Enzo Matrix, AndrAIa, and Frisket, now older, find themselves in a system that's on its last legs. It's up to the game-hopping sprites to teach the locals how to survive and rebuild their home.
This episode has examples of
- Brave Scot: When Backup reboots, his game costume includes a kilt and a tam o' shanter hat that make him look like a Scottish warrior.
- Chekhov's Gun: Jeff, AKA "Tactic", finds a giant bird's feather in the game. Hardboot makes fun of him for it, but Tactic says it might come in handy. Tactic, who rebooted as a wizard, later uses the feather to cast a flying spell to get the party into the game's main castle.
- Crapsack World: The feature system is plagued with damage and has very few locals, due to a large number of lost games. Matrix thinks one more lost game will push this system over the edge. There's also a virus running around, though Matrix takes care of him.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Matrix does this to the sprites and binomes he, AndrAIa and Frisket recruit as game players. It's implied he does this to make sure they know what they're getting into and weed out anyone who isn't up to it.
- Foreshadowing:
- The featured system actually offers a preview of the awful condition Mainframe will be in the last arc of the season.
- Backup, who's basically how Matrix used to be, hints at the younger Enzo being recreated at the end of the season.
- Gory Discretion Shot: When Matrix deletes the virus that nearly deleted Backup, the camera focuses closely on his face as he pulls his gun's trigger.
- Helping Would Be Killstealing: After helping them throughout the game, the main trio hang back while the system's new defenders take on the User. As such, they gain the confidence to do all this on their own.
- Hero Worship: Like Enzo to Bob, Backup to Matrix.
- Hypocritical Humor:Matrix: Games aren't for small sprites.
AndrAIa: Where have I heard that before? - Jerkass Façade: When the people of the system show hesitation about joining the sprites, Matrix blusters that he's not going to help if they won't help themselves, storming off. Cut to Matrix asking AndrAIa how many volunteers his act caught.
- The Magnificent Seven Samurai: Matrix and AndrAIa teaching the locals how to survive the games. When a seventh volunteer shows up, Matrix remarks, "Magnificent".
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The binomes and sprite who volunteer to defend their system against the games start out as this.
- Replacement Flat Character: Backup is basically the talkative kid that Matrix used to be, being eager to have an adventure and looking up to the new hero in town.
- Reveal Shot: It's initially unclear how much time has passed since the last episode, with Enzo and company in the form of space aliens who look and sound nothing like their usual selves. Then when they touch down in the system, we first see Frisket, looking more or less the same. And then the camera pulls back to reveal Enzo and AndrAIa, and they are definitely not kids anymore.
- Shout-Out:
- In the opening game, the main trio look like the Martians from Mars Attacks!.
- AndrAIa gains a fan girl who acts and (after rebooting) looks like Gabrielle. AndrAIa's rebooted outfit is also modeled after Xena's.
- The game that Matrix, AndrAIa and Frisket spend most of the episode in is "Cron The Destroyer", a ripoff of Conan the Barbarian. The User's character has the same kind of banter associated with Conan, while Matrix reboots into a Conan clone.
- Subverted Catchphrase: In a situation where someone like Bob would finish their statement with "I don't think so", Matrix has a one-word, no-nonsense alternative:Matrix: Mercy? To a virus? Never.
- Time Skip: An unknown period of time has passed since "Game Over", with Enzo (Now calling himself Matrix) and AndrAIa now looking like adults.
