Sunday, July 14, 2019

Episode 20 - Nullzilla



As I said in the end of my post on the previous episode, the last three episodes have been about shuffling characters around to put them in a certain place. Enzo now has a friend in the form of AndrAIa, who as a fish out of water now acts as the audience surrogate for characters to explain things they already know to, and Mike the TV is keeping Hexadecimal in check after her near death experience at the end of Painted Windows. With all this in place, this episode begins the four part story arc that is going to close out the season and put things in place for next season.

We open the episode with a null travelling through Lost Angles before we pan across to Hexadecimal's lair, where it turns out that she’s been able to use her looking glass to access the Super Computer, which turns out to be the place we see at the start of the show's intro, succeeding where Megabyte has failed several times throughout the course of the show so far. After gloating about this to Mike the TV and Scuzzy, she gets bored and asks Mike to show her something. He initially shows her a B Movie called 'The Bride of Frankennome'. Hex demands something else since she’s already seen the film, so Mike changes the channel to an Opera Singer Binome singing the final high note. This shatter's both Scuzzy's dome and Hex's looking glass, the latter of which unleashed some tentacles that grab Hexadecimal.



At Silicon Tor, Hack and Slash are contacted by Megabyte, calling them to ask if they’ve completed the first two phases of their operation, and to proceed with phase 3, asking them to remember what happens to those who fail him before signing off. It turns out that Phase 3 is simply to read a story to Nibbles, Megabyte's pet null, and put him to sleep.

Meanwhile, at the Principle Office, Bob, Dot, and Phong are conducting experiments on nulls while Enzo and AndrAIa observe. AndrAIa questions why they’re trying to help nulls as they’re horrible. Enzo explains that nulls used to be sprites, and this is what happens when they lose games. Phong then explains that the city is full of nulls due to having lost several games before Bob arrived in Mainframe. Bob then informs AndrAIa that they're conducting experiments to restore nulls to Sprites, something that Dot points out has been unsuccessful so far on account of the fact that nulls avoid games, leading them to devise other methods to restore them.



Back at Hexadecimal's lair, an organic looking spore emerges from out of the tentacles within the Super Computer, heading towards Hex and latching onto her. This causes her to change colour from red to black, and also alerts the entirety of a Mainframe's null population, including Nibbles. Slash misinterprets this as Nibbles paying attention to the story, but then Nibbles crawls out of his cage. Hack and Slash watch him before panicking and heading off after him. The nulls at the Principle Office also react, but only AndrAIa and Frisket are able to pick up on this due to the noise of the nulls which the others are unable to hear. Enzo spots that the nulls are trying to escape their containment areas, and points this out to the others. Bob checks Glitch and picks up a bizarre energy reading, and Phong determines that this signal is coming from coming from Lost Angles. Bob initially believes that Megabyte to be behind this until Enzo corrects him by saying this has something to do with Hexadecimal.





The infected Hexadecimal makes her way towards Mike and Scuzzy, but before she can reach them, all the nulls end up swarming on top of her. Outside, Hack and Slash arrive in Lost Angles, applying their null stealth mode in order to hide from Hexadecimal. This is when Mike reaches them, panically yelling at the pair to run. Once he stops, Hack asks Mike if he’s seen a null, and Mike informs them that it’s their lucky day, since there's millions of nulls, referring to the null beast as 'Nullzilla'.



Back at the Principle Office, Bob decides to go and investigate the signal, with Phong suggesting they release the nulls and follow them to the source. Dot and Enzo tag along, and AndrAIa also wishes to join, but since she’s not familiar with the ways of Mainframe, Phong instructs her to stay with him. Bob, Dot, Enzo and Frisket follow the nulls to the bridge that connects Mainframe to Lost Angles where they spot Hack and Slash carrying Mike the TV flying across. As they land, Bob instructs Enzo to keep Frisket back and for Dot to ‘Stay Frosty'.

Hack and Slash tell Bob that they need his help as they lost a Nibbles, but Mike the TV then diverts their attention to Nullzilla walking across the bridge. Bob enquires what it is, and Mike tells them about the nulls swarming Hexadecimal, which Dot finds strange since Hexadecimal controls the nulls. Mike explains that she did until the creature came out of her looking glass and got her. This is when Enzo suggests going to see Phong.

Phong explains that the nulls are trying to isolate Hexadecimal from the rest of Mainframe. Bob points out this will eventually drain all of her energy, which Enzo believes to be a good thing as once she’s drained if energy, Nullzilla will also be gone. Phong, however, doesn’t think this is the case due to Hex's trans finite power limits, with Dot adding that Hex's attempts to break free are devastating the city. Bob says they need to stop this monster for Mainframe's sake. Since physical force won’t harm nulls, Dot suggests trying to contain the beast. It turns out that Phong has prepared something for just the occasion, leading them over to a wall and giving the command 'F.A.B'.

This causes the wall to open up to reveal Phong's Office, a room with a clear 1960's aesthetic. Bob, Dot, Frisket and Mike are all wearing bizarre insect themed outfits. Bob removes the mouthpiece from his outfit, declaring 'You can’t talk in these things, and I feel ridiculous!'. Phong apologises, but says the outfits are a necessity in order for them to control their vehicles. Enzo shows up in a green grasshopper themed outfit performing intricate martial arts moves. Once the team is gathered, Phong commands them to get to their stations.



