We’re now at the halfway point of season one, and we’ve for the most part well established the main players of the series, mainly the two main antagonists of the series. But ReBoot was smart enough not to make its rogues gallery feel too short. We’re also still in the era of the series where a lot of classic story ideas were still being used. And that trend continues as in this episode there be pirates. So let’s haul anchor and set sail with “The Crimson Binome”.
We open to a shot of the boardwalk area of Mainframe as all seems peaceful, calm, and for the most part uneventful. However, that calmness is put to a halt as a pirate ship lands, and its crew exits guns a blazing. These software pirates freeze the bystanders in cubes and steal their riches. At Dot’s Diner, it’s becoming hard for anyone from Kitts Sector to contact Dot. Enzo reminds Dot that Bob lives in Kitts Sector, and must be working on fixing the problem. Of course it’s soon discovered that Bob is wearing headphones and fixing his car. His rocking out causes him to not pay attention to the pirates who not only steal his car, but Glitch, bob’s keytool, as well.
The leader of the pirates is Captain Capacitor, also known as the Crimson Binome. Captain Capacitor was voiced by Long John Baldry, and it’s far easier to tell as he uses the same voice inflections for Dr. Robotnik from the Sonic cartoon. His second in command is his accountant Mr. Christopher, who records all of the success, and what the booty will go for on the market. Capacitor is pleased at his crew being able to nab a guardian keytool. Knowing the possibility of a guardian in Mainframe, he warns his crew to “wake the princess”.
Bob tries to go into action, but finally realizes that Glitch was taken. Capacitor tells his men to fall back, which is referred to as “Code Abacabb”. It seems likely that this is a subtle reference to the blood code from the Sega Genesis port of Mortal Kombat, where if the buttons A-B-A-C-A-B-B is pressed before the title screen, the game will activate both blood and the real fatalities. It’s always nice to see subtle references like that.
But before the pirates can leave, Bob manages to easily freeze several members of the crew. But before Bob can succeed in beating all the pirates, Princess Boola, the amazon binome has awakened. Capcitor realizes that a captured Guardian would fetch a high price. Bob is easily tricked into getting Glitch back, but is captured by Boola as the ship sets sail.
Enzo and Dot finally learn from Phong that Bob was captured as well. If they can’t get to the pirates before they exit Mainframe, they’ll lose him forever. Dot commandeers a yacht owned by a rich binome named Mr. Mitchell, who acts like a snooty Thurston Howell character. With his yacht being the fastest in Mainframe, they begin chase. Meanwhile Bob wakes up to realize his surroundings. He attempts to get the keys from the sleeping guard. But with the bars protected, he gets no luck. The guard informs Bob that only one individual has managed to escape, and points to an insignia of a mouse on the wall. This is the insignia of the character Mouse, who we’ll meet later on. All we know is that Bob has a history with her.
Bob and Captain Capacitor meet face to face, and the captain gloats about how Bob will never be able to escape. Bob throws his bed at the energized bars, causing it to blow up, giving him time to hide.The pirates foolishly leave the cell open as they look for him. Bob manages to escape, saying that he owes one to Mouse.
Dot and the others manage to catch up to the pirate ship as it’s stopped thanks for Bob. The pirates are having no luck in recapturing him. Dot tries to negotiate with Capacitor. But since the Crimson Binome won’t go down without a fight, he orders his crew to fight. But Bob has destroyed all but one cannon. Dot and the rest of the crew board the ship, and despite their best, Bob and Frisket get frozen in blocks. However, with the damage, their profits are lowered. Dot uses it to her advantage, and tells them about her profits and how doing things like “not attacking customers” lead to success. Dot’s marketing success leads to her easily becoming business partners with the pirates, and this leads to the day being saved as the episode comes to an end.
The Crimson Binome is another decent episode. It’s the first episode of the series where there’s not even a mention of Megabyte or Hexadecimal, although they didn’t appear physically in “The Tiff”. We get new villains in the software pirates, and a very charismatic and brave leader in Captain Gavin Capacitor. They’re very much your old school pirate characters you see in any cartoon and television show. And that works great. Also, what keeps this episode from being filler is that Capacitor and his crew will play a vital role in the series later on.
This is the first episode where Dot saves the day almost entirely on her own. In “The Quick and the Fed” it was still a combined effort to defeat the user. In this case, Dot manages to use her expertise in negotiation and strong business acumen to the best of their abilities. She’s also a good strategist, able to put a plan in motion and execute them. This will make her role later in the series all the more important.
This is the second episode in a row to not involve a game. I guess the writers of the show felt that the games would get tiresome if they were used in every episode, and in this occasion, it wasn’t needed to advance the plot. And the last bit of praise goes to the fact that the show once again shows how good it is at building the world, and setting future plans in motion by mentioning a character named Mouse. It’ll be a couple more episodes until we learn of her, and some of her past with Bob, but the building blocks are there, and I like it.
So in the end, this was another great episode from the first season. There was enough action, and a decent bit of humor to keep it from feeling too boring, or feeling too dumb. Speaking of feeling too dumb… well, you’ll see in the next episode.