The car where the science happens.
Credit: Character designer Allison Kim
Credit: Character designer Allison Kim
Written by Justin Michael
Storyboarded by Jacob Winkler & Jessie Wong
Storyboarded by Jacob Winkler & Jessie Wong
MT hitches a ride to the car where passengers get their numbers.
Tropes:
- The Bus Came Back: Though One-One has appeared in tapes a couple of times (plus all the train documentaries between seasons), he makes his first in-person appearance since the Book 1 finale at the end of this episode.
- Call-Back: Memory Tapes, first introduced in "The Cat's Car", are featured prominently here and are shown being made. The Cat claimed to Tulip in their introductory episode that her tape and number are related, and this episode shows exactly how.
- Crazy-Prepared: One-One prepared instructional videos for the possibility of the passenger pod being damaged, even though he lampshades that the occupant shouldn't be awake to hear them.
- Giant Spider: Alan Dracula shifts into a spider form to hop onto the passenger pod, thoroughly frightening the former occupant.
- Hope Spot: MT manages to find the device that tattoos numbers and places her own hand between it and the next recipient, only for the beam to shoot straight through her hand as if it weren't there.
- Implied Death Threat: Sad-One follows up Glad-One's request to M.T. to stop breaking everything in the Tape Car with the ultimatum that he will "start writing [her] obituary" otherwise.
- Lack of Empathy: MT displays this in her effort to attempt to get a number:
- She hijacks a pod, forces its occupant out, and runs him off, probably traumatizing him.
- When she plans on stealing the number that's going to be given to a different recipient, she just mutters "Sorry, but I need this more than you", clearly not caring that this girl was brought onto the train for a reason.
- Soon after, when she finds that she can't get her own number, she angrily rages about this other girl getting one for a dead iguana, ranting "How is that fair?! Do I need a dead lizard story too?!" This is ignoring the fact that the girl's given number is 86—which is more than double that of MT's friend Jesse (whose number started at 31)—meaning that she is clearly genuinely distraught and broken up about it.
- Rage Breaking Point: When M.T. can't get a number from the machine, she hits it hard, and starts smashing up the Tape Car with a pipe out of anger.MT: Look at me! I AM A PERSON! I DESERVE A NUMBER!
- The Reveal:
- This episode shows both how the passenger tapes are created and how their numbers are generated.
- The wasteland outside the Train is really another environment created by the Train, as One-One describes the Tape Car as the only one projecting an environment on the outside. This likely explains why MT can't get too far away from the Train. This also raises the question of just where the Train actually is.
- Take That!: A subtle one. One of the people getting his number appears to be an executive of some sort who is a neglectful parent and Bad Boss. His number is 5128, easily the highest starting number in the series. For reference, the second-highest starting number shown in the series up to Book 3 is Amelia's at 337.
- Wham Shot: The Steward showing up to stop MT from destroying the Tape Car, and One-One popping out from behind its mask.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The fate of the old man MT hijacked a pod from is unclear, but given that he's last seen running on the train without any instructions and in a state of panic, it's not likely to be good.