Various parts of the wall switch round, transporting them to a giant slide that eventually reaches a large hanger bay. One by one, Bob, Dot, Enzo, Frisket (who barks), and Mike the TV say the names of their crafts, prompting them to appear. The vehicles then leave the hanger bay and Phong explains to Bob over a TV monitor that these vehicles form a giant robot that will help defeat Nullzilla. The 5 vehicles try to fly together to form the robot, but this doesn’t go so well since the robots don’t fit together. Phong tells them that they need to give the command, and doing so transforms the 5 vehicles into a large robot.



Meanwhile, Nullzilla is causing havoc in the city, eventually reaching Bob's apartment. This is when the robot catches up to it, and the fight begins. Bob's apartment ends up getting destroyed by Nullzilla landing on it (which inconveniences Bob as he’s only just redecorated). However, they are able to contain the monster and ask Phong what to do next. When he asks them to use something called a Disrupt-O-Matic, Dot points out that they don’t have one. This is when Phong realises that it’s back at the Principle Office, so he sends AndrAIa to pilot it over to them.



The Disrupt-O-Matic eventually reaches the robot, and ends up getting used as a giant whisk that scatters the nulls all over Mainframe as the binomes flee in terror (including one who appears to be smoking a joint that appears for a split second). The heroes go down to check up on Hexadecimal, and Bob reveals that while she’s drained of energy, whatever got her is now gone. This leads Dot to question where it went to.



At Silicon Tor, Nibbles finds his way back. Megabyte picks him up, saying 'There  you are, father!' As he enquires as to where Hack and Slash are, the creature that got Hexadecimal crashes through the wall and infects Megabyte in a similar manner.



While the show has been great up until this point, I feel this episode in particular is the start of when the show reached it's peak in terms of quality. As the first part of a multi part story arc, this episode does a good job of telling it's own individual story while also setting things up for the rest of the story. For one, it's interesting to see that Hexadecimal is able to access the Super Computer through her looking glass. It ties into my conclusion based upon her antics in both Medusa Bug and Painted Windows that Hexadecimal is more powerful than Megabyte, and if she wanted to, she could easily take over Mainframe and, as we learn this week, the Super Computer. However, she isn't accessing the Super Computer because she wants to take it over, she's just doing it because she can and possibly also to prove that she can succeed where Megabyte has failed so many times.

Speaking of Megabyte, he doesn't appear much in this episode until the ending, but we do find out something interesting; Nibbles, his pet null, is apparently his father. How he became a null, we have no idea at this point, and it's not something that will get revealed until we get to Season 4. In spite of that, it's a very interesting bit of foreshadowing that raises a lot of questions and speculation as to how Megabyte's apparent 'father' became a null.

We also get the sense that things are getting darker through the presence of the mysterious creature that was in the Super Computer. What is it? Where did it come from? What was it doing in the Super Computer? What is it doing to viruses? It's certainly a lot more organic looking in comparison to a lot of what we've seen before, and it also has a lovecraftian vibe to it. This mystery of not knowing quite what it is at this point adds to the menace that it presents to the show's cast.

While the show is clearly edging closer towards darker territory that it's flirted with before, this episode makes sure to keep the humour in order to keep the show grounded and edge towards the darkness slowly rather than diving head first in. The humour still remains in the show after this point, but in this episode it's rather prominent, both through Hack and Slash's antics and the witty exchanges between characters (my favourite being Bob questioning how Phong was prepared for a Null Monster rampaging throughout Mainframe), but we also get some more pop culture references.

The main references this time are to Tokusatsu properties such as Godzilla and Super Sentai. Godzilla is of course referenced through Nullzilla (including a nice visual nod where binomes are running in front of a screen projecting a rough looking film of Nullzilla rampaging throughout the city), and while Super Sentai isn't directly referenced, the show is referencing it's western counterpart, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which spliced the fight scenes from Super Sentai with new footage shot in America. The year before ReBoot made it's debut, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers premiered in 1993 and started a massive phenomenon in spite of the show's quality being somewhat questionable (even if the cheesiness is part of what makes the show fun to watch). ReBoot's creators of course saw this as a great thing to parody, and ironically, last year's 'sequel' series ReBoot: The Guardian Code ended up taking the tropes parodied in this episode and playing them completely straight (more on that misstep in a later post).

While those are the main references, there's also a more subtle reference which I imagine most fans outside of the UK, Japan, or Australia might not pick up on. Phong's office (including the phrase 'F.A.B' that opens the wall to reveal it), the method in which the characters transport to their vehicles, Phong telling AndrAIa 'now all we can do is sit and wait' once they've begun the transportation process, and even the TV monitor in Bob's vehicle that he uses to contact Phong are all homages to the 1960's British Sci Fi puppet series 'Thunderbirds'. The show was a massive success in Britain in the 60's, and it's success was repeated in Japan and Australia, and it also managed to have two successful revivals through repeat screenings in the early 90's and the 2000's, both of which prompted new waves of toys that flew off shelves to the extent that the children's program 'Blue Peter' had to show children how they could make their own version of the popular Tracy Island playset with household junk. Of course, seeing as the show's creators grew up in Britain around the time the show was airing, they were obviously fans and wanted to pay homage to it. As someone who was raised on Thunderbirds in the 90's through VHS tapes and TV repeats, seeing this reference when I eventually saw this episode at 13 was like a collision of two of my most beloved childhood programs. Heck, even some of the music in this sequence is relatively similar to the iconic Thunderbirds theme.



This is a very strong start to the story arc that is going to continue throughout the series. The story is relatively stand alone with a beginning, a middle, and an end, but it also puts things in place that are going to play a role in the next episode. Namely, the creature that infected Hexadecimal has now infected Megabyte, and who knows what damage an infected Megabyte will inflict...

Next week: A familiar face from last season makes her return and we witness the power that's possessed by the deadly 'Gigabyte'

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