals can board. The worried binomes are relieved when they find out that Dot's piloting the vehicle. She apologises for her failure, but the binomes say they know she tried her best, and thank her for everything she tried to do. Bob then suggests crashing Megabyte's party.

At the Tor, Megabyte has finished decrypting the file, but his doctor tells him there’s something wrong. It turns out Dot has managed to hack in and take back the file to her organiser before Megabyte could finish his decrypting. She gets on the vid window to assure everyone of her victory, thanking Cyrus for helping. This causes Megabyte to turn on Cyrus, demoting him to a shoe shine boy. Phong then inputs the PIDs, turning the sector into an energy slide.

As a way to end the season, this two parter was a great way to round it off. This is also the first time the show steps into darker territory, something that the show is going to begin taking bigger steps towards next season (and more so in the third season), and it definitely benefits the show as a whole. The high stakes really elevate this story in comparison to some of the previous episodes we've had this season. While we've previously seen Megabyte be menacing before, we didn’t get much of an impression of how much control he had over Mainframe. From this two parter, we’ve not only seen that he already has a vice grip over certain sectors within the city, but we also get to see what could happen if he ended up having 100% total control over the city.

The Megaframe portion of this episode is one of the highlights. Not only does it make for a spin on the ‘It’s A Wonderful Life' trope where a character realises how much impact they have through a world where they weren’t able to make a difference, but it also makes for a grim and twisted version of the show that we haven’t seen before. One where Bob is nowhere to be found, Megabyte is essentially in control of everything and Enzo is an aggressive punk with a scar over his eye. Obviously, this was all a dream of Dot's to snap her out of her depression, but keep this in mind when we get to Season Three.

My highlight is, of course, Dot. I’ll get onto this later, but I’ve been very vocal in the past about how great of a character Dot is, and this episode further exemplifies this and it’s great to have an episode where she’s the protagonist. In this two parter, we can see that she is very quick to doubt herself when things go wrong, and this episode is about her learning to overcome that, making for a great moral by the episode’s end.

The only thing I didn’t like is Phong's ability to see into and enter games at will. This is never brought up or mentioned again after this episode, and it’s not explained how or why he was able to do this. And if he can do so, why doesn’t he do so in later episodes where this ability might come in useful?

Now for my thoughts on this season as a whole. Going into this, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy Season 1 too much. I was expecting to enjoy the odd episode, but find I didn’t like this season too much due to not having the nostalgia for it and the stories not being as engaging. However, I was surprised to find that not only was there only one episode that I really disliked (Enzo the Smart), but that this season is actually a lot of fun.

Character wise, Bob is great as your goofy yet somewhat capable hero, and his characterisation in this way prevents him from becoming your generic cookie cutter action hero that’s rampant throughout shows like this. Dot is, of course, a fantastic character who serves as Bob's equal rather than being sidelined to being someone for Bob to rescue week after week. It’s great to see her have so much involvement in the plots and show that she’s just as capable as Bob, even going as far as to resolve the plots of some episodes through her unique skills. Seeing as we live in a world where Young Justice got cancelled because 'too many girls were watching it and girls don’t buy action figures' and Nickelodeon were reluctant to greenlight Legend Of Korra because 'boys don’t watch shows about girls', having a great character like Dot in a show who’s predominant target audience is boys is a brilliant move. I could even argue that the show would be just as great if she was the protagonist instead of Bob.

Enzo can be a bit annoying at times this season, but he mellows out a bit by the end of the season and is a bit more bareable. Of course, Enzo wasn’t a character the show's creators wanted to include, but had to in order to get the show made since the audience needs someone to relate to. As such, the creators felt he was annoying too. However, they grew to love the character as the show went on, which I imagine why he’s less annoying.

Then we get to the villains. Megabyte is possibly my favourite villain of al, time, even if that’s not super apparent this season. He’s voiced brilliantly by Tony Jay, and he is super menacing, but this season, he mainly just cackles in his chair and gets his incompetent minions to do his dirty work. While that’s not a bad thing, it’s not as interesting as what we get next season. Hexadecimal is a very interesting and chilling villain as well, but unfortunately she only appears in two episodes.

