Speed Racer: TNG S2 E2

## Plot

First off, something that somehow eluded me when I was discussing the previous episode: Season 2 takes place directly where season 1 left off. Virtually no time passed in universe, while two years passed out in the real world. Seriously, it's a small miracle they were able to get almost all of the original actors back, because I know I wouldn't return to this unless I was contractually obligated to, and the only reason Peter Fernandez didn't return is because of his untimely death. Anyways, I guess this means that the winter break that encompassed the final episodes of season 1 happened normally for the main characters after Annalise, her father, and Stan were arrested. After all, the characters mention coming back from winter break and starting their second semester when we see them at the beginning of this episode. It's just *weird* to *not* have even a small time skip in between seasons when so much time passed in real life. At least I have the privilege of being able to watch the whole show all in one go if I really wanted to. I don't, but still, at least that option's available to me. If anyone actually did watch this while it was airing, that hiatus wait must have been the worst, especially in the middle of season 2! I suddenly feel really guilty for always complaining about RWBY's yearly hiatuses, because this sounds *so much worse!* Anyways, the kids all return from winter break. Speed can't wait to race again, but Conor says he wants to run more diagnostics on the Mach 6 first. Annalise shows up at school and yells at Jesse and Jared for letting her father take the fall. The police, being the invisible and incompetent morons that they are, let Annalise go because they thought she was innocent, because they're idiots. Even they're not stupid enough to release her father though, who is still in prison with Stan. Also, Spritle is an idiot too, because Annalise is allowed back into the school. And I don't just mean on the grounds, I mean she's a student again. Given what happens at the end of the season, are we sure something like the Hourglass or the TARDIS didn't *literally* reset things? Conor doesn't get any strange readings from the Mach 6 again, and wonders if it was just a glitch. Regardless of the potential danger, Speed thinks he'll be fine and just wants to drive again. When X sees Annalise, he says money really can buy you a get out of jail free card. Wow. That's so depressing, because it's true. Why does the real world suck? When Speed goes faster, Conor gets the strange reading again, and he and Lucy advise him to slow down, but he doesn't. The Mach 6 suddenly disappears, and it's not using its invisibility shield. It returns, but one of the twins crashes into it, and they both crash at the edge of the track. X is right behind them and is forced to stop. Professor Winn tells Spritle to get down to the track immediately. The drivers are okay, but now they have no virtual track, which upsets Professor Aniskov, since he needed it for his next class. Without Zile's team, they're short on staff, so Spritle asks Conor and Chim-Chim to fix the virtual track. Lucy thinks that Annalise sabotaged the Mach 6 and caused it to crash. X decides to talk to her, and when Speed mentions their dad, he tells him that he's not perfect. Lucy is glad that Speed is alright and puts her hand on his shoulder, and then they get awkward around each other again before she leaves. Zile contacts his daughter and tells her to go to his office after school, locate a key hidden in a white sock inside a drawer, go to a secret cave hideout off the highway, find a safe, open it, and then bring the contents to him as soon as possible. X confronts Annalise at lunch, and she denies having anything to do with Speed's crash or her father anymore… and then he calls her, and her phone happens to have caller ID in photo form. But he's calling her from prison, not his own personal cell phone. Or did she save the number because she was so lazy that she couldn't be bothered to memorize it as her dad's new number? She still insists that she had nothing to do with the crash. Why would she ding up her own car? Conor tells Lucy and Speed that it doesn't look like the Mach 6 has been tampered with. They examine Chim-Chim's video of the race and see the car disappear, and then reappear right before the crash. It turns out that no one noticed the car disappearing, including Speed, because in reality it all happened in half a second. They did say that they were going over 200 mph. But if it really happened that fast in their reality and was only shown for the benefit of the audience, then Lucy and Conor's human brains shouldn't have been able to pick up that it disappeared at all. A computer could for sure, but that's it. It's just too fast for the brain to comprehend. Conor checks the car's internal data recorder from the exact moment it disappeared. The time code is missing. Annalise wouldn't have done something like this, because she's super competitive, and the glitch gave Speed an advantage in the race. If Speed can figure out how to control the jump, he could shave some seconds off his race time. He wants to try it out, but the others don't think he should. He wants to be a legend, not just the son of one, and drives off onto the track, which Conor just fixed. He should really close and lock his garage door more often. Like, all the time. Lucy calls X and tells him to stop Speed from doing something stupid. X tells him that he doesn't have anything to prove. The car disappears again. When it reappears though, Speed has spun out, and accidentally bumps into X before he regains control. It happened when he went over 250 mph. Now all of the guys are just excited about whatever this is, and Lucy is the only one worried that someone could get hurt. Is she being the reasonable one because she's a girl, or because she has a crush on Speed? Or both? Annalise finds a ton of treasure in the safe, but she keeps it for herself instead of giving it to her dad. Conor is starting to see a pattern. Certain additions trigger the jumps. Speed comes back again, and Lucy scolds him for risking his life and his car for this. Conor agrees, and points out that the Mach 6 is overheating, so he better stop, and he finally listens to them. Lucy is okay with them testing it out, as long as they can control where it lands. Professor Aniskov gives them all detention for using the track without permission. Jesse and Jared are spying on them.