Episode 46 - Null Bot of the Bride

The previous two episodes, for the most part, haven't really had much going on in terms of plot, and last episode especially was somewhat of a drag with no real stakes involved until the very end of the episode with Glitch Bob's catastrophic attempt to separate from Glitch putting him in critical condition. While some of the flaws from the previous two episodes seep into this one, this episode sees the plot spring into action and has some pretty decent humour to boot.

We begin with Dot, Mouse, and AndrAIa preparing for the wedding. Dot is trying on the veil for her wedding dress while Mouse and AndrAIa look over vid windows of the dress alongside their bridesmaids dresses. This is disturbed by the sound of Bob and Cecil arguing about the preparations. Mouse instantly snatches the veil off of Dot to prevent Bob from potentially seeing the dress. Cecil isn't happy about Dot and Bob's plans to host the ceremony in the war room, while the two aren't exactly enthusiastic about Cecil's desire to host it in the Principle Office hall due to it's spartan nature.

In the Super Computer, Glitch Bob is being rushed into stasis by the Guardians in an attempt to slow down his condition, but the Guardians don't seem confident about his chances for survival. Back in Mainframe, Matrix, Hack, and Slash are made to try on their outfits for the wedding while Al's rollerblade wearing waiter seems all too keen to check up on them while they dress themselves. Matrix isn't too happy about wearing a suit to the extent that he rips the sleeves off of it (much to the delight of the waiter). Hack and Slash are also wearing suits, but are much happier about it, especially as Bob compliments how sharp the pair are looking. Bob asks Matrix to be his 'best sprite', an honour that Matrix accepts. Bob excuses Hack and Slash, and informs Matrix that he's heard from Turbo regarding Glitch Bob's condition. Bob wants to tell Dot and potentially put off the wedding, but Matrix doesn't want her to since he's never seen his sister this happy and doesn't want to ruin it. Back in the Super Computer, the Guardian medic attempts to crack the substance around Glitch Bob to no avail, and doesn't seem hopeful that he'll be able to help him.

At Dot's Diner, Bob, Matrix, and AndrAIa are sitting together when a very stressed Dot joins them. However, Dot's enjoying every moment of it. She then asks Matrix to walk her down the aisle since Welman isn't available to. Matrix isn't sure what to say initially since he's already agreed to be Bob's best sprite, but luckily Enzo walks by and Bob asks him to be Best Sprite instead, so Matrix accepts Dot's request.

At Al's Diner, Dot, AndrAIa, and Mouse are enjoying Dot's hen night, which involves watching stripper binomes on the stage. One of them takes Dot by the hand and invites her onstage. Mouse and AndrAIa comment on how happy Dot appears to be, and wondering if the boys are having as much fun as them. At Dot's Diner, Bob's 'stag do' appears to resemble a child's birthday party, complete with jelly, ice cream, and a clown. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves apart from Matrix, who is reluctantly wearing a party hat.

Back at the Super Computer, the medic tries to penetrate the crystal surrounding Glitch Bob with a laser only for the blast to bounce off and around the chamber. In the Principle Office hall, Cecil has finally finished decking out the hall in preparation for the wedding, something which really impresses Bob. The two begin warming up to each other, but Bob comments that he 'doesn't like it', which kills the mood and the two walk off. In the Super Computer, Turbo enters the room and the medic reports that they feel they've done all they can, but there's no way to penetrate whatever the substance is.

We then cut to inside Glitch Bob's psyche, where he awakens in a bed and then finds himself face to face with a giant Glitch. We hear Glitch Bob ask himself in his head 'Am I real, or just a copy?' Back in Mainframe, the wedding is about to begin, and Hack and Slash are helping the guests find their seats, asking each guest if they are a friend of the bride or the groom. Things get a little complicated when the pirates say they're friends of both Bob and Dot, so Hack and Slash, unsure of what to do, seat them in the aisles.

Enzo and Phong are running late since Enzo wants to take Welman with them as he doesn't want him to miss Dot's big day. Enzo looks into his cage, wondering if he's aware of what's going on around him. Welman jumps out of the cage into Enzo's hand. This momentarily shocks Enzo, but he appears to be okay after Welman is released from his grip. What's more, his icon appears to be back to normal, and Nibbles now once again has Welman's personality.

Back in Glitch Bob's dream, several key tools fly out of the giant Glitch and get sucked into Glitch Bob's chest. In the hall, Matrix is panicking as Phong and Enzo aren't here yet. Luckily, the two arrive just in time, and they tell Matrix that they managed to get someone to walk Dot down the aisle. The door opens and we see some kind of robot suit containing Welman walking Dot down the aisle, followed by AndrAIa and Mouse. Dot tells Welman that this is the 'happiest second of my life'.

In the Super Computer, all hope seems lost as Bob's life signs completely cut out. Then suddenly, all the keytools return out of portals to try and separate Bob from Glitch. It works, and as a result, Glitch has now been repaired and upgraded, and Bob is in his degraded suit from the Web. Turbo gets reunited with his keytool Copeland. The medic reports that while Bob is stable now, his code doesn't match what they have on file, confirming that this Bob is the copy after all. Just after this revelation, Bob regains consciousness.

