Hello all! Welcome back to my weekly reviews of Infinity Train. Last week we discussed episodes 5 and 6 of Book 1, ‘The Cat’s Car’ and ‘The Unfinished Car’. This week we begin to approach the endgame with ‘The Chrome Car’ and ‘The Ball Pit Car’.

‘The Chrome Car’, Season 1, Episode 7 (Premiere Date: August 8, 2019)

Synopsis – Tulip and Co. arrive in a car where everything – the floor, the walls, random huge geometric shapes – is made up of chrome. Discovering how slippery the reflective surfaces are, they take some time to fool around before trying to open the next door. Unfortunately, the door won’t budge no matter how hard Tulip pushes on it. Stumped, she looks down and sees that not only is her reflection staring at her, but it is in a completely different position. Tulip is understandably shocked, and even more so when her reflection begins to speak. Mirror Tulip claims that she can help Tulip open the door, and that to do so they will need to temporarily switch places. Tulip agrees, and the two girls switch – Tulip enters the mirror world, Mirror Tulip enters our world. Together they open the door.

When Tulip asks about swapping back, Mirror Tulip reveals that she never had any intention of doing so. Instead, she plans to abandon Tulip in the mirror world and travel the train herself, without any need to reflect anyone ever again. Distraught, Tulip seeks help from Mirror Atticus and Mirror One-One, who in turn call the mirror police (known as ‘Flecs’). The Flecs, two agents named Mace and Sieve, show up and, to Tulip’s horror, reveal that they plan to grind Mirror Tulip down into scrap. The real Atticus and One-One distract the agents while Tulip rushes off to find Mirror Tulip.

Mirror Tulip attempts to make a run for it, but finds that she is unable to leave the reflective floor of the car. Tulip offers to help her escape, but Mirror Tulip chews her out by pointing out all the times that Tulip herself has refused assistance. Tulip admits that she was wrong to constantly close herself off like that and says that she has an idea to help Mirror Tulip. The two Tulips swap places again, and as the agents chase them down Tulip is able to transfer Mirror Tulip from the reflective chrome surface of the car to a small mirror that was part of her swiss army knife. Having her own mirror now, and not having to rely on the Chrome Car itself to move around, Mirror Tulip is able to escape the clutches of Mace and Sieve along with Tulip and her friends. Now free to do whatever she wants, Mirror Tulip amicably parts ways with Tulip to begin her own journey through the train. At Mirror Tulip’s urging, Tulip takes off her glove and sees that her number is now down to 3.

My Thoughts – This has always been one of my favorite episodes of Book 1. The car itself is wonderfully designed, with all the large geometric shapes scattered around and every surface being reflective metal evoking an 80s/90s retrofuturistic feel. The central conceit – that our reflections are actually separate people forced to mimic us or face the wrath of the ‘Flecs’ – is a great episode concept that is executed well. To top it all off, there is a great sense of tension in the latter half of the episode, with Mirror Tulip’s life literally being on the line.

Ultimately, this episode is a tale of two Tulips. Our Tulip gets the chance to demonstrate all of the character growth she has undergone over the course of the previous episodes, taking the time to calm down and empathize with her mirror counterpart despite Mirror Tulip’s initial betrayal. At the same time, Mirror Tulip forces Tulip to reckon with the way she has been sealing herself off from those around her as a result of her parents’ divorce. The Tulip who debuted in the ‘Grid Car’ likely would have refused to listen to Mirror Tulip’s recriminations; the Tulip that she has become, however, takes the criticism to heart and admits that she needs to do better at allowing people in to help her when she needs it. This will certainly be vital to her as we approach the final stretch of episodes.

At the same time, Mirror Tulip has a powerful journey of her own. Worn down by being forced to spend her life mimicking someone else, she is desperate to escape and be her own person. Like Tulip, she refuses to even think of letting someone help her do so. This almost ends up leading to her death, as her betrayal of Tulip costs her valuable time that she might have saved by simply asking Tulip if she could assist her in leaving the mirror world. It is only by asking for help that she manages to evade the Flecs and actually have the opportunity to start her own path toward discovering who she is as a person.

Episode MVP – Mirror Tulip. Pretty much the entire plot of the episode revolves around her, and the writers (and Ashley Johnson) do an excellent job of making her a distinct person.

My Totally Arbitrary Car Ranking – Chrome Car (A), Pencil Bank Car (B), Jellybean Car (C)

My Totally Arbitrary Episode Ranking – A very strong A.

