Hello all! Welcome back to my weekly reviews of Infinity Train. Last week we approached the endgame of Book 3 with ‘The Canyon of the Golden Winged Snakes Car’ and ‘The Hey Ho Whoa Car’. This week we finish off the season with ‘The Origami Car’ and ‘The New Apex’.
‘The Origami Car’, Season 3, Episode 9 (Premiere Date: August 13, 2020)
Synopsis – Waking up to find the canyon in the center of the car completely filled, Grace attempts to convince Hazel to go with her and Simon. Still stung by the way Grace acted toward her in the previous episode, Hazel rebuffs her and agrees to leave with Amelia. Heartbroken, Grace can only watch as Amelia and Hazel head out. As Grace and Simon enter a car populated by origami creatures, Simon continues to make a number of snide comments that eventually prompt Grace to lose her temper and chew him out. Simon retaliates by using the memory projector to trap Grace in her own childhood memories. Eventually joining her, Simon reveals that he knows about how Grace hid Hazel’s identity from him. He blasts her for keeping secrets from him and then exits the car, leaving Grace trapped inside her own tape.
My Thoughts – I had forgotten just how bleak this episode can get at times. Outside of a few lines from Amelia, things start tense and stay that way throughout without much comic relief. Although this may seem like a complaint, the episode ends up working on multiple thematic and plot levels, ably setting things up for the finale. We’ve seen Grace make significant strides over the course of the season, and this is very much on display here. She tries every way she can to keep Hazel with her and Simon despite Hazel’s confirmed identity as a Denizen and breaks down when Hazel eventually leaves. For a much smaller but still telling example, you only need to look at the way Simon and Grace deal with the origami birds sitting on the path in the Origami Car. Simon tramples right over them while Grace delicately steps around them. It’s hard to imagine the Grace of the Musical Car going to such lengths to avoid hurting the creatures.
Despite this progress, Grace has had yet to reckon head-on with the dangerous beliefs that not only she previously followed but that she and Simon indoctrinated the kids of the Apex with. Until now, that is. For the past few episodes she has tried her hardest to find a way to incorporate Hazel into the society of the Apex, and in a very ‘have your cake and eat it too’ moment it blows up in her face. The anti-Denizen views of the Apex are entirely incompatible with the attempted inclusion of Hazel, and by trying to provide lip-service to them she pushes Hazel away and into the company of Amelia. On the flip side, she attempted to keep Simon on her side by hiding Hazel’s true identity and all she ended up doing was feeding his feelings of betrayal. She has destroyed her relationship with her two closest friends and now she is all alone – not unlike her life before the Train. Now she will finally be forced to make a stand as to what kind of person she wants to be. Given Simon’s drastic actions and her realization that the Apex’s entire philosophy was based on her distorted memory as a child, it’s not hard to tell what that decision is going to be.
As for Simon, this episode gives him his final chance to turn things around, and he adamantly refuses to take it. He could have used Hazel’s departure as a means to start things over again with Grace, to actually talk everything through, but his chronic abandonment issues and constant feelings of betrayal are too much to overcome. This is evidenced by his insistent declaration that he was Grace’s friend first when Grace insists that Hazel was their friend. First he was seemingly abandoned by Samantha, then – in his eyes – by the one who saved him and gave him purpose. Instead of rethinking the path that led him here, he tries to rationalize his actions – “You made me do it!” – and descends deeper into the Apex’s extreme ideology. In effect, he becomes further radicalized. Even seeing the truth in Grace’s memories isn’t enough to overcome his denial. At this point it becomes clear that there is nothing that will change his mind, and his position as a foil to Grace’s journey toward redemption snaps fully into focus.
Episode MVP – Grace. She is finally seeing the consequences of her actions with clear eyes.
My Totally Arbitrary Car Ranking – Origami Car (B)
My Totally Arbitrary Episode Ranking – A strong B+.
Cast Additions – The only two new characters with speaking roles this time around are Grace’s father, voiced by veteran voice actor Keith Ferguson (Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Wander Over Yonder, Ducktales 2017), and mother, voiced by Kirby Howell-Baptiste.
