Recap / Amphibia S3E09 "Anne-sterminator"

It can’t be bargained with! It can’t be reasoned with! And it absolutely will not stop, EVER! Until you are dead!

King Andrias: Olms have mercy! Next, you're going to tell me Anne isn't dead yet!
Cloak-Bot: W-working on it...
King Andrias: Well, looks like we'll have to up the stakes. (activates a time bomb) You have one hour to destroy that kid, or the bomb in your chest will destroy you.

When Anne and the Plantars get tracked down by the dangerous enemy at the Boonchuy resistance, Anne must finally come clean to her parents about Andrias' attack.

Full Recap

TBA...

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Tropes:

• Anger Born of Worry: Mrs Boonchuy gives Anne a brief tirade about how she's not grown up after all after getting the wrong idea from the Plantars' partial explanation about why the robot is attacking them and thinking Anne antagonised and attacked the king of Amphibia unprovoked, resulting in him sending it after her for retribution.
• Animation Bump: When Anne activates her blue powers again, her hair is made more fluid and wavy from the energy she's emitting.
• Anime Hair:
  • It turns out that without its tracker to triangulate Anne's Calamity Box energy signature, the assassin's main method of telling her apart from other humans is primarily her large messy mop of hair. When it's confronted by crude facsimiles crafted by Mrs Boonchuy, it can't tell the difference, and its POV shot even shows it recognises a photo of Anne on the wall as a valid target.
  • A straighter example occurs when Anne finally powers up her Calamity Box powers in front of her parents to get rid of the assassin's torso, with her hair becoming fluidly animated and floaty from the energy, though not turning fully blue like it did against Andrias.
• Alas, Poor Villain: There's an element of this to the assassin's last assault, as none of the family are aware that it's desperately attacking Anne in broad daylight without regard for being witnessed like last time because Andrias activated its self-destruct function and gave it a time limit of one hour to kill Anne or perish itself—not that they'd be able to do anything about it. The assassin's visible distress and panic as the timer counts down is made repeatedly clear, and there's ultimately something pitiable about its final demise due to forces outside its control.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Mrs. Boonchuy when calling out Anne for lying to her about what's going on.
  Mrs. Boonchuy: When are you going to grow up? When are you going to stop getting in trouble? When, Anne?! When?!
  Anne: I DON'T KNOW, OKAY?!
• Artistic License – Geography: The Boonchuys and Plantars take the 101 north from Los Angeles and try to decide whether to take the 405 north or the 210 south. Only the 405 intersects the 101; if they switched to the 5 without showing it, there still isn't a junction with both. And 210 is east at that point. But Mr. Boonchuy is right about the 405 being a bad choice.
• Bad Boss: Deciding that his minion isn't living up to his expectations, Andrias uses his self-destruct sequence to force the robot to get rid of Anne as soon as possible, not caring about the circumstances that have led it to fail up to this point.
• Berserk Button: Andrias does not take it well upon learning from the Cloak-Bot that Anne is still alive.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Cloak-Bot is finally defeated by Anne, and she's safe and sound...for now, anyways. However, she has a lot to tell her parents about what's going on, and most importantly, the Plantars' true forms have been witnessed by the FBI.
• Book Ends: Quite literally. In its introductory episode, Andrias tasked the assassin with getting the next novel in the Cynthia Coven series for him. In this episode, it reveals that it succeeded in the task, but unfortunately the Vol Two book Andrias wanted was sold out, and all it could get was Vol Three.
• Brick Joke:
  • The assassin did manage to get the book Andrias wanted, but it's the third volume when Andrias still hasn't read the second.
  • When getting the mail back in "Hop 'Til You Drop", Anne mentions to the Plantars that she used to only do that when she wanted to get her report card and change it before showing it to her parents. Here, as an example of her newfound responsibility, Mr. Boonchuy brings up that she used to change her grade on her report card. Anne is sheepish to find out that they actually knew that.
