The second season of ReBoot ended on February 1st, 1996. And at the time there was some uncertainty as to if the show would return. After the buyout of ABC by the Walt Disney company, ReBoot no longer had an official American network. Classic episodes continued to air in syndication throughout 1996 and 1997. Mainframe Entertainment was also busy working on a new cartoon. The toy company Hasbro were reviving their popular Transformers line with Beast Wars, and Mainframe Entertainment was the perfect company to bring the characters to life. And the Beast Wars animated series debuted in 1996.
ReBoot didn’t vanish during its absence.There was a fully animated ride, as well a Playstation video game. The show was still airing strong on YTV, and anticipation over a third season was still as strong. So finally, in August of 1997, a year and a half since the shows cancellation by ABC, YTV premiered the third season or ReBoot. Now with updated animation making for a much better looking world and greater detail on characters. The show was also being billed as “darker and scarier”, meaning that the show would now have more freedom with what they could get away with.
So with all that said, let’s start the fantastic third season of ReBoot with “To Mend and Defend”.
The opening of the episode is actually a recap of the events of “Web World Wars”. However, the one narrating is Megabyte. He mentions that this is now Megaframe. His domain. His format: Virus. To corrupt and conquer. It’s actually very interesting that the show opens with the narration not of one of our heroes now that Bob is lost in the web, but with the villain gloating about his success. Definitely sets the mood of this season early on. Even the ReBoot theme sounds darker.
Ww open the episode right where we left off in the previous episode. The CPU force is being shot out of the sky by Megabyte’s army, and Hexadecimal is pointing the weapon at the principal office. She blasts at the shields, which begin to take damage. Inside the command center of the principal office, things aren’t looking too good. Most of the CPU ships have been destroyed. In fact, only nine ships remain. Dot tells them to fall back in single file.
Megabyte gloats some more about how their precious city is almost a memory, and tells them all to give up. The CPU’s line up in single file, as the ABC’s surround them. This works to Dot’s plan, as the guards in the principal offfice manage to blow them out of the sky, getting the others to safety. However, this plan comes at the cost of the shields.
Feeling that they are close to victory, Megabyte tells Hexadecimal to power down. But Hex has no intention to. She wants to destroy Mainframe. The principal office manages to use a makeshift shield from the core energy. Dot is still not happy from the loss of Bob. Enzo tries to tell her that Bob has been given the guardian protocol by Bob, but she isn’t ready to let her little brother get himself into trouble, or to lose him like she lost Bob.
Dot and Mouse leave to battle with Megabyte and Hex, as Enzo begins to realize that he isn’t a guardian like Bob. Hexadecimal is ready to fire again, and the shields for the principal office are not working. Hex knocks Megabyte off the weapon as she plans to finally finish off Mainframe. Hack and Slash save him mid-fall as a game cube is about to drop on the weapon. Before Hex can fire, the cube falls on the weapon, causing a massive amount of energy surging through Hexadecimal. It’s a pretty gruesome scene as she’s literally being fried from the inside, with energy exploding out of her mask.
Enzo, AndrAIa and Frisket head to the game, with Dot and Mouse following them. Enzo’s guardian protocol means he can’t stop himself from not entering the games. However, since AndrAIa is a game sprite she could still end up leaving with the game, and she doesn’t yet have a functioning P.I.D Icon. Mouse manages to stop AndrAIa from entering, but Dot, Enzo and Frisket are trapped inside.
The game appears to be some sort of graveyard game. In fact, it’s a parody of Evil Dead called “Malicious Corpses”, complete with the user as Ash, who is looking for pages of the Necronomicon, or in this case the “Manual of Mortality”. Dot and Enzo reboot, with Dot looking like Elvira, Frisket as a zombie dog, and Enzo as a zombie Michael Jackson from the Thriller video. While Enzo is of course eager to lead the binomes to victory, none of them trust Enzo because he’s a kid, and most importantly not Bob. Meanwhile, outside the game, Megabyte’s cronies find the charred remains of Hexadecimal, and take her with them.
