| ReBoot Episode | |
| |
| Daemon and Mouse | |
| What's Love Got To Do With It? | |
|---|---|
| Episode no. | 4.03 |
| Written by | Ian Pearson, Gavin Blair, Ian Weir |
| Story by | Ian Pearson, Gavin Blair, Ian Weir |
| Original Airdate | 26 October 2001 |
| Prev.: Cross Nodes | Next: Sacrifice | |
| View Episode List. | |
Flashback: Bob is a cadet at the Guardian Academy. A Guardian named Dixon Green is showing the young Bob how to dispose of Viruses in the Deletion Chamber. A scrawny but menacing looking Virus named Killabyte is today's subject. Bob takes the point of view that Viruses can be reprogrammed to do good. Even the Prime Guardian, Turbo, thinks Bob's ideas are radical. "A User made him this way. A User programmed him to destroy, to infect, to corrupt."
While they are talking, Killabyte breaks free. Dixon uses her Key Tool, Glitch, to report a 403, viral upgrade, in progress. She warns Central that the upgrade is skipping a generation. The new virus now has the ability to fly, transfinite power reserves, portal forming abilities, and energy absorbing. The Virus knocks cadet Bob out and kills Dixon by draining all her energy.
Killabyte starts toward Bob to finish him off, when a circle of energy appears. Skinny Killabyte transforms into the wide-chested Gigabyte, then he and the circular Gateway disappear.
Present time: In the brig, Turbo tells Mouse that Ray the Surfer has heard The Word and is waiting for her to drop the Firewall. To Bob, Turbo says that all his radical theories are correct, there are benign Viruses that can do good. The question of Turbo's keytool, Copland, comes up. It turns out that all other Guardians are incomplete as their keytools abandoned the Guardians at time of infection.
Bob uses his Glitch powers and fires a burst of code at Turbo through his icon and is able to drive off most of Daemon's influence. Turbo is not completely cured, but is able to provide information to Bob and Dot. Daemon's function is to provide "unity" to the entire Net. Turbo tells them that Bob is the only Guardian that still has a keytool. He explains that as Daemon's infection grew out the keytools left the Guardians, Bob iss the only one left who can create portals.
Outside Mainframe, a group of Guardian ships are using a Firewall Disruptor trying to hack the firewall to gain access to the system. Each time their decoding computer completes a number sequence it comes up with Mouse's symbol, instead of a coded number. The Guardian in charge of this continues to try. Daecon contacts the hacker Guardian with a hologram. He demands to know why they haven't hacked into Mainframe yet. The hacker Guardian beleives theirs no way through. Deacon tells him, "That is not good enough. Our Lady has a schedule to keep, I cannot accept failure."
In a medical lab Phong explains to Dot how Hexadecimal changed from a Virus to a Sprite. The power drain required to make all the Guardian ships go away left her drained enough to leave her vulnerable to a virus-scan by the User. She tried to use the Nulls to shield her, but they ran away when the Game Cube arrived, allowing the User's scan to succeed. Hex lost her powers, but is still able to control Nulls.
A wrestling Game Cube shows how Matrix has turned into a beast without AndrAIa. AndrAIa, on the other hand, is merely melancholy in the Super Computer. Daemon is surprised to hear AndrAIa's statement that love conquers all. The Super-Virus was not programmed for love. Daecon and the others love her, but that's not the same.
Deacon informs Daemon that they can't break the encryption codes blocking their path to Mainframe. AndrAIa tells them that Mouse created the firewall encryptions. Daemon is amazed that Mainframe has both a hacker and a virus working for them. Daemon asks about her messenger, Bob.
Daecon: "I have failed you, my Lady."
Daemon: "CALL 101."
Daecon: "101. 100. 11. 10. 01. 0." (5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0)
Daecon decompiles, and Daemon soaks up his remaining energy.
Dot drives Hexadecimal to Lost Angles in Bob's Car. When asked, Dot adamantly states that she and Bob are "just friends". On the ground, the idea is to gather the Nulls together to bring back Dot's father. But without Nibbles, it doesn't work and Hex wants to give it up. When Dot asks if she would give up if it were her father, Hex makes the startling statement that she was born in the explosion that created Lost Angles.
Flashback: Professor Matrix, after demonstrating that a system has been detected via PINGs, executes the Gateway Command. It brings in the nasty Virus, who declares, "I am become Gigabyte, destroyer of systems!" The revolving Gateway cleaves him in two, creating Megabyte and Hexadecimal. It also triggers the explosion that wipes out the Twin City creating Lost Angles, and converts the Sprites into Nulls.
Present: Hexadecimal says "In a strange way, your father saved my life. Or rather, gave me life. I'll try again, 'sister'." She gathers the Nulls together in a full-sized man shape. It starts talking once Nibbles has joined to make its head. Welman Matrix is able to talk to his daughter, but she cannot touch him due to the energy-sucking nature of the Nulls.