• Broken Masquerade:
  • The Plantars and Anne have worked hard throughout the season to avoid her parents finding out about the extent of the danger facing them all. Being attacked by Andrias' assassin in their home forces Anne to admit the real circumstances of how she came home and what she left behind.
  • The end of the episode indicates that the masquerade got broken even beyond the family's personal circumstances, as the FBI are shown witnessing camera footage of the assassin chasing after the Boonchuy/Plantar family in their car and making a call to a mysterious 'Mr X' with the camera focusing on the blurry image of the Plantars inside the car indicating that they're the subject of interest, rather than the more-visible robot.
• Call-Back:
  • The assassin is able to hone in on Anne's location by detecting Frobo, who was reactivated in the previous episode.
  • Mrs. Boonchuy asking Anne a scathing question with Anne shouting "I don't know" is reminiscent to to Hop Pop and Anne's dialogue during "The First Temple".
  • In the final battle at the junkyard, Cloak-Bot is impaled through the back – the same fate Marcy suffered in "True Colors".
• Calling the Young Man Out: Mrs. Boonchuy calls Anne out for not telling the truth about Andrias' invasion when the Cloak-Bot's pursuits cause the masquerade to completely unravel.
  Mrs. Boonchuy: ANNE SAVISA BOONCHUY! What is going on?!
  Anne: What do you mean? There's a giant robot trying to kill us. I thought that was clear.
  Mrs. Boonchuy: Yes! But why Anne? Why? Is there something you want to tell us?
  Anne: Mom! Take it easy!
  Mr. Boonchuy: (trying to calm his wife down) Honey, maybe we should hear her out.
  Mrs. Boonchuy: NO! She's lying to us! You've done something, haven't you?! That's why [Cloak-bot] is after us!
  Anne: It's complicated!
  Mrs. Boonchuy: I knew it! We were wrong about you—you're still the same irresponsible little girl who used to cut class! When are you going to grow up? When are you going to stop getting in trouble? When, Anne?! When?!
  Anne: I DON'T KNOW, OKAY?!
• Car Fu: Mr. Boonchuy ends up running over the assassin when attempting to stop once it blocks their path. The assassin survives but is annoyed over this and gains a tire mark across its body.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • One that Anne didn't even know was there. It turns out that Mrs. Boonchuy dealt with the stress of Anne's disappearance by creating art statue facsimiles of her daughter in a room of the house, which ends up creating an impromptu Body Double when the assassin enters and finds itself confronted by multiple 'Anne Boonchuys'.
  • The assassin's broken tracker equipment again comes into play here, as without its ability to identify Anne through tracking her energy signature, the robot is forced to visually confirm where she is, allowing it to be distracted by the decoys due to its difficulty telling her apart from them.
  • The Fumigator 4 movie advert the family is watching shortly before the attack ends up coming into play during the ensuring chase scene, as the police witnessing the family's public fight with the robot assume it's just filming for the sequel.
  • When Anne kicks the assassin's torso into the sky, the force of the kick tears off its right arm, with a few shots if it falling to the ground to accentuate the loss. The season 3 sneak peek showed a disguised Sprig fighting against a human wielding the same robotic right arm, and the government getting involved in the story by the episode's end indicates that that's how they recover the arm.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Frobo's reactivation in the last episode kicks off the final confrontation with the assassin, as he produces a signal the robot can detect that allows it to triangulate Anne's home shortly after Andrias activates its self-destruct function and gives it one hour to kill Anne or be obliterated.