At the Wedding, Phong gives the 'if anyone has any reasons why these two cannot be wed, speak now or forever hold their peace' speech, at which moment Web Bob appears. He confesses his love for Dot, which causes the other Bob to punch him in the face. Web Bob prepares to retaliate with Glitch before Dot puts a stop to it. She apologises to Web Bob, causing him to walk off dejectedly. Enzo tries to tell Dot that this Bob must be the original since he has Glitch, but Dot says that it doesn't matter and he's too young to understand. Suddenly, Glitch flies off of Web Bob's arm onto the other Bob, causing Bob to give Web Bob an incredibly smug look, and confirming that Web Bob is the copy.

Phong attempts to resume the ceremony, but Glitch begins attempting to exchange and transfer codes to Bob. This causes Bob to groan in pain, and for Glitch to transfer back to Web Bob. Web Bob then mutates and changes back to looking like the original Bob, reversing the degrading that occurred in the Web. The other Bob then changes into....

Megabyte!

This shocks everyone in attendance. Matrix and Mouse prepare to attack, but don't have their respective weapons. AndrAIa prepares to attack, but Bob tells her to back off since Megabyte is his to take on. A fight between Bob and Megabyte then commences. The upgrades from Glitch allow Bob to hold his own against the virus, but Megabyte puts up a fight. Bob is eventually able to knock Megabyte out of the church, and asks Megabyte why he did what he did. Megabyte simply tells Bob that it 'amused me'. Megabyte comments that Bob is 'stronger than he remembers', and breathes some kind of acid breath in his face, temporarily blinding him. In this moment, he approaches Dot and forces a kiss on her, disgusting her.

Megabyte re enters the church, grabbing Specky which causes the remaining binomes in attendance to flee in terror. Soon after, Specky himself flees. Bob and Matrix go back in, ready to take on Megabyte yet again. However, he's nowhere to be seen, but Specky appears to be out cold. This is bizarre as they saw Specky leave. Bob uses this information to determine that Megabyte is now a 'Trojan Horse virus'. Dot asks Bob what they should do, but he's not sure.

This episode is a definite step up from the previous one, but at the same time, it does inherit some of it's issues. The key of these is Dot's personality continuing to be out of character with her choosing to be with the second Bob purely because he looks like the 'original Bob'. Again, if this story was given more time and we got to fully understand the rationale behind her decision, then maybe it would be easier to get behind her decision, but as it stands, it still feels out of character of her.

Another big issue I have with this episode is the lack of concern towards Glitch Bob's condition. Practically everyone seems content to gleefully prepare for this wedding while their friend is fighting for his life. Sure, they didn't know for certain that this was the original Bob, but this is still the Bob who helped them get back to Mainframe when they were in the Web, the one who merged with Glitch knowing how dangerous it was to do so because there was no other way, the one who risked his life in the core to try and prevent the damage that Megabyte had done from completely destroying the system, the one who gambled on allowing the system to crash and potentially restart the entire system, and the one they fought alongside to battle the forces of Daemon. Even if he wasn't the 'original', surely they would show some concern for their friend, and think that maybe it's not the right time for a wedding, which is something that Bob (who turns out to be Megabyte at the end of the episode) suggests to Matrix. When the villain is the only one who is really showing concern for Bob, that's not exactly a good thing.

Another minor gripe that I have is how Al's Waiter is portrayed as flamboyantly gay. This isn't something that was uncommon in shows around the time, but it's a somewhat irksome negative stereotype which kind of knocks this episode down a few pegs.

With all that said, this episode isn't beyond redemption, as there's enough good stuff in it to make it worthwhile. Glitch Bob's dream sequence is interesting yet brief, and it's hilarious seeing Matrix being incredibly grumpy and miserable about Bob's mediocre and juvenile 'stag do'.

We also find out what Hexadecimal did to Enzo's icon, and it turns out that it wasn't anything harmful. Quite the opposite, actually. It allowed Enzo to bring back Welman after she was gone. We can now see what she meant when she said that this change would stop Enzo from turning out like Matrix, as bringing back Welman will allow this Enzo to have a father figure that was missing from Matrix's childhood.

The highlight of this episode to me is the return of Megabyte, particularly his battle with Bob. We'll get more into that battle in a moment, but let's talk about Megabyte's plan - disguise himself as Bob and manipulate everyone and mess with their emotions for his amusement. This is an interesting idea and we do get some hints of this before this reveal. For instance, he's way too interested in knowing about the circumstances behind Bob not being able to ReBoot, and the smug smirk he gives when Glitch flies to him is a pretty big giveaway that things might not be what they mean. We also see him trying to sew doubt in Bob and make him believe that he's merely just a copy.

As for the fight itself, it's pretty glorious. This is the first full on fight that we get between the two, and while it's not quite on the level of Matrix's fight with Megabyte at the end of the previous season, it's an incredibly adrenaline pumping and exciting fight that has some real personal stakes going on. At the end of Season 2, Megabyte bested Bob by sending him into the Web, and now Megabyte has managed to ruin his life by making him doubt if he's him, and almost managed to successfully steal Dot from him.

The end of the episode reveals that Megabyte now has shapeshifting abilities, which puts the story in an interesting situation - anyone could be Megabyte, making stopping him a pretty difficult task. Will the Mainframers be able to stop this returning foe? And with one episode left to go, will the series end with a satisfying conclusion?

Next week: Megabyte is back in full force in 'Crouching Binome, Hidden Virus'