After a recap of the previous episode, we open with Bob and Dot in front of the fun house game. Despite Bob being eager to try to get the game done, Dot is still in a slump because of losing the P.I.Ds, believing she’s of no help. Once again, the object is to beat the user (who is a clown of course), to the end of the game. So far, Megabyte’s crew is halfway done encrypting the code.
Bob and Dot enter the fun house through tongue entrance as Phong realizes the danger they’re in with Dot’s mood. However, Bob is quickly defeated. Dot is still unable to get her mind into the game, and suddenly Phong shows up. Which I still don’t get. Can others just enter the game after its dropped, or is this some weird exception for Phong? Either way, he uses a device to make Dot imagine that the game has ended and she’s lost.
She exits the game to see the damage done to the sector, and everyone in it being nullified. Not only that, but everyone in Mainframe has been turned viral. Before she can be converted as well, she manages to escape. However, she now sees her diner changed to “Nibble’s Diner”.
The entire place is being overrun by punk viral binomes and nulls. Even Cecil the robot waiter has been changed to a new robot. She learns that Mainframe has been changed to Megaframe. Even Enzo has been turned into a teen punk. Interestingly he has a scar over his eye, which may hint the show later in the series.
Dot wants to see Bob, and Enzo tells her to go see old man phong, not before throwing her out of the diner. She eventually finds Phong in an old cardboard box, and he’s lost complete touch with his sanity. He shows her Bob, who has been turned into a null. She finally realizes that if she hadn’t given up, she could have saved Mainframe. Dot is chased again by the viral army. Bit this time, she’s unable to escape, as Lieutenant Cyrus watches her conversion to viral.
However, the vision ends, and Dot returns to the game. She manages to catch up to the user, as they go down a giant bowling lane. The final challenge is to squirt the ball to the top of the bell. Dot of course manages to pump the water up higher in order to win the game. Phong tells her that what he did to her was show her a vision of reality being distorted. He used a distorion device to show her what could happen in the future.
Bob and Dot realize that the sector hasn’t been changed as her file was encrypted. The two of them first rescue the captured binomes. She apologizes for putting their lives in jeopardy, but the group of them tell her that they still believe that she never tuned on them. They head to Silicon Tor just as he’s encrypted the code.
But before he can download the codes, Dot beats them to it. She appears on a vid window, gloating for her victory, while making sure that Cyrus gets the blame for everything. Cyrus is taken by Hack and Slash. And the episode ends with the P.I.D codes being used to free the sector, and open the energy park, and Dot’s confidence being restored.
Identity Crisis is a great two parter that finally starts to put together just how big the stakes are in the world of Mainframe, and just how dangerous Megabyte truly is. For the most part, the show has mainly presented him as a cartoony Bond villain who can’t even beat a boy and his dog. Now for the first time, we see just how much power and control he has, and how much he could have should Mainframe be without its guardian. Something that may come to be a reality very soon.
This is a great episode for Dot as well. Showing her not just to be the local entrepreneur, but also someone who is working hard to try and save Mainframe from Megabyte’s grasp. Her job in ensuring the protection of Mainframe will also play a bigger role when we get further into the show as well.
After so many episodes that were so lighthearted, it’s almost strange to see such an episode that focuses on darker elements like a dystopian future where the villain has seized control, and all of the heroes either converted or nullified. It also shows just how well the series can balance both the funny and the serious. And after two solid episodes in “Identity Crisis”, it’s just the start.
But for season 1, this is the end. The first thirteen episodes of the show have been given focus, and for the most part, it was enjoyable. Sure, there were one too many comedic fillers, but they never felt like too much of a chore to get through. Except maybe “The Tiff”, which just really never hit too well with me.
The only thing that really doesn’t hold up with me is the animation. Though to be fair, this is the first fully CGI television show, but that doesn’t change the fact that the animation of the characters often feels stiff and robotic. However, these can easily be forgiven due to the fact that the world is set in a computer, which means the computerized feel of everything makes everything believable. The show’s animation does pick up, but the first season or so doesn’t hold that well of a candle.
Another thing that this season really showed me that I never realized until now was just how little Bob actually saves the day. With a couple exceptions, it’s either Dot, Enzo, or even Frisket that saves the day, or it’s a team effort. It’s very weird for the guy who in the intro says he’s here to defend his new found friends is rarely the one who saves them.
In the grand scheme of it all, season one is the weakest. It sticks too much to the formula of every Saturday morning action cartoon of the period, for good or bad. But thankfully when we get into season 2, we’ll start to see a change in Reboot as the series goes down some dark and interesting directions.