Hello all! Welcome back to my weekly reviews of Infinity Train. Last week we discussed episodes 7 and 8 of Book 1, ‘The Chrome Car’ and ‘The Ball Pit Car’. This time we reach the end of the line for Book 1, with ‘The Past Car’ and season finale ‘The Engine’.
‘The Past Car’, Season 1, Episode 9 (Premiere Date: August 9, 2019)
Synopsis – Deeply distraught and closed off after Atticus’s transformation, Tulip starts to head towards the car’s entrance, oblivious to her number rapidly increasing from 3 to 67. One-One asks her if they are planning to leave Atticus behind, prompting Tulip to blow up at him and claim that everything is pointless and that she will never be getting off the train. This leads to a gentle recrimination from the Cat, who it turns out is still alive and trapped beneath the wreckage of a slide. Tulip frees her, but when the Cat offers to give her a favor in return Tulip flatly refuses. It is only after the Cat indicates that she knows of a way to heal Atticus that Tulip stops to listen.
It turns out that the Cat had squirreled away another tape (seen in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment in ‘The Cat’s Car’) that she claims has very important information that could help Tulip. Tulip reluctantly agrees to watch it, but only if the Cat watches it first. The Cat obliges, inserting the tape into a nearby TV. Tulip once again finds herself in a white void, this time with the Cat and – much to Tulip’s surprise – One-One. One-One seems to have no clue how he was able to enter the tape. The trio begin to move through a series of memories involving a woman named Amelia and a man named Alrick, following them from childhood friends to lovers to engaged couple. Along the way One-One shows a strange level of control over the tape’s progress, able to rewind and fast-forward at will.
In one of the memories, Alrick speaks through a voice modulator that sounds exactly like the Conductor’s voice. Shocked, Tulip becomes convinced that Alrick was the Conductor all along. Skipping ahead, they reach a memory where a hooded figure, presumed to be Alrick, is sobbing in the corner in grief. The figure leaves the house and heads up the street to a university, where it exits onto the roof of the main building. The Train suddenly arrives, the resulting blast of wind blowing the figure’s hood off to reveal that it was Amelia, not Alrick. Tulip realizes that it is actually Amelia who is the Conductor, and that there must have been a previous Conductor that Amelia usurped.
Returning to the present, the Cat points out how the gun that Amelia used to transform Atticus was attached to the front of the Train in the final memory. This means that Amelia had to repurpose the gun for her own designs – further implying that Tulip might be able to repurpose them herself to reverse Atticus’s affliction. Tulip additionally realizes that Amelia’s journey parallels hers, with both of them having run away from the changes in their lives. This realization causes Tulip’s number to finally reach 0, opening a door to home. She refuses to use it yet, however, until Atticus can be cured. With One-One and the Cat’s help, Tulip attaches one of the Steward’s severed arms to the Cat’s shuttlecraft so that they are able to access a control panel next to the exit door. This gives them power over the car’s position, allowing them leap-frog it over its neighbor and onward towards the Engine.
My Thoughts – Although the climax of the season doesn’t hit until next episode, this really felt like Tulip’s final test. After the events of ‘The Ball Pit Car’, she is pretty much at the lowest point that we’ve ever seen her. One of her only friends has been transformed into a monster and the person she was hoping could help her get home, the Conductor, turned out to be a monster itself. It is hard to see her as dejected, numb, and broken as she is at the start of the episode. The fact that she is able to turn herself around by the end is a testament to her strength of spirit, her character growth over the course of the season, and, of course, the help of those around her. Her resolve was only weakened, not shattered, and now it is stronger than ever.
This episode has perhaps the biggest lore drop we’ve seen up to this point. We now know that the Conductor is not a robot, but a woman who, having lost her fiancé, is broken and has been running away just like Tulip was. I like that they were able to find a way to create a main antagonist who parallels Tulip, showing her what she could have become without the friends she made and trials she went through. It really drives home the season’s themes about how we reckon with change. We also learn that there was originally a different conductor for the train. I wonder who that could be?
