Episode 28 - Icons

The previous episode of ReBoot ended on a fairly uncertain note with Enzo, forced into the role of the show's protagonist so far this season, being defeated by The User with no hints as to whether or not him, AndrAIa, or Frisket survived the ideal. Where would the show go from here? Did Enzo survive? If so, would the show follow him, or remain in Mainframe with Dot?

Any of this potential suspense is dispelled by the opening sequence for this arc. We begin with a shot panning over a tower as an unfamiliar adult voice tells us that he lives in the games, and he's searching through systems, people's, and cities for his home: Mainframe. Following several shots taken from upcoming episodes (including one featuring Bob), the voice comes back to tell us he has no format, and is a renegade lost in the net (exactly where the name for this blog came from to address the elephant in the room). Obviously, this narrator is a grown up Enzo, suggesting that some time has passed since this episode and the previous one. While this is a great title sequence (complete with a slightly darker and more foreboding sounding rendition of the ReBoot theme tune), it does lessen the effect of this particular episode as a whole (which I will get into when we get to my analysis at the end).

Following this intro, we begin the episode in space. The camera focuses on a planet that isn't too dissimilar to Saturn, eventually reaching an asteroid belt. In the asteroid belt, we see a UFO that is piloted by aliens similar to those from Mars Attacks (complete with their signature 'Ack Ack!' dialogue). These aliens turn out to be Enzo and AndrAIa, and they're being pursued by a space shuttle - the user for this game. The shuttle chases the UFO through a canyon on an asteroid, and eventually, AndrAIa tells Enzo to finish off the User. Enzo asks if they'll be staying or leaving, with AndrAIa specifying that they'll be saying, and to change their icons. AndrAIa double taps her icon, changing it from the triangle shape to the usual circle shape. Enzo does the same, and double taps Frisket's as well. Here we can see Enzo has a golden rotating eye (replacing the one he lost in the previous episode), which then locks onto the user, allowing Enzo to successfully hit the shuttle and send it crashing into an asteroid, ending the game. 

Following the end of the game, we find ourselves in a system that's in complete ruin. The camera initially focuses on Frisket but then we slowly pan back to reveal Enzo and AndrAIa, who are now fully grown adults. Enzo comments how they aren't in Mainframe, and AndrAIa replies that it's a good thing since this is the most devastated system they've appeared in. A couple of binomes are hiding in fear of the new arrivals, but AndrAIa says it's okay and they can come out. They slowly submerge and begin discussing with themselves that 'no one comes from the cube', with one binome saying that they must be Users. A shy, nerdy looking binome asks if they're good users or bad users. AndrAIa says they aren't users, but sprites, and introduces herself as AndrAIa. She introduces Enzo, but he simply tells them to call him 'Matrix'. One binome is slowly stepping backwards, and steps on a horn. Matrix quickly turns round and shoots his gun at the horn, causing the binome that stepped on it to faint out of shock and the remaining binomes to hide. AndrAIa tells Matrix that he needs to work on his social skills, and Matrix remarks that he'll get over it, saying that he'll go and see what repairs he can make to the system, with AndrAIa taking Frisket to find the system's Command.Com to see if he can explain what happened in this system. Matrix tells Frisket to not eat anyone as he walks off. Frisket growls, causing the binomes curiously peering out behind rubble to hide. AndrAIa tells them not to pay any attention to Matrix, since him and Frisket are really just pussycats once you get to know them.

Matrix uses Glitch to scan for errors, with multiple tears popping up on screen. However, a big blip pops up on Glitch, which means that there's a virus within the system, leading to Matrix quickly running to it's location. Meanwhile, AndrAIa enters the Principle Office of this system, where she's met by a number 1 called 'Wise One', who claims to be all that's left of the command system. AndrAIa introduces herself and Frisket, and Wise One asks where her 'other friend' is, referring to Matrix. AndrAIa says that, knowing him, he's knee deep in trouble. 

