Sunday, August 4, 2019

Episode 23 - Web World Wars



Here we are, at the finale of the four part arc that ends the second season of ReBoot. We've been heading down this road for quite a while, but now we're finally here. As a season finale, this episode manages to conclude the threat of the Web that's been established previously, but this episode is also potentially the show's biggest turning point so far...

Picking up from the end of the previous episode, the Web Portal is still hovering menacingly over Mainframe, and we see the entirety of the system preparing for war. Binomes are being evacuated to safe areas, Enzo and AndrAIa are manning cannons outside the Principle Office, Dot and Mouse are looking through the Principle Office armoury for something that might come in handy, and Megabyte is overseeing the construction of some kind of weapon. There's also a few Web Spores flying around, but they aren't attacking anything - yet. The CPU's are on standby, but then they are given the command to scramble, and they spring into action.



Bob is contacted by the head of the CPU attack force who informs him that the first line of defence is in position and awaiting his instructions. Bob instructs him that the troops are not to fire at anything until the Web's attack force arrives. Once he signs out, Bob is contacted by Megabyte, telling him to come to Silicon Tor as they have a small problem. It turns out the problem is Phong, who is refusing to ally himself with the virus. Bob reminds Phong that they need Megabyte's help in order to save Mainframe. Megabyte elaborates on the situation, pointing out that while the hardware is nearly complete, they don't currently have the software required to run it since Phong won't download it from the archives. Bob commands Phong to do so, and he signs off. Bob enquires about how the power source for the Hardware is doing, and Megabyte says that 'she's the same as always', revealling that the power source they are referring to is Hexadecimal. Bob tells him to ensure that she stays online before heading off. Just as he leaves, Hexadecimal appears, commenting that she loves the way that Bob and Megabyte work together, and how she feels it would be a shame to split up such a team. Megabyte reminds Hexadecimal that they are working towards a plan of some description. It's ambiguous, but clearly Megabyte intends to betray Bob in some fashion before this is over.



Back at the Principle Office, Mouse is apprehensive about working with Megabyte since she's worked with viruses previously and been double crossed every time. Dot consoles her by saying she feels the same way, but they all have a part to play; Megabyte's building the Hardware with Hexadecimal powering it and Mouse operating it and accessing the codes that will shut the portal. Dot seems relatively convinced that they won't be betrayed since the Web would just destroy them as well as Mainframe if they lost. Dot then comes out to join Mouse sporting a large cannon, and is slightly concerned that it makes her look too butch. Mouse asks Dot to watch her back while she works on the codes with Megabyte, and Dot tells her that's what the gun is for.



Enzo and AndrAIa are observing the Web Portal. AndrAIa contemplates how sad it is that something so beautiful can also be so deadly. Enzo tells her that he's never seen Bob team up with Megabyte or Hexadecimal on a level like this before. AndrAIa is confused about this, since where she's from, you destroy enemies when you encounter them, but here they seem to form alliances. She remarks about how 'You Guardians are too clever for me'. This prompts Enzo to try and come clean about him not actually being a Guardian, but is cut off by Bob's appearance, addressing Enzo as 'Cadet Matrix'. He asks why he's not in uniform, and that it's time he got suited up. Enzo is confused about this, but Bob whispers in his ear, asking him to follow along with him. Bob asks Enzo for his icon, and Bob then downloads Version 1.0 of the Guardian Protocal into Enzo's Icon. He then gives the icon back to Enzo, placing it on his chest. Enzo taps the icon, changing his clothing from his usual attire to a Guardian uniform. Bob informs him that once the war is over, he'll be transferred to the Super Computer to attend the academy and become a full fledged Guardian. Dot contacts Bob to inform him that Megabyte, Mouse, Hexadecimal and her are ready to go. Bob then heads off, but before he does, he tells Enzo that if anything were to happen to him, Enzo would be charged with defending Mainframe in his place.



The Hardware takes to the sky as Mouse begins hacking. Megabyte tells her that he takes it that she'll be able to crack the codes in time, and she tells him that she's not just getting the codes that will shut the portal, but is also hacking into the Web and erasing Mainframe's location, making it impossible for anyone to be able to locate Mainframe from the Web. This greatly pleases Megabyte. The CPU's are waiting in formation while various web spores are flying about. One CPU ends up cracking after getting scared by a spore flying right in front of his vehicle. He blows it up, which alarms the remaining spores. Bob orders the CPUs to prevent the remaining spores from getting back to the portal since they will summon the attack drones if they make it back.



