If there was one thing that ReBoot was excellent at, it was reference humor. Be it full on parodies, or loving homages, ReBoot knew how to have some fun at the expense of popular culture. We’ve seen so far references to everything from Stargate to Dire Straits. And this episode continues with the references with a 22 minute parody of “The Road Warrior”. It’s time to hit the road with “Bad Bob”. Speaking of that title, I remember seeing it, and at first thinking it meant that maybe we were going to get an evil version of Bob or something. Of course, I never let it click that the title was a reference to Mad Max.
We open the episode as Megabyte and his cronies attack the principal office. The guards all try to fight off the oncoming assault. While that goes down, Bob is once again suffering from car troubles. In fact, he’s easily shown up by Enzo and his air kart. You know, the air kart that was referenced back in “High Code”. However, Dot isn’t too fond of how he’s feeding Enzo stories of the supercomputer, and isn’t fond of him following him to games. Bob gets info on the attack by Megabyte, and arrives on the scene.
Megabyte’s goons destroy the sphere on top of the principal office, and place a chamber on top of it, filling it with energy from the core. And he’s going to use that energy to, you guessed it, try to gain access to the supercomputer. Even Hack and Slash are getting tired of this, stating that the boss has been so depressed lately. Considering his last few efforts have led to his near self destruction, and having to stick to a code of honor, it’s easy to understand why.
But Bob arrives in time to try and stop him. Megabyte sends Hack and Slash to attack, but he two are easily beaten. Actually easier than ever. He then cuts the computer controlling the tank, dropping it down on the digits of Herr Doctor, Megabyte’s lead scientist binome. Megabyte also confronts Bob, but before they can square off, a game cube begins to drop. However with the energy being messed up, the game begins to act weird as it drops. Enzo arrives, and rams Megabyte into the energy tank just as the game finally lands on one side of the principal office.
Bob ReBoots as the game is a Road Warrior race game. On the other end of the game cube, the game appears to be corrupted, which isn’t good considering the energy drain is causing surges in the power all over Mainframe. Back in the game, Bob heads off, and gets info from Phong, who is in the game as well. with the core energy in the game, if the user wins, all of Mainframe is doomed. However the same situation will befall them if Bob wins. They have to keep the game going until they can get the energy back to the principal office. However, this is even more compromised as Enzo and Frisket trying to stop the user, unaware of the consequences. The two manage to escape the user, and get to the front of the giant tanker truck, only to learn that the tanker is really…
Megabyte! Or in this case, Megatruck.
Enzo tells Bob about Megatruck as the three return to the Megatruck, and manage to get Bob onto it. Hack and Slash help him up telling about how the truck is out of control. Bob enters the truck, and turns it around before the game ends. However the user continues to chase after the truck. But with another truck in the way, things get even more complicated. But Bob just manages to full on plow through the thing.
Bob makes it closer to the principal office, as Enzo, Frisket, and Phong follow. Bob sends Herr Doctor out to tell Hack and Slash to uncouple the tank on the Megatruck. The user almost destroys the tires on the truck, as Frisket manages to stall him. Hack and Slash pull the pin on the truck, but being the idiots they are, they end up on the wrong side, crusing themselves, the Megatruck, and the user, as the core energy makes it back to the principal office.
Everything is restored to normal, even Megabyte. But before the virus can continue his attack, Dot and the Maingrame guard send him on his way. Dot is once again angry about Bob’s influence on Enzo, and Enzo once again joining Bob in another game. And the episode ends with Bob telling Enzo to stop following him into games, and thanking him for his help.
“Bad Bob” is another basic filler episode, but like a lot of these episodes, the stakes within are all important enough for them to be entertaining. All of the episodes so far focused on games have all involved something new and fresh. Be it a merged game, or having to essentially survive a game that could destroy all of mainframe if won or lost. One more episode this season will focus on games, and without too many spoilers, that too will feel fresh and new, giving more stakes to everything in the world of ReBoot.
This episode’s main game was a decent parody of the Road Warrior, complete with obvious references, and some humour all centered around the classic film. There’s even a binome in a hockey mask that tells his other binomes to “just walk away”. There’s also a reference to Planet of the Apes, which is also quite clever. The writers of the show knew pop culture well, and this was definitely a fine example of that.
This episode also show’s how good a leader Dot is. Since “Identity Crisis” we’ve seen that Dot is far more than just some entrepreneur and love interest in the show. She holds a far bigger role as the system’s command.com, being able to come up with strategies and help the CPU guards defend the principal office.
I also can’t help but say how much I absolutely love Hack and Slash. Yes, they’re idiots who can be beaten in mere seconds, but their lovable bumbling and foolish nature just makes them so fun to watch. Next to Hexadecimal, they rank among my top favorite characters in the series, and this episode was a fine example of that.
In the end, Bad Bob is definitely the most filler-filled episode of the season, but is still quite exciting and fun. But enough talk of this episode, because when next we meet, we finally reunite with an old friend as we go face to face to face to face to face with Hexadecimal.