While I felt the stories were lacking for the most part, the show has plenty of charm and manages to develop a great sense of humour. We also get some episodes that have some interesting ideas and concepts, namely The Crimson Binome and The Great Brain Robbery, which both give us an idea of what the world outside of Mainframe is like. Sure, the animation is a little dated by today’s standards, but considering this had never been done before, it’s very impressive by 1994 standards, and the animation does get better in later seasons.

Overall, Season One was a success for Mainframe Entertainment. The show was airing on prime time on YTV and doing incredibly well, ABC in the US were airing it on Saturday mornings where it was building an audience, and the show even managed to get 60% of the ratings when it aired on ITV in the UK. With this success came a range of merchandise including action figures, micro playsets, bed sheets, story books, stationary and more. I’ll go more in-depth on this merchandise in a later post. Due to the show’s success, both YTV and ABC ordered 10 more episodes to be aired as a second season (which would also be aired by ITV in the UK), and now the show had found its footing, the creators were able to expand on what they’d established and focus on telling stories of a higher calibre than before...

Next time: Megabyte infiltrates Mainframe's core in 'Infected'

Episode 12 - Identity Crisis Part 1

So here we are, at the two part season finale for the first season of ReBoot. I'll get more into my thoughts on this season as a whole next week, but so far, I've enjoyed this season a lot more than I was expecting to asides from a few episodes which I haven't really enjoyed. Asides from not having the most interesting and engaging plots, the season has been able to shine through with it's charm and humour. However, it's from this point onwards that the show's storytelling improves drastically, giving us much bigger and more engaging stories.

Much like in Enzo the Smart and The Great Brain Robbery, this episode begins with a Game in progress. We are in a peaceful field, and Bob is wearing a military outfit (complete with flat top crew cut) and relaxing by a lake with a fishing rod. He’s soon disturbed by some planes flying overhead and a tank coming right for him. Bob grabs a grenade from his torso, expecting the User to pop out, but it turns out the tank's pilot is Enzo. It turns out that Bob is relaxing in order for Enzo to learn how to take games seriously. He tells Enzo about a game called 'The Funhouse',  a legendary game that very few have entered and survived. We then see the User is struggling to drive his tank, and after a stealth plane piloted by two British binomes manages to blow itself up accidentally, Bob gets fed up and pulls out a bazooka, blowing up the tank and ending the game. Enzo asks Bob why he did that, and Bob says that it’s Dot's big day, and they can’t afford to be late before they head off.

At the Diner, Dot is going over some files when suddenly she gets a brief warped vision where Cecil is a faceless robot with claws, the binomes are all viral and Megabyte's tanks are patrolling outside. Phong narrates over this, saying that Dot is currently experiencing a temporary distortion of reality. This quickly passes, and Dot brushes this off as a side effect of overworking herself. Enzo and Bob enter soon after, and Dot panicky as Enzo's icon is missing. Luckily, Bob has his icon and gives it back to him. Dot goes on to explain that his Icon contains his personal identity information, and that anyone could get him to do as they wish if they ever got a hold of that information. Dot changes into more formal business attire and she and Bob set off.

We then cut to black and hear a knocking. An unruly binome opens part of a door, asking Bob and Dot to identify themselves. The binome then let’s them in after Dot confirms who they are, and he leads them through a corridor with Megabyte's viral skull on the wall alongside some graffiti. Bob let’s Phong know that they’re in. Eventually, the binome opens the door to a stage overlooking a massive theatre area. A binome with an Afro named Cyrus welcomes the two, and Dot asks that they’re ready. There’s a little hesitation, and Cyrus explains that Megabyte owns everything in this sector, and their PID's are all that they have. Dot gives a speech about how she plans to use their PID's to register the binomes with the Principle Office, freeing them from Megabyte's control and allowing them to build an Energy Park within this sector. One by one, the binomes register their PID's. Bob contacts Phong, who points out that this is the first time they’ve freed a sector from Megabyte's control, and then says he’ll prepare the operating system for the initial PID's. However, overhead we see that Hack and Slash are observing the situation.

