Sunday, May 5, 2019

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'

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