The New Apex

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The New Apex
Season	3
Episode	10
Overall	30
Broadcast Information
Air Date	August 27, 2020
Production Code	V310
Credits
Written by	Justin Michael
Storyboard by	Diana Huh Jacob Winkler
Guide
Previous	"The Origami Car"
Next	"The Twin Tapes" (Book Four - Duet)

"The New Apex" is the 10^th and final episode of Season 3 of Infinity Train and the 30^th episode overall. It aired on August 27, 2020.

Synopsis

The gang reorders The Apex, but what will the new order be?

Plot

While Grace is still trapped in the memory tape, the extraction bots Simon left behind come to life and begin extracting more memories from Grace's mind, specifically including her memory of Hazel leaving her. Her memory of Hazel begins to verbally attack her, reminding Grace that Simon got the idea to wheel denizens from her, and she had the chance to defend Hazel the previous day when her turtle form was revealed to Amelia and Simon, but instead she protected herself in a bid for control. Grace's own mental image of herself firmly tells her she knows everything she believed about the train was wrong. Grace tearfully admits she is afraid of being wrong and disappointing others, and all her actions were done to avoid being alone, only to still end up that way (as her number gradually goes down with this realization). With a last apology to her memory of Hazel for hurting her, Grace is thrust out of the tape into the real world, where she stops the bots from extracting more memories. She then discovers the trail of Simon's destruction in the car, taking the time to fix the origami birds, who show gratitude at her actions. She then removes the Apex symbol from her face.

Arriving back in the Mall Car, Grace finds it seemingly deserted, only to be confronted by Lucy and the rest of the Apex under the leadership of a more-unhinged Simon. Simon, who now has a claim to leadership due to his high number, has chosen to label Grace a "Void," a betrayer of the Apex and no longer fit to lead and thus a danger to them all, meaning she needs to be wheeled. The children bring Grace outside the train to wheel her despite her protests. In a last bid, Grace reveals they met the Conductor who was not even the real Conductor and their entire philosophy is wrong, only for Simon to tell the children she is lying. Grace breaks free and tries to get through to Simon while backing on to the bridge between cars, explaining she was trying to keep Hazel safe (which were the reasons why she didn't tell him about her true identity and why she told him not to trust Amelia when she first showed up and convinced him to run away from her) and that they've been doing it wrong and they need to change.

“	Why would I ever want to change if I'm always right?!	”
—Simon

A now insane Simon cackles at the presumed death of his former friend.

Simon engages Grace in a vicious fight as he tries to knock her off the train and into the wheels, ignoring her attempts to get through to him. During a pause in the fight, a Ghom arrives and charges at them, leaving Grace clinging to the railing and Simon using his gravity boots to hold to the bridge. The Ghom starts sucking out Grace's life force through her hands, weakening them, but she grabs onto one of Simon's boots and knocks it away. Simon's remaining boot starts to malfunction and he nearly falls, only for Grace to catch him and pull him back onto the bridge with her. Although shocked at her actions, rather than be thankful Simon uses the moment after where she is catching her breath to kick her off the train, to the horror of the Apex children watching. A now completely insane Simon begins to cackle as his number grows so large it covers his entire body, including his face.

Simon is killed by the very thing he most feared.

Much to his shock and the Apex's relief, however, Grace is carried back to the train by the origami birds, as thanks for helping them earlier. The Ghom recovers from Grace's defense and promptly attacks Simon, sucking his entire life force out. Grace runs to help, but can only watch in horror as Simon crumbles to dust and the Ghom explodes. She breaks down in tears over the remains of her former best friend as the rest of the Apex children try to comfort her.

In the aftermath, a mournful Grace tells the Apex that they can no longer ignore the truth of the train. She declares it is no longer fair for her to tell them how to understand themselves, especially when she does not understand herself. She officially dissolves the Apex in favor of a different group, which they'll have to figure out themselves. As her own number goes down to 501, she watches the childrens' numbers go down. She smiles hopefully as she looks toward an uncertain future.

Features

Characters

• Grace Monroe
• Simon Laurent (death)
• The Apex
  • Lucy
  • Todd (cameo)
  • Alex (cameo)
  • Lindsay (cameo)
• Ghoms
• Origami Birds
• Spotlight (cameo)
• Amelia Hughes (flashback)
• Hazel (flashback)
• Tuba (pictured)
• Lake (pictured)
• Jesse Cosay (pictured)

Locations

• Wasteland
• Infinity Train
  • Mall Car
  • Origami Car
  • Hey Ho Whoa Car (flashback)