Trivia/Stray Observations –
- “Just to remind you, you do have a time limit.”
- “Well, you’re certainly coming with me, but I’m not on a road trip.”
- “I’m an inventor, an engineer, a snappy dresser.”
- “So my memories are real until you don’t like them and then they are fake?”
- That little origami village was very cute.
- A very good touch having Grace’s mother listing off a number of different names in sequence, presumably of Grace’s various former caretakers, while the caretakers themselves are represented by empty clothes. Really gives the feel that her parents cycled through them so much that they blended together or had little individual impact on her life.
- Given that Grace’s mother mentions that they are meeting with an ambassador, it has been theorized that Grace grew up in Washington, D.C. Owen Dennis has indicated that he also believes this to be the case, although he did not fully confirm it.
- Is this the first indication we’ve been given that the Train takes on different appearances for different passengers?
- ‘Running Away’ is briefly sampled during the scene where Grace boards the Train.
- Howell-Baptiste uses her natural British accent when voicing Grace’s mother.
- That is a very chilling way to end the episode.
‘The New Apex’, Season 3, Episode 10 (Premiere Date: August 13, 2020)
Synopsis – Still stuck in her memories after being abandoned by Simon, Grace finds herself berated by a vision of Hazel calling her out for her treatment of Denizens in general and Hazel specifically. Overwhelmed, Grace breaks down and admits that she knew what she was doing was wrong but that she is terrified both of disappointing others and being alone. With this realization, she is ejected from her memories and rips the tape from her head. Spotting the broken origami birds that Simon had trampled, she fixes each of them before heading off to Apex HQ.
Back in the Mall Car, Grace is confronted by the other kids of the Apex – who have been taught by Simon that Grace has abandoned the Apex and is now a ‘Void’ – and an enraged Simon. Simon commands the kids to wheel Grace, but she distracts them enough by mentioning that she and Simon met the Conductor that she is able to break free. Simon attacks her and they engage in hand-to-hand combat until they are interrupted by a Ghom. With some quick thinking Grace is able to save Simon from it and shoo it away. Simon repays her by kicking her off the bridge and down toward the wheels. This vile act raises his number so high that it covers his entire face. Grace is saved at the last moment by the birds from the Origami Car, just in time to see the Ghom return and disintegrate Simon into a pile of dust. Shellshocked, Grace and the Apex return to the Mall Car where Grace effectively disbands the group and promises to help the members get their exits.
My Thoughts – There was a lot that this finale needed to accomplish – get Grace out of her memories and back to the Apex, catalyze her final confrontation with Simon, deal with the Apex and its toxic ideology, etc. – and I feel like it largely succeeds, with only a couple caveats. In general, we enter this episode with perhaps the most uncertainty out of any of the season finales so far. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion going into ‘The Engine’ and ‘The Number Car’ that Tulip and Lake would be making their exits from the Train (although how they would do so was still up in the air). This time around, the endgame was a lot less clear ahead of time. Presumably Grace and Simon would have a final clash regarding the direction of the Apex, but what would the outcome be? Would the Apex be dissolved? Would one of them die? Would Grace get her exit?
When this season originally aired, I started it with some reservations (which I detailed somewhat in prior reviews). Grace and Simon were terrible people back in Book 2, and there were a whole host of ways that focusing an entire season on them could go wrong. The writers could have left them both on their violent and self-destructive paths, something that would have been difficult to stomach. Or, they could give one or both of them a rapid redemption, which would feel false and unearned. I am glad to say that this episode assuages those concerns. The trippy opening sequence, with Grace trapped inside a spiral of her own memories and insecurities, does great work continuing the character growth from the previous episode. Faced down by hallucinations of both Hazel and herself, Grace is forced to come to terms with her wrongness and the way her actions affected those around her and ultimately left her all alone. By admitting these truths, and by removing the Apex sine wave from her face, she finally signals her readiness for atonement.