The CPU's chase after the spores, and manage to take most of them out asides from two. While they're able to corner both of them, the last one is able to piggy back off of the other and reach the portal. Soon after, the attack spores make their way to Mainframe. Bob says that it's now a whole new ballgame, and they need to close the portal. Eventually, the CPU's get overwhelmed by the amount of spores, so Bob commands Megabyte to provide some support. Megabyte then contacts his lieutenant, and orders him to launch all their forces to support the CPU's.

Eventually, Mouse is able to successfully hack into their codes, and Hexadecimal has fully charged the Hardware just as Bob lands on the platform. Megabyte then begins putting his plan into action by slicing Dot's gun in half. Bob begins to command Glitch to do something, but he's prevented from doing so by Megabyte grabbing him and covering his mouth with one arm. He uses his free hand to take Glitch from Bob, crushing it and ordering his subordinate to press a large red button which causes a small capsule to ascend to the platform. Megabyte throws Bob inside, and the doors seal shut as soon as he enters.



Bob shouts at Megabyte, telling him he won't get away with this. Megabyte brushes this off and continues with his operation, ordering Herr Doktor to launch the capsule. However, Mouse stops him from doing so. With her sword at the ready, she stands between Megabyte and the button, threatening to attack if he comes any closer. However, she ends up getting knocked back by Hexadecimal, who appears from behind. Megabyte gives Bob an incredibly menacing look before pressing the button, launching the capsule into the Web. Once the capsule enters the portal, Megabyte presses another button that activates the Hardware. The large cannon takes aim at the portal and fires, causing it to disappear.



With Bob now gone, Dot picks up Glitch. She has no time to lament his loss, however, since Hexadecimal begins approaching her, ready to kill. Luckily, Dot is saved by Mouse firing some kind of beam at Hexadecimal's face, weakening her temporarily. Mouse and Dot then flee in Mouse's ship. Megabyte then orders his forces to destroy the remaining spores and then attack the CPU's. Hexadecimal then begins to recharge the weapon, pointing at the Principle Office.

Obviously, this is the darkest the show has got so far. You might be asking yourself 'How on Earth did the showrunners manage to get away with taking things this far with BSNP on their backs?'. Well, there is a reason why the show was able to get this dark that I haven't mentioned so far based on something that happens in this episode, which is also why I've neglected to name the tanks used by Megabyte's forces until now.

In the Principle Office, we see several CPU's celebrating, unaware of what's happened to Bob and what's going to happen to their remaining attack force. We then cut to Binky and Algy (the latter of whom was voiced by Co Creator Gavin Blair), the British Fighter Pilot Binomes who've made a few appearances so far. They're pursuing a spore that then gets destroyed by two of Megabyte's tanks. Once the spore has been destroyed, the tanks begin to shoot at Binky and Algy's vehicle. Binky turns to Algy and says 'It's the ABC's! They've turned on us!', with Algy replying 'Treacherous Dogs!'.

So Megabyte's tanks are named ABC's (which stands for 'Armoured Binome Carrier'), named after the network that was airing ReBoot in the US who's broadcasting standards division 'BSNP' heavily restricted the kind of content that ended up in the show. At some point during the production of Season 2, ABC was purchased by Disney, who then subsequently cancelled all children's shows on the network that were being produced externally, of which ReBoot was one of the casualties. Knowing that the show was going to be cancelled regardless, Gavin, Ian, and Phil decided to ignore BSNP and just do what they wanted to do. Of course, they couldn't take things too far, but they had enough freedom to shake off the shackles placed upon them by BSNP, resulting in the darker, slightly more complex storylines.

Back at the Principle Office, Algy contacts Phong, telling him that the ABC's are attacking them before being cut to static. Phong tries to contact Bob, only for Dot to tell him that Bob won't be able to hear him. When Phong asks what happened to Bob, Dot simply says that it's bad, very bad. Dot then bends down to Enzo, and hands him Glitch. As she does so, AndrAIa moves her hands to her mouth in shock. Upon being handed Glitch, Enzo lets out a loud 'NOOOOOOOOO!'.



Megabyte and Hexadecimal then contact the Principle Office via VidWindow, telling those inside that everything they did was for nothing, and as they speak, their CPU's are being shot out of the sky. He commands that Phong drops all the Principle Office defences, welcoming everyone to Megaframe. Phong, however, declares that they will fight Megabyte to the last. Megabyte then says that since they've lost their Guardian, nothing can stand in their way, and Mainframe is now his for the taking. AndrAIa corrects him, saying that they do have a Guardian. Enzo places Glitch onto his arm, and in a mirror of the show's opening credits, says 'Two Viruses Take Over My Home?! I don't think so!' as him, Dot, and AndrAIa pose and the show's logo drops down with the words 'End Prog?' in the bottom corner of the screen.



