Cybersix S1 E11

## Plot

While working on machines made to look like animals, José gets a call from his father. José, like any kid, wants to show his dad what he's working on and make him proud, but he tells him to wait to test it out until his Fixed Ideas arrive. They've come up with a plan to capture Cyber 6 and Data 7. However, after Von Reichter hangs up, José turns on the octopus robot anyways, but it still has a few bugs to work out. Later on, he leads three dogs through the sewers and has them sniff some of Data 7's hairs to track his scent. They're able to capture him with the octopus robot. Adrian, Lucas, and Lori notice an advertisement for José's circus. Adrian recognizes a photo of Data 7, and knows that the "special attraction", C-6, is obviously referring to her. The circus is coming the next night. I can't believe Lucas and Lori don't recognize José or Data 7. Adrian tells Lucas not to go, and he tells "him" to relax and have fun, thinking it's just a circus. While sneaking around backstage, Cyber 6 knocks out and then kills a Fixed Idea in a sailor outfit and clown makeup. He leaves behind his clothes and a vial of sustenance, which Cyber 6 probably drinks offscreen. José finds the sailor hat and orders the dogs to find her. She finds Data 7 in a cage near a man working on a computer. José thinks the dogs lost her scent when they lead him to Data 7, but when he takes out a jar to see if they can trace Cyber 6's scent, he sees her reflection in the glass. He has all of the robots stop entertaining the audience and attack her instead. They capture her, and José introduces her to the audience as a robotic human fighting a mechanical beast in a fight to the death. Even Lucas isn't enough of an idiot to *not* recognize Cyber 6 at this point. He enters the ring and easily defeats two Fixed Ideas, but Cyber 6 tells him to stay out of this, and two robots grab him and take him backstage. He sees that the robots are controlled with a large computer. The two headed snake robot fires at the other two robots while trying to hit him. They also accidentally fire at Data 7's cage, freeing him. He immediately attacks the man at the computer. Lucas tricks the robot into biting into an electrical panel, which fries it. Well, that's a seizure warning if I've ever seen one! Why is it that my eyes don't notice, aren't bothered by, or don't even have to adjust to different animation styles or frame rate changes, but when they see certain flashes of light, they feel the need to look away? And it's not like it's *all* flashes of light either. Lucas tells Data 7 to help Cyber 6 while he figures out how to stop the robot octopus. He doesn't know how to shut it down… so he simply unplugs the computer. Since when did this show start succeeding at its jokes? That's twice now this episode that I've smiled at one. José knows that someone has interfered with the main terminal. Unfortunately for our heroes, he anticipated this, and controls the octopus with his remote control. And then the bugs from the beginning of the episode actually become relevant, as the robot breaks out and goes after José instead. People finally catch on and run away when they realize that the circus is messed up. Cyber 6 breaks José's remote. The flying monkeys take him away. Is that a *Wizard of Oz* reference? However, the protagonists start to celebrate too soon, since we're only about 17 minutes into the 22 minute episode. The humanoid robots grab Lucas again, Cyber 6 is attacked by the dogs, and Data 7 fights the octopus robot. He tricks it into sweeping the dogs away from Cyber 6. Lucas rips out exposed wires from the robots and brings them together, frying them, but somehow he's fine. I love how he says it's his turn to save the day, and then it almost immediately hard cuts to the octopus throwing Cyber 6 into him and knocking him out. Ha! When he wakes up, he sees Cyber 6 staring at him, and almost tells her that he loves her before he awkwardly backs away like a nervous, jumpy teenager who just realized that this whole thing wasn't a dream of his to live out his fantasies after all. Then again, in reality he's probably just freaked out by all of the robots behind them. Cyber 6 and Data 7 damage the robots. C turns on the water, and Lucas hoses the robots down, which rather paradoxically causes them to spontaneously burst into flames. I know that electrical fires exist, but jeez! Cyber 6 saves Lucas from the octopus, and they hose it down together. They leave, since the whole circus is on fire. The malfunctioning octopus breaks the support José was last seen on, and he falls into a bucket of water. He and a Fixed Idea run away from the tiny robot crabs. Cyber 6, Data 7, and Lucas watch as the circus goes up in flames from the safety of the giant Goliath angel statue. Lucas says that Adrian won't believe this. Cyber 6 tells him to not be too sure about that as she hugs Data 7. The episode closes out on José and the Fixed Idea still being chased and attacked by the crabs. This would normally be where I'd end things, but I'd like to talk about a revelation I had about this series. This