The Past Car

"The Past Car" is the ninth episode of the first season of Infinity Train and the ninth episode overall. It aired on August 9, 2019.
==Synopsis==
Tulip takes a risk trusting an old foe.
==Plot==
Traumatized by Atticus's transformation into a Ghom and the attack by the Steward and the Conductor, Tulip's number begins to go up which she ignores, claiming nothing matters anymore and she will be stuck on the Train forever. The Cat (who survived the Conductor and the Steward's attack) offers her help, revealing there is time to cure Atticus with the help of a tape that belongs to someone else (a tape which she previously saved from a shelf at the end of "The Cat's Car"). Tulip reluctantly agrees to the Cat's offer, and the two enter the tape.
Arriving inside, Tulip is surprised to find One-One somehow followed them in. She learns the memories on the tape focus on a young couple named Amelia and Alrick, from their childhood friendship to their graduation from engineering school, to Amelia proposing to Alrick. Alrick is revealed to have created the Conductor's voice, suggesting he is the Conductor. Tulip declares they are wasting time and One-One suggests they leave, which abruptly summons a hole that sends them to a different time where they see a figure in Alrick's hoodie mourning the loss of their partner. Tulip assumes Amelia died which led Alrick to become the Conductor, but can't follow him because the Conductor keeps the memory at a distance. One-One is able to get them closer to the Conductor, who they discover is actually Amelia. Distraught after losing Alrick, Amelia encountered the Infinity Train on the roof of the university and took over as the Conductor.
The Cat points out the front of the train has a set of cannons, the same one Amelia used to transform Atticus, which they can use to change him back. Tulip insists that the Cat wasted her time by not just telling her this, claiming she didn't need to feel bad for the Conductor who she now realizes was running away from her problems, just like Tulip. This realization sends her number straight to zero, which summons a door leading straight home. Tulip decides she cannot leave the Train without saving Atticus, and with the help of the Cat and her shuttle, they hack the train car using a broken tentacle from the Steward to send it straight to the Engine.
==Features==
===Characters===
*Tulip
*One-One
*The Cat
*Monster Atticus
*Amelia (as a human/flashback)
*Alrick (debut/flashback)
*Steward (drawing)
*Aloysius (drawing)
===Locations===
*The Desert
*Infinity Train
**Ball Pit Car
*Megan's Residence (through the Exit Door)
==Credits==
===Cast===
*Ashley Johnson as Tulip Olsen
*Jeremy Crutchley as Glad-One / The Dean
*Owen Dennis as Sad-One
*Lena Headey as Amelia / Teacher
*Matthew Rhys as Alrick
*Kate Mulgrew as The Cat
*Dee Bradley Baker as Monster Atticus
*Justin Michael as Friend
==Trivia==
*Although not outright stated, it is strongly implied based on how the scene is framed and a comment in "The Engine" about how she does not want to live in a world without Alrick that Amelia was planning to commit suicide by jumping from the roof of the university when she encountered the Infinity Train.
*The book report that Alrick wrote during his school days was on the themes found in Lewis Carroll's famous Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, here commonly simplified as Alice in Wonderland. His book report mentions two of the book's themes: growing up and identity, as well as bringing up the Cheshire Cat character. Coincidentally, Tulip's time on the train mirrors the themes in Carroll's classic story and also has her coming across a talking cat and a talking turtle.
=== Continuity ===
* The Cat addresses Tulip as a person named after "a particular kind of flower," to which Glad-one chimes in, "One that bounces back." This calls back to Tulip's story of how she got her name, which she told in "The Beach Car".
* The video tape the Cat plays for Tulip is the same one she could be seen grabbing before her encounter with the Steward and the Conductor in "The Cat's Car".
*The handkerchief Amelia wipes Alrick's tears with is the same one she used on Tulip in the previous episode.
*The portal Tulip is given to potentially go home is the same one she saw "disintegrate" a passenger in the first episode.
==Videos==
==Transcript==
View the episode's transcript here.
==Gallery==
==References==
Category:Season 1
Category:Episodes