Seeing as how there was no telling if the show was ever going to come back after this episode, it was a pretty bold move for them to potentially end the entire show like this; Bob is lost in the Web, potentially dead, Megabyte and Hexadecimal are in a position to take over with only Enzo, a young boy with no prior training, standing in their path. Thankfully, the show didn't end up ending here, but at the time this episode aired in early 1996, the show's creators had no idea if they would ever get to make any more ReBoot.

As for this episode as a whole, it's a really good episode, the culmination point of everything we've had earlier in the season. I'll get onto it later in this entry when I talk about the season as a whole, but overall, the build up leading up to this episode within the show is pretty interesting to watch, and it's a great pay off to everything we've had from Nullzilla.

At least half of this episode is taken up by the battle with The Web, this menace that's invaded Mainframe and threatens to destroy it unless our heroes can get rid of it. The battle sequence is full of adrenaline, mainly being fought by the CPU's and the ABC's, but the main cast gets involved as well. It's great seeing Bob act as a more serious commander type. While Bob is normally more laid back and cracking jokes, this episode has him play it more seriously because, of course, there's no jokes to be made within the face of potential Armageddon.

This episode also has a few great quiet, subtle moments between the characters. I particularly love the scene where Dot and Mouse are talking while preparing for the battle about their mistrust of viruses and how they have no choice but to work alongside them. After their initial adversarial relationship to each other in Gigabyte, it's great to see them bonding and establishing a strong friendship.

Megabyte in this episode is also excellent. Early on in the episode, it's established that he has a plan to betray his alliance with Bob, but going into the episode, we're expected to believe that everything will be okay. Bob will put a stop to whatever Megabyte's planning to do, and the Web will be gone, and everything will potentially be back to normal once the episode ends. However, the complete opposite happens and Megabyte is able to best Bob and is now in a good position to take over Mainframe.

Megabyte's scheme is also pretty clever. We've established that Megabyte is intelligent in previous episodes, so of course, he knows that the Web will destroy him if Mainframe gets destroyed. This means he has to work with Bob in order to get rid of this threat. However, Megabyte also takes advantage of this threat, seeing it as an opportunity to get rid of Bob once and for all after the several times Bob has put an end to his schemes in previous episodes.

It's hard to tell if Bob was aware that Megabyte was planning something, or if it was just a precaution in case something might happen, but he puts a fallback in place in case anything were to happen to him; Enzo. Of course, his intention was for Enzo to go to the academy once the threat was over, but he said that if anything were to happen to him, that Enzo would be the one responsible for defending Mainframe in his absence. I'll go into this more in a later episode, but this results in some interesting developments for Enzo and his lack of preparation for defending Mainframe.

Bob's fate also does wonders for the show. Sure, Bob is a great character, but removing him from the show not only gives the other characters the chance to get the spotlight, but also puts their fates into perspective. As a character, Bob is the dependable hero who the other characters are able to rely on in order to save the day (although Dot is capable of this as well), but with him gone, who's going to fill that void? Also, what's to say a similar fate won't befall Dot? Or Enzo? Or Mouse?

Now for my thoughts on this season as a whole. Overall, this season is a massive step up from the previous season, which is done mainly through the improvements to the storytelling. While I enjoyed the previous season, I did find a fair few of the stories were lacklustre. This season, we've got much higher stakes and a greater sense of continuity between episodes as opposed to pushing the reset button at the end of every episode.

Speaking of the continuity, the way this season is structured is really clever. The opening episode, Infected, shows that Megabyte is a genuine force to be reckoned with when he takes matters into his own hands rather than allowing his minions to do the dirty work for him. The episode also reveals that Megabyte and Hexadecimal have some kind of family link, although we don't learn what that link is exactly until later. We previously got some hints of this last season, but we get the full extent of it in this episode. High Code is mostly filler since The Codemasters never show up again, but it is the first episode to mention The Web. It doesn't explain what it is, but it establishes it's existence prior to it's mention in 'Painted Windows' that it's going out of control and invading systems. Likewise, in High Code, Enzo is building his Air Kart which is fully built by the time of 'Bad Bob'.

When Games Collide is another filler episode, but it does feature Bob telling Enzo about the Super Computer, something that Dot scolds him for at the start of Bad Bob. The ending of Bad Bob is quite significant, as well, since Megabyte, sick of Bob always ruining his schemes is prepared to kill Bob then and there, but is prevented from doing so by the presence of the entire CPU infantry. He flees, but it's clear that Megabyte has not taken his latest defeat lightly, and the next time him and Bob face each other, it might not end so smoothly, which is of course, what happens when the two next meet in Web World Wars (technically, they encountered each other in Gigabyte, but Megabyte was acting towards the Web Creature's agenda rather than his own). Enzo is also forbidden from entering games in this episode, which becomes one of the key plot points in AndrAIa, which introduces both AndrAIa as a character and the back story that Dot and Enzo's father was responsible for the destruction of Mainframe's Twin City and the deletion of the majority of Sprites in the system.