Trivia

• End tag: Grace is back in the Mall Car as she was in "The Musical Car," but she is now alone, as her number rapidly descends down her arm, reaching her wrist before the tag closes.
• This is the first time a book ends with nobody leaving the train.
• The fight scene between Grace and Simon was originally longer, running for around one minute.
• Storyboard artist Diana Huh recalls receiving the following note from Owen Dennis regarding the scene where the Ghom attacks Simon: "Just [expletive] kill him." (This suggests Simon's death occurred offscreen at one point.)
• The "melting" animation of Simon's death bears a close resemblance to a similar scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was previously referenced in "The Corgi Car."
• One of the children in the Apex is wearing the exact same outfit as Thud Butt from the 1991 film Hook.
• This is the second episode of the series not named after a train car after "The Wasteland" in Book 2, likely because no new train car appears in the episode. In fact, a large portion of the episode takes place between cars.
  • It is the third episode to not have "Car" in the title, after "The Wasteland" and the Book 1 Finale, "The Engine."
• Simon's death scene is censored on HBO Max Latin America.

Storyline analysis

• Grace first met Simon by saving him from a Ghom (as seen in the previous episode): because of his actions in this episode, Grace is unable to help Simon in time, and he ultimately dies by a Ghom.
• As the season finale, this episode includes a number of parallels to the premiere episode "The Musical Car":
  • Simon is carried towards Grace on the same Iron Throne-esque chair on which she herself had been sitting at the start of the season.
  • Grace saved Simon from falling off a bridge in that episode, demonstrating their friendship. In this episode, Grace still saves Simon, despite their frayed relationship – and doing so does not change his mind.
  • The season began with Simon and Grace descending the escalator in the Mall Car in preparation to wreak havoc on other cars. This episode and thus the whole season ends with Grace descending the same escalator but with a more hopeful tone.
• The general concept of Infinity Train that has been presented since Book One is that passengers board the train to deal with their problems, learning lessons on their journey that bring their number down and ultimately help them exit. However, this episode presents an idea that has been built up since the beginning: what if a passenger does not learn their lesson? For that matter, what if they explicitly reject the lesson? The ending of this episode and a statement from One in the following episode "The Twin Tapes" reveals those who do not learn from the train will eventually die, if not from old age (Amelia) than from their own neglect (Simon).

Continuity

• Following the airing of this episode, several viewers questioned whether or not there was a time skip between when Simon left Grace and when she freed herself from the tape due to his drastically different appearance in this episode, although some speculated little time had actually passed and he had merely let down his hair and changed his clothes, with Lindsay Katai once saying that Simon's hair was always that long and was simply compressed into his ponytail.
  • According to Katai, this episode takes place "an enough amount of time" after the previous, with Alex Horab stating "probably about 4 or 5," and Katai adding "Maybe 12 fifths past 9? Hard to say." Owen Dennis also weighed in, claiming "somewhere between 12 and 4 on the mother cow index," before definitively saying Grace was in the memory tape for "15."
• The Memory Tapes appear to be extracted directly from the brain of the passenger: when Grace tries to pull the rest of the tape out, she shows visible discomfort and the end of the tape is covered in a fluid, presumably cerebrospinal fluid.
• Jesse and Lake can be seen in Grace's memories as she is traveling out of the tape.
• The Stage Light denizen that Simon let Lucy keep in "The Musical Car" is used by the Apex to spotlight him as he descends the escalator.
• Simon is the first known human passenger to die before receiving his exit, and the first to die because of a Ghom.
• This episode reveals what happens when a Ghom consumes a passenger's life force: the passenger crumbles to dust, and the Ghom explodes.

Errors

• When Grace is about to be taken outside of the Mall Car, the arm bandage on one of the Apex members switches positions.

Transcript

View the episode's transcript here.

Gallery

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References

v • e Episodes Pilot Infinity Train (pilot) Book One The Grid Car • The Beach Car • The Corgi Car • The Crystal Car • The Cat's Car • The Unfinished Car • The Chrome Car • The Ball Pit Car • The Past Car • The Engine Minisodes The Green Car • The Tiny Wizard Car • The Kaiju Car • The Tech Support Car • The Snow Car • The Hill Car • The Movie Theater Car • The Cross-Eyed Ducks Car • The Minecart Car • The Wedding Cake Car Book Two The Black Market Car • The Family Tree Car • The Map Car • The Toad Car • The Parasite Car • The Lucky Cat Car • The Mall Car • The Wasteland • The Tape Car • The Number Car Book Three The Musical Car • The Jungle Car • The Debutante Ball Car • Le Chat Chalet Car • The Color Clock Car • The Campfire Car • The Canyon of the Golden Winged Snakes Car • The Hey Ho Whoa Car • The Origami Car • The New Apex Book Four The Twin Tapes • The Iceberg Car • The Old West Car • The Pig Baby Car • The Astro Queue Car • The Party Car • The Art Gallery Car • The Mega Maze Car • The Castle Car • The Train to Nowhere