• Chekhov's Skill: Anne and the Plantars discover that Mrs. Boonchuy had a hobby of building sculptures of her missing daughter to cope. During the climax, Anne encourages her mom to make Anne dummies to confuse the assassin.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: Zig-Zagged. Cloak-Bot augments itself with various Earth machinery to replace its missing or damaged limbs, which are of inferior quality thus making those replacements less durable than in previous encounters due to the haphazard repairs. When Mrs. Boonchuy catches it off-guard, it's easily dismantled by her and Anne. On the other hand, the machinery tools do allow it greater versatility in fighting the family, allowing it to rapid-fire nail-gun rounds, pack a mean punch with its excavator hand, or slice through solid concrete with its saw blade attachment. It's even capable of using said attachment as a makeshift tricycle wheel to pursue the family in their car at high speeds. It actually almost succeeds outright in taking Anne out this time before Mrs Boonchuy surprises it with a sledgehammer.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Andrias only sent the one Robot assassin after Anne, but given she needs to tap into her Super Mode to fight it off, it's clearly a cut above the rest of the Mecha-Mooks Andrias has made up to this point.
• Conveniently Empty Roads: During the car chase to escape the Cloak-bot's hot pursuit, the neighborhood is deserted and the roads clear except for an oblivious dog-walking pedestrian. The trope goes away as soon as the chase takes the cast to the freeway.
• Conveniently Timed Distraction: Inverted. Anne decides on her own initiative to tell her parents the truth behind her return to Earth after being unable to take the guilt from lying to them anymore, but the assassin interrupts her before she can start and her and the Plantars' out-of-context explanations for the situation make things sound much worse for Anne than they are, leading to her parents thinking she's been lying to them about all the positive character development she's had since they last saw her.
• Deus ex Machina: Since Anne never got to explain everything that happened to her in "True Colors"— and doesn't even really know all that much about her powers in the first place— from the Boonchuy's perspective, they're about to be annihilated by Cloak-bot's Self-Destruct Mechanism when all of a sudden their daughter starts manifesting glowing blue flames and floating, before kicking the Cloak-Bot's torso into space, allowing them to escape alive as it self-destructs.
• Disc-One Final Boss: The Cloak-Bot is finally destroyed, serving as the first villain Anne has to defeat before facing Andrias.
• Dramatic Irony: The audience are aware of the assassin's impending doom through its self-destruct and how that's fueling its desperate last assault on Anne, but the family are unaware of the robot's circumstances until they think they've finally beaten it for good, and even then they think it's the robot activating the self-destruct on its own, rather than taunting them that they're going to die due to the same circumstance it's been fighting under the whole time.
• Driver Faces Passenger: Mr. Boonchuy is finally hearing about the dangers Anne faced in Amphibia, causing him to look back at her in shock while he's driving away from the assassin. It takes her to remind him to focus on the road ahead.
• Education Mama: Implied with Mrs. Boonchuy. Her workout room has various Anne statues going to college and achieving high level jobs and accomplishments. Although it's possible that each scenario was her way of dealing with her daughter's disappearance and acting out what Anne could have accomplished.
  Anne: Wait. Why is this one dressed as a doctor?
  Mrs. Boonchuy: A mom can dream, can't she?!
  Anne: Why do I get the feeling that I'm not living up to your expectations?
• Evil-Detecting Dog: A girl is outside with her dog on a leash, and when the Boonchuys and the Plantars drive by with the assassin on their tails, her dog barks at the spot where the event just unfolded. She just tells the dog to stop, oblivious to the entire scene.
• Exact Words: The assassin crashes into the Boonchuy residence, to which Mrs. Boonchuy tells the others to hide in her workout room. Upon entering, they find that it's a room filled with artwork centered on Anne. Anne immediately protests her description, as it clearly isn't for exercise, but Mrs. Boonchuy points out that it's a room she used to "work out" all the anxiety she had to deal with while Anne was gone.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The entire episode takes place in little over an hour, the time Cloak-Bot has until he self-destructs.
• Eye Awaken: Done by Anne as she activates her Super Mode and prepares to kick the Cloak-Bot into space.
