And here we are at the penultimate third season episode, which has a hell of a lot to follow after the epic episode that preceded it. In that episode, we saw Bob heal Hexadecimal’s mask, giving her a moving face, but most importantly, Matrix and Megabyte had an incredible battle that would end with the virus being sucked into the web. But celebration would be short lived, as our heroes now have to save a dying system. Can the citizens of Mainframe stop the system from shutting down? Let’s find out with “System Crash”.
The episode opens as the city continues to shake and fall apart, sending innocent binomes falling to their doom into the energy sea below. This scene is oddly reference heavy, with binomes that look like Kiss, the Sailor Senshi, Indiana Jones and more. Even Fax Modem and Data Nully aren’t safe as the entire system goes to hell. Despite the somewhat comedic nature the scene has in parts, it is a pretty harsh scene to see as so many binomes are destroyed.
Dot and the others come up with a plan to evacuate the city to take shelter in the principal office. Mouse and the surfer look for any remaining binomes, while setting up some romantic interest between the two. Back in the office, Phong decides that the city must be powered down, leaving the principal office online. However, the only way to do so is to enter the core. Bob offers to do so, since he is the only one who could survive inside.
The evacuation of the entire town seems about complete, with one exception, as Old Man Pearson refuses to leave. But AndrAIa quickly changes that as she paralyzes him. So, it seems everything’s good to go, until of course there’s one problem. All of a sudden tears begin to open up, and out from the tears exit game sprites. All of the game sprites from older episodes, including Xatan, the one that defeated Enzo.
Back at the principal office, Bob enters the core, much to the concern of Dot. More tears open, as more classic user villains return. With the system unstable, the un-deleted RAM is being released, which is why these old user sprites are popping up. What follows is another epic battle as our heroes face off with the many users of the past, with Matrix facing off with Xatan one on one. However this time, Matrix gets the upper hand, and shoots the demonic game sprite with ease.
Even with some of the users defeated, more begin to pop up, as AndrAIa gets chased by the user ship from the first episode. However, she outguns the ship easily, and blows it out of the sky. Before the pterodactyl plane can attack, she’s saved by Captain Capacitor and his crew. Cut to the streets of Mainframe, as Herr Doktor and his assistant are trying to escape. However, they’re quickly stopped by Hexadecimal.
The fight inside the principal office and outside continues to get more hectic. Matrix, Mouse, AndrAIa, the Surfer, and the others manage to defeat the ones outside, and make it to the principal office to help Dot and the rest defeat the remaining users. Frisket even manages to get revenge on the chainsaw arm user for shooting him back at the beginning of the season. The lack of communication to Dot means that Bob is on his own inside the core. Except he really isn’t alone as he’s greeted by…
Megabyte?
Actually, it’s a simulation. It turns out that Megabyte had set a trap to prevent anyone from trying to restore the dying system. Which for the most part involves trying to mess with the head of Bob as he tries to shut down the sectors. However, for every one or two he saves, more sectors are destroyed. However, Bob still manages to ignore the taunts of the virus, and manages to stop the crash from affecting the principal office.
Matrix and AndrAIa carry the weakened Bob to the command room of the principal office. And it looks like this moment of safety will finally give Bob and Dot their chance to finally kiss…
But of course they had to forget to kill one user.
And if it’s bad enough that the annoying raccoon lived through the user battle, it seems that Mainframe is still doomed.
“System Crash” is a good episode in building the doomed situation that Mainframe is in. My only real issue with it is that the episode does try to mix action, drama, and comedy together, and the results are very mixed. Lots of funny references and moments, but in an episode where the city is about to die, they do feel really out of place. But then again, considering the fact that out heroes are fighting enemies like a clown and an evil Santa Claus, I guess it would be hard to not get a chuckle out of this situation. Also, it was neat to see a bunch of cameos from binomes of the show’s past. From Al’s waiter, to Modem and Nully, to Old Man Pearson. There’s even a cameo from Mike the TV. No Cecil though… Good.
Speaking of the users, I like that the show seemed to remember the importance of the games as we get almost every major user and evil game sprite we’ve seen throughout the course of the last three seasons. From the Evil Dead guy, the dinosaur/weapon hybrids, the many creatures from “A Dungeon Deep”, and yes, even Rocky the Rabid Raccoon. The fights with these users are all well done, and it does feel really good to see Matrix get revenge on Xatan for causing the death of any innocence remaining in the sprite.
So, we’re only down to one episode left in season 3. The system is barely breathing, and it seems like all hope is lost. Can our heroes find a way to restore Mainframe, or will the safety of the system come from another source? Find out in the season finale of ReBoot season 3.