The key thing is that Grace ends the episode by starting her pathway to redemption, not by completing it. She doesn’t get her exit, her number is still high (although dropping), and she doesn’t have a clear idea about how to proceed. This results in the most open-ended closing to a season in the whole show. While such an open ending could potentially seem unsatisfying, it really helps to drive home the season’s central themes regarding redemption. We already saw earlier with Amelia that redeeming oneself is a long and nonlinear process. The final moments here reinforce that idea – there is now hope that Grace and the Apex can become better people, but doing so will require sacrifices and great effort to make amends.
Even though Grace’s redemption is nowhere near completion, it still could have seemed trite without a strong foil. Simon is the perfect embodiment of everything Grace has learned to reject. He refuses to take responsibility for his actions, literally claiming that he can never be wrong. Instead of facing his faults, he falls deeper and deeper into his radicalized beliefs until he ends up going full cult leader here. Just look at the way that he runs the Apex – plastering the floor with ‘Down with the False Conductor’ propaganda, coining the term ‘Void’ exclusively to describe Grace, wearing a cape and sitting on a throne. He’s become a darker, fun-house mirror version of the way he and Grace were at the beginning of the season. He’s now willing not only to wheel a fellow Passenger, but to command children to do so. He’s so committed himself to his army fantasies that he pretty much sees himself as the general of his own kid army. There is no going back from that.
I did mention that there were a few caveats to my overall praise for the way this season ended. First up, I don’t know that Simon’s demise was handled quite as well as it could have been. I feel like they made him a bit too much of a mustache-twirling villain in the end, and I am also uncertain that he really needed to die in such a gruesome and brutal manner (or maybe even at all). At least it was fitting for him to be killed by a Ghom given his backstory, and his final breakdown after kicking Grace off the bridge was well done. Still, I’m a bit uncomfortable at the idea that his proper fate was to be melted alive. I also feel like the origami birds saving Grace maybe veered a bit too close to deus ex machina territory. Even with these complaints, though, I consider this to be a strong ending to a dark and complicated season.
Episode MVP – Grace. She finally reaches the end of her character arc and begins her path to redemption.
My Totally Arbitrary Car Ranking – No new cars introduced in this episode.
My Totally Arbitrary Episode Ranking – An excellent A-.
Cast Additions – No new cast members this time around.
Trivia/Stray Observations –
- “Why would I need to change if I’m always right?”
- “I’m not responsible for your problems. I don’t owe you anything!”
- Grace ripping the tape out of her head was a gross bit of body horror.
- Grace must have pretty strong palms if she can just catch Simon’s fists like that.
- Well, they managed to top Sieve’s demise with Simon’s death. Probably the most graphic death I’ve seen on an ostensibly kid-friendly show.
- It’s been theorized that Ghoms feed on numbers, and that the Ghom that killed Simon exploded because it essentially overdosed on his extremely high number.
- Apparently the storyboard artist received the following note from Owen Dennis regarding Simon’s fate: “Just *bleeping* kill him.”
- Simon’s death scene might be a reference to the similar famous scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Unsurprisingly, Simon’s death was censored in some countries.
- Some people have speculated that Grace spent quite a bit of time inside her memory tape, given that Simon’s appearance is quite different (particularly his hair). The writers have refused to actually say, instead just throwing out numbers without any units. (Dennis himself said that she was there for between “12 and 4 on the mother cow index.”)
- The opening sequence with Grace trapped inside her memories has one of the most unusual tracks in the series (see below). There seems to be a lot of debate over whether the voice is saying ‘Don’t Be Lied To’, ‘Going Back To’, or ‘Help Me Not To’, which is a nice piece of ambiguity.
The theme that plays over the final sequence of the episode combines this tune with ‘Running Away’, to great effect.
And there it is, the end of Book 3! This one covered a lot of dark territory, even in comparison to Book 2, and a lot of complex and weighty themes. It is an excellent season of television overall, barely just edged out by Book 2 in my eyes (mainly because of my love of Lake and Jesse), and I am excited to hear your thoughts not just on these episodes but on the season as a whole. What worked for you? What didn’t?
Next week we get started on the final season, Book 4. In case you missed my previous comment, I am planning on covering Book 4 in three reviews rather than five, following a 3-4-3 episode format. As such, we will cover the first three episodes of the season next Wednesday.
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!