• Failed a Spot Check: The girl walking her dog is too focused with perusing on her phone, which makes her not notice a car almost hit her and a deadly killer robot hop above her.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing:
  • The device Andrias uses to arm Cloak-Bot can be glimpsed on his wrist when he starts the video call to his minion, even before the subject of Anne's survival comes up, indicating that Andrias always suspected Clock-bot might have failed to succeed in taking Anne out and was prepared to detonate them from the very beginning, rather than it being a snap decision he made upon realizing she's wasn't deceased yet.
  • The advert for the Fumigator 4 movie the family is watching calls the titular monster "A bloodthirsty predator meets all-American engineering" which is an accurate description of the assassin after it upgrades itself with machinery scavenged from Earth, and which shortly afterwards attacks them. Indeed, some police witnessing their ensuring chase and confrontation with the robot think it's just them filming the 5th sequel to the same franchise.
• Foregone Conclusion: As high as stakes are, Anne, her parents, and the Plantars all have to survive by the end of the episode, given that the next episode's summary shows they are perfectly alive and well.
• Foreshadowing: When the assassin tells Andrias the Vol Two book he wanted was sold out he bemoans with "Olms have mercy!", which, paired alongside the mysterious message the Plantars found on the jar in "Temple Frogs" indicates there might be some kind of amphibian deity based on an olm in Amphibia's culture, which Anne and the Plantars must locate information about to proceed on their quest to get back to Amphibia.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: Mrs. Boonchuy calls Anne by her full name to get an explanation from her.
  Mrs. Boonchuy: Anne Savisa Boonchuy!
• Godzilla Threshold: Andrias arming its self-destruct function with a one-hour time limit to kill Anne or be vaporized makes the assassin chuck the concept of stealth out the window when making its final attempt on her life, openly attacking her house and pursuing her in front of humans without regard for being seen, as well as using every upgrade and tool it possesses to kill her without delay. On Anne's side, she once again uses her Calamity Box abilities when the assassin reveals the self-destruct timer to them, now with only 10 seconds remains before detonation. Since none of them know how to nor have enough time to disarm the bomb, it's the only way to move the assassin's torso far enough away from everybody in time, even if it comes with an unknown cost and Anne having to showcase her Empowered Badass Normal status to her parents.
• Go Out with a Smile: The Cloak-Bot gives a disturbing Slasher Smile as it comes close to self-destruction.
• Group Hug: Mrs. Boonchuy does this with the Plantars and her daughter during the drive back home. Her husband expresses desolation for being left out and asks them to imagine him being part of the hug.
• Headphones Equal Isolation: The girl walking the dog is oblivious to nearly being run over by the Boonchuys and the robot chasing them because she's glued to her phone and has her earbuds in.
• Heroic RRoD: Once again, Anne collapses after using her Super Mode. She's still asleep as the Boonchuys and Plantars drive back home.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Given the assassin's love of using this against her the first two times they fought, it's fitting that Anne majorly damages it this way, stabbing it In the Back with a broken 'Dead End' sign when her mom is bashing it about with a sledgehammer, incapacitating it enough that the two of them can tear off its limbs and reduce it to a barely functional pile of scrap.
• Internal Reveal: The Boonchuys getting attacked by Andrias' assassin forces Anne and the Plantars to reveal both the truth about why they're on Earth as well as the fact that Anne is now a Empowered Badass Normal.
• Little "No": Anne's father responds with this to Hop Pop asking him if he is surprised by his wife and daughter's brutally clobbering the assassin, indicating that he's Seen It All through Anne's mom in her younger years.
• Magic Countdown: Andrias arms the assassin's self-destruct with a 60-minute timer, which counts down over the course of a 10-minute episode. Thirty minutes pass between the initial activation and the robot tracking Anne down through Frobo. The car chase up to the off-ramp reduces the clock to 21:30. Between then and Anne's talk with her parents in the junkyard, it's down to 10 minutes. Finally, from that moment to the final shot of the clock, there's a mere 10 seconds left. There is a subtle Time-Passes Montage occurring in the background, with the sun setting at the episode's beginning and the sky getting darker and darker as the clock ticks down, but the latter is especially notable, as those 10 minutes are a continuous sequence that lasts no more than two minutes in the episode.