Painted Windows also helps to set up the finale arc through placing Hexadecimal in Mike the TV's care, something which is a key part of Nullzilla since it was Mike the TV that allowed the Web Creature to enter by shattering Hexadecimal's looking glass. Likewise, Bad Bob, Painted Windows, and AndrAIa put everything in place ready for the start of the finale arc.

The finale arc itself does a great job of rounding out the season. The first two episodes have issues that are caused by a mysterious creature, and our heroes have to resolve them, only for hints at the end of each one showing that this creature is still out there, doing something. We also learn what Megabyte meant when he referred to Hexadecimal as 'family'; they are brother and sister, and Megabyte refers to his pet null Nibbles as 'father', although we aren't too sure what exactly he meant by that. Trust No One then ends on a relatively big cliffhanger that fully sets up the big finale, Web World Wars. The show also tackles more sinister ideas. One of these being The Web, a domain with more organic like beings compared to what we've seen before, and another big one being that the Guardians aren't 100% good either, being prepared to destroy entire systems for 'the greater good'.

This time around, Bob finds himself having to find alternative ways to resolve the episode's plots since Glitch is either somehow incapacitated or he's up against a foe that Glitch has no power over. Even when he has Glitch, he's not using it as frequently as he has done in the past. This makes him more interesting as a character as it shows us he has the skills needed to be a Guardian and doesn't need to rely on Glitch as a crutch to save the day.

Dot sadly doesn't get as much focus as she did last season. However, she's still as great as she was last season, and she has plenty of great moments across these episodes. I really like the fact that she has authority of the CPU defence force, showing that she has a position of significant power within Mainframe, and she's always somewhat involved within the plots of episodes (other than Trust No One where she's comatose for the majority of the episode).

This time, Enzo is getting a little more involved in the plots of episodes. This starts in High Code when he finds out the identity of Talon, and instinctively goes to find Bob in order to tell him this. Likewise, he gets involved in the plot of Bad Bob, and he's the driving force behind the plot of AndrAIa. However, for the most part, he's more of a background character. His most interesting development comes at the end of the episode with Bob upgrading him to a Guardian. Not much has come of this yet, but we'll cover that more when we look at Season 3.

As mentioned before, Megabyte this season really comes out of his shell, becoming a more active threat as opposed to just barking orders and rarely getting his hands dirty. We see that he is intelligent enough to know when he's beaten, but he knows how to take the advantage of a situation like in Web World Wars. Hexadecimal gets her finest hour this season in Painted Windows, where she manages to succeed where Megabyte failed in 'Infected' by reformatting Mainframe into her own warped image.

We also get a couple of new additions to the main cast this season. The return of Mouse adds another awesome woman character to a cast that's mainly comprised of men, and it's great to have someone who's a bit more morally ambiguous but still has their heart in the right place. The other big addition to the cast is AndrAIa, who hasn't done too much outside of her initial appearance, but will definitely be getting more to do next season.

Overall, in spite of getting cancelled by ABC, ReBoot's second season was still a success, at least on YTV in it's home country of Canada. The show's relative success also caught the attention of Hasbro, who contracted Mainframe to make a show based on the newest wave of their Transformers toy line known as 'Beast Wars: Transformers'. While this was predominantly a work for hire gig with the show being handled by writers Larry DiTillio and Bob Forward, Mainframe still heavily collaborated with the people at Hasbro in order to make the show. In spite of the show initially receiving backlash from Transformers fans regarding how different it was to the original (i.e. WHY DO THEY TURN INTO ANIMALS INSTEAD OF VEHICLES?! OPTIMUS PRIME IS A TRUCK, NOT A MONKEY! YOU HEAR THAT, HASBRO?! TRUKK NOT MUNKY!!! etc), the show eventually managed to win over fans by tying into preexisting Transformers lore and became one of the most beloved entries in the franchise over it's three season run from 1996 to 1998.



At some point during 1996, Mainframe received funding from YTV to make a third season of ReBoot. Contacting former head of children's television at ABC and one of the show's biggest allies Dan DiDio (who would later go on to become the head of DC comics), the show runners and DiDio got together in order to come up with the storyline for the show's third season. Without BSNP on their backs, they now had the freedom to take the show in any direction they wished...

Next week: We take a short break from looking over the series and take a look at some of the merchandise that was produced for the show's first two seasons.

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