On the one hand, this feels very much like a table-setting episode. Tulip is brought from where she is emotionally at the end of ‘The Ball Pit Car’ to where she needs to be for the season finale, and we are given all the exposition that we need to figure out the mysteries surrounding the Conductor. On the other hand, this was all done in a way that felt engaging and furthered the show’s themes. It threads that needle quite nicely.
Episode MVP – Tulip. She is able to break through the pain of what happened to Atticus and begin coming up with the solutions needed to resolve the whole situation.
My Totally Arbitrary Car Ranking – No new cars this episode.
My Totally Arbitrary Episode Ranking – A strong B+.
Cast Additions – Two major characters are introduced in this episode. Alrick, as with King Aloysius, is voiced by Matthew Rhys (Perry Mason, The Owl House). Amelia is voiced by Lena Headey (Game of Thrones, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles). I couldn’t reveal the Conductor’s voice actor last week due to the twist in this episode regarding whether the Conductor is Amelia or Alrick. The Conductor’s voice (and Alrick’s during the scene where he is using the voice modulator) is Headey’s under heavy modulation.
Trivia/Stray Observations –
- “Look Miss Tulip, I found your shoes and now I’m a shoe-head!”
- “I told you boot-body would be funnier.”
- “Fatalism doesn’t suit you, kitten.”
- “Yeah, fool her thrice, shame on me!”
- “Sleeping’s creepy.”
- “So, the glorified wind-up toy will be joining us.” “I am glorious.”
- “That’s funny, that didn’t work at all!”
- “Plato says love is a serious mental disease.”
- “Oh, I guess I should have just told you how to save the dog.” “Yes, you should have!”
- “Hurray, now you’ll be gone forever!” “To be clear, that’s a good thing.”
- “Did you just break my shuttlecraft?” “Depends. Who’s asking?”
- How does the hatch closing off the Atticus-Ghom stay shut? When Tulip slammed it closed at the end of the previous episode, there was no indication of a latch or anything like that.
- Sure is lucky that the bee TV had a VHS slot.
- Amelia and Alrick’s university sure does look a lot like the Unfinished Car, hm?
- One-One happily picking up one of the ball pit balls while Tulip was trying to rig the car was adorable.
- I can’t deny it – that shot of the car hurtling toward the Engine as purple lightning streaked the sky was epic.
- This is the only episode of Book 1 not named after the car it takes place in.
- The technique Amelia used in the flashback to make a call without paying is known as ‘phreaking’. It involves using a system of tones to trick the phone system into routing your call. It isn’t confirmed directly in the show, but it is implied that she used a similar method to seize control of the train – every time so far that she has directed the Steward to do something, she has preceded the order with a quick sequence of tones.
- The phreaking scene was almost cut over worries that Cartoon Network’s censors would frown upon a scene involving illegal activity. They justified keeping the scene due to the fact that phreaking like that is no longer possible.
- Given that she likely didn’t know the Train would arrive at that time or even existed, it is a mystery why Amelia had made her way to the roof of the university building in the final memory. Some theorize that she was preparing to commit suicide, which is quite dark for an all-ages show (even one that has embraced the dark to the extent Infinity Train has).
- Amelia and Alrick’s theme is beautiful. I’m particularly partial to this remix:
‘The Engine’, Season 1, Episode 10 (Premiere Date: August 9, 2019)
Synopsis – Tulip, One-One, and the Cat finally arrive at the Engine, where they find that Amelia is in the process of building another car like the Unfinished Car. After the Cat bids adieu, Tulip ties a rope to the Atticus-Ghom’s enclosure and pulls it with her as she and One-One enter the partially constructed car. They reach the end and look down into the Engine itself, where they see Amelia (in her Conductor suit) typing away on a computer and the Steward in what appears to be a dormant state. Tulip jumps down to confront Amelia. Before Amelia has much chance to react, Tulip shoves the TV with Amelia’s tape in front of her face. Amelia becomes trapped inside her memories like Tulip had been in ‘The Cat’s Car’, allowing Tulip to rush past her. Moments later Amelia’s exoskeleton activates some kind of beacon, waking up the Steward. The Steward smashes the TV just as Tulip grabs Amelia’s orb cannon.