• Mama Bear: The assassin learns in the hard way why no one should mess with Anne on her mother's watch, as she bashes it with a sledgehammer when it comes close to shooting Anne in the head with its nailgun attachment.
  Sprig: Woah, that was crazy, you guys!!
  Polly: I like your style, Mrs. B!
• Mid-Season Twist: The robot assassin is destroyed by Anne, she finally lets her parents in on what's going on, and most importantly, the government witnesses the Plantars as who they truly are.
• Nail 'Em: Cloak Bot now has configured a nail gun to its back that acts like a turret.
• Near-Villain Victory: The Cloak-Bot is close to self-destruct and attempts to take the whole Boonchuy clan with it, only for Anne to activate her Super Mode and kick it far into space, allowing it to explode on its own and leave her and her family safe and sound. Had Anne not activate her powers when she did, she and her family, and by extension the Plantars, would've been outright Killed Off for Real, and Andrias would've won.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Turns out that by getting Frobo back online previous episode, Polly inadvertently gave the Cloak-Bot a means to locate Anne when it detected Frobo's signal.
• No Name Given:
  • Lampshaded again in regard to Mrs. Boonchuy, as her husband calls her "mom" for Anne's benefit when speaking directly to her, rather than using her first name.
  • Subverted with the assassin, which Andrias finally reveals is named "Cloak-Bot", assuming that's not a nickname he gave it, but it's shortly afterwards destroyed for good in this episode, and nobody else ever learns its designation.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Andrias' appearance once again has him adding to his no-nonsense actions in dealing with his enemies. Upon finding out that Anne is still alive, and the Cloak-Bot hasn't killed her yet, he activates its self-destruct sequence to go off in one hour, motivating it to kill her regardless of the cost or be vaporized by the blast, galvanizing the robot to go above and beyond its previous attempts to kill Anne, even risking being seen by other humans if it means taking her out. Even if it failed in the task, however, the explosion created by its self-destruct is large enough that not just Anne, but also her parents and the Plantars, might have been killed by the blast regardless of if it found her or not, if it hadn't been for Anne kicking it far into Earth's orbit allowing to explode safely.
• Not Helping Your Case: During the car chase, Sprig and Hop Pop try to help Anne explain to her parents why there's a killer robot after her. Sprig only tells them that she's in trouble for "punching the king" without explaining the context and Hop Pop casually telling them that the assassin has attacked them before only causes Mr. Boonchuy more strife.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Anne's parents congratulate Anne for her sudden change in responsibility, even bringing up that she's upfront and honest with them and they're proud of her for that. This actually motivates Anne to just tell them the truth after having dealt with their praise about her for a while and the guilt of keeping the dire stakes surrounding her return to Earth a secret from them, but the assassin interrupts them just as she's winding up to The Reveal.
• Oh, Crap!: Happens to multiple parties during this episode.
  • The assassin panics once Andrias arms its self-destruct sequence and gives it one hour to kill Anne or die trying. Its repeated checking of the timer throughout the remaining episode mixes worry and anger towards Anne as it watches the seconds count down to its end.
  • The Plantars and Anne panic upon seeing the assassin attacking them in broad daylight on their front lawn.
  • The Boonchuys react this way upon realizing that the robot is specifically targeting Anne.
  • Cloak-bot reacts this way when it tries to cut off the family car during their escape, only for Mr. Boonchuy to run it over regardless.
  • Everybody reacts this way once the assassin reveals its active self-destruct timer, now down to ten seconds.
• Oh, My Gods!: Doubling as Foreshadowing, King Andrias says "Olms have mercy!" when he learns Cloak-Bot hasn't offed Anne yet.
• Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat: Anne breaks out into this when she admits to her parents that she might have left some details out about her time in Amphibia, as they're witnessing the assassin pound the crap out of what it thinks is her on the street below.
