Speed Racer: TNG S2 E3

## Plot

Spritle tells everyone that the racer academy team qualifying race will be held that afternoon. Before they do that, he tries to teach them about the importance of safety with a video that Conor made, but it's really bad, and everyone laughs at him. Winn and Aniskov gently and not so gently tell the headmaster that the students didn't get the message. Aniskov even tells him that he's blind to the students' recklessness, especially when his nephews are guilty of it. Spritle says he'll be at the track all day to make sure the students are safe, and no one will receive any special treatment. Lucy tells the guys that the Mach 6 isn't leaving the garage until they can figure out how to control its jumps. Conor installed a device that should limits its variants, but it needs to be tested first. When the Mach 6 reaches 250 mph, a charge is built up in the gasless engine. Once that charge hits critical capacity, it causes the car to jump uncontrollably. Basically, they've been building up this charge, but they have no way of knowing when the car will jump. Thanks to Conor though, now Speed can store the charge, and releasing it will cause the Mach 6 to jump safely. Before they can test it out though, Spritle stops them. He doesn't want another accident to happen, and they have a rule prohibiting unapproved cars from using the track. They can test the car at the… *Salt* Flats. Um, unless my ears weren't working that day, and to be fair, they might not have been, I could've sworn they were called the *Soft* Flats in season 1. Speed apologizes to Spritle, since a lot of people are probably angry at him because of the crash. Spritle tells him it's fine and reminds him to be safe. Once again, no one is aware that Jared and Jesse are spying on them. They use a watch to contact… their new boss, the mysterious woman from the shadow syndicate. They tell her where the Mach 6 is heading. Conor tells Speed that he can only use the jump button three times without having to restart the car. However, before Speed can jump a second time, an explosion occurs. It came from one of three black cars that are suddenly right behind him. He uses one jump to trick two of them into taking each other out, and the last one crashes into a giant rock. Before Speed can find out who they are, a hovership appears and *blows up their cars*! I guess the drivers are okay, since we can see someone entering the hovership when it lands. Still, this shows just how determined they are to remain anonymous. Speed picks up a helmet from one of the goons. It's the only thing that wasn't damaged in the explosion. It has a logo of a downward arrow, but Conor can't find a match for it anywhere. Speed points out that an evil plot to steal the Mach 6 has Annalise written all over it. They go to her father's tower and confront her about it. Yeesh, looks like her personal security also had a massive drop in intelligence. Also, it turns out that the kids *did* know that Jared and Jesse were spying on them. Either that, or they just assumed that because they think Annalise is behind it as usual, which she denies. She shows them letters between the company and her father. The qualifying race is in just a few hours, so Lucy and Conor stay behind to prep the cars for the race while X and Speed question Zile. However, Annalise points out that they need special visitation rights to visit Zile, and only family members like her get that. She'll get them in, but they'll owe her, and they'll also need disguises. Why? I get that Zile probably wouldn't tell them anything if he knew it was them, but still. They're dressed in drag. I'm not going to comment on that. Speed and X pretend to be Zile's nieces, and the guard believes them, no ID required. Why is the security in this world so bad? Meanwhile, Aniskov questions what the purpose of the button on the Mach 6 is, and Lucy and Conor claim that it plays calming nature sounds. He believes them and approves the car. Zile denies being behind the attack at the Salt Flats. He recognizes the logo, and tells the guys that they don't want to mess with these people. No one knows who they are for sure. He has no idea what they want. He didn't think they'd want the Mach 6 after the gasless engine was finished. Surprisingly, he says he'll find out whatever he can. Then again, he's lost pretty much everything at this point, so I guess he's got nothing better to do. Still, one of the only things he has left to lose is his life, and the guys from this shadow collective tried to kill him in the previous season. The guys don't know if they should believe him. It sounds like they don't have a choice. Zile was pretty spooked by the logo. X still doesn't trust him. Does he trust anyone besides himself at this point? Then again, when you find out that your girlfriend lied to you for an entire semester, manipulated you, and was involved in schemes with her father that almost killed you, your brother, your friends, and ruined your uncle's life; I guess you're entitled to feel that way for a little while. And that's not even bringing up the likely abandonment and trust issues with his dad. It turns out that the guard escorting them *isn't* an idiot, he was just playing along. He grabs the helmet and traps them behind bars. They get out through a window and follow him in Annalise's car. Also, the subtitles say that Annalise says "Damn!" at one point. I'm leaning towards no, because children's show that has never had swear words in it before, and also because the subpar subtitles later misspell pity with two T's. The car spins out and the guy gets away. They head back to school, but missed the qualifying race. Jesse and Jared update the shadow woman, who tells them to move onto the next phase of the plan. Chim-Chim reveals to Speed, X, Conor, and Lucy that he scanned the helmet and stored it in a 3D file, so they don't need it after all.