Cast Additions – As with Tulip, Mirror Tulip is voiced by Ashley Johnson. The two other additions to this episode’s cast are quite recognizable names. Agent Sieve is voiced by Bradley Whitford of The West Wing fame, while Agent Mace is voiced by Star Wars and Marvel (among a long list of other roles) actor Ben Mendelsohn.

Trivia/Stray Observations –

• “Why are there so many cars where I end up picking something out of my hair?”
• “This is my cocoon now.”
• “It’s like a vain person’s skating rink.”
• “Not gonna lie, that was gross.”
• “Excellent use of ‘bamboozled,’ Old Tulip.” “I’m not ‘Old’ Tulip!” “Former Tulip it is.”
• “What’s something that smells good?” “Let’s see, asphalt, gasoline, sulfur, other petroleum-based products.”
• “I’m not ignoring everyone. I can just handle all my problems by myself. That’s completely different!”
• “Hello, Miss Tulip! We’re melting people! So, what’s new with you?”
• Poor Mirror Atticus.
• It’s kind of disconcerting seeing Agent Mace’s toothpick floating in place while his mouth is moving.
• I really like the designs of Agents Mace and Sieve. They come across as quite imposing.
• I’m a bit sad we didn’t get to see more of the mirror world’s culture. What do reflections do when they aren’t, you know, reflecting?
• Does the mirror world exist separately from the train, with the Chrome Car just acting as a crossing-over point, or is the mirror world’s existence tied to the existence of the train? Food for thought.
• Apparently the original plan was to have Mirror Tulip, Atticus, and One-One all have much more ‘punk’ designs. You can see a sketch of the original designs below:

• I love the song that plays when the Flecs show up:

‘The Ball Pit Car’, Season 1, Episode 8 (Premiere Date: August 8, 2019)

Synopsis – Feeling refreshed and in a good mood after spending the night in a business-themed car, Tulip and Co. arrive in a car that looks like a McDonald’s Playland on steroids – ball pit after ball pit connected by a maze of brightly colored slides and tunnels. Figuring that it’s okay for everyone to have some fun, Tulip follows Atticus and One-One into one of the ball pits. Once inside, they stumble across a sentient stuffed rabbit named Khaki Bottoms, who begs their help on an important quest. Going along with the creature’s mock-serious attitude, Tulip solves a series of simple playground-themed puzzles before the trio is led to Khaki’s prize room. Given several prize options, One-One selects the ‘Jiggle Wiggle’, a squishy water-filled tube.

The trio’s celebration is short-lived, as the entire tunnel apparatus suddenly shakes. Tulip glances through a window in time to see the Steward’s many arms entwining themselves around all the equipment. Stunned, Tulip shushes the others and leads them through a tunnel toward the exit. Before they can get far, however, the Jiggle Wiggle escapes her grasp and lands in one of the Steward’s hands. The Steward responds by immediately tearing apart the tunnel, dropping Tulip, Atticus, and One-One to the ground. Atticus attempts to distract the Steward so that One-One and Tulip can escape, but the monster manages to catch hold of Tulip.

Before the Steward can fire at Tulip, we hear the same sequence of tones that commanded the Steward back in the Cat’s Car. Out of the darkness looms a huge robot with a glowing red sine wave for a face. The machine isn’t alone – the Cat is with it, apparently having tracked down Tulip at its behest. The robot orders the Cat to fetch One-One; with much grumbling and reluctance, the Cat rushes off in the direction One-One had escaped to. As soon as the Cat is out of sight, the robot commands the Steward to open fire on that section of the playground, seemingly killing One-One and the Cat in the process. Tulip, distraught and angry, attempts to wriggle free of the Steward’s grasp but is chided by the robot, who claims that all this is Tulip’s fault for not staying put.

Out of the blue, Atticus jumps down from above and bites at the robot’s exposed wires. The robot effortlessly catches him in one hand, revealing a large orb-powered gun in the other. Announcing that it is actually the Conductor, it shoots Atticus and drops him to the ground. The Steward releases Tulip and she rushes forward to his side. The Conductor and the Steward take their leave, the Steward pulling down a large section of the playground equipment in the process to make it more difficult for anyone to follow. As Tulip strokes Atticus’s fur, he suddenly convulses. Tulip lets go of him just in time to see him transform into one of the monstrous Ghom. Horrified, Tulip flees, the Atticus-Ghom in hot pursuit. As she climbs up one of the slides, she stumbles upon One-One all safe and sound. The two of them manage to trap the Atticus-Ghom inside a twisted piece of plastic tunnel as Tulip breaks down sobbing.

