The Map Car

**Overview**
Gallery
Transcript

## **Guide**

"**The Map Car**" is the 3rd episode of Season 2 of *Infinity Train* and the 13th episode overall. It aired on January 7, 2020.

## Synopsis

Mirror Tulip tries to help Jesse get his number down.

## Plot

M.T. and Jesse enter a Map Car where they are greeted by a wind person named Marcel. He has them put together a map so that the world can expand. M.T. halfheartedly helps Jesse by ordering him to discover something emotional about himself, but in following her directions his number somehow goes up to 33. Eventually, Jesse reveals that he is on the swim team at school and that he has never had the chance to decide for himself resulting in his number going down to 31. They realize that Marcel is keeping them in the car and Jesse realizes that he can alter the map on his own. He creates an exit which results in the world transforming into a pastel painting and Marcel dissipating. Jesse's number goes down to 29 as he, M.T. and Alan Dracula relax. However the river, which was previously non-reflective, creates a reflection and the Reflection Police show up to capture M.T.

## Features

### Characters

* Mirror Tulip
* Jesse Cosay
* Alan Dracula
* Marcel (debut)
* Mermaids (debut)
* Sea Serpent (debut)
* The Flecks
	+ Agent Mace
	+ Agent Sieve
* Nate Cosay (mentioned)
* Mrs. Graham (mentioned)
* Jesse's Friends (mentioned)
* Jesse's Swim Team (mentioned)

### Locations

* Wasteland
* Infinity Train
	+ Green Car (appears in background)
	+ Map Car (debut)

## Trivia

* **End tag:** M.T. looking at her reflection in her hand while on board the Infinity Train.

### Continuity

* At the beginning of the episode, Jesse, MT and Alan Dracula are seen exiting the Green Car.
* Jesse suggests his lunchlady, Mrs. Graham, is on the train after she made him eat 30 pieces of celery. Unbeknownst to him, MT saw Mrs. Graham arrive on the train in "The Black Market Car."
* When Jesse talks to the mermaids, M.T. offers some half-baked advice on what to do, telling him to share his feelings with them or "go to game design camp?", a reference to Tulip.
* Jesse uses a receipt from Gas and Dogs to draw a door onto the map. A Gas and Dogs station will make a physical appearance in Book Four's "The Twin Tapes".

### Storyline analysis

* Jesse's issue, as it turns out, is being all too willing to concede to others' requests of him, even when it's to his detriment. Even though M.T. knows Jesse is supposed to grow emotionally, she doesn't actually know *how* he needs to grow, and in fact his listening to her instructions actually *raises* his number. It is only when he comes up with his own solution in the car that his number really comes down.

### Behind the scenes

* The car that M.T. and Jesse leave at the start of the episode was originally going to be a Salt Car, i.e. a car full of salt, which Alan Dracula would just drag his tongue around. The concept would have taken too long to explain, and so it was replaced with the Green Car to connect it to the shorts.
* Alex Horab finds the Infinity Train has different types of cars: some are for emotional growth, some for the larger train, and some are just focused on the gimmick. Horab feels the Map Car is an example of the latter.
	+ Conversely, Madeline Queripel argues the car is important for Jesse's emotional journey in learning not to just listen to what other people are telling him to do.
* Like most episodes focusing on a "gimmick-y" car, this was a difficult episode to produce due to the art style, particularly the crosshatch designs.
* This was the first episode where Owen Dennis personally had to voice-direct Ashley Johnson, as the usual voice director Kristi Reed was unavailable.
* Madeline Queripel observes in the DVD commentary that the characters spend a lot of time blasély reacting to the reality of the train in a meta manner, namely that they just need to learn things about themselves.
* Jesse's story about being forced to eat 30 pieces of celery is based on a true story that happened to writer Alex Horab.
* Owen Dennis wanted the sound of the mermaids laughing ("Tee hee hee") to sound like extremely canned laughter.
* Jesse's swimming background is also based on something from Alex Horab's childhood, where he had to do the butterfly swim on his swim team because he was the only one who knew how to do it. He describes it as one of the most miserable swim moves.
	+ Sofia Alexander was also on a swim team when she was in school, and used her knowledge in storyboarding the episode.
	+ Swimming was chosen as opposed to more standard varsity sport like basketball to play with the expectations from the image of Jesse in his letterman jacket next to M.T. in her punk aesthetic.
* Alex Horab notes that there are some questions to be raised about the fact that Jesse completing the puzzle changes the environment of the car, suggesting that cars don't have to be static. A similar conceit was raised in "The Cross-Eyed Ducks Car" short, with Owen Dennis suggesting at one point in time the car was simply a regular place that gradually got filled with ducks.

## Gallery

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

## References

1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 Book 2 DVD Commentary: "The Map Car"
2. ↑ "Infinity Train behind the scenes: The story that Jesse told about a lunch lady forcing him to eat all the celery is based on a real thing that happened to me in the 5th grade. I had to eat like, 20 sticks of celery."

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