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"The Unfinished Car" is the 6th episode of Season 1 of Infinity Train and the 6th episode overall. It aired on August 7, 2019.
Synopsis[]
The gang enters an unfinished train car and tries to fix it.
Plot[]
After departing the Spa Car, Tulip, Atticus and One-One enter the next car to find a strange, half-built world with strange gravity issues and odd architecture, inhabited by Turtle People ruled by Emperor Aloysius III. As Atticus enjoys talking to his fellow monarch and One-One begins to act strangely, Tulip, aware of the long time spent in the Spa Car, is anxious to move on. But One-One's odd behaviour begins to endanger the Turtle People as they're unusually insistent on "fixing" the car because it's "broken", even though the turtles have adjusted to use the car's quirks to their advantage. When One-One's meddling puts the car's inhabitants at risk of being flung out of the train to their doom, Tulip manages to talk them down and gets them to replace the removed control orb, restoring things, although not as they were. Atticus offers Aloysius the services of Corginia's search-and-rescue team, and the three travelers move on to the next car in peace.
Features[]
Characters[]
Locations[]
Trivia[]
- Atticus remarks that he always knew stairs cannot be trusted. The reason, which he does not say in the episode, is that they are always up to something.
- According to Alex Horab, the orb Tulip starts and quickly stops removing is a flavor orb: the jam turns grey because it is losing its flavor.[1]
- End tag: Tulip's hand, against a backdrop of the Wasteland, with her number rapidly changing.
Continuity[]
- The car's layout appears to resemble a college campus, but also shares a lot of similarities, both in layout and inhabitants, with Corginia, to the point that both Tulip and Atticus notice it feels familiar.
- Tulip notices a mysterious socket input next to the door leading out of the car that resembles the claws on the Steward's tentacles. This information becomes important in "The Past Car."
- The writing team refers to it as "Chekhov's hole" in the Book 1 DVD commentary.
- One-One describes the state of the car as being "his fault." This foreshadows his position as the conductor.
- One-One's two personalities briefly merge into one voice, speaking in sync for the first time in the series.
Storyline analysis[]
- Following the revelation of what her number means in the previous episode, Tulip has begun applying the lessons she has learned from her adventures on the train. This continues for the rest of the season.[2]
Behind the scenes[]
- This is the only episode of Book One where Cole Sanchez did not receive a "Story by" credit. Sanchez departed the Infinity Train team after working on "The Grid Car" to serve as supervising producer on Summer Camp Island: "The Unfinished Car" was a late addition to Infinity Train, as is explained below.
- Originally, the sixth episode of Book One was called "The Mall Car" and involved a storyline where One-One was replaced by a cowbird's egg (a parasitic bird) while the group was exploring an endless mall full of potato people coming out of a mannequin's chest. The concept was scrapped due to it having little to do with Tulip's emotional journey, whereas the finished episode served as an important step in that journey while also providing lore and connections to later events in the season. The title was reused for a different episode in Book Two.[3]
- This was a rare case of an episode where the entire cast recorded in a booth together. Infinity Train was generally recorded in group voiceover sessions at studios in Los Angeles. However, scheduling conflicts often required a few actors to record separately, particularly Ashley Johnson, who was based in New York filming Blindspot and would usually record via remote sessions. The result, in Dennis' opinion, was an episode where the voiceovers bounce off of each other a little more fluidly. Owen Dennis's girlfriend (later wife) brought Atticus cookies to the session.[1]
- Justin Michael and Owen Dennis recorded much of the background chatter for the turtles. They came up with an entire story of wanting to buy shoes and then regretting the purchase.[4] Michael's performance served as the prototype for all turtles in the car.[1]
- Despite outward appearances, the "traffic jam" visual pun was a complete accident: the food the turtles used was originally supposed to be pudding, but the crew thought the color wouldn't read, and so chose jam since an important character for the car would be seen eating jam in "The Past Car."[1]
- Much of this episode had to be re-edited and later re-designed after work on "The Past Car" was completed for continuity's sake.[1]
- The sequence of One-One shifting the board of wood over the hole in the ground was a surprisingly difficult shot to animate due to the grain of the wood and the shift in perspective. The writing team had an underwhelming reaction to the shot upon watching it, which Madeline Queripel and Owen Dennis were aghast at after having so much trouble working on it.[1]
- "Ms. Carlson" was the "most Midwestern name" Alex Horab could think of.[1]
- Queripel and Sofia Alexander collaborated on the boards for the sequence where One-One speaks as a singular voice.[5]
- During the first pass at the animatic for this episode, a very audible scream could be heard over the shot of One-One looking out at the car from the clocktower. It was removed due to taking away from the moment.[1]
Transcript[]
View the episode's transcript here.
Gallery[]
Click here to view this page's gallery.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Book 1 DVD Commentary: "The Unfinished Car"
- ↑ Owen Dennis tweet: "Episodes after episode 5 are really interesting because they're when Tulip is starting to apply the lessons she's learned, while continuing to learn more."
- ↑ What is an Outline? By Owen Dennis.
- ↑ Owen Dennis tweet: "@heyjustin and I did a bunch of background walla for the turtles in this episode. there's a whole story we made about like wanting to buy shoes, then immediately regretting that purchase."
- ↑ Owen Dennis tweet: "This scene was boarded by @sofiaealexander and @HamShears and it's really good. Really dynamic, very concerning. Good emotional stuff in here. It's very upsetting to see One-One like this."