As the final PID is collected, Dot tells Cyrus that they won’t regret it. She checks back at her stand and finds her organiser with the PID's is gone. Luckily, Cyrus has it, handing it back to her while making it clear how important these PID's are. Dot declares that they are now all free, but they are interrupted by legions of Megabyte's troops showing up. In the commotion, Cyrus leads Bob and Dot to a trap door. Bob goes through after Cyrus and Dot just as Hack and Slash show up.

The trap door leads into the sewers. Bob, Dot and Cyrus head off while Viral binomes pursue them. Back at the theatre, the virals are rounding up prisoners and transferring them into their tanks. Megabyte then shows up on a vid window to enquire what’s going on. Hack and Slash inform him that this is Dot's doing. Megabyte vows to break her spirit, and orders his lieutenant to prevent her from escaping.

During the chase, Phong contacts Bob to ask what’s happening. Bob says that they’re doomed, and Phong suggests Dot self destructing her organiser, something she wouldn’t consider doing. Eventually, Cyrus leads them to an exit to the surface. As they’re proceeding up, they’re spotted by some virals, and Cyrus allows himself to get captured so that Bob and Dot can escape.

On the surface, Bob points out that the whole sector's on alert, but soon notices that Dot isn’t with him. Not long after, Dot joins him in a hijacked Viral tank. As they head off, they’re pursued by more tanks, and Dot briefly experiences another reality distortion, this one featuring a darkened sky and a strange looking robot.

Eventually, they make it to the border, but not long after, Megabyte pops up on a vid window. He declares to the sector that their struggle for independence is over, thanking Dot for delivering the PIDs to him personally. Bob thinks Megabyte is bluffing, but Dot is shocked to find that the file with the PIDs has been removed from her organiser. Dot is very quick to blame herself for this, saying it’s all her fault that these binomes have lost their chance at freedom.

Megabyte signs off, revealing that he needs to encrypt the file first. He then thanks Cyrus for handing over the PIDs, promoting him to 'Lieutenant Cyrus'. Dot has another reality distortion moment, this one of a viral binome prison camp. Phong tells Bob that with the PIDs in Megabyte's pocession , all the binomes will become viral, asking them to come to the Principle Office. Dot, however, seems to have lost all hope. She is incredibly defeated, and says that everyone would be better off without her. Bob tries to perk her up, but a Game lands on top of them. Not just any game, though. They find themselves in a creepy looking circus, which Bob recognises as 'The Funhouse', ending the episode with the show’s first 'To Be Continued'.

While it’s harder to talk about this episode without talking about the next one as well, as the first part of a story, it's a great start with a lot of intrigue and mystery setting up the next half. This is the first real insight we get about how much power Megabyte holds over Mainframe and it’s inhabitants. Phong states that they’ve never reclaimed a sector from him before, meaning that those he has managed to infect have been that way for a while.

The temporary distortions of reality showing a more dystopian Mainframe that Dot experiences manages to raise some questions. Are these visions of the future? Why is Dot experiencing these? What's causing them? We'll find out why next week, but for now, it serves as an interesting glimpse into what might happen if Megabyte had complete control over Mainframe.

Speaking of Dot, this episode has been great for her. While she definitely hasn’t been on the sidelines up until this point, she hasn’t really been the primary focus of her own episode yet. Making up for her under utilisation in The Great Brain Robbery, here she’s the star of the show. It’s her plan to reclaim Megabyte's sector, so therefore, we follow her. We also get to see that, while she’s definitely a capable character, she’s very quick to give up and doubt herself when her plans don’t turn out as expected. This is something else that gets developed more next week.

This is the first real attempt from Blair, Pearson and Mitchell to tell larger scale stories following the more simplistic stories we’ve had for most of this season so far, and it pays off pretty well within this first part. We get some foreshadowing at the start for The Funhouse, some high stakes with the notion of Megabyte controlling the lives of several binomes, some questions in the form of Dot's visions, and a glimpse of The Funhouse at the very end. We'll see if this pays off at all in next week's episode.

Next week: Potential hints at things to come in 'Identity Crisis Part 2'

Episode 11 - Talent Night

This episode's origin is rather interesting. When this episode was initially conceived, it was intended to be a 'bottle episode' (i.e. an episode where the characters are all confined to a singular location) where everyone is stranded in the Diner for Enzo's birthday due to a static storm outside. However, of course, this idea ended up expanding and growing into something much different as we can see from the finished product.

