Netflix Retrospective - ReBoot: The Guardian Code Season 2 Episodes 4-6

ReBoot The Guardian Code is not a very good show, now we’ve got that out of the way

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We open with Parker filming Tamra boxing, media arts must be really demanding. Actually, it’s Parker doing a favour for Tamra this time, one of her followers (remember, she runs a blog) is a fitness magazine which wants to use her influence to do some good in the world. Hey, Shari, I almost forgot you existed, more to the pity. Shari’s been using her platform to share Tamra’s work, she wants to be Tamra’s media manager.

Just before this scene can grate on my nerves, they get an alert from HQ and have to head off with Tamra saying she’ll ‘think about it.’ Megabyte is testing a snare device to capture the guardians, he tests it on his alpha-sentinel and destroys it when it doesn’t work. It’s been a running joke all season long that Alpha-sentinels don’t last. I haven’t mentioned it because it isn’t all that funny. And I’ve seen this joke work before, sorta.

Tamra and Trey are practising beat-boxing because… They got an alert, didn’t they? Because it’s apparently good, Tamra decides to film it, in their top-secret headquarters. Brick wall, where are you?

We get a beat boxing war to further waste our time. We hear the whole goddamn song! Were they that desperate to fill time? Oh yeah, the aged slang is here too. Guys, your show is largely animated, the turnaround time is substantial, don’t use slang, it’ll age terribly. Tamra accidentally begins to upload it (never saw that coming) and because once it starts, there’s no possible way of stopping it, apparently, plus they have the best wifi connection in the universe given how quickly it uploads. Anyway, it’s successfully uploaded so the Guardians have to go and get rid of it in the net. Just delete it, this problem is a non-conflict, just delete it, assuming you have reasonable popularity, every second you waste means more people see it.

Cheri shares it, and social media bots begin to share it also, that’s no what social media bots do but whatever. OK, thing about sharing, is it requires the original link, which will be linked to nothing once the video’s taken down, which Tamra eventually does. But unfortunately, it seems like it’s still accessible thanks to sharing sites, which means Cheri must’ve downloaded the video and uploaded it to another site in seconds, without Tamra’s permission. Don’t do that.

The Guardians are quick to work, disabling the social media bots carrying the video. This show doesn’t logic very well, in case that hasn’t been made clear. The DIS have a scene that ultimately means nothing. 4 bots remain but a sentinel patrol squad stop them. They detain 3 of the 4 bots, but the other heads to the largest sharing site around, Upsend. Making matters worse, Megabyte finds out about them and successfully ensnares D-Frag and Googz.

They make it to Upsend but with Megabyte right on their tail, they have to crash the site to stop the upload. Though the upload is stopped, they can’t get at it (sounds wacky to me too) and Megabyte’s forces continue their attack. With D-Frag and Googz captured we FINALLY get resolution on the love triangle subplot that’s been going on for 5 episodes now. It’s exactly what I said it was last week, with Trey no longer being tutored by Parker because he’s too impatient. From experience I can say that patience is paramount to tutoring.

Once Upsend restarts, Enigma gets a 1/5 of a second window to get at the video, which she does successfully. Megabyte is forced to retreat as D-Frag and Googz use their combined weapons and defences to escape their bonds. Megabyte isn’t pleased and destroys the Alpha sentinel. Parker resumes flirting with Vera. Like I said earlier though, Cheri downloaded the video.

God is this one bad, it’s packed with filler, it makes no sense and the only bit of plot progression is the love triangle that should’ve been resolved 3 episodes ago

Rating 4/10

Nuclear Confusion

Some idiot at the DIS gets brushed by a guy in a hoodie. It’s the Sourcerer who somehow got into the building completely unnoticed. Parker is showing a Vera a movie I’d rather be watching than this (come on, with a title like Revenge of the Vampire Squid-man, wouldn’t you?) the flirty dialogue is still pretty painful to listen to. Vera’s watch stopped (???) and they’ve both lost track of time, thankfully Austin stops him being late to 4^th period

Meanwhile, DIS Agent Dimwit arrives in his office, his phone’s out of battery and he plugs it into his computer to charge it, and thanks to the Sourcerer infiltrating his cell-phone during the brush encounter, he begins infecting the computer with Dark Code. Naturally, the Sourcerer begins to monologue about it as he begins taking control the DIS’ cyber fleet but more importantly to his designs, nuclear launch codes. Why are these here? Why would the DIS need launch codes for nukes. Plan to launch one at their next virus?

