Review: Infinity Train – Book 2 “The Tape Car/The Number Car”

 

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

MT and Alan Dracula hitch a ride to the Tape Car in order to get her a number and, hopefully, a way off the train. Breaking in an unusual way, she learns the process of how new passengers are processed: first they are taken to have their memories collected into tapes (the kind that show you basically what the problem you need to overcome is), then the bodies are taken to have a number laser tattooed on their hands, and finally put in pods to start their journey somewhere. Only, no matter how hard she tries, MT can’t get the machine to use this process on her. In her rage, she starts destroying equipment, only to be stopped by One-One, piloting the Steward.

He explains that MT can’t get a number because she is a denizen, so she has no reason to leave. But oddly enough, it looks like Jesse is back on the train despite his number still at 0. Looking at his memories, it turns out he’s returned solely to bring MT with him. After reuniting with his brother Nate, he explained what happened He wakes up and gets his new number, but it begins glitching out between irrationals, imaginaries, and integers because his goal is to help MT leave, but she can’t leave without a number, and she can’t get a number because she’s not a passenger. While One-One goes into a loop, Sieve comes back to finish MT off as revenge for Mace. With some quick thinking MT reflects Jesse’s number on her hand, giving HER a number too and giving One-One reason to let them leave, though not before Alan Dracula blows Sieve up with laser eyes. Then he flies away like a rocket.

Now outside the train for good, MT meets Nate and gives herself a new name: Lake, for the lake near Jesse’s house, reflecting the clear future she has ahead of her.

OUR TAKE

The second book of Infinity Train concludes with a heart pounding and heart wrenching chapter to end the tale of Mirror Tulip, now known as Lake. We learn a great deal about how the train handles its passengers, taking their memories into tapes and giving them emotional goals to reach as measured by numbers. And yet, it is a clearly flawed system that has many blind spots. Passengers who don’t follow the route to finding resolution with themselves can sometimes go rogue like Amelia, who managed to take over the train for a time, or create tribes like the Apex, who miss the point of the numbers entirely and ending up likely stuck forever. And then a possibility that the train likely never could have predicted, bonds being formed that would get someone to come back just to rescue a friend that couldn’t leave.

From the time she was introduced MT has been an anomaly, striving desperately to be her own person despite being designed to simply be a reflection of someone else. The ultimate affirmation of her being her own person would be to have a number (and potential exit) like everyone else, but the system was not designed to do that. Oddly enough, this actually REFLECTS Jesse’s arc quite a bit, as he steadily learns to become his own person instead of seeking acceptance from his peers at the cost of people he truly cares about. And so, in this finale, both are faced with the greatest test of their convictions to break away from what they know. MT faces the core of the system that tells her she is not her own self, while Jesse commits to his pledge to help her by breaking the rules himself just to bring her home. A friendship so strong that it broke a magical train in order to stay whole.

Once again, Infinity Train surprises and thrills with its conclusions and what it has to say with one of the most inventive and imaginative stories of this era of cartoons. Hopefully this will not be the end for this show, as I can only speculate on what further stories they can tell in future books. But for now, we must let the train get back on the tracks and return to our normal but potentially amazing lives. Just be sure to thank your reflection when you get a chance, it deserves it.