Hello all! Welcome back to my weekly reviews of Infinity Train. Last week we discussed the first two episodes of Book 1, ‘The Grid Car’ and ‘The Beach Car’. This week we continue on with ‘The Corgi Car’ and ‘The Crystal Car’.

‘The Corgi Car’, Season 1, Episode 3 (Premiere Date: August 6, 2019)

Synopsis – The episode opens with Tulip complaining that she has been on the train for a week and her number has only dropped to 109. Convinced that the rate at which she is going from car to car is a factor, she asks One-One to time her progress as a fun montage of Tulip racing through car after car begins. After narrowly escaping a giant boulder in a Raiders of the Lost Ark-style car, Tulip opens another door and finds herself in a (familiar to us) kingdom populated by Corgis.

From this point on the episode largely follows the plot of the pilot. Tulip is introduced to the king of the Corgis, Atticus, who informs her that the kingdom has, for the past week, been plagued by floods believed to be caused by a shadowy monster. Tulip reluctantly agrees to help, unhappy about the time it will take but intrigued by the possibility that the monster might be connected to her number somehow. The monster turns out to be a many-tentacled robot (the Steward) that is busy pulling glowing blue orbs out of windows that it is opening in mid-air. As the orbs are removed, the scenery begins to go all out of whack. The Steward spots Tulip and Atticus and proceeds to attack them with its limbs and machine guns that pop out of its eyes. Its only when One-One shows up that the creature suddenly stops its assault and leaves through the next door. The trio regroup and prepare to head onward, with Atticus pledging to come with Tulip and One-One to ensure that the monster won’t harm his people again. One-One offers to time Tulip again but, glad about her decision to stop and help Atticus, she declines. Before they move on, Tulip sees her number drop down to 101.

My Thoughts – There isn’t as much to talk about with this episode, as it is pretty much a direct remake of the pilot with new dialogue, a new opening montage, and some expanded scenes. In general I do feel that the writing is a bit smoother in this one compared to the pilot, likely due to a mixture of already being familiar with the characters and less of a need to explain elements of the backstory. There are also some tweaks that have important implications for the rest of the season. Tulip’s repeated request to be timed and her desire to make it through each car as quickly as possible helps to align the episode with her previously discussed character arc concerning her single-mindedness and obsession with logic. Additionally, the presence of the blue orbs (which were not in the pilot) and their effect on the car’s scenery deepens the mystery surrounding the train and how it operates. What exactly did the Steward want with them? Will we ever find out? Stay tuned!

Oh, and how could I possibly forget – as of this episode, we finally have the third member of our core team: Atticus!

Episode MVP – Atticus. Because, again, Corgi.

My Totally Arbitrary Car Ranking – Cross-Eyed Duck Car (A+), Corgi Car (A), Instrument Car (B+), Monster Dance Car (B), Indiana Jones Car (B)

My Totally Arbitrary Episode Ranking – A strong B+. In general I find it to be stronger than the pilot, but the fact that it follows the pilot pretty much beat-by-beat keeps it from a higher grade.

Cast Additions – No major additions this time beyond the return of Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters) as Atticus.

Trivia/Stray Observations –

• “Can you help me find my normal eyes?”
• “Look! More furry ducks!”
• “Just don’t tell that to Ugly Irwin.” Poor Irwin. You’re beautiful in my book.
• “The Sun’s gonna burn out one day, enjoy this while you can.”
• “If we tried to cross the harrowing two-foot depths, we would surely drown.”
• “I must warn you, however, that us Corgis are a proud people, and we hate being picked up.” “Why would you have to warn me about that?”
• “Hooray, King Weird Furry Duck is joining the team!”
• Atticus declares himself ‘Uniter of the Cardigans and the Pembrokes’. Cardigans and Pembrokes are the two recognized breeds of Corgi. I always liked this little detail.
• My favorite side-character Corgi has to be the one obsessed with blowing the horn.
• It will never not surprise me that they got away with the Steward firing literal machine guns from its eyes in a show that is ostensibly kid-friendly.
• Doing the ‘Atticus doesn’t want to go outside’ gag twice in one episode could have been a case of diminishing returns, but what makes it work for me is how over it Tulip is the second time and how enthusiastic One-One is.
• According to Owen Dennis, most of the jokes that were added to this episode were originally intended for the pilot but were cut for time.
• One of the writers, Justin Michael, came up with the ideas for some of the cars in the montage. He considered them ‘half-baked’ and assumed they would be replaced with better ideas at some point in production.
• The original intention was to have the Steward be fixing the car after a meteorite strike, which is why there is the giant hole in the wall in the pilot (not seen in this episode except for in one brief moment of reused footage).
• Another of my favorite soundtracks shows up in the montage at the beginning of the episode:

• Also, a full version of the song that plays in the Monster Dance Car was released with the Book 1 soundtrack:

‘The Crystal Car’, Season 1, Episode 4 (Premiere Date: August 6, 2019)

Synopsis – The episode begins with Tulip leaving a very Italian-themed car after having helped a woman with a rose for a head start up a restaurant. To Tulip’s disappointment, helping the woman did nothing to decrease her number. Certain that she can figure out how the number operates, she consults logic trees that she drew in her notebook. The trio continue onward, entering a car where everything – the trees, the mountains, the birds – is made of crystal. Tulip briefly expresses wonder before returning right back to her logic trees.

