The Engine

**Overview**
Gallery
Transcript

## **Guide**

"**The Engine**" is the 10th and final episode of Season 1 of *Infinity Train* and the 10th episode overall. It aired on August 9, 2019.

## Synopsis

Tulip makes it to the front of the train and is faced with a choice.

## Plot

Tulip, One-One, and The Cat make it to the front of the train, where they discover Amelia is building more train cars. The Cat bids Tulip a cryptic farewell, noting she always does the right thing, before leaving in her vehicle. Tulip drags the still-transformed Atticus through the new car, which looks very similar to the Unfinished Car, to the Engine, where she finds Amelia. Seeing Tulip's number is at 0, Amelia demands she leave, only for Tulip to trap her in her Memory tape.

Tulip looks for the cannon that will restore Atticus to the original form, but learns she cannot use it without a power orb that can create corgis. Amelia's robot suit triggers an alarm that summons the Steward who quickly destroys the tape and frees Amelia. Amelia threatens to change Tulip's number and send her exit car as far away as possible, but Tulip refuses to leave the train. Amelia does as she promised, but just as the Steward is ready to attack, Tulip unleashes Atticus on her and sends One-One to figure out a way to stop the Steward or the Train.

Tulip makes her way through the new car while fighting off Amelia with the donut holer. Noticing the turtles, Tulip realizes Amelia built the Unfinished Car in an attempt to create a car of her old life, one that could include her dead husband Alrick. Amelia tries to reason with Tulip, claiming she could make a car where her parents are still together, but Tulip replies that it would not be real and manages to break Amelia's robot suit, revealing the still-human woman inside.

Amelia insists that Tulip is ruining everything and that she just wanted to keep "One" at bay, just as One-One identifies the ship's motherboard as his "mum." Tulip manages to find an orb for corgis and after several tries manages to fire a shot into Atticus, but the Steward knocks Atticus into a wall, seemingly injuring him again. Just as Amelia manages to grab Tulip, One-One jumps into the control board, resetting the engine. The Steward attempts to remove him but is stopped by One-One's command, and the real Atticus emerges from the creature body and destroys the Steward. Amelia is tossed out of her mech suit from the unfinished car, which is sent to an unknown part of the train, and falls back into the engine.

Atticus and Tulip happily reunite and she returns his crown to him. One-One announces he is the real conductor and the engine was his mother all along. Amelia reveals she removed One-One from the control panel when he refused to make her a car with Alrick in it and that she has remained trapped on the train because she refuses to live a life without her husband, revealing her number is so high that it covers her entire body––she will likely remain on the train forever. Tulip tells her she needs to adapt to the changes in her life, and maybe she can get her number to zero. One-One summons Tulip's exit door, giving Tulip a way back home. Tulip bids an emotional goodbye to Atticus and One-One, and wishes Amelia luck on getting her exit one day before returning home.

Seven months later, Tulip's father picks her up to take her to camp. Her parents share a moment of understanding before leaving, and Tulip declares she is ready for anything.

## Features

### Characters

* Tulip Olsen
* One-One
* Atticus
* The Cat
* Amelia Hughes/The Conductor
* The Steward
* Megan Olsen
* Andy Olsen
* Grace Monroe (debut; pictured)
* Simon Laurent (debut; pictured)

### Locations

* Wasteland
* Infinity Train
	+ Ball Pit Car
	+ Engine
	+ New Car (debut)
	+ Unfinished Car (mentioned)
* Megan's Residence

