Credit: Storyboard artist Kellye Perdue
Storyboarded by Sofia Alexander, Ryan Pequin, & Madeline Queripel
Fully refreshed from a trip to the spa car, Tulip, One-One, and Atticus find themselves entering a new train car that is in a disorganized state. While Tulip is adamant about no longer caring about her number, focusing instead of figuring out what the gimmick of this new location is, One-One has become strangely fixated on the nature of the car, calling it "broken". Before Tulip can inquire as to what One-One means by this, they are greeted by the leader of this car: a talking turtle named Aloysius III, whom as a fellow royal, Atticus is immediately overjoyed to encounter. The two happily begin talking about their respective cultures while Tulip finds herself worrying about One-One's strange behavior, questioning why he continues to call this car "broken" when he has seen many more fantastical worlds. By the time they reach the door to the next car, between One-One's fussing and Atticus' desire to continue his conversation with Aloysius, Tulip allows the group to stay longer so they can get everything out of their system. Concerned about One-One, she decides to help the robot "fix" everything he claims is broken.
After helping mop up a pool of grape jelly, Tulip learns that the turtle inhabitants of the car have long since gotten used to its many peculiarities and make daily use of them; as such, they become confused by the changes and begin berating Tulip for her actions. Realizing that nothing was truly broken, Tulip starts apologizing for the mistake, only for a storm to start brewing. This prompts her to look for Atticus and One-One, with the former alerting her that the latter is the cause of the storm and is at its epicenter, removing all the control orbs that are keeping the car stable. Tulip manages to make her way to the robot and asks him why he's doing this, only for an unusually serious and morose One-One to claim that he's helping and that all the problems that the car has are his fault.
Connecting this to her own feelings about her parents' divorce, Tulip explains to him that whatever he believes is his fault is most likely out of his control and isn't his responsibility to fix, but that she's going to help him regardless. One-One ceases his actions in response to Tulip's words, stopping the storm and apologizing for the mess that he caused. Atticus offers the assistance of his people in rebuilding the kingdom, which Aloysius accepts. The trio leave for the next car, briefly stopping when One-One seemingly undergoes a soft-reboot after passing the threshold, causing him to reintroduce himself to a confused Tulip. They continue moving forward, with One-One back to behaving like his normal self, as the camera focuses on an odd panel near the door.
Tropes:
- An Aesop:
- Just because it looks broken doesn't mean it is. Don't inflict your idea of "fixing" people's lives on others.
- Sometimes, the world being in pieces around you isn't your fault, but obsessively trying to repair the damage can have serious consequences.
- Creepy Monotone: One-One lapses into this with both voices at the same time as he becomes obsessed with fixing the car. Tulip even tells him that the voice is scaring her.
- Expy: In-universe, the unfinished car has the turtle king's opening speech mirror the one Atticus gave Tulip. Tulip herself notes that it sounds very familiar.
- Foreshadowing:
- One-One goes crazy trying to "fix" the car, which is rather out of character and, until the finale, inexplicable.
- The very aspects of the car — the jelly, the college building, the turtles — become this after "The Past Car".
- Gravity Screw: Gravity in the unfinished car changes based on how the scenery is arranged. When One-One starts messing with the environment orbs, the gravity changes get more random, eventually progressing to everyone being sucked toward the ceiling.
- Hair Reboot: Atticus merely has to shake his drenched and unkempt fur to get himself back to his normal appearance.
- Innocuously Important Episode: This episode seems a bit off from the rest, but this later becomes very important for the finale.
- It's All My Fault: One-One feels responsible for the state of the car (although he doesn't know why) and feels compelled to "fix" it.
- Newhart Phonecall: There's a running gag of a business-looking turtle holding his half of a conversation on a detached phone from a pay phone, complaining about the disruptions to the car.
- Noodle Incident: Tulip, Atticus and One-One apparently spent a while in the spa car and another adventure on a large french toast boat down a maple syrup river.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: One-One's unusual determination to try and "fix" the unfinished car is so different from normal that Tulip is eventually disturbed. This is particularly noticeable when the robot's two personalities speak in unison, something he's never done before.
- Platonic Cave: The turtles don't perceive the car to be unfinished; they simply accept its condition as the way it is, and have adapted their society around it. One-One trying to correct things disrupts their whole world.
- Stealth Pun: The pool of grape jelly in the middle of the street? It’s a traffic jam.
- Talking Animal: Turtles, this time.
