The previous two parts have had some interesting developments. From Daemon’s infection going full force over the net (claiming 92%), AndrAIa being captured and now obeying “the word”, Bob’s powers fading, to the most shocking of all, Hexadecimal turning into a sprite. And throughout the two parts we’ve seen pieces of flashbacks of the destruction of the twin city and all the sprites except for Dot and Enzo. Will this episode finally answer the questions as to what destroyed it? Let’s find out in part 3 of Daemon Rising, interestingly called “What’s Love Got to Do With it?”
We open to a flashback once again, as we see a young cadet Bob and another guardian by the name of Dixon in the middle of deleting a virus by the name of Kilobyte. Despite Dixon telling Bob that the virus was user-made to destroy systems, Bob is of a different mindset, firmly believing that a user wouldn’t willingly create a viral threat, and that he believes that viruses can be reprogrammed for good.
As I mentioned in the first part of “Daemon Rising”, despite Bob’s code of “to mend and defend”, he has a very pacifist mentality when it comes to actually deleting and destroying viruses. He would rather try to change the mentality of viruses instead of resorting to the guardian beliefs of “shoot first, don’t bother with questions”. But in the end, does that make Bob no better than a virus? Much like a virus who can infect the minds of sprites and binomes and change their mentalities, Bob believes he can do the same with viruses. It makes his mindset odd.
In the middle of the conversation, Kilobite begins to freak out, and eventually manages to escape its shackles. The virus is in the middle of merging. Before Dixon can use Glitch to stop Kilobyte, it uses its claws to suck the energy from her, and then goes to finish off a knocked out Bob. Before it can, a portal opens up, causing the virus to upgrade into Gigabyte. Gigabyte is then sucked out through the portal.
Back in present time, things are still not going too good, as AndrAIa is still under the control of Daemon, but she still feels lost without Matrix. Back at the principal office, Mouse has the still infected Turbo locked up. Turbo is now fully under the control of Daemon, and even tells Mouse that the surfer has also been infected. Turbo tells Bob that since Bob has merged with his keytool, that he is to be the messenger of Daemon, stating the he now believes there are benign viruses thanks to Daemon.
Bob tries to heal Turbo, but begins to fade once again. It doesn’t fully heal him, but knocks some sense back into him. He tells them that Daemon’s total plan is to bring unity to the net. Since all of the guardians have lost their keytools due to the infection, since Bob has merged with Glitch, he is the only one who can create portals.
Phong and Dot learn about what has happened to Hex, and why she’s now a sprite. When the user did a viral scan of Mainframe, Hex was unaffected due to her icon. Her icon held the viral scan, but her powers were too strong for it to work, and after fighting off the guardians drained her enough, the scan triggered, causing the null cocoon and her change into a sprite. Despite her power loss, she can somehow still control nulls. This development gives Dot the idea to take Hex to find her father, as Phong scans Bob.
Meanwhile, AndrAIa tells Daemon about her first encounter with Matrix, and her love of the sprite. Daemon however, can’t feel love, and can’t go against her code. And despite the love of her followers, it isn’t the same kind of love. Her assistant Daecon tells her the bad news about the firewall on Mainframe, as well as Hex on the side of the system. She then sets makes him delete himself.
Hex and Dot make it to Lost Angles as they search for the null of Wellman Matrix. Despite her best efforts, she’s having trouble controlling it. She then lets it slip that she was born in the explosion that created Lost Angles. Cut to another flashback of the twin city, and Wellman’s testing of the gateway command. Out from the portal comes Gigabyte.
But before he can do anything, the virus begins to split into two, those two being Megabyte and Hexadecimal. The principal office explodes, completely demolishing the twin city. Megabyte leaves the destroyed system, while Hex likes it among the destruction. Back in present time, Hex manages to control the nulls, as it creates a body with Wellman’s null on top. Back at Phong’s office, he tells Bob that there’s something wrong. Bob realized it as well. Since he merged with a broken Glitch, it’s been causing these problems. And if he continues to stay merged, it will cause total defragmentation. Bob tells Phong not to tell Dot of the situation.
However, this conversation is cut short, as it turns out that mainframe is back online, thanks to Matrix and Mouse leaving the system to find AndrAIa and the surfer. This poses a major problem because if Mouse is infected, she’ll give up the encryption codes, making Mainframe a sitting duck for Daemon. Dot’s plan is to have her father once again attempt to build his gateway machine, believing now that it wasn’t the reason for the destruction of the twin city. At Daemon’s lair, Matrix is reunited with AndrAIa, who introduces her to Daemon. He of course, tries to shoot at her, which fails. Mouse’s attempt to take her out fails as well, causing both to be infected.
Turbo tells Bob to try to destroy Daemon, which goes against Bob’s beliefs of destroying viruses. Turbo believes that Bob’s mission in Mainframe to turn both viruses failed, even if he managed to “cure” Hex. We cut to another flashback as Dixon’s lowered energy causes her deletion. Her keytool Glitch attaches to him, as he uses a portal to enter the destroyed twin city. He introduces himself to Dot and Enzo, but Dot blames him for the destruction of the city. The episode ends back in present time as Turbo tells Bob that maybe Daemon is right, and that perhaps the net does need unity.
To say this is the most content heavy episode of ReBoot would be a massive understatement. Beyond continuing the story of Daemon’s impending invasion on Mainframe, this episode is filled with flashbacks, answering every question from the destruction of the twin city, the birth of Megabyte and Hexadecimal, how Bob got Glitch, and his arrival in Mainframe. After three seasons of building to a definitive answer to these questions, what we get is definitely worth the wait, with plenty of drama and gravity to make them feel as epic as they should be. One touch in particular that I liked about the Bob flashbacks is the return of the original VA, Michael Benyaer. After about half a decade of not providing the voice, he doesn’t seem to have lost a beat with it.
Though it does kind of make some of the pilot feel a bit off. In the original episode it came off more as if Megabyte and Hex had been around for a longer time, with Bob being the new kid in town. He had a longer opportunity to infect the system, create an army, and build a long history with the likes of Dot and Phong. But other than that piece of continuity coming into question, everything else seems to fall right into place.
We have just one more episode left of this Daemon Rising saga. And with Daemon now having the key she needs to enter Mainframe, can Bob and the others put a stop to her infection?