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"The Ball Pit Car" is the 8th episode of Season 1 of Infinity Train and the 8th episode overall. It aired on August 8, 2019.
Synopsis[]
The gang is confronted by a strange new force on a Ball Pit Car adventure.
Plot[]
After an overnight stay in the Luau Car and short trek through the Graph Car, the group arrive in a car that resembles a massive play area from a children's fun center. The group quickly decides to have some fun and jump into a massive ball pit. Tulip realizes she has long missed game design camp and just wants to go home, though she will miss having adventures on the Train. She thanks Atticus for sticking with her through her journey despite it having little to do with his mission to stop the Steward, which he replies is because he values their teamwork and friendship. They meet Khaki Bottoms, a stuffed rabbit who requests their help in bringing an artifact called "The Jiggle Wiggle" (a water-based toy) to its proper location. He leads them on an imagination-based adventure through the car's jungle gym, which they happily indulge in.
Reaching the end, Khaki Bottoms lets them have the Jiggle Wiggle as a gift, but before they can all celebrate the car suddenly shudders. Tulip notices various robotic tentacles crawling around the car and realizes the Steward has tracked them down. Their escape is foiled when the Jiggle Wiggle falls out of Tulip's pocket and lands right in one of the Steward's claws, revealing their location and leading the Steward to bring them crashing onto the main floor of the car. Atticus distracts the Steward while Tulip and One-One try to escape, but the Steward manages to capture Tulip. It is only stopped by the arrival of the Conductor who accuses Tulip of interfering with its plans and rejecting its "gifts," including sending the Cat to trap Tulip in her "happiest" memories. The Cat is ordered to track down One-One, but is betrayed by the Conductor who has the Steward open fire on the pipe the Cat has gone down. The Conductor claims that Tulip is at fault for her friends' supposed deaths for taking them out of their cars and putting them in danger.
Atticus emerges and lunges at the Conductor, but is very quickly captured. The Conductor orders Tulip to cease her journey before shooting Atticus in the head, seemingly killing him, and has the Steward destroy the car as they leave. Atticus's body transforms into a Ghom and starts to drain Tulip, but seemingly stops itself. One-One emerges from the rubble, giving Tulip a distraction to flee and grab One-One. The Ghom charges towards the two, but Tulip is able to lure it into a broken dead-end of the playground, trapping it. Tulip breaks down in tears as One-One tries to comfort her.
Features[]
Characters[]
- Tulip
- One-One
- Atticus/Monster Atticus
- Khaki Bottoms (debut)
- Steward
- The Cat
- Conductor
- Randall (cameo)
Locations[]
- Wasteland
- Infinity Train
- Graph Car
- Ball Pit Car
- Luau Car (mentioned)
Trivia[]
- There is a reference to The Office in the beginning of the episode during Tulip and the group's trip to the Graph Car when she states "I declare bankruptcy."
- The shadow of the Steward can be seen following Tulip at multiple points throughout the episode before it attacks.
Continuity[]
- Based on the Conductor's claims, Tulip has been traveling the train for months at the very least.
- The crew estimates that she's visited around 40 cars by this episode, though Owen Dennis and Madeline Queripel state they do not keep track of the number of cars.[1]
- Randall is seen held in a flower vase as one of Khaki Bottom's prizes.
Storyline analysis[]
- By this point in the storyline, Tulip has long since lost her drive to run away to Game Design Camp, and simply wants to return to her life at home.
Behind the scenes[]
| “ |
So this is obviously a big episode. It was important to make sure the hard turn came as hard as possible. We wanted the whole beginning to feel almost like a parody of every episode we've seen before. Like this is a joke based on the idea of what happens in Infinity Train, like the Saturday morning cartoon version of it. |
” |
| —Owen Dennis on this episode, [2] | ||
Sam Spina's depiction of the pitch for this episode.
- The Graph Car was one of the few scenes that executives reacted positively to.[3]
- The "thanks honey!" on the ball pit TV screen was a joke added in by Sam Spina.[3]
- Alex Horab did not want to include Tulip warning Khaki Bottoms to hide, but Madeline Queripel felt it fit Tulip's personality at this point in her journey.[3]
- Owen Dennis spent a lot of time on the Conductor's voice effect, trying to figure out which actor's voice would work best for the Conductor. He eventually settled on Lena Headey.[3]
- Kellye Perdue and Sam Spina's storyboard pitch for this episode was reportedly very well received in the room: Lindsay Katai recalls the crew collectively gasping at the shot of Atticus's last look to Tulip before the Conductor shoots him. Spina refers to it as "one of the most memorable pitches of [his] career."[4] Perdue had to wait to move to the next panel due to the entire room screaming.[3]
- A significant amount of storytelling direction went into the sound design for when Atticus turns into a Ghom. The team instructed Dee Bradley Baker to incorporate dog noises into the vocal effects, and Chrome Canyon's score reuses some of the horns from Corginia in the Ghom theme, particularly when Ghom Atticus stops himself from hurting Tulip. These are all meant to emphasize the fact that Atticus is still alive inside the Ghom.[5][3]
- The choice to end this episode on a cliffhanger, knowing audiences would have to wait a day for the next episode to air, was somewhat intentional on the part of the writers.[3]
Error[]
- When One-One asks Tulip if he can also brush his teeth, Tulip gives him the binder clip of the notebook she is holding. A few shots later, that clip has inexplicably gained a brush.
Videos[]
Transcript[]
View the episode's transcript here.
Gallery[]
Click here to view this page's gallery.
References[]
- ↑ Question for Owen and Maddie from the Book 1 AMA: The number of cars Tulip has passed through.
- ↑ Owen Dennis tweet.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Book 1 DVD Commentary: "The Ball Pit Car"
- ↑ Twitter thread by Sam Spina
- ↑ Owen Dennis tweet: "A lot of work went into the sound design for when Atticus is turned into a gohm. We asked @deebradleybaker (who made the gohm[sic] sounds) to try and work in some dog-like vocals for this transformation. Goam[sic] and Atticus each have their own musical themes. When Atticus is transformed Chrome Canyon worked in some of the horns you hear in Corginia to the goam[sic] theme to show that there’s still a bit of him in there. You can hear this specifically when Atticus is sucking out Tulip’s life force but then stops himself."