Recap / Infinity Train: Voyage of Wisteria: The Return to the Corgi Car

While Chloe, Ash, and co. get ready for the trip, Goh and the Red Lotus Quarto return to Corginia.

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This arc contains examples of:

• Ambiguous Situation: Several of Chloe's former classmates were kept from attending the camping trip after their parents learned that she'd also be attending. Trip questions whether they did so for her sake, or for the sake of their kids.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • When Atticus explains that he is king because of how he takes the responsibilities to rule over Corginia, Oliver brings up this point.
    Oliver: Is that why you keep leaving?
  • Chloe brings up several to Annie, particularly one about how Annie would only care about a dozen children who could've died in a forest fire if it benefitted her daughter's business.
• Ascended Extra: Oliver was Chloe's guide around Corginia in Blossoming Trail, and revealed to be the stage manager for Corginia's plays. Here, he makes himself the regent of the Corgi Car while Atticus is away and Atticus must partake in trials to regain his crown.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: One of Chloe's most closely-held desires when she ran away for people to be more sensitive to how she felt. In fact, in one of her emails home, she threatened "bash Professor Cerise with her softball bat and run back to the Train" if he ever brought up Pokémon in a way that made her uncomfortable again. Now that she's returned home, everyone is paying attention to her...and she hates it, because now they're afraid of what she might do. Her classmates have reason to worry that she might attack them if they somehow offend her, and indeed, Professor Cerise is too worried Chloe might run away again to speak openly with her.
• Bittersweet Ending: Atticus wins the Royal Corginia trials and Oliver steps down as king, but he realizes that he can't ignore his duties as ruler of Corginia and returns to ruling the Corgi Car, leaving Lexi as the only remaining member of the original Red Lotus Trio.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Atticus and Oliver both have good points to make against the other:
  • Atticus is unimpressed by Oliver's indulgences in all the perks being ruler has to offer, noting that Oliver has made far more use of them than he has and insisting that being a king is about responsibilities, not luxuries.
  • Oliver argues that their responsibilities do not extend beyond Corginia — what happens on the rest of the Train isn't on them. Atticus has already left his people behind twice, and his adventures could have led to him meeting a grim fate (which nearly did happen in canon when Amelia turned him into a Ghom)... and leaving Corginia leaderless.
• Breather Episode: After the Gut Punch in the last chapter, this one is more of a breather, focusing on preparing for the camping trip and the return to Corginia.
• But Now I Must Go: After the Royal Corginia trials, Atticus announces that he must leave the Red Lotus Quarto to go back to his duties to rule Corginia.
• Call-Back:
  • Amelia remembers that Atticus banned her from setting foot in Corginia after everything she did. However, it's revealed that he's revoked that and she's allowed to enter.
  • Chloe is woken up in the morning by a canine licking her, only this time she's asking Atticus to stop licking her when it's really Boltund.
  • Tokio explains that he knew something happened to Goh because of his zinnia tattoo. In Blossoming Trail, he theorized that because his mind was so focused on keeping his promise to Goh while he was getting tattooed in the Calligraphy car, it now responds to his whereabouts.
  • When Annie "suspiciously" finds a pair of Ash's gloves, Chloe remembers that Ash mentioned that back in the prologue.
• Continuity Nod: Yeardley is reading the book of flowers Chloe gave him at the hospital.
• Cuteness Proximity: Hazel is ecstatic to see all of the puppies in Corginia and gets to join in on getting a lot of cuddle time.
• A Day in the Limelight: The Infinity Train side of the story is focused on Atticus returning to find Oliver, his stage manager and Chloe's guide from Blossoming Trail, ruling Corginia in his absence.
• Didn't Think This Through: Apart from the inherent danger of starting a fire in a forest nearby sleeping campers, Annie and Carl's attempted frame-up is pathetically mismanaged to the point of comedy.
• Double Take:
  • When the Red Lotus Quarto enters Corginia, the narration begins talking about how its ruler comes to greet them...before backtracking since Atticus is the ruler.
  • As Chloe takes a walk through the campsite, she muses how nice it'd be to have stories around the fire...before realizing that there's a fire in the forest.
• Exact Words: When General Tori said that the mission for the cuddle troop to be therapy for Goh, Hazel points out that this means General Tori isn't involved...and General Tori realizes that she's now the target for Hazel's hugs and runs for her life.
• Fuzz Therapy: Enforced by Atticus, who effectively orders Goh to go to the puppy room to be treated by a team of highly trained cuddlers.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Hazel's reaction to the puppies as she chases General Tori throughout the second half of the arc.
• Internal Reveal: Gladion learns from Tokio that Goh is on the train.
• Irony: Akemi muses that for a girl who was once bullied at school and picked on for being weird and different, after her return Chloe became the gossip amongst former students of Vermillion International School with people wondering what she did to get blue hair and a pipe.
• Lack of Empathy: Annie doesn't care that a dozen kids could've died in a forest fire. If anything, it just means her daughter's funeral flower arrangement company will get some customers.
• Lethal Chef: Subverted. Chloe is usually a good cook but her curry only tastes bitter because she accidentally put a Rawst Berry when she wanted to do Oran, not to mention that berries out in the wild are different than those found in the market or her Home Ec. class. Some of the other students also had terrible curries too with one of them just "two eyes short of a Grimer".
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": Played for Drama. Chloe's curry turns out to be too bitter as commented by Ash that her entire class is terrified if she's going to chew them out. The reaction is most likely from being reminded of either UnChloe's torture or how she threatened to kill them after the paint-can incident.
• Noodle Incident: Goh comments on how glad he is to be out of the Baking Soda Volcanoes Car, as "that was the worst poetry slam [he'd] ever heard".
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Team Rocket summoned a giant crab mecha against Ash and the campers. Cut to the next time they're seen and James is cocooned in String Shot and they're grading the efforts of these kids.
• Oh, Crap!: General Tori's reaction when Hazel points out that Tori doesn't have a mission to cuddle Goh. She then runs screaming in panic as Hazel chases her.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Annie tries to pin all the blame for the forest fire on Ash, only for Chloe to call her out on how she cares more about ruining his reputation than she does about the danger of the fire itself.
• The Reveal:
  • For those who didn't make the connections in the previous chapter, this chapter cements that Tokio was part of whatever scheme Gladion, Paul London, and Specter got into in Knight of the Orange Lily.
  • Carl is revealed to be Carl Foster, the father of Kris "Twitchy" Foster.
• Serious Business: Cuddling is taken very seriously in Corginia, to the point that there's a general leading the puppies to hug Goh as if they're heading off to war.
• Shout-Out:
  • The fact that there was a poetry slam in the Baking Soda Volcanoes Car is a reference to Phineas and Ferb where Dr. Doofenschmirtz apparently lost a poetry slam to one of these volcanoes.
  • The first line of the poem Lexi recites is actually from The Mortal Instruments when Clary and Simon see one of Simon's friends on stage doing poetry.
    Lexi: "Come my faux ziggurat! My nefarious loins! Torture me with arid zeal!"
• Skewed Priorities: Played for Drama. Annie is more concerned with ruining Ash's reputation by blaming him for a forest fire than she is by the potential damage the fire could have caused. Oh, it could have killed a dozen kids? Well, maybe that would mean her daughter's funerary business will get noticed.
• This Is Gonna Suck: After Gladion remembers everything in regards to the White Gestalt, he already can imagine everyone questioning why he kept this secret and is noting that he should start making flashcards to save his voice.

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