The Color Clock Car

**Overview**
Gallery
Transcript

## **Guide**

"**The Color Clock Car**" is the 5th episode of Season 3 of *Infinity Train* and the 25th episode overall. It aired on August 13, 2020.

## Synopsis

A giant, color-changing clock creates a shifting-maze puzzle that the gang has to solve before they can leave the car.

## Plot

The group is only a car away from the rest of the Apex, but Hazel is tired from their journey and wants to take a nap. Simon tries to force her along only to be confronted by Tuba. Grace reaches a compromise, suggesting Hazel take a nap in Tuba's arms while they travel through the next car. Simon once again argues they get rid of Tuba, but Grace tells him to hold off until they reunite with the Apex. Simon suggests he take Tuba out on his own, only for Grace to firmly tell him off, not wanting to hurt Hazel. They arrive in the Color Clock Car, where the amnesiac denizen Roy (a clock himself) welcomes them but proves rather unhelpful in fully explaining the car besides the fact they will need to use teamwork and that teamwork begins with two people trusting each other. The group figures out various objects, obstacles, and walls appear and disappear with the colors on the clock, with the lock and indeed the door only appear at "Red O'Clock." The group splits up to find the key, with Hazel forcing an annoyed Tuba and Simon to pair up to try to make them friendly.

While traveling through the car, Hazel questions Grace's annoyance with Roy, to which Grace explains her philosophy on "Nulls," or denizens, and how they cannot be trusted. Hazel questions this, noting Tuba is good, to which Grace reluctantly suggests Tuba is "one of the good ones." Tuba and Simon look for the key during "Green O'Clock," where Tuba appears to see a ramp that Simon cannot. Tuba expresses that "Bugle" was more mature than Simon. Simon finds the key only to realize it is green, and it promptly disappears when the time hits "Blurple O'Clock," and a massive cage appears around them. Tuba manages to destroy the cage using her tubas, proving Roy's teamwork point. Impressed, Simon questions who Bugle is: Tuba explains Bugle was her daughter, who she is no longer with, and she is lucky that Hazel came into her life. The time reaches "Red O'Clock": while trying to look for the key again, Simon realizes Tuba can see and interact with both the green and red objects because she is color-blind, and thus she is able to find the key. Tuba finds the key and is able to bypass the maze and unlock the door with help from Simon and his harpoon pack.

Just as they are getting ready to exit, the car starts to move, leading Grace and Simon to believe One-One found them. They try to escape to the next car only for the bridge to retract while they are crossing, leaving Tuba and Hazel separated. Tuba throws Hazel across the gap against her protests but nearly falls over the edge, leaving her clinging for her life. Simon tells Hazel and Grace to go to the next car while he uses his harpoon pack to go back for Tuba. Instead of saving her, however, Simon cruelly turns on his boots, stomps on Tuba's hand, and allows Tuba to fall off the car into the wheels, killing her and sending his number upwards. Simon returns to Grace and Hazel, where he stuns them by declaring Hazel is "safe" and that he wheeled Tuba. Hazel is devastated and runs off, while an angered Grace goes after her despite Simon's belief she would be happy with his decision.

Finding Hazel outside the car, Grace tries to comfort her but is instead left horrified when the girl's true status is revealed as she gradually transforms into a turtle-like creature...

## Features

### Characters

* Grace Monroe
* Simon Laurent
* Hazel
* Tuba (death)
* Roy (debut)
* The Apex (mentioned)
* One-One (mentioned)
* Bugle (debut; mentioned)

### Locations

* Wasteland
* Infinity Train
	+ Color Clock Car (debut)
	+ Campfire Car (debut)

## Trivia

* **End tag:** Against the background of the Campfire Car. Tuba's hand is now gone, Grace's hand is still covered, and Hazel's hand, rather than waving playfully, fearfully trembles in its turtle form with webbed fingers and claws. Simon's hand remains fixed with the same number.
* The sound effect for the maze obstacle course changes is the same one used for the *Adventure Time* episode "Vault of Bones." The sound is heard when Flame Princess uses her heat sense to find a dungeon entrance.
* This episode's dark ending breaks what fans of *Infinity Train* referred to as "the episode 8 curse," where the eighth episode of a season ("The Ball Pit Car" for Book One and "The Wasteland" for Book Two, respectively) takes a considerably dark turn compared to prior episodes. As Owen Dennis explained in a tweet shortly after the season premiered, "It takes 3 to make a pattern. There's only been 2."
* This was the only episode from Book Three where the entire cast (Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Kyle McCarley, Diane Delano, Isabella Abiera, and Justin Michael) recorded their voices in the same session: voice overs for *Infinity Train* are generally recorded in group sessions, but due to Howell-Baptiste's busy schedule she often recorded her lines separately. McCarley described recording the ending scene of Simon telling a sobbing Hazel that he killed Tuba as extraordinarily difficult due to Abiera's performance.

### Storyline analysis

* This episode in many ways marks a turning point in Book Three: until this episode, the concept of each car on the train is the protagonists learn a lesson and come out with personal growth in their journey (this was previously lampshaded in "The Wasteland"). Indeed, the lesson of the Color Clock Car is stated by Roy as "teamwork begins with two people trusting each other." However Simon, who has been one of the season's protagonists up to this point, explicitly rejects the lesson in his decision to murder Tuba, in turn beginning his descent into his role as the season's main antagonist.

### Continuity

* Tuba's nest from "The Jungle Car" was shown to have claw marks of unknown origin. When Hazel transforms into the turtle creature, one of the first things she is shown growing are sharp claws, suggesting she is the source of the claw marks.
* Simon's method of killing Tuba when her hands were clinging on a ledge seems to tie into Grace's advice in *The Debutante Ball Car* that they would take out Tuba without using "brute force."
* Simon showcasing his number to Grace after killing a denizen refers back to *The Musical Car*, in which he and Grace compared numbers after murdering the denizens of the Musical Car.

### Deleted Scene

1/8
* The episode was suppose to begin with a segment of the gang running away from the librarian in a library catacomb car. This scene would have demonstrated Tuba's strengths, introduced another disagreement on how train's puzzles should be solved, and given more details on Simon's novel. It is unclear why this scene was excluded from the episode. One of the reasons might have been a lack of time.

## Gallery

*Click here to view this page's gallery.*

## References

1. ↑ The sound effect, "Accents & Enhancers, Mysterious Bell Accent with Wind" used for the car's maze.
2. ↑ Web Archive Tweet From Owen Dennis.
3. ↑ Justin Michael. "The Color Clock Car VO record for #InfinityTrain! I think it's the only ep the main cast could record together?..." Twitter. August 19, 2020.
4. ↑ Kyle McCarley. "Bella, @DianeDelano and I were there for every group record together. Kirby Howell-Baptiste was there whenever her schedule allowed, as were a rotating cast of phenomenal actors who came in for some of the guest roles. Group records are the best... Usually :P." Twitter. August 13, 2020.
5. ↑ Kyle McCarley. "The only time I've ever been on a group record and thought, "man, this would be easier if I were recording solo"." Twitter. August 14, 2020.
6. ↑ Angela Kim's *Infinity Train* storyboards (pages 1-68).

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