My Thoughts – This is perhaps one of the biggest examples of tonal whiplash in any television episode that I’ve seen. We go from what seems to be one of the most light-hearted sequences of the series in the first half of the episode to absolute devastation in the second half. Such a drastic mid-episode shift in tone can be incredibly difficult to pull off well, and in my view this episode succeeds where others have failed. Seeing Tulip happy and really having fun for perhaps the first time, we forget that the Steward is still out there and could show up at any moment. This false sense of security and display of Tulip’s character growth makes the subsequent gut punches – starting from the extremely tense stealth escape attempt through to Atticus’s demise – hit all the harder. Tulip is put through an absolute wringer, and we go from thinking that she has very nearly achieved her exit to wondering whether all of this will permanently set her back emotion-wise. She is left in a really bad place by the end of the episode, and it is an open question how she will respond.

Every single time I’ve seen this episode, Atticus’s ‘death’ absolutely crushes me. To see such a noble and kind fellow transformed into a Lovecraftian monster is always hard to take. It also always surprises me that the crew was able to get away with having the antagonist shoot and seemingly kill a dog in an all-ages cartoon. Something that I wondered while watching this time, though, is whether the Conductor transforming Atticus into a Ghom was incidental – as in, it just used whatever it had on hand to deal with Atticus – or if it was specifically intended to cause Tulip even more pain. At this point I’m not sure if it even matters, but it could provide some insight into just how much of a psychopath the Conductor is.

Speaking of, from a plot perspective the appearance of the Conductor is perhaps the most important part of this episode. After seven episodes of searching, Tulip finally meets the ostensible master of the Train, only to find that it is…well, to call it a jerk would be putting it mildly. It is the malevolent force behind the Steward. It is the one that has been hunting One-One. It is the one that has been trying to stop Tulip at every turn. And now, it is the one that took Atticus away from Tulip. It is very clear that the Conductor will be of no help in returning home, blowing up Tulip’s whole purpose in moving forward. What does the Conductor want, and how far is it willing to go to get it? How can Tulip and Co. possibly stand up to the being with seemingly absolute control over the Train’s workings? Those are just two of the main questions that face us as we rapidly approach the season finale.

Episode MVP – Atticus. He makes his last stand valiantly and with great courage. A good man, indeed.

My Totally Arbitrary Car Ranking – Business Car (B+), Ball Pit Car (B-)

My Totally Arbitrary Episode Ranking – An excellent A-.

Cast Additions – We are introduced to two new characters this episode, Khaki Bottoms and the Conductor. Khaki Bottoms is voiced by actor and comedian Ron Funches (Trolls, Loot, Harley Quinn). The Conductor I will leave as a mystery for now, as the cast member could be considered a spoiler for the next episode.

Trivia/Stray Observations –

• “You’re not my dentist.”
• “Miss Tulip, look at all these moms!”
• “You’re a good boy.” “I’m a good man.” The feels.
• “He could be anywhere…”
• “My cotton is where it’s supposed to be!”
• “Miss Tulip, without a helmet?” “I live dangerously!” Immediately falls over.
• “We’re also heroes!”
• “You may select any of the –” “Jiggle wiggle!”
• “I declare bankruptcy!” Supposedly this was meant to be a reference to Michael Scott’s declaration in The Office. The wiki doesn’t provide a corroborating source for this, but I can see it.

• Honestly, that first shot of the ball pit and all the various slides creeped me out for some reason.
• Does anybody know what the actual term for the ‘Jiggle Wiggle’ toy is? I tried doing research, but came up empty handed.
• If you look closely, you can see the Steward’s shadow go flitting by in the background at several points during the first half of the episode.
• Was that Randall inside that clear vase in Khaki’s prize room?
• Just how many arms does the Steward have?
• I’m generally not claustrophobic, but that scene of Tulip having to climb up the slide while avoiding the Steward’s arms very nearly made me so.
• And here’s more of your weekly dose of soundtrack:

That’s it for this week! Quite a cliffhanger to leave off on, eh? Next week we finish off the season with the final two episodes, ‘The Past Car’ and ‘The Engine’.

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!