• Parting-from-Consciousness Words: As Anne collapses from having to use her Super Mode in front of her parents:
  Anne: Gosh, guys... I have so much... to tell you...
• Phoneaholic Teenager: A teenage pedestrian walking her dog completely missing the family car that nearly ran her over, or the large killer robot that almost landed on her because she was too preoccupied with her phone. In her defense, she was also wearing wireless earphones as well.
• Police Are Useless: When some cops witness the assassin chasing the Boonchuys and Plantars, they assume it's just a movie being filmed. The F.B.I. on the other hand, aren't going to mess around after seeing anthropomorphic frogs (but apparently not assassin robots).
• Power-Strain Blackout: Once again, barely a minute of using her Calamity powers causes Anne to pass out once she powers down. Since she used them to a greater extent than the last time, and the Plantars no longer have to forcibly wake her up to avoid her parents finding her zonked, she's rendered unconscious for a longer period, as the Boonchuy-Plantar clan drive home with her unconscious in the backseat rather than trying to wake her.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Anne calls out, "Not on my watch!" just before she uses her Super Mode to kick the Cloak-bot into space so it can self-destruct and leave them safe and sound.
• Race Against the Clock: The assassin has one hour to kill Anne or the Self-Destruct Mechanism in its chest will detonate.
• Racial Face Blindness: It turns out that without its trackers to note her Calamity Box energy, the assassin can't tell Anne apart too well from other humans, mainly identifying her through her large bushy hairstyle and attacking obviously fake arts and crafts projects that bear a superficial resemblance to her, which allows the Boonchuy-Plantar clan to distract it during critical moments.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Polly named Frobo by combining "frog" and "robot", having learned the latter from a game on Anne's phone. In this episode, it turns out that Frobo's robot line actually are called "frobots", as shown in a Freeze-Frame Bonus from the assassin's POV when it catches his signal.
• Room Full of Crazy: Anne is rather disturbed by her mother's room full of dummies of her. Her mother defensively points out that she had to cope somehow.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: Upon learning that the assassin has yet to kill Anne, Andrias activates a self-destruct with a one-hour timer to motivate it into finishing the job. Despite the robot panicking about this, it ultimately accepts its impending destruction when the family combine forces to mortally wound it and it's about to get terminated anyway, content with taking Anne down with it in the end. And it packed enough of a punch to level several blocks.
• Sequel Hook: At an FBI building, one of the agents says, "It's time to call Mr. X."
• Shout-Out: The scene of the Cloak-Bot laughing evilly while the self-destruct button reaches zero is a reference to a similar scene from Predator.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The assassin pursues the family in broad daylight, heedless of being seen by other humans due to the immediate threat caused by Andrias arming its self-destruct sequence. Whilst the episode seemed to show that the spectacle is being ignored due to either Apathetic Citizens or onlookers assuming that they're filming a movie, the ending reveals that the authorities took notice of the public fight and have alerted the FBI to the disturbance.
• Taking You with Me: Mortally wounded and unable to survive long anyway, the assassin's last act is to point out that the bomb in its chest is about to go off, which will take not just Anne, but also her parents and the Plantars, with it, so as to torment her with the same sense of impending doom it's been faced with throughout the entire fight. Fortunately, she taps into her Super Mode and kicks the robot into outer space far away, allowing it to explode without her, leaving her safe and sound.
• Taught by Experience: It's implied that Andrias outfitted the assassin with a self-destruct sequence in part due to wanting to avoid another scenario where one of his robots disobeys his orders and turns against him, like with Frobo. Given the assassin has demonstrated a growing personality and several self-preservation instincts through fighting with Anne and the Plantars, this wasn't an unfounded concern.
• Triumphant Reprise: The scene where Anne apologizes to her mom for lying and tells the whole truth about Andrias is accompanied by a soft rendition of "Anne's Theme".