We start the episode in a sphere with a green cube that looks like circuitry rotating inside it. Bob and Enzo are in cars attached to the cube with magnets, and begin racing with some binomes after a ball round this cube. Eventually, they all make it to the ball at the same time, and the binomes call for a rematch. Bob says he’ll catch up once he's checked his messages. Enzo thanks Bob for spending all this time with him, to which he responds that since it’s Enzo's first birthday, he deserves to be spoiled. Enzo races off, and Bob uses Glitch to contact Dot.

Next to Dot's Diner, we see a large stage where Dot and a female binome are sitting. It appears that Dot is auditioning acts for Enzo's birthday party. Bob checks in, and Dot reports that she’s behind schedule due to the acts being terrible, and the acts she does like are rejected by M.C (Emma Cee) the binome who’s with her (who has a police badge with the words 'Prog Censor' written on it). She tells Bob to keep Enzo busy until at least 25:50, and signs out as Mike the TV introduces a group of acrobats.

Dot likes the acrobats, but, unsurprisingly to her, Emma rejects them. They’re then followed by a 0 binome who breaks apart into sections which neither of them like. Then the Dire's Sal and Harv come on stage only to be met by booing from the audience. Emma orders Mike to pull the plug, so he pulls a lever that drops sandbags on their heads. Obviously, these are the characters from the Dire Straits 'Money for Nothing' video created by Blair and Pearson that lead to them creating ReBoot, and this sequence serves as a means for them to vent their frustrations after the 'three and a half weeks of hell' they endured trying to get that video finished.

The next act is a Stand Up Binome named Johnny O'Binome. He says a joke in binary language that causes the audience asides from Emma to burst into fits of laughter. Dot wants to book him, but Emma won’t approve him because 'there will be children in the audience'. Funnily enough, when you convert the joke from binary to English, it translates as 'Take my wife, please'.  Following this, Al's Waiter takes to the stage with his bagpipes and accordion. This is followed by a clown binome on a unicycle performing 'live null juggling', an act which has supposedly been banned. He ties the nulls together in order to make null balloon animals, culminating in a giant null dinosaur (causing the nulls to silently shriek in pain). We then zoom away from the stage and see that Megabyte is observing the events on a vid window. He gets another vid window up to order his lieutenant to investigate, commenting how rude it was of Dot to not invite him.

We then see Bob and Enzo playing another game. This one is Jet Ball, which involves shooting a ball into the opponent's goal while on jet packs. Their game is interrupted by Megabyte popping up on a vid window to ask what’s going on at the Diner. Bob, not wanting to ruin his surprise party, throws Enzo into one of the goals. He re emerges after Megabyte signs off, and then Bob suggests they go to the Data Slides. However, Enzo says that he’s getting hungry and that he wants to go to the Diner instead, prompting Bob to drag him away.

Back at the auditions, Phong is up next. He sings the first word of the song, but stops after he forgets what the next line is. Dot calls the next act on, and Phong ends up falling off the stage as he was reading a file while hovering. Next, we get the 'Small Town Binomes' (an obvious parody of the Village People) performing a parody of the YMCA called BSNP, proclaiming that it’s 'fun to play in the non violent way'. This is met with a positive reaction from the crowd, and both Dot and Emma agree on them making the cut. Following this, we get a cube, sphere and cone called 'the primitives' performing a jazzy music number before coming together to form the ReBoot logo, prompting Dot to look down at her icon and comment 'that’s what it is'.

The next act is Captain Quirk, a stand in for William Shatner, preforming a parody of Shatner's infamous cover of Elton John's hit 'Rocket Man'. This ends with Quirk taking a bow as his wig falls off before teleporting away in true Star Trek fashion. We then cut to backstage to see the Viral binomes sneaking around. However, their cover is blown when the curtain is raised, leading to most of them leaving the stage while one break dances. Dot hates break dancing, but it turns out that Emma loves it. Once outside, Megabyte's lieutenant checks in to report his findings, to which Megabyte orders them to prepare for 'Operation 214', which terrifies the binomes. Once they’ve signed off, Megabyte monologues about how there will be so many people in one place and how 'they’ll never know what hit them'.

