Hello all! Welcome back to my weekly reviews of Infinity Train. Last week we reached the halfway point of Book 2 with ‘The Parasite Car’ and ‘The Lucky Cat Car’. This week we continue onward with ‘The Mall Car’ and ‘The Wasteland’.

‘The Mall Car’, Season 2, Episode 7 (Premiere Date: January 9, 2020)

Synopsis – Following directly from the end of ‘The Lucky Cat Car’, M.T., Jesse, and Alan Dracula are led to the Apex’s headquarters, a car that looks like an abandoned mall. Once there, Grace introduces Jesse to her second-in-command, a guy named Simon. Grace and Simon claim that One-One is actually the fake Conductor and that the previous one (Amelia) was the true Conductor. As such, they try to emulate the ‘true’ Conductor by drawing the sine wave on their faces. They also believe that Passengers are meant to live on the Train indefinitely and that a larger number is far superior to a smaller number. After M.T. tries to contradict them, Grace takes Jesse to investigate a newly arrived car while M.T. searches for the once-more missing Alan Dracula.

Grace tries to drive a wedge between Jesse and M.T. by telling Jesse that the Train’s denizens aren’t real people and can’t think or feel emotion. To drive the point home, Grace and her fellows wreck the new car, much to its lone denizen’s dismay. Grace and Jesse return to the Apex’s headquarters to find Simon ordering that M.T. be thrown into the Train’s wheels and crushed. Furious, Jesse turns on Grace and Simon and helps M.T. break free. Annoyed, Grace intentionally uses a makeup mirror to summon Agents Sieve and Mace. As Jesse and M.T. flee through the mall, Jesse’s number reaches zero and his door home appears. He attempts to bring M.T. with him but she is blocked from passing through, leaving her alone to face the Flecs.  

My Thoughts – The full introduction of the Apex provides this episode with a host of powerful thematic layers. First of all, it demonstrates the dangers of bigotry and the violence that it can spark. The kids of the Apex don’t view the denizens of the train as people. They can’t see past themselves – because the denizens don’t have numbers like them, they are able to convince themselves that the denizens can’t actually think or feel even though we know this to be wrong. The Apex, like the Flecs, represent the extreme of everything M.T. is fighting against. Although they follow different reasoning, neither group is willing to view M.T. as an individual or a person with her own wants and needs. As the episode illustrates, such lack of recognition breeds violence. It’s not surprising that the Flecs are willing to kill M.T. to achieve their aims, but to see seemingly normal people like Grace and Simon attempting to straight-up murder her is more difficult to stomach. Their bigotry blinds them and gives them license to take actions that they might otherwise abhor.

The episode also explores the seductiveness of ‘fitting in’. We’ve known since ‘The Family Tree Car’ that Jesse’s main flaw is an overwhelming desire to please others even at his own expense or that of those close to him (i.e. his brother, Nate). He has made significant progress up to this point, but this episode provides him with a final test. Grace is the first real Passenger that he has met on the Train, and she pulls out all the stops to try to persuade him to join the Apex. The writers wanted Grace to employ many of the techniques used by cult leaders to draw people in, and we can see this on display. Note how she is always refusing to say M.T.’s name but will regularly say Jesse’s, or how she is always subtly inserting herself physically between Jesse and M.T., or how she is always putting her hands on his shoulders and empathizing with him. She is actively trying to drive a wedge between him and M.T. while at the same time extoling the freedom of life in the Apex. It is clear that her tactics have an effect on Jesse, triggering his instinct to follow the crowd. In the end she and Simon overplay their hand by trying to hurt M.T. They underestimate the bond that Jesse has formed with her over their adventures, and it is this bond that pulls him back from the brink and prompts him to stand up to the Apex leaders.