Outraged that Tulip forced her to relive some of her worst memories, Amelia sends the Ball Pit Car, and Tulip’s exit with it, all the way to the back of the Train. Realizing that she needs to find an orb that can create Corgis in order to repurpose the cannon, Tulip frees the Atticus-Ghom as a distraction and rushes back into the partially constructed car. Amelia chases after her, and the two duel with pipes (Tulip’s being the donut-holer she got from Randall back in ‘The Beach Car’). Tulip realizes that by constructing the car Amelia is hoping to rebuild a simulacrum of her old life, complete with Alrick. She tells Amelia that she can’t just recreate the past, but Amelia refuses to listen. Instead, she offers to build Tulip a car where her parents are still happily together. Tulip is not tempted, however, as over the course of her trek through the Train she has come to the realization that there are things in life that just cannot be changed and must be adapted to. She slams the donut-holer into Amelia’s exoskeleton, breaking its face and revealing a much-older Amelia inside.
Tulip finds a Corgi orb and manages to insert it into the cannon and fire it at the Atticus-Ghom. Before anything else happens, the Steward hits the Atticus-Ghom against a wall and it goes limp. Amelia chides Tulip, saying that Tulip has nothing to do with any of this and that Amelia was just wanting to keep ‘One’ at bay. Connecting the dots, Tulip realizes what this means – One-One is the true Conductor, the one that Amelia usurped. Just as she comes to this realization, One-One reaches the front of the Engine and sees an alcove exactly his size. Amelia desperately sends the Steward after him, but is too late. One-One inserts himself into the socket, prompting the Train to shut down and reboot. The Steward is stopped in its tracks just as Atticus breaks free from the husk of the Atticus-Ghom and shatters its face.
Now in control, One-One immediately begins to eject the partially completed car. Tulip is easily able to escape to safety in the Engine, but Amelia is almost not so lucky. She ends up running into a pole and being sent flying from her exoskeleton, landing in a heap on the Engine’s floor. Tulip happily reunites with One-One and Atticus. Breaking down, Amelia says that she forcibly removed One-One from the Engine when he refused to make her a car with Alrick in it. Tulip gently tells her that she needs move on, but Amelia claims that she will likely never get off the train, revealing that her number is so large that it covers almost her entire body. Even so, Tulip tells her that anything is possible. One-One is able to re-summon Tulip’s door and, after an emotional goodbye to One-One and Atticus, she enters the vortex beyond.
An epilogue taking place seven months later shows Tulip and her parents to be in a much better and more understanding place, with Tulip and her father getting ready to head out to game design camp.
My Thoughts – This season was originally billed as a one-and-done miniseries in the vein of Over the Garden Wall, and it wasn’t until a short stinger after this episode aired that a second season was revealed. Viewing the episode through a miniseries lens, this is a pretty near perfect finale in my book. We get closure on virtually every major plot point – Atticus is saved, Amelia gets her comeuppance, One-One’s mom is revealed, the true Conductor is unmasked, and Tulip gets to return home – as well as thematic closure. Tulip has finally come to terms with her parents’ divorce, admitting that they weren’t happy together and that trying to create a world where they were still together would be counterproductive. Such a world might seem wonderful on the surface, but it would be a mere fantasy. Tulip has accepted that change happens and that we must adapt to it or get left behind.