At the Data Slides, Enzo comments that, while he’s had fun, he’s getting tired and wants to grab something to eat. Bob insists that Enzo goes down one more time before throwing him down the slide. While he’s going down, Bob checks in with Dot, who says they aren’t ready yet, and as Bob tells Dot that Enzo's getting suspicious, he spots Enzo heading towards the Diner.  Enzo eventually reaches the Diner, walking through the backstage area before getting to the stage. He’s greeted by a crowd of binomes who shout 'SURPRISE!'. Enzo then is raised up on a platform in front of a countdown. Once the countdown reaches 0, Enzo gets upgraded into a new costume.

Enzo's birthday serves two purposes behind the scenes. For one, it allows them to create a new costume for Enzo. Enzo's original costume had clunky shoulder pads that kept getting in the way of animation, so it was decided to give him a birthday so that they had an excuse to alter his costume to something that's easier to animate with. Another reason is that it helps to explain why Enzo's voice has changed since this is the first episode where Enzo is voiced by Matthew Sinclair rather than original voice Jesse Moss. Typically, animated shows tend to get women to voice young boys since their voices don't break leading to needing to find a new voice actor. Blair and Pearson opted to have actual young boys voice Enzo instead, meaning we go through four voices for young Enzo

Dot then takes to the stage in a red dress, singing a song for Enzo called 'You’re Alphanumeric'. Bob is clearly stunned by Dot's outfit. After the song, an Elvis binome comes on stage only to soon be crushed by a Viral tank knocking over the backdrop behind him. Two more tanks form giant speakers, and the one in the middle has a rotating drum kit on the top manned by Hack and Slash. A coffin the pen springs up and opens with Megabyte emerging out of it. With everyone in Mainframe now at his mercy, Megabyte....

....picks up a guitar and starts shredding. He’s then joined on stage by Bob, who uses the Glitch command 'BFG' to transform Glitch into a guitar. The two then have a guitar battle, with both trying to out riff each other. After the battle, Megabyte comments that he’s always wanted to do that, gives Enzo his guitar and rides off in his limo, ending the episode.

When I first saw this episode at 14, I hated it, mainly for the part where Megabyte gives Enzo his guitar. Being more used to the more sinister Megabyte from later seasons, I thought that it was incredibly out of character for such an evil character to commit such an act of kindness. Of course, this scene does still make me question this episode's place in canon since Megabyte wouldn’t realistically do this instead of just infecting everyone there, but my overall stance on this episode has changed, and it’s honestly a lot of fun.

Granted, plot wise it’s wafer thin, but that can be excused given the amount of jokes we get, and in spite of my complaints about why Megabyte is out of character in that scene, the guitar duelling with Bob and Megabyte is absolutely awesome, and it has some great build up to it. Right from his introduction in this episode, we are lead to believe that Megabyte is conducting some nasty scheme to infect Mainframe while everyone is in one place, but the punch line is that it wasn’t his intention at all, he just wanted to pick up a guitar and shred like there’s no tomorrow. While edgy 14 year old me who wanted everything to be dark and gritty thought this was lame, 25 year old me sees the humour in this and finds it hilarious.

Of course, a lot of this episode is spent lampooning BSNP and Mainframe's struggles in making the show they wanted to make while having to comply with their ridiculous standards. The most obvious of these is, of course, the BSNP song, but the slightly more subtle one is is the Prog Censor herself, Emma Cee, or M.C. She gets her name from Mary Connelly, who was the woman from BSNP ensuring that ReBoot was within their standards. Her rejection of practically every act echoes the frustrations of Mainframe's staff from being prevented from doing things they wanted to do. Funnily enough, though, there was only one thing which BSNP objected to in this episode. During the sequence when she's singing to Enzo on his birthday, Dot was going to kiss him on the cheek affectionately. This was cut since BSNP felt this promoted incest, something which Ian Pearson described as 'one of the sickest things I've ever heard'.