The user manages to catch up, but with the game sprites showing up, it gives them some time to take ammo from the user, as Enzo and Dot try to make it to the cabin. At the Tor, Megabyte begins to see that the binomes of Mainframe have no faith in Enzo. So Megabyte puts a plan in motion to spread propaganda about Enzo, to break the guardian’s spirits once and for all. He gives the job to Cyrus, which is a step up from being his leg polisher I guess. He also has the destroyed Hexadecimal prepped for repair.
The user manages to easily hack his way through the zombie game sprites, and find the last page of the manual. Frisket tries to stop the user, only to end up being shot. Despite Enzo wanting to help immediately, what they have to do is beat the game. However, despite their plan to knock the user into the basement, Enzo soon learns that Glitch is broken.
The user makes his way into the cabin,g and they electocute him with a lamp. This doesn’t seem to stop him though. But the injuted Frisket manages to trip him up, so that they can tie him up, and send him falling into the basement. The user is dead, and the game is over.
The medical crew makes it to Frisket, and take him to get the best medical treatment. Back at the principal office, the shields are restored. Dot tells Enzo that he did a great job, and that she still worries about losing him like Bob. Enzo promises that he’ll find a way to bring Bob home. The episode ends with Mouse and AndrAIa bringing an old friend back to Dot. It turns out that Cecil survived the explosion of the diner.
Well, Mainframe is in peril, Bob’s gone, Megabyte has control of Hexadecimal, no one in Mainframe has any faith in Enzo, and even the guardian himself worries about being inexperienced. But, hey. At least the snooty French waiter robot is alive. I guess you have to take any victory you can get.
“To Mend and Defend” does exactly what “Infected” did for season two. It really helps to show that the series is going in a much darker direction. And you honestly can’t get a darker season premiere than this. From rather disturbing imagery like the destruction of Hexadecimal, to a game that borders on frightening with its graveyard atmosphere and its game sprites of skeletons and zombies. Definitely feels like we’re way past the days of stuff like “a command to teleport through a window”.
Even the redesign of Dot is a sign of massive change. Especially with her no longer having the monoboob of the first two seasons, made notably clear with her cleavage-exposing outfit in the game. It shows right from the start of the season just how far the show is allowed to go, and how a show as smart as ReBoot can use the freedoms it has wisely to benefit the series. And it just gets darker and smarter from here, trust me.
The CGI is also vastly improved. Sure it’s still very dated looking by today’s standards, but everything feels bigger and far more impressive looking. Characters are also far less robotic and stiff, and capable of far better emotions. Yet despite the updated look, it doesn’t fully clash with the old episodes, and doesn’t feel like it’s trying too hard to just look better. It’s solid evolution of animation.
What I like about this episode most of all is the relationship between Dot and Enzo. Both have been thrust into this war, and now without Bob to help, things look grim. Enzo wants to prove himself worthy of taking Bob’s place as guardian, but even he has his doubts. It doesn’t help that the citizens of Mainframe don’t believe he’s worthy of being Bob’s successor. And while he’s definitely learning, he is still a kid, and can still make very rash decisions. Dot is already having a difficult time keeping everyone safe as the command.com of the principal office. And while she trusts Enzo, and even begins to see how he’s improving as a guardian, she’s still scared of losing the last piece of family she has. It’s a very believable relationship, and really fleshes both characters out.
Season three is starting off strong, with so many storylines playing out. It leaves you wanting to know what happens next. What twists and turns are to come, and if our young guardian can prove his worth. We’ll see how well he can handle himself in the next episode as he has to deal with propaganda, and one really annoying raccoon.
The CGI is also vastly improved. Sure it’s still very dated looking by today’s standards, but everything feels bigger and far more impressive looking. Characters are also far less robotic and stiff, and capable of far better emotions. Yet despite the updated look, it doesn’t fully clash with the old episodes, and doesn’t feel like it’s trying too hard to just look better. It’s solid evolution of animation.