Elsewhere, we see a young sprite fending off against a giant purple preying mantis looking virus. He's able to quickly avoid his attacks, but eventually, a blast hits one of the virus's arms, causing him to look up where the blast came from. The camera pans up to reveal Matrix, who jumps down onto the virus, pinning him down. He identifies Matrix as a Guardian, but Matrix says he isn't a Guardian, but is a renegade. The virus begs for mercy, but Matrix shoots him, saying that he'd never allow mercy to a virus. The young sprite says that Matrix's actions weren't necessary as he had the virus right where he wanted him. Matrix replies sarcastically that he had complete control of the situation. The sprite says that he's been on his own for 'seconds' and doesn't need anybody. Matrix walks away, saying that he guesses the sprite doesn't need him, either.

Back at the Principle Office, Wise One asks how it's possible for Matrix and AndrAIa come from 'the cubes'. AndrAIa explains that they don't come from the games, but use them as a method of transportation. She continues to explain that they ended up trapped in a game when they were small sprites, and became part of the game to survive, demonstrating how she changes her icon from regular sprite to game sprite, and then saying that now they're just trying to find a way back to Mainframe. Wise One says that it's sad that they're lost and far away, and AndrAIa replies by saying Mainframe is Matrix's home, and her place is by his side. Wise One says that's similar to how their place is this system, and while it's not much, it's all they have. This is when they're joined by Matrix, who says that they won't have anything if they keep loosing games. AndrAIa asks how bad this system really is, and Matrix says that while he's patched it up as best as he can, one more lost game will cause the system to crash.

Outside, Wise One offers a stack of crates to Matrix and AndrAIa as payment to stay and protect their system. AndrAIa is grateful for the offer, but says that they need to find their own home, although they could possibly stay for long enough to train others to combat the games. When no one volunteers, Matrix rants that if they aren't volunteering, why should they, and that they'll be leaving the system once the next game comes before storming off. Soon after, AndrAIa joins him as he plays with his yo yo. Matrix asks how many they were able to recruit, and AndrAIA says four. This surprises Matrix, since he thought his act would get him at least a dozen. AndrAIa simply remarks that Matrix isn't that good an actor, leading to him bringing up the time that he managed to convince over two dozen to join him, and the two go off outside to meet their recruits.

Outside, Matrix meets the binomes, and they introduce themselves one by one. The first one is Barry, who claims to be able to lap the system before Matrix can process a word. The next is Gabby, a writer who wishes to chronicle the adventures of AndrAIa, the 'greatest warrior this system has ever seen'. Then we have Hardboot, a zero binome who says his name says it all, and Jeff, the nerdy binome from before, who says that he's not sure why he's here, but wants to help nonetheless. Matrix then goes onto explain that he doesn't like losing, and that in the Games, losing is not an option. As if on queue, the system voice announces an incoming game. Wise One wishes them luck, and tells them not to worry that the six of them are all that stands between the system and total destruction. The sprite from earlier then attempts to knock over Matrix in a similar way to Enzo used to do to Bob, but he simply gets knocked down. This then brings the total number of heroes in the game to seven.

Matrix enquires what the sprite is doing here, since he thought he didn't need anybody. The sprite says he doesn't, but he figured that Matrix could use some help. Matrix simply tells him to stay out of his way since 'games aren't for small sprites'. Matrix then uses Glitch to get the stats for the game, which turns out to be 'Kron the Destroyer', and their goal is to stop the user from stealing 'The Gold Tooth of Syssop', which is kept in a castle known as 'The Tower of Despair'. This clearly spooks the binomes, something which AndrAIa notices and points out to Matrix, suggesting that he gives the 'team speech', something which Matrix notes has worked before. Matrix tells them that since they are now a team, it's time to give them team names. Barry is now 'Overdrive', Gabby is 'Tweak', Hardboot is, well, Hardboot (he wasn't lying when he said his name said it all), and Jeff is Tactic. The sprite enquires what his name will be, and Matrix tells him to be quiet as he's really starting to get his back up. The sprite then takes this and uses it for his team name, 'Backup'. After getting their names, the team ReBoots after AndrAIa explains to the new recruits how to do so. AndrAIa becomes Xena Warrior Princess, Matrix becomes a cross between Conan the Barbarian and William Wallace from Braveheart, Frisket simply becomes a black dog, Overdrive/Barry becomes a Native American warrior, Gabby/Tweak becomes Gabrielle from Xena, Backup becomes a Scottish warrior, Hardboot gains some armour and a mace, and Jeff/Tactic becomes a wizard.

