When the next game drops, it puts the wayward sprites in...Mainframe, as it used to be?! But, when they reboot, Matrix becomes Megabyte, AndrAIa becomes Hexadecimal, and Frisket, Scuzzy. Now they have to figure out what's going on, deal with Bob and Dot, and figure out who is Number One?
This episode has examples of
- All Just a Dream: "Mainframe" turns out to be a dream Matrix is having after getting hit on the head by a golf ball in the golf game he and AndrAIa had rebooted into.
- Arc Words: "Be seeing you."
- Armor-Piercing Question:
- "What would Bob think of you now?"
- Discussing about their forms as Megabyte and Hexadecimal:
Matrix: This form represents everything I hate.
AndrAIa: Everything that you hate, (voice shifts to Hexadecimal) or everything that you're becoming? - Becoming the Mask: AndrAIa really gets into her role of Hexadecimal, perhaps a little too much.
- Big "NO!"
- Breaking Speech: Matrix gets three of these, each from a different facet of himself;Megabyte: I am Number One. I am the driving force in your life. I am hatred! I drive you on, and consume you!
Megabyte!Matrix: Nooo! (Slashes vid window, which both become current Matrix)
Vid!Matrix: I am Number One. I care for no one.
Matrix: That's not true! I love AndrAIa!
Vid!Matrix: No, you don't. You love yourself. Just looking out for Number One~
Matrix: (shoots the vid window. Looks down) No! Not you...
(Season 1 Enzo steps out of the shadows)
Enzo: I am Number One. The original! Do you think this is a game? Do you!?
Matrix: But how...? You're me!
Enzo: But you hate me. You must. Look at what you've become!
Matrix: You're wrong! I had to become bigger, tougher! I had to be ready for Megabyte! To survive the games!
Enzo: Did you like the games more than Mainframe? More than your family?
Matrix: No! No, I didn't. I was trapped in the games.
Enzo: Games, games, games. It was only a game... You killed my family!
Matrox: My family!
Enzo: You've forgotten your family! You've let yourself become a prisoner of the games! What would Bob think of you now?
Matrix: Bob...
Enzo: There can be only one...be seeing you! - Despair Event Horizon: The trio have been stuck in the featured system for an unspecified amount of time, constantly trying to download into a given game and failing. Matrix feels they're not in control and, along with all his other baggage, just gives up.
- Foreshadowing: There are numerous allusions to golf throughout the episode. In the final scene, when Matrix wakes up, he sees that they've been in a standard golf game the entire time.
- He Who Fights Monsters: The climax reveals Matrix is actually full of self-loathing about the muscle-bound, gun-toting bruiser he became. Though he insists he had to become tougher in order to survive the games, get back to Mainframe, and take down Megabyte, he fears he's just a violent thug who only cares about himself and is no different than Megabyte.
- He's Back!: When Matrix wakes up, he vows to take back control of his life and rededicate himself to searching for Mainframe and Bob. AndrAIa welcomes him back.
- I Hate Past Me: Matrix is accused of this by his younger self.
- The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: During the climax, Matrix is faced with this both when he looks like Megabyte and when he's back to his old self.
- Stranger in a Familiar Land: Though it's All Just a Dream, the episode plays with the idea of the characters who experienced Cerebus Syndrome being dropped into the idyllic Mainframe of the first two seasons. Matrix in particular feels out of place, with the ending hammering home that he dreads the idea of Bob, Dot, and his other friends shunning him for what he's become.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: To the point where Little Enzo denounces what his older counterpart has become.
- Wham Shot:
- The trio rebooting into the viruses.
- The appearance of the true Number 1: Little Enzo.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To The Prisoner (1967). The overall premise is to find the elusive Number 1, and there are numerous lines and sight gags referencing the old show.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Matrix so badly wants to believe the game's recreation of Mainframe is the real deal.Matrix: It could be... it has to be...
- You Are What You Hate: Taken to the extreme when Matrix reboots as Megabyte. This is the first indication that he secretly fears he's not remotely heroic.