Additionally, through the course of the episode we are able to witness more of the ripple effects of Amelia’s reign as the Conductor. When she took over the Train, all she wanted was to recreate her old life with Alrick. Back in Book 1 we saw that this quest was not without unintended consequences, mainly through the ways that she damaged the environments of the cars and hindered Tulip’s own journey. This episode sheds further light on the wide-ranging effects of Amelia’s coup. As we saw at the beginning of the season, Passengers now get instructional videos from One-One explaining how the Train and the numbers work. While Amelia was in charge there was no such guidance. While some Passengers were able to figure things out (with help), like Tulip, others were not so lucky. Some, like Simon and Grace and the other members of the Apex, got the wrong idea entirely and idolized Amelia. Not only is this harmful to the train, as we saw the damage that they have been causing, but it is harmful to the Apex members themselves. It not only ensures that they are stuck on the Train indefinitely, but it also robs them of the character growth that was the whole reason for them entering the Train in the first place.

When Book 2 had originally been announced, I had a number of hopes for it. These included, among other things, learning more about how the Train’s denizens work and seeing the fallout from Amelia’s Conductorship. I was glad that this episode – and the season as a whole – has taken the time to study both concepts, even if it can be hard to watch at times.

Episode MVP – Jesse. He is tempted by Grace and the Apex, but his friendship with M.T. overcomes the challenge and he is able to stand up to them and get his door home.

My Totally Arbitrary Car Ranking – Mall Car (B+), Cube Car (B)

My Totally Arbitrary Episode Ranking – A strong B+.

Cast Additions – The main new addition to the cast is prolific anime voice actor Kyle McCarley (Mob Psycho 100, among many others) as Simon.

Trivia/Stray Observations –

• “Cool name, right?” “Eh, kinda.”
• “Thanks for letting me keep my cool factor for, like, ten seconds there.”
• “He was funny and gloomy.”
• “Now let’s get you a harpoon pack.” “Whaaaaaaaaa?!”
• “Slow down, there! You don’t want to end up like Lucy.”
• “Do malls have crane games?”
• A whole bunch of parody stores appear in this one, including Old Gravy (Old Navy), Sierra’s (Sears), Soggy Donuts (Dunkin’ Donuts), and Dagan Haas (Haagen-Dazs).
• I’m wondering how the Flecs managed to escape the Toad Car, given that I don’t think there were any reflective surfaces.
• This episode was originally supposed to be written by Justin Michael, but he swapped it with Alex Horab for ‘The Parasite Car’ because Horab was having trouble writing Perry the Parasite.
• The denizen of the Cube Car is apparently named Fyodor.

‘The Wasteland’, Season 2, Episode 8 (Premiere Date: January 9, 2020)

Synopsis – Springing into action, M.T. is barely able to evade Mace and Sieve’s grinders and flees, picking up one of the Apex’s harpoon packs on the way. She manages to make it up on top of the next car, but Sieve and Mace are able to catch up. Mace handcuffs her to his wrist to prevent her from escaping again, but at that moment a car that is changing positions comes barreling straight towards them. Mace and M.T. jump off the car, but Mace gets caught in the wheels and is torn in half. They land in the wasteland with Alan Dracula, Mace missing his legs but still alive and attached to M.T.’s wrist.

M.T. and Alan head off into the wasteland to get as far from the Train as possible. Along the way Mace constantly berates and belittles her, claiming that she is not a person and never will be and that she only exists to help out Passengers. They eventually reach a point where they can go no farther, coming up against some sort of invisible barrier pulling them back toward the Train. At that moment, Ghoms emerge from the ground and chase after them. M.T. eventually manages to evade them by using the invisible barrier to slingshot herself back toward the Train and then latching onto a car with her harpoon pack. She attempts to swing up on top of the car, but Mace, still handcuffed to her, attempts to stop her and says that he plans to take her down with him. Reaching her breaking point, M.T. swings him straight down into the wheels where he is ground down to nothing. M.T. scrabbles up to the top of the Train and sits down with Alan, intending to wait for one of the Passenger pods so that she can follow it back to its source and demand her own number.

My Thoughts – Both Book 1 and Book 2 save their most brutal moments for their eighth episodes. Was this a coincidence or an intentional decision by the writers? They’ve never officially said. In both cases, though, said episode was also one of the best of the season. This episode just works for me on so many levels. For one thing, it is perhaps the most atmospheric episode we’ve had in a while – maybe even in the whole show up to this point. All those shots of M.T. and Alan Dracula dragging Mace’s torso through the endless expanse really put the size of the Train and its environment into perspective. It also, when combined with the darkened sky and sparse score, produces a feeling of intense loneliness, exacerbated by Mace’s constant berating of M.T.