The group stumbles upon the base of a mountain, at the top of which is the next door – with no way to get up to it. Before they can do anything else, a man made out of crystal shows up from between the trees. Through pantomime he is able to explain that a ‘metal monster’ (the Steward) stole the stairs, but that a new one can be made if they put their hands on a special crystal and sing. Atticus and One-One attempt to do so by howling and making modem sounds (shudder) respectively, but neither works. Tulip proceeds to try out a number of songs calculated (by logic) to produce maximum emotional effect.

When none of the songs work, Tulip angrily builds a ladder out of crystal and climbs up to the door – only to find it locked. After she expresses her frustration, the crystal man indicates to her that the song must have emotional value to her specifically, not to anyone else. Complaining that it doesn’t make any sense, she nevertheless (after prodding from One-One and Atticus) sings the first portion of ‘Word Up’ by Cameo, a song that her parents used to play in the car on family road trips. The crystal glows, prompting a much larger crystal being to walk out of the trees, pull a new set of stairs out of its mouth, use a key to unlock the door, and walk away with a wave. As Tulip and Co. stare after it in wonder, Tulip’s number drops to 89.

My Thoughts – I’ve always considered this the weakest episode of Book 1. It’s not that I don’t like it – Infinity Train is one of those shows where even the so-called ‘weak’ episodes are quite good compared to most other TV shows. It just doesn’t feel, to me, quite up there with the rest of the season. I can’t exactly put my finger on why I feel that way – I think part of it is that it feels like the pacing drags a bit more than the other episodes. Tulip’s singing montage in particular, while fun, feels like it goes on longer than it needs to.

That said, there are quite a few things I enjoy about this episode. The art design of the crystal car and its inhabitants is gorgeous. I fail to think of many cars that beat it in this regard. The sequence where Atticus recites pieces of the Ballad of Mustard and Stinktail while Tulip struggles to build a ladder in the background had some fun physical comedy. And this episode does quite a bit to further Tulip’s character growth. (Why am I so focused on character arcs and growth these past few episodes? All will be explained soon.)

From the start of the episode, we can see that Tulip is making progress on getting her impatience under control. Unfortunately, she has gone all in on logic to try and explain her predicament to the point where she fails to pay attention to what is going on around her and overlooks the solution to the Crystal Car’s puzzle. (To be fair, if I were in her shoes I would probably do the same thing.) The beauty of the car’s puzzle, however, is that its solution defies most logic, forcing Tulip to take a step back and see the problem from a different angle. We can see by episode’s end, through her awe at the giant crystal being, that she seems to have absorbed the lesson.

Episode MVP – The mustachioed crystal guy. He was able to demonstrate a lot of personality without saying a single line.

My Totally Arbitrary Car Ranking – Crystal Car (A), Straight-Up Italy Car (B+)

My Totally Arbitrary Episode Ranking – A respectable B-. The character work and art design are great, but the pacing drags a bit in the middle.

Cast Additions – No major additions to the cast. The only new character with a speaking role is the rose-woman, Nancy, who is voiced by Lindsay Katai (one of the show’s writers).

Trivia/Stray Observations –

• “Your logic trees have him more skittish than a squirrel at a Corgi sock-hop.”
• “If anyone’s keeping track, I think I’m winning at being right about things.” “I’ve been keeping track, and you are!”
• “He can’t speak…just like Atticus!” “Huh?”
• “I don’t think you can breathe.” “You never take my psychosomatic conditions seriously.”
• “He towered at a gargantuan two-and-a-half feet tall.”
• I want to see the fight with the mean grandmother stealing coins from the fountain.
• “It’s from a movie about a couple who fall in love on a zeppelin and then the guy dies when the zeppelin blows up!” I think Tulip just described the Hindenburg version of Titanic. I’d pay to see that.
• “And even my pickup misses your face.” The most country song ever.
• I wish they would have released the full Tale of Mustard and Stinktail. One-One and the crystal guy were quite into it.
• I loved both crystal dudes. They seemed quite chill.
• Apparently an entire backstory was written for the Straight-Up Italy Car, but little of it was actually used.
• Supposedly Cameo was quite pleased with the usage of ‘Word Up’ in this episode.
• What’s your side in the great ‘Straight-Up Italy Car’ vs. ‘Mediterranean Republic Car’ debate?
• Anybody know any good songs about onions or programming?

That’s it for this week! We’ve made some progress in Book 1, and next week we are off to the ‘The Cat’s Car’ for the return of a certain manipulative feline and then ‘The Unfinished Car’.

Please share any thoughts about these episodes below. Make sure to spoiler tag any references to future events in the series in case anybody is stumbling across the show for the first time, and follow all of the Avocado’s rules and guidelines.

Thanks for reading!