Bob comes to Phong's Office where the old sprite has bad news regarding Bob's medical examination. Bob already knows, the merge with his keytool was not completely successful due to the damage suffered by Glitch before the merge. Their discussion is interrupted by an alarm. Phong checks whats wrong. The system is on-line! Mouse and Matrix are going after Daemon to try and assasinate her before she can attack. Mouse knows the Firewall codes but they won't remain a secret once she's infected.
Dot tells her father to rebuild the Gateway and asks Phong to help him. Bob is told to research why it code didn't work, and Turbo is asked to tell her everything he knows about Daemon. Dot says there's only two things they know. "We're running out of time, and you can never trust a Virus."
In the Super Computer, Matrix strides boldly into the throne room, commands Gun to target the woman sitting in a shadow on the throne, but the person turns out to be AndrAIa. Daemon appears and Matrix fires a bullet with her name on it. The time controling nature of the room slows the bullet down, leaving visible shock waves behind it, but stops just in front of Daemon's face. She takes the bullet out of the air and it explodes, then reforms and she blows on it, causing it to disintigrate. From the curtains, Mouse rushes in to behead the Virus, but her katana sword shatters as it hits Daemon's neck. Daemon touches the floor and instantly infects them both. Mike walks in and greats Matrix and Mouse by name, and Daemon realizes that she has the hacker that created Mainframe's firewall.
Turbo tries to convince Bob that Daemon must be destroyed. Bob points out that Hexadecimal was cured, he still believes that he could have turned Megabyte in time. "After what his genesis did to Mainframe's Twin City, after what he did to your partner?"
Flashback: Cadet Bob holding the dying Guardian Dixon in his arms. Glitch indicates her energy is gone, and disconnects as she dematerializes. The keytool floats up, decides that Bob is worthy to carry on, and attaches to Bob's arm, exchanging codes.
Tears have broken out all over the damaged Twin City, now nothing but a small island. Bob arrives via a portal and immediately starts mending them. A hysterical Dot misunderstands his apology, initially blames the destruction on the Cadet/Guardian. Turbo and two other Guardians arrive and lend a hand.
Present: Bob and Turbo in the brig. Turbo: "The Net has grown exponentially. It's becoming impossible to police. In a strange way, Daemon was right." Bob: "What?" Turbo: "She's trying to bring order to chaos. Now, isn't that our prime function?" Bob: "She wants unity. One voice, one way. The Net is supposed to be varied, diverse." Turbo: "Maybe it's too diverse."
Turbo asks why Bob's code didn't cure him.
References
- This episode is the third part of the ReBoot: Daemon Rising movie.
- The title originates from Tina Turner's second single released in her breakthrough solo 1984 debut album "Private Dancer". Arguably Tina's most successful single, the song's name was also used in a 1993 biographical film.
- The Twin City's destruction, formation of Lost Angles, along with the origin of Megabyte and Hexadecimal is revealed.
- Dixon Green is a reference to "Dixon of Dock Green", a popular BBC television series, which ran from 1955 to 1976.
- Michael Benyaer, the voice actor of Bob from Seasons I and II, returns to voice Cadet Bob in this episode.
- Dixon said "We have a 403 in progress", '4.03' was this episode's production number.
- Matrix appears in a wrestling game where after winning jumps on the ring ropes yelling "AndrAIa!", parodying Sylvester Stallone's (Rocky Balboa's) cry to his girlfriend Adrian from the 1976 film "Rocky".
- AndrAIa reveals she always knew that Matrix wasn't a Guardian, but didn't care because she was in love with him.
- In the Wrestling Game all of the Game Sprite audience hold up various Icon symbols and banners with 'Replay', 'Little Doom', 'Roid Wars', 'MFEW' and 'P.O.W' on them.
- Blu Mankuma provides the voice of Gigabyte although was uncredited.
- Gigabyte recites "I am become Gigabyte, destroyer of systems". Quoting Vishnu's line from the Hindu Bhagavad-Gita: "I am become Death, destroyer of worlds"
- Phong has a 'Newton's cradle' in motion, a device that demonstrates conservation of momentum and energy, named after Sir Isaac Newton. It became a popular toy after produced in 1967 by actor Simon Prebble.
- Throughout Phong's office are novelty lava lamps, invented by Englishman Edward Craven Walker during the 1960s.
- There are Erlenmeyer flasks containing yellow liquid samples of both Little Enzo and Matrix upon Phong's desk. Created by German chemist Emil Erlenmeyer in 1861.
- Phong puts Bob through a Rorschach Inkblot Test, originally created by Hermann Rorschach in 1921.
- Phong warns Bob using his powers will result in total 'fragmentation'. A reference to the phenomenon in computer storage, where space is used inefficiently, reducing storage capacity.
- Daemon slows down and stops Matrix's bullet in mid-air, referencing the visual effect called 'Bullet time'.
- Matrix having Daemon's name on the bullet meant for her is based on a common military practice. During the downtimes soldiers would put smiley faces or other markings on the bombs, even cannonballs in the distant past.