• Twinkle in the Sky: Anne kicks the torso of the assassin into space to get rid of the bomb in its chest, creating this effect when it explodes from her perspective.
• Unfazed Everyman: Hop Pop marvels at Mrs. Boonchuy's ferocious attack on the assassin and asks Mr. Boonchuy if he was surprised by her act. His response?
  Mr. Boonchuy: No.
• Unexpectedly Dark Episode: Easily one of the darker episodes of the season to date.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Downplayed. Polly managing to boot up Frobo in the last episode means he's now transmitting a signal the assassin can track, allowing the assassin to find them. Had she not done that, however, the assassin would have exploded and blown up a fair portion of the city, possibly catching them in the blast with no way to see it coming.
• Villain Opening Scene: The episode begins with the robot assassin testing out its new equipment upgrades in its Home Base and getting a call from a jovial Andrias to get a status update on its progress in completing the tasks he gave it. Upon hearing that Anne's still around, he activates the self-destruct sequence in the assassin, either thinking that it's not treating the job seriously enough or planning on catching Anne in the ensuring massive explosion should the robot continue to be inept in terminating her.
• Visual Pun: The street sign with which Anne impales Cloak-Bot has "DEAD END" written on it, signalling its impending demise.
• We Can Rebuild Him: The assassin has rebuilt itself with an excavator to replace its missing arm, a sawblade replacing a leg, and a tail attachment with a nailgun on the end.
• Wham Episode: Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy start to learn the full details of what's going on with Andrias, the robot assassin has been destroyed, Anne uses her powers again, and the government is now getting involved.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Mrs. Boonchuy chews Anne out for lying about changing, believing that she must have antagonized whatever force sent the assassin—which, whilst technically true, isn't taking into account the full malicious intent involved behind Andrias' plans. Anne doesn't have time to fully explain everything with the robot's relentless attacks, only that she was trying to protect the Plantars and her parents.
• Why Am I Ticking?: The assassin's reactions upon Andrias arming its self-destruct system with a one-hour timer indicates it was unaware that he'd outfitted it with a bomb inside of it, fueling its desperation to kill Anne asap, as it keeps checking the timer through the ensuing chase and confrontation with her, though the family don't find out about the armed explosive until it hits ten seconds, and they assume the robot intentionally armed itself in a last-ditch attempt to kill Anne.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Defied. Upon Andrias finding out that Anne is still alive, he activates the assassin's self-destruct function, which will cause a blast big enough that it could wipe out a large portion of the city and possible catch Anne in its radius, regardless of where the robot physically is. The assassin's existence being under threat means that it also doesn't play around with trying to take her out this time, ignoring stealth and generally trying to shoot, stab, slice or crush her in any way it can to take her out before time runs out for it as well. The only reason its assault fails is that Mrs. Boonchuy's arts and crafts sculptures of Anne end up confusing the assassin by giving it multiple targets, allowing it to be distracted into attacking the wrong one for the family to flee or launch a counterattack and it takes a second to breathe a metaphorical sigh of relief when it finally has Anne dead to right with a shot lined up to her forehead before Mrs. Boonchuy blindsides it with a sledgehammer.
• Whole-Plot Reference: While Cloak-Bot has always been a Terminator and Predator Expy, this episode plays out exactly like a movie in either of those franchises, with a group of people being chased the entire time by an unrelenting hunter.
• You Have Failed Me: Andrias gets annoyed at the assassin when it reluctantly admits Anne is still living and activates its self-destruct function, threatening to blow it up should it fail in killing her within the hour, without giving it a chance to explain how close it's gotten during prior attempts to successfully finishing her off. Given he was already wearing the device he uses to activate the bomb from the beginning of the call, not to mention the sheer power the blast has, it's implied that the self-destruct was always his fallback plan if the assassin couldn't directly terminate Anne, choosing instead to wipe her out along with potentially thousands of innocent civilians if she was still alive as Andrias' timescale for the invasion draws closer.

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