I mentioned it above in my review of ‘The Past Car’, but I really like the use of Amelia as the antagonist of the season. Tulip’s entire journey to this point has been about learning to accept and adapt to the changes in life, to not become mired in trying to recreate a past that cannot be recreated. It is very fitting that the person standing in her way at the end is someone who has been unable to learn the same lesson. Amelia was not always a monster. She is a woman who was broken by loss and could never get past it. She let her grief and anger consume her until she was willing to do horrific things to reclaim her lost life. It is not too late for her to figure out a better path and be redeemed – Tulip confronting her with reality clearly got through to her, at least a little. But it will not be an easy path. It could take her years or even decades to undo what she has done, and I appreciate the show pointing out that redemption, if it is possible, takes work. I feel like I have seen one too many shows where all that is needed for the villain to be redeemed is one good act.
If I have one quibble about this episode, it would be that the ending doesn’t quite feel like it has room to breathe. After Tulip and Amelia’s confrontation is resolved, we pretty much just get a quick goodbye with Atticus and One-One before Tulip is sent home. I would have liked to see the trio spend a bit more time together during the denouement, or at least for Atticus to get some more closure with his people. This is ultimately a minor issue with what I consider a great season finale, however.
Episode MVP – Tulip. She concluded her journey aboard the train with courage and grace, taking on Amelia and her fearsome robot exoskeleton and forcing her to see the error of her ways.
My Totally Arbitrary Car Ranking – Engine (B). I like the aesthetics, but it’s a little empty.
My Totally Arbitrary Episode Ranking – A strong B+. A great capper to the season, although I do feel the ending was a little abrupt.
Cast Additions – No new cast members this episode.
Trivia/Stray Observations –
- “There it is. The end of the Train.” “Wrong, kitten. The beginning of the Train.”
- “Is Evil Atticus hungry?” “He’s not evil!” “Huh. Nature vs. nurture.”
- “Oh, you found the monster cannon! Now we can make more, give it!”
- “I need you to look for a way to stop the Steward, or stop the Train, or something.” “End it all. Got it.”
- “Unbelievable. Again with the turtles.”
- “You keep a pipe in your backpack?” “It’s a donut-holer!” A Chekhov’s donut-holer, to be precise.
- “You can’t even make a car without any turtles in it!”
- “Hello, I’d like to introduce you to my mother. Isn’t she pretty? She’s got a lot of heft to her.”
- “I’m very uncomfortable with how much I’ve missed.”
- I love the little detail that as Tulip is walking by the mirror at the end of the episode her reflection is gone.
- I never drew the connection before, but I saw it pointed out that Aloysius and Alrick having the same voice actor was likely intentional, as the Unfinished Car was one of Amelia’s failed experiments to recreate her life with Alrick.
- Images of a handful of important characters from the next few seasons can be spotted on Amelia’s computer while she is sending Tulip’s door away.
- At one point Tulip is seen reading The Sweet Life of Math and Coding, almost certainly a reference to the Disney Channel show The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
- This episode aired on Ashley Johnson’s birthday.
- The closing scene is supposed to take place seven months after Tulip exits the Train. If the coding camp is an annual thing, this would imply that Tulip spent five months on the Train. I wonder how she was able to explain that to her parents and everyone else?
- According to Owen Dennis, the original plan for the Engine was for the floor to be covered in tiny mouths that sing a song about the Conductor. That sounds terrifying.
- Owen Dennis wanted the climax of the season to be two people fighting with pipes so bad that he had Tulip keep the donut-holer in ‘The Beach Car’ solely for this purpose.
This season resonated with me the first time I watched it, and it still does with each subsequent rewatch. Although I consider myself reasonably well-adjusted, I too struggle at times with change and regrets. I often find myself thinking about past events and wishing I could have changed things, that I could have said something differently or said something at all. There are times where I admittedly almost let this consume me. Watching Tulip’s journey through these episodes reminds me to live in the present, that I can’t improve myself if I am constantly relitigating the past. For that I am grateful. Overall I feel like Book 1 is an excellent season on its own as well a perfect introduction to this weird, wonderful little show and its world. I have greatly enjoyed the chance to discuss it with you, and I am looking forward to starting Book 2 next week!
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