## Trivia

* This is the first episode to not have the word "car" in it's title.
* Tulip reads a book titled *The Sweet Life of Math and Coding*. This is an obvious reference to the Disney Channel series *The Suite Life of Zack and Cody*.
* The initial airing of the episode on Friday, August 9 ended with a final message from One-One declaring he was back as conductor and better than ever (using footage originally created for the promotional video Destination Unknown and audio from the then-unreleased short "The Movie Theater Car") before telling the audience he will see them next time, accompanied by an announcement that "*Infinity Train* will return."
	+ Prior to the airing of this episode, *Infinity Train* was promoted as a miniseries (or rather a "five-night special event") à la *Over the Garden Wall* by both Cartoon Network and series creator Owen Dennis. The only indication that further content was planned were references to the initial 10 episodes being the "first season" in some early promotional material.
* This episode aired on August 9, 2019, the birthday of Tulip's voice actor Ashley Johnson and the series' music composer Morgan Z Whirledge. Both born in the year 1983.
* Although Owen Dennis has frequently disavowed canonizing elements of *Infinity Train* outside of what is presented in the show, he revealed on Twitter that during production the crew considered Tulip's exit from the train to canonically take place on April 22, 2020. As he later observed, this meant that Tulip would have gotten off the train during the height of the coronavirus pandemic: should the subject of her exit be brought up again in-canon, this would need to be addressed.
* **End tag:** Tulip's number reaches zero and a bright green light fills the screen.

### Continuity

* Amelia is responsible for building the Unfinished Car.
* When Amelia looks for Tulip on her computer looking device, two different passengers are shown to have extremely high numbers. The lady with short locs and a guy with tied up blonde hair end up playing an integral role in the following two seasons.
* Tulip refers to the pipe in her backpack as a "donut holer," referencing "The Beach Car." On another level, Tulip is also spiting Amelia for trying to kill the Cat, who gave her the donut holer.
* The four-tone sequence that Amelia previously used to control the Steward (derived from the *Infinity Train* theme) is used by One-One to command the Steward in this episode. One-One previously sang and danced to a song based on this sequence in "The Corgi Car," which at the time appeared to have some form of control over the Steward.
* Atticus exclaims "What in the name of Mustard and Stinktail?" This is a reference to "The Ballad of Mustard and Stinktail" that he related in "The Crystal Car."
* As the epilogue happens 7 months later, it can be deduced that Tulip was on the Train for 5 months, assuming the camp happens annually.
* Tulip not having her reflection in a mirror that she passes by in her home confirms that she has impacted her life by helping her former mirror version escape. Additionally, a painting of a toad and a deciduous tree can be seen next to the mirror, foreshadowing two episodes from the next season.

### Storyline analysis

* Tulip has grown enough in her journey on the train that she is easily able to resist the temptation to try to create a car of her old life, as she has long since realized that her happy memories are inaccurate.

### Behind the scenes

* The writing team wanted to find some way to work the "no thumbs" running gag into this episode, such as Amelia as the Conductor complaining about her mech suit's lack of thumbs while trying to use the donut holer.
* There was a line cut for time where One-One claims that the Engine has gangrene from the "splinter".
* Much of this episode remains the same as originally pitched by Owen Dennis, Cole Sanchez, and Madeline Queripel while building the "beat board" for the first season, particularly with the action sequences.
* Originally, the floor of the engine had a bunch of tiny singing mouths, who would sing a song about the Conductor.
* The binary code for each passenger on Amelia's computer is gibberish. The original binary supposedly said "active" or "inactive" but Sunmin Image Pictures, the South Korean animation studios behind the show, decided add effects that made the numbers change. Dennis like their design choice and accepted them. He strongly encouraged the studio to contribute with their own design ideas, rather than just doing exactly what his team wanted.
* Owen Dennis felt strongly about featuring a scene of two individuals fighting with pipes. This was what led to Tulip keeping the Donut Holer in "The Beach Car", purely to pay off in this episode. Chekhov's Donut Holer.
* The scene where Amelia tries to convince Tulip she can make a car for her was originally a three-page philosophical dialogue about the responsibility of trying to build a car versus confronting her problems.
* Jessie Wong boarded a sequence that got cut where Atticus notices his former Ghom body and reacts in disgust.
* Lindsay Katai described writing Tulip convincing Amelia to try to get her number down as a challenge, due to figuring out how to make a child (Tulip) explain to an elderly adult (Amelia) everything she has learned on the train without sounding too on-the-nose.
* Tulip's stammering realization that she needs to say goodbye to Atticus and One-One is a manifestation of Lindsay Katai's own cluelessness on how to write the scene.
* "The Sweet Life of Math and Coding" joke was a throw-in by Jessie Wong. A reference to Disney Channel's *The Suite Life of Zack and Cody*.

## Gallery

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

## References

1. ↑ "Until