It’s also interesting to see what activities the Mainframers do for recreation asides from sitting round at the Diner, which is all we've seen so far. This time, we get to see Bob and Enzo partake in Circuit Racing and Jet Ball, games that are fun where you aren’t at risk of turning into a parasitic slug creature if you were to lose, as well as the Data Slides. Granted, it’s not much, but it’s nice to see that there are things to do in Mainframe asides from stopping viruses and sitting around a Diner.

While I question whether or not this episode is canon, I still find it an enjoyable episode full of some of the show's funniest gags and the guitar duel is one of the best moments in this season of ReBoot. It’s certainly leagues above Enzo the Smart, too.

Next week: Dot expresses her political activist side in 'Identity Crisis Part 1'

Episode 10 - The Great Brain Robbery

If you remember a few weeks back when I took a look at 'The Crimson Binome', I mentioned that the episode in hindsight felt like a prototype for what the show would be like in future seasons with a focus that reaches beyond Mainframe and subtle foreshadowing. This episode is somewhat similar to that since it not only feels like a prototype for the types of stories that we'll be seeing next season, but also because it pays off the foreshadowing from The Crimson Binome.

The episode starts with a game in progress. However, instead of seeing what’s inside the game, we instead go to Silicon Tor, where we see that Megabyte is getting impatient. He’s waiting for someone he's hired to do a job for him. He comments that with her reputation and sense of humour, he shouldn’t have paid in advance only for a purple woman with fiery static hair to appear behind him, supposedly who he’s been waiting for. This is Mouse, the character previously mentioned in The Crimson Binome who has previously crossed paths with Bob. Megabyte queries how she got in, and she responds that it’s what he hired her for. After Megabyte comments on her tardiness, she heads towards a yellow vehicle and gets in (while Megabyte stares at her ass). Megabyte tells Hack and Slash that she’s in charge of this operation, but if she goes off task, they are to delete her. Megabyte then activates something called a compression field, which shrinks the vehicle to an almost microscopic size. Megabyte places this in a tube, and passes it through a vid window to Sargent Smiley, an overly enthusiastic binome.

Back in the main part of Mainframe, the game ends. Bob suggests they get something to eat, and Enzo pounces on him, excitedly talking about Bob's performance in the game, which supposedly involved throwing tomatoes. At the Tor, Megabyte contacts his spies, who inform him that Bob et al are on their way to Level 31, and he then passes this info onto Sargent Smiley. At Al's, Bob orders a Quantum Shake, and we can see that there’s a Viral Binome in the kitchen area. Likewise, Al has been tied up and covered in rope, completely obscuring him. Smiley squeezes the tube, and the submarine enters the straw of Bob's shake.

Al's waiter passes the shake to Bob, but Enzo grabs it first. Bob let’s Enzo have the first sip, causing the sub to enter Enzo. Mouse navigates the sub through the body, and then contacts Megabyte to let him know that they’re heading for the central nervous system on schedule. Megabyte monologues about his plan; to access Bob's brain to get the access codes to the Super Computer, not knowing that they were, in fact, inside Enzo's body rather than Bob's.

Mouse drops a device from the bottom of the sub to the surface of Enzo's nervous system before landing the sub. Hack and Slash fall down a pit and get stuck, which causes Enzo to start uncontrollably dancing and moving about. This worries Bob and Dot, so they decide to take him to visit Phong. In the Principle Office sick bay, Phong does a test on Enzo, inserting a device into his ear to see inside. He then reveals to Bob and Dot that Hack and Slash are inside Enzo, and are in the process of taking over his brain. Bob decides to go inside to stop them. Dot asks to come too, but Enzo points out that he needs someone to stay with him.

Back in the sub, Mouse activates the neural matrix scrambler, giving Megabyte control. Megabyte clicks a button on his chair to access Enzo's memory base (still believing it to be Bob), only to hear Enzo's voice saying the password is 'Belly Button, No Girls Allowed', which of course perplexes Megabyte. Back at the Principle Office, we see that Enzo is saying all this stuff as Megabyte's actions are causing him to relive past memories.

