Speed Racer: TNG S2 E11

## Plot

Chim-Chim leaves the garage before he's discovered, and Alpha tells Mustache that if he asks him to cheat again, he won't race for him anymore, and gives him the hourglass part. After he leaves, Mustache puts the part back in his car and says he'll follow his orders, or he'll find someone else who can. Chim-Chim gets back to the garage. He was making too much noise, so Speed and Conor didn't hear what Alpha and Mustache were saying, but it couldn't have been good. Speed thinks that the whole Alpha team is out to either steal the Mach 6, or destroy it with that part. Lucy comes in, and although she's still mad at Speed, she listens to what he has to say, but she doesn't think Alpha would do something like that. They show her the footage, but she says that Alpha looks upset, and suggests that they just ask him what's going on. She decides to do it herself, since she's not scared of him like Conor clearly is. She asks him if he sabotaged the Mach 6 in the first two races with an hourglass device, and secretly works for a shadowy organization. Mustache overhears them. Alpha says he doesn't know anything about a shadowy organization, just that their sponsors have been pressuring their headmaster to win at all costs, but he already told him that he'd refuse to race for him if they cheated again. All he knows about the hourglass part that it's able to mess up the Mach 6, but he doesn't understand how. He tells Lucy that it killed him to cheat, but Mustache forced him to do it, and he assures her that's not who he is. He decides to find him and tell him that he quits. He doesn't see him when he leaves the garage, and when Lucy tries to leave, Mustache grabs her since she knows too much, and decides to use her as leverage. Okay, the animation has always been poor, but that's just plain janky. Ow, my eyes! I need to watch something fluid and pretty just to get that sight out of my head! Speed and Conor wonder where she is, since she should've been back by now. They try calling her, but get her voicemail. She's already changed it to tell Speed not to call her. They confront Alpha and ask him what he did with her. He gets a call from Mustache, who reveals that he has Lucy, and threatens to hurt her unless they do exactly what he says. Alpha wants to help, but Speed doesn't want to hear it, until Alpha tells him that he know it's his fault that Lucy's in this mess, and he still doesn't fully understand what's going on, but if Speed lets him explain, he'll tell them what he does know. They agree to stay as far away from each other as they can during the race. Speed still doesn't trust him, but Alpha tells him that if he does, he'll see that he's sincere. Once the race starts though, the two are neck and neck per usual. Every time they get some distance between each other, the road forces them back together. Mustache triggers the device again, but this time it doesn't work at all. Alpha contacts Speed and tells him that he disabled the device, and when he asks about Lucy, he says he has a plan; Speed just has to follow his lead, and he agrees. They start racing for real, and Speed narrowly wins, which means that Racer Academy wins the invitational tournament two to one. Yeah, yeah, I don't care about that. It's only halfway through the episode. Where's my favorite character? Alpha congratulates Speed, who apologizes for misjudging him, and they both agree that they're alright in each other's eyes. Mustache asks Alpha why the device didn't work, and he reveals that he took it out of the car, and throws it out the window. Mustache catches it, and then the cops show up. Okay, I get why these teenagers almost never call the cops about these sorts of things because they're incompetent in this universe, but still. Nice to know that Lucy isn't the only character with an ounce of common sense. Also, why are there only two police officers? They should've quietly secured the perimeter first, since Mustache starts to escape when he gets himself lost in the crowd on purpose. Also, he outright told Alpha, word for word, that he just signed Lucy's death warrant. Speed and Alpha chase after his car in their own, and it's revealed that Lucy is in the car. Mustache seemingly buries them alive under rock formations that he destroyed with rockets, but after he leaves, Speed blasts the rubble away with sonic blasters. Conor figured they could use help rescuing Lucy, so he told X and Annalise. The shadow woman contacts Mustache to ask about his progress reports. He tells her that his cover was blown, and the device was damaged, but it worked fine. The shadow woman says that his part was merely a prototype to be tested in close proximity with the Mach 6, to ensure that the final product would be viable. Now that they have positive results for Operation Hourglass, they have no further need for him or Alpha Academy. The school will be liquidated. They can't leave any evidence behind. As a reward for Mustache's hard work though, he's being given a warning, and a head start to get away. He kicks Lucy out of the car for hearing all of that. And that's why you should've put her in the trunk, or knocked her out, or simply never trusted an obviously evil, backstabbing, sees other people as pawns to use shadow woman to begin with, or blown your cover in the first place by kidnapping Lucy when you could've just triggered the device's use without Alpha's knowledge again during the final race, or given the part to another racer. Then again, I'm pretty sure no one else from his school could catch Speed. Speaking of which, he tries to save her by firing a grappling hook, but he misses and she goes over the cliff. Luckily, the rope binding her wrists was able to snag onto a branch. Why are all of you stopped? I get that you're worried about Lucy, but now you're letting Mustache get away! Annalise points this out, but X tells her to let him go. They'll deal with him later. Speed tells Lucy to stop struggling. The branch is already starting to give way. She's too far down to reach, and they can't throw her a line because she's tied up. Chim-Chim transforms into a helicopter with a harness. After seeing him transform into a paraglider in season 1, I've learned not to question these kinds of impossible things, like "Were the blades and harness just hidden inside him this whole time? How are the blades able to carry both his and Speed's weight?" Speed gets in the harness and saves her. Aw! Too bad we really only see them do the bridal carry pose from behind. She thanks them for saving her, and tells them to forget about getting Mustache, because Alpha Academy is in danger. All of the students are in trouble, and Speed Senior, who's working there undercover. Before they leave, Annalise tells Lucy that even though they haven't always seen eye to eye on everything, she's glad she's okay, and Lucy tells her that there might be hope for her yet. Alpha calls someone at Alpha Academy and warns them. The school is equipped with a full range of defensive weapons systems, and since the Committee is already running things there, they're gonna have to fight their way through. It'll take Conor fifteen minutes to hack into their turrets to shut them down, but then the turrets start activating. Now he only has thirty seconds tops. And then they see robot bomber drones in the sky. Lucy tells Speed and X to turn on their force fields and reverse the polarity so it extends to everyone. Speed tells her that the plasma beams from the turrets will cut through their shields like hot cheese. However, the turrets aren't aiming at them… they're aiming at the school. Everyone is helpless, and they watch in mute horror as the school destroys itself. Holy shit. Alpha is devastated. Speed apologizes to him, but at least everyone got out in time thanks to his warning. They head to the hidden science lab, but everything and everyone seems to be gone. X sees Speed's car key start glowing. It leads him to a disk. It's a message from his dad. He tells them that the coordinates of their next location are on the disk. He tells them to be careful, because this is the deadliest enemy they've ever faced.