was basically a female led superhero show. It came out in 1999 and 2000. Do you guys have any idea how insane that is? This was during a time where the only female superhero led *anything* outside of comics were the *Supergirl* films from 1973 and 1984, two films that weren't connected to each other at all and had zero similarities, other than the fact that they were both about superheroes named Supergirl. Even then, only the 1984 film about the DC character is anywhere close to being well known in pop culture, and it's a bad film. It's one of the reasons why sexist business pricks think that female superhero movies don't make any money, along with the *Elektra* and *Catwoman* movies. No, it's because they're bad movies, you idiots! Correlation does not equal causation. And why were they spinoffs of more popular male superhero movies and not their own thing, like Wonder Woman? And yes, I know about the *Wonder Woman* live action movie and show from the 1970s. That was a great step, but after that, it feels like we went backwards in the early 21st century. And no, female led films and TV shows don't have to be all "I am woman, hear me roar," or be so much about heavy handed, hamfisted "girl power" that they make all the men into sexist pigs for an episode like in X-Men: Evolution. That's one episode I will never look at. That's not real feminism. Lucas is usually a strong character in his own right, both physically and mentally. He's strong, just not superhuman strong, hence why Cyber 6 and Data 7 do better in fights than he does, since the creations they fight are also usually super strong as well. And while he can be an idiot sometimes, he's the one who, albeit inadvertently, gave Cyber 6 the idea to defeat the Eye in episode 9 with liquid nitrogen. And he probably didn't know how to work the computer in this episode because his specialties are chemistry and biology, in a setting that doesn't require him to use a computer in his day to day life. I headcanon Meridiana as a Mediterranean city set in the late 1990s, when the Internet was still fairly new to people. Lori would probably be better suited to handle a computer, or anything technology related. And Lucas did eventually find a solution to said computer related problem that didn't require him to know anything about them or other electronics beyond how they get power. He's a selfless individual who puts himself at risk to protect total strangers, as well as the people he cares about. And that's one of the reasons why *Cybersix* is a great female led superhero TV show. Men can be feminists too! Frederick Douglas was, at least to the extent that he knew women deserved the right to vote as well. Or would that make him a suffragette? I personally think that modern day feminism is something that every person has to figure out for themselves what it means to them. No, I don't find "boob armor" offensive. Look, I am a cisgender woman. I have small breasts. I basically have no cleavage to show off. I usually wear baggy shirts, because stores don't carry many XS or XXS sizes of anything. But that's fine with me, because I normally *like* wearing stuff like that. It's when I have to dress up fancy that I get a little nervous. My blazer is a size 00. I have three formal dresses, and some random shirts and skirts that mostly don't match with each other. And even when they do match, they tend to be really uncomfortable. So much black lace… I hate shopping, especially with other people. The point is, if I got involved in a sport that required me to wear armor, like fencing, I'd want the fit that would protect me the most, but also not feel like I'm binding my breasts every time I put it on. And if that set of armor falls under the trope of "boob armor", then by all means, gimme! I know there are benefits for some people with binding their chest, just make sure you don't wear said binding material for too long (i.e. over eight hours). No wonder I always want to take off my bra the second I get home. Also, I suppose I should amend my above… everything. Yes, there were plenty of female led shows that could qualify as superhero shows as well around this time, like *The Secret World of Alex Mack*, *Sailor Moon*, W.I.T.C.H., Winx Club, *The Powerpuff Girls*, etc., but, aside from Sailor Moon (maybe), those weren't as well known or had as big of an audience at the time as, say, Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, or the X-Men, due to their live-action movies coming out during this time, which led to the revival of live-action superhero movies. Also, all of those shows except for the Alex Mack one were animated, and even today, animation is still seen by some ignorant people as being "just for kids" and "family friendly" content, which ignores the abundance of teen and adult oriented animated shows and movies. And even if they're not the target audience, teens and adults can and should be able still enjoy animated shows without being ashamed of it, like *Gravity Falls*, *Amphibia*, *The Owl House*, *Steven Universe*, *Adventure Time*, *Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur*, etc.