The Sourceror begins taking out anti-virus bots, as the DIS have their usual response of being absolutely useless. Mark arrives, confessing what he knows and what he knows they know and tells them about the Sourceror’s latest threat, just as Vera begins to detect the dark code. They have less than 15 minutes before the Sourcerer cracks the code at the current rate.

The guardians move in to stop them, with Vera utilising a magnetic blast to disable the first wave of DIS forces. The launch code generator programme is operated like a giant clockwork mechanism because of reasons. The Guardians get to work getting into stopping the launch but the DIS plan a counter-attack that would wipe them all out, Mark sends a warning but it seems to go ignored.

Googz sets up the mechanism to reset the code which is successful just as the Sourcerer was about to launch. What his target was and why he needed to take it out with a missile, these are two questions this episode doesn’t bother answering. The DIS continue to flush the system with their anti-malware but with the threat ended, the Guardians make a quick escape.

Parker gets a kiss for his efforts and then Mark congratulates them. And the Sourcerer throws a hissy fit.

This should be a great episode, making a Sourcerer a more genuine threat but much like the last time they tried this with the weather machine, the lack of logic behind anything that happens hurts the episode more than it helps.

Rating 4/10

Double Trouble

Time I guess to follow up on Shari, but we open at Megabyte’s fortress with the Sourcerer demanding the Guardians' capture, again. Tamra is going to hosting a ‘Vlogragius’ awards ceremony, with co-host AJ Stone, a ‘nice guy’ cue revelations of him being a douchebag in 3, 2, 1…

Parker remembers that he left his laptop in room zero as Shari continues to watch the music video from 2 episodes back, she wants to find room Zero and follows an oblivious Parker, listening to his music straight into the room. Somehow he doesn’t see her as he finds his laptop and leaves. Shari believes it to be a secret gaming club.

She gets transferred into Enigma’s Avatar and into the Codex as Tamra begins the award presentation, AJ Stone seems nice, so far. Megabyte’s forces lay a trap and thanks to Shari’s inexperience and Vera not making it in time to pilot the Codex, she’s easily captured. Vera summons the Guardians back to reinforce but that may take time.

They arrive at Room Zero and Parker’s obliviousness is put on display because heaven forbid that not wait. They quickly get transporter in and take out the sentinels on patrol. But in the end walk into a trap. The awards rap up, AJ gets creepy (we all know what happens in the after after-party and I hope Tamra’s not as into that she seems to be) and is put off when she decides her friends mean more to her than some big foreheaded weirdo.

Megabyte decides he has something to bargain with, he threatens to destroy the Guardians before their tech can be extracted if the Sourcerer doesn’t remove his delete code. The Sourcerer accepts and the torture begins for Shari, fortunately the arrival of the real Enigma, now in a backup copy begins to turn the tide, as she uses her stealth to free everyone.

With Megabyte no longer controlled by the Sourcerer, he dismisses his concerns and begins to rule for himself. Vera tricks Shari into getting her memory wiped, though doesn’t think to delete the video from her phone. It seems like the torture did have some effect though as the Sourcerer is able to track the Guardians down to the High School.

This one changes the game, it’s just kinda boring otherwise. It’s a rare case that things being this badly rushed has made it boring. Nothing matters because it all happens so quickly. The situation is already over before you get a chance to get invested in it, this applies to both the Megabyte threat and the Blog awards subplot.

Rating 6/10