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"The Toad Car" is the 4th episode of Season 2 of Infinity Train and the 14th episode overall. It aired on January 7, 2020.
Synopsis[]
Mirror Tulip and Jesse get stuck in a car and face an unusual dilemma.
Plot[]
M.T. and Jesse escape into the next car: a blank white cube room with a talking toad that must be kicked in order for the doors to open. Jesse learns from the Reflection Police outside that M.T. is a fugitive; causing conflict between the two. Because the Toad asks them not to kick him, Jesse cannot kick the toad without his number going up to 34, forcing the group to stay inside overnight. Jesse looks at a video on his phone which reveals that he mistreated his younger brother Nate due to his friends' influence and has since regretted it. Sieve tries to convince Jesse to leave his phone till morning, allowing Mace and himself to jump through the phone's reflection and arrest M.T, but M.T. takes the phone from Jesse and destroys it. After some prodding from Jesse, she reluctantly tells him about her origins as Tulip's reflection and she wanted to live out her own life but had escape the Flecs as they can show up in any reflective surface anywhere as long as M.T. looks at her reflection except on her body.
As the Reflec try to break in, the Toad allows himself to be kicked (by Alan) and the group escape, grabbing the Toad and trapping the agents. The Toad thanks them for his freedom and leaves. They celebrate as Jesse's number goes down to 14.
Features[]
Characters[]
- Mirror Tulip
- Jesse Cosay
- Alan Dracula
- The Toad (debut)
- The Flecks
- Nathan Cosay (debut; images and recording only)
- Cross-Eyed Ducks (image only)
- Ben Greene (image only)
- Randall (image only)
- Jesse's Friends (debut; recording only)
- Mr. Cosay (image only)
- Mrs. Cosay (image only)
Locations[]
- Wasteland
- Infinity Train
- Map Car (appears in background)
- Toad Car (debut)
- Cross-Eyed Ducks Car (image only)
- Green Car (image only)
- Beach Car (image only)
- Arizona (video only)
Trivia[]
- End tag: M.T. looking at her reflection in her hand while on board the Infinity Train.
Continuity[]
- In the previous episode, Alan Dracula was merely seen spinning his head like a propeller while riding the compass boat. In this episode, that motion ends up helping M.T. and Jesse when M.T. knocks his head into the water, propelling them away from Mace and Sieve.
- Jesse's phone has a picture of him with the Cross-Eyed Ducks, Ben Greene in the Green Car, and several Randalls in the Beach Car.
Storyline analysis[]
- Jesse’s video demonstrates the negative aspect of Jesse’s people-pleasing habit: he is so obsessed with being liked by others that he can be manipulated into causing harm, even when he knows it’s wrong.
Behind the scenes[]
- The writers made a conscious decision that Alan Dracula never actively helps M.T. and Jesse throughout the season. This is why his head was spinning for almost the entirety of the second half of the previous episode, to make his "help" in this episode simply be something he was doing.[1]
- Tulip's multi-tool was originally going to serve as an "Achilles' heel" for M.T. which would pay off in some way during the finale. It was during the writing of this episode that the team realized it was too much, and so "The Black Market Car" was re-written to have a moment where M.T. shoves the multi-tool into her boot, essentially protecting it.[1]
- This episode drives home the idea that Sieve and Mace do not fulfill a "good cop, bad cop" archetype: both are bad cops, with Sieve being particularly manipulative during this episode.[1]
- This episode was conceived as a "bottle episode", the idea being that they would spend time in a car where anything can happen, "but there's nothing but a toad."[1]
- The Toad Car presents a demonstration of the difference between Tulip and M.T., based on a metaphor Alex Horab came up with when pitching the season: Tulip would clean up her room, but M.T. would kick a toad. Justin Michael and Madeline Queripel decided this needed to be an episode.[1]
- Owen Dennis used an Elvis Presley impression in the room when reading the Toad's dialogue. The team decided it was funny, and so Dennis voices the character in the show using the same voice.[1]
- Madeline Queripel had the idea to include a Musical Car during the writing for this episode. Owen Dennis did not approve it for an actual episode until Book 3, but Queripel would not get to write an actual song until the end of Book 4.[1]
- Sieve rolling up his pant leg was a detail added by Owen Dennis.[1]
- The scene of Nate on the hill is a reference to "Killer Hill", a real location in Mayville, North Dakota (just outside Fargo).[1]
- Owen Dennis feels that media tends to depict "man tests" like Nate goes through as a positive thing, whereas he sees it as an example of toxic masculinity.[1]
- In the commentary track for this episode, Justin Michael highlights the brief use of split-screen when Jesse and Sieve talk through the door. He considers this scene foreshadowing for the more extensive use of split-screen in "The Twin Tapes".
- There was some internal debate among the team over whether people could talk through doors n the train, considering the cars are meant to be their own separate universes.[1]
- A lot of the dialogue for this episode was improvised by Justin Michael while he was off-work, recording voice memos of himself as multiple characters and later transcribing the lines.[1]
- The Lawbreaker is the only physical weapon besides the sanders that the Mirror Police are ever shown using. Justin Michael had pitched ideas like mirror guns and mirror helicopters, none of which made it past the conceptual stage.[1]
- The team describes the rule that mirror people can't jump out of mirror people (lampshaded by Jesse) as basically saving the entire season's plot.[1]
Videos[]
Transcript[]
View the episode's transcript here.
Gallery[]
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