Like ‘The Toad Car’, this comes very close to being a bottle episode. We spend most of the episode with only three characters (only two of whom can actually speak) in a simple environment with little variability, and the dialogue focuses heavily on psychological issues and character flaws. ‘The Mall Car’ was the last test of Jesse’s resolve; this one, in turn, is the last test of M.T.’s. Over the course of the runtime, Mace is constantly trying to wear her down with his nihilism. And the problem for M.T. is that, from a certain view, he does have a point. Nothing up to this point has indicated that the Train could or would let its denizens leave. She could be doing all this for nothing. She could still be the Train’s puppet, existing only to help Passengers learn lessons. But what M.T. knows that Mace seems unable to grasp is that if you believe that everything is futile, all you will have is self-fulfilling prophecies. She forcefully rejects his notions about personhood (quite forcefully, given that she…you know…kills him) and comes out of the ordeal stronger than ever and with a clear goal to get off the Train.

Another interesting layer to this episode is that it goes a long way toward developing Agent Mace as a character and continuing to differentiate him Sieve. Prior to this episode, Mace always seemed like the grizzled, world-weary ‘bad’ cop to Sieve’s more duty-focused ‘good’ cop. This episode shows that he is even more extreme than that – he seems to believe that nothing that the denizens do really matters, that everything is preordained in a way by the Train, and that therefore he might as well do his job with as much cruelty as possible. Even so, we do see a few cracks in his nihilistic worldview. M.T. clearly hits a nerve when she calls him a coward for not getting wiped and given a new Prime; it is obvious that he has some deeply-held insecurities about that decision. He also shows fear twice – once when the car’s wheels were headed straight toward him and M.T., and again when the Ghom ambushed them in the wasteland. Perhaps his ‘nothing really matters’ attitude was a bit more of a façade than he let on.

Ultimately, this is a powerful episode with some intense moments, both psychological and action-wise, culminating in one of the most shocking deaths I have seen in an all-ages cartoon. On top of all that, it does a great job of bringing M.T.’s character arc to a head in preparation for the final two episodes.

Episode MVP – Agent Mace. I was originally going to choose M.T., but I really wanted to highlight how perfect of a foil he ended up being for her. (Plus – spoiler – she will likely be getting the MVP spot for the next two episodes.)

My Totally Arbitrary Car Ranking – None.

My Totally Arbitrary Episode Ranking – An excellent A.

Cast Additions – No new cast members this episode.

Trivia/Stray Observations –

• “Or the afternoon. Not a lot of clocks on the Train, are there?”
• “Was your last Prime this much of a jerk, or is this pure you?”
• “I hate you!” “I don’t care.”
• Mace shifting from moaning in pain to laughing was quite chilling. Ben Mendelsohn is very good at playing villains.
• I like the way Mendelsohn says ‘Super Deer!’
• M.T. using the magnetic effect of the Train to slingshot them over the Ghoms was very clever. And cool, too.
• Mace’s ‘Exit Day’ song was based on the Christmas carol ‘I Saw Three Ships’, which I honestly don’t think I’ve ever heard before.
• Unsurprisingly, Mace’s death scene was censored in a few countries.
• Parts of the discussion between Mace and M.T. about the Chrome Car’s nature were originally meant for the episode of the same name, where they would have occurred between M.T. and Mirror One-One.
• This is the first onscreen character death of the series.
• Writer Lindsay Katai described Mace in this episode as a ‘total loon’, and also referred to him as the Inspector Javert to M.T.’s Jean Valjean.
• The writers have indicated that Ghoms are attracted to negative energy, hence why they usually seem to show up when the characters are at a low point emotionally.
• Apparently Cartoon Network was perfectly fine with Mace’s death scene after confirming with Dennis that Mace is not human.

That’s it for this week! We’re almost done with Book 2, and next week we are off to ‘The Tape Car’ and ‘The Number Car’ for the season finale.

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Thanks for reading!