Phong uses a ray to shrink Bob, who’s in a small one man vehicle. He then gets inserted into Enzo's ear. Megabyte gets Mouse to give him sensory control so he can see what 'Bob' sees, directing him to a mirror. This is when he realises that he's in Enzo's body instead. While at first, he’s very angry about this, once he spots Dot and Phong, he realises he’s inside the Principle Office. He gets Mouse to provide him with manual control as he now has a new plan; to get to Mainframe's core.

Mouse sees they’re heading to Mainframe's Core, but isn’t too happy about this since it wasn’t in her contract. However, her conversation with Megabyte is cut short by a quake, which Mouse deduces to an intruder being inside Enzo's brain too. Hack and Slash don jet packs and their arms change to rocket launchers as they give chase after Bob. Bob is eventually able to trick them into crashing into the sub, causing Mouse to exit through the roof. She gets behind Bob as he enters the sub, using her ring to knock him out and trap him in a forcefield.

Enzo eventually reaches to entrance to the core, and in spite of trying to resist with all his willpower, Megabyte is able to overpower and access the core, with the door closing just as Dot and Phong arrive. Back inside Enzo's head, Mouse unmasks Bob, finding out who the intruder is. It turns out the last time Bob and Mouse met, he arrested her for attempting to hack into the Super Computer. Bob berates her for working with Megabyte, but Mouse is more relaxed about it, believing that no one is going to get hurt. However, Bob reveals Megabyte's plan to access the core, and after checking back in with Megabyte, she relinquishes control from him, and Enzo leaves the core. After Megabyte signs off, a voice reveals that the compression field is wearing off, and they only have a limited amount of time to leave Enzo's body.

Mouse races through Enzo's body, destroying Bob's craft on the way, making it out just in time with Enzo sneezing the sub out. The door of the sub opens to reveal Bob and Mouse. Dot isn’t too happy to see Mouse, interrogating Bob about her identity. Bob is about to introduce her, but she vanishes, leaving her signature carving on the door. Enzo enquires what to do with Hack and Slash, and at the Tor, we see that they were miniaturised before being sent back to Megabyte.

While this episode still retains the humour that we've seen in previous episodes, it’s mostly downplayed to instead focus on action. This is by no means a bad thing since the action is entertaining and the plot is an interesting spin on the 'Fantastic Voyage' plot line (I.e. characters get shrunk to go inside another character) that was fairly common practice for TV shows to have an episode utilising such a plot device. The episode's setting of inside of Enzo's head makes for an interesting landscape for the episode to take place in. It is visually interesting to look at, being full of a mix of dark and bright colours with hills and tubes everywhere. In hindsight, the more action focused approach of this episode feels like a prototype of what we'll be getting in Season 2, where the show begins to focus more on the action side while retaining the humour.

Of course, the most notable thing about this particular episode is the introduction of Mouse, co-creator Gavin Blair's favourite character. In comparison to some of the other characters we've had so far, she’s a bit more morally ambiguous. She has no issues working with viruses as long as no one gets killed, and has been arrested by the Guardians (specifically Bob) for hacking into the Super Computer. While she operates as a hired hacker for whoever pays her, we can see from this episode that her heart is in the right place since she pulls the plug on the operation after learning Enzo's life was at risk. We can see from her personality that she does all this for the thrill and excitement of it all. It was clever of the show to reference her in a previous episode, and then to follow it up in this episode was a great pay off. Luckily, Mouse is going to return in future episodes so this isn’t the last we'll see of her.

The only real downside is that Dot didn’t really have much to do this episode, being overshadowed by Mouse. While she’s not out of character, she’s definitely just left on the sidelines to watch over Enzo while he’s going haywire with Hack and Slash in his brain. However, this only serves as a minor nitpick, and we get plenty of Dot in the season finale to make up for this.

In spite of a lack of Dot, this is a great introduction to Mouse as a character and a fun action adventure that seems like an experiment to what the show is going to be going forward now that the show's creators have managed to get more control over the scripts while staying within the boundaries of BSNP to stop them taking things too far. It's clear from this episode that, with greater control over the content of the show, the creators are able to make the plots a lot more engaging going forward.

Next week: Mainframe gives their biggest middle finger to BSNP yet in 'Talent Night'