Now they're ReBooted, the characters head off towards the castle. Backup gets distracted by something, and then gets abducted by a crow. The crow drops a feather which Tactic goes back to pick up. The party eventually reaches a swamp with a boat chained up that they can potentially use to get across. Overdrive jumps in the boat and attempts to cut the chain with his axe. AndrAIa spots something in the water, and dives in. Whatever this is ends up coming up behind Overdrive, and once he's aware of it, he screams in terror as we see that it's a giant sea serpent.

Outside of the game, Wise One comments that while he's a patient number, he can't stand all the waiting. A binome asks what will happen to them if they fail, and he explains that it will be total deletion, but not to worry as he's sure that everything will be fine. Back in the game, AndrAIa appears on the back of the sea serpent and digs her claws into it, subduing the creature and allowing the rest of the party to climb on. Matrix realises that Backup isn't with them, telling AndrAIa to go on ahead as he'll catch up to them once he's found Backup. Inside the castle, Backup is hanging for dear life off of a grate over a bottomless pit which appears to be slowly breaking. He calls out for help, and Matrix eventually pulls him up. He thanks Matrix, saying that it was 'Pixelatious'. Matrix sarcastically responds that it was 'real alphanumeric'. Backup likes the sound of that phrase, and decides to adopt it into his vocabulary.

At the steps to the castle, Tweak narrates the adventure, wondering what AndrAIa will do next. AndrAIa tells her that she needs to put down her file folder and stop looking to AndrAIa for answers, reminding the party that Matrix and her are leaving with this game, meaning that they need to win on their own since they're the only hope the system has. Outside of the game, we see that the system has begun to crash, so Wise One begins evacuating everyone inside the Principle Office.

At the foot of the tower, the party needs to find a way to lower the drawbridge. Tactic pulls the feather from earlier out of his bag, and then uses it to fly up to the mechanism that lowers the drawbridge, activating it once his spell wares off. Hardboot then pulls the drawbridge down and Tactic slides down the chain. The door then opens, letting the party into the castle. Elsewhere, Matrix and Backup are battling stone gargoyles. The one Matrix is battling begins flying at him, so Matrix jumps at it, cutting off his head once they're parallel. Backup dealt with his off screen, and Matrix says they need to get to the next level.

The rest of the party reach the final chamber where the tooth is in the mouth of a gargoyle. It's jaw ends up shutting once Hardboot ends up triggering a booby trap activated by a tile. Tactic suggests that Hardboot supports Tweak while she uses her staff to open the mouth. As she reopens it, the user appears, demanding that he wants the tooth. Matrix and Backup enter from a secret passage, and they go to join the battle. AndrAIa holds Matrix back, however, since the rest of them need to win the game without their help. 

Overdrive throws skulls at the User to knock him to the ground. However, he soon gets back up again so Gabby throws the gargoyle's large tongue at him, knocking him out for good. Tactic asks Backup if he'd like to do the honour of taking the tooth to end the game. Backup asks Matrix where he's going, and he says that Backup has now found his family, but he needs to find his and this game might be his only chance to get home. After changing his and Frisket's icons, he throws Backup his yo yo. Backup then takes the tooth to end the game. AndrAIa asks Matrix if Backup reminded him of anybody, to which he says 'not particularly', and she then asks if she's told him lately how wonderful he is as the game leaves for good. Back in the system, Backup is met by a binome who looks like Young Enzo. Wise One wishes Matrix and AndrAIa luck on their journey home, and thanks them for their help. As he lays out plans to rebuild the system, we pan to the sky of the system as it changes from the miserable brown to a bright blue.

This episode has a pretty big job to do; it needs to establish the characters of Matrix and AndrAIa, showing how they have changed in the time between this episode and the previous one. Since there's such a big time jump between the two episodes, we are essentially met with two new characters, and they need to be established to the audience. Overall, I feel that this episode does a great job of giving us an idea of how these characters operate as well as telling a story which establishes what this second arc is going to be about.

To start with, let's talk about Matrix. While the show establishes this more in a couple of weeks time, we can see that he has clearly been affected by his defeat at the end of the previous episode to the extent that he refuses to be referred to as 'Enzo', instead wanting to be called 'Matrix'. We also see that he has a particular disdain for being called a 'Guardian', and also has a hatred of viruses, the latter stemming from how he blames Megabyte for ruining his life, feeling that viruses are not worthy of mercy and better off being deleted. While he's certainly more aggressive and cynical, he's somewhat grounded by AndrAIa stopping him from going too far over the edge, suggesting that some of this anger is somewhat of an act.

This was something spotted by Season 3's story editor, Dan DiDio. Initially, Matrix was going to be a lot more aggressive, with the scene where he aggressively shouts at the binomes for not wanting to volunteer to help save the system being 100% straight rather than Matrix putting on an act. He felt that if someone was provided with the love and affection that AndrAIa was giving Matrix, they wouldn't be that grim and bitter and angry. This lead to a tweaking to Matrix's character which I feel pays off in the long run.

Speaking of AndrAIa, she doesn't seem to be as affected by what happened in Game Over. Obviously, she must have found it traumatic, but as she says in this episode, 'Mainframe is Matrix's home, my place is with him'. Obviously, she originally came from the games, so she's used to living in them, meaning it's not as big a deal to her as it is to Matrix being away from Mainframe as she's happy being in his company whereas Matrix feels somewhat responsible for what happened and has allowed that to shape his worldview.

The reveal of Matrix and AndrAIa in this episode was pretty well done, as well. When we first meet them in this episode, they are taking the form of aliens in a game, leaving it a mystery how much time has passed since the previous episode. It's not until we leave the game and the camera pans that we see what they look like now and how much they've aged in the time since the previous episode. Unfortunately, this reveal is ruined by the title sequence already revealing this information. This is something the episode's director, Zeke Norton has acknowledged, and he fought with Ian Pearson over not including the title sequence for this episode (or at least, using the title sequence for the previous arc), but Ian ended up winning and the episode ended up with the title sequence used for the rest of this arc. 

This episode's story is a play on the 'Seven Samurai'/'Magnificent Seven' idea of heroes/warriors coming to a town and training the residents to defend themselves against a threat. This is of course somewhat referenced when Backup joins the party entering the game and says 'make that seven' with Matrix replying 'magnificent'. This is a pretty good take on that story with the binomes all having interesting and distinctive personalities which make them entertaining to watch. Backup is also an interesting character since he's obviously supposed to be similar to young Enzo. His purpose here is to contrast with Matrix and show us how much he has changed. Whereas Backup is more optimistic and enthusiastic, Matrix is much more bitter, cynical, sarcastic, and pessimistic. 

This week, we're treated to two game cubes. The first is a fun sequence which serves it's purpose of parodying Mars Attacks and hiding what Matrix and AndrAIa now look like, whereas the other is a sword and sorcery sequence which also makes for a great environment for the guest characters to find their feet, giving them the skills to fend off the user without Matrix and AndrAIa's help. As well as this, it's got some really awesome imagery even if the User looks more like a villain than a protagonist.

Overall, this is a great episode to start off this arc, establishing the new status quo and telling a great story that could potentially serve as a decent entry point for new viewers. With Matrix and AndrAIa now hopping from game to game and ending up in different systems, there's quite a few possibilities for where things could go from here...

Next week: Matrix and AndrAIa meet superheroes who like to act like Star Trek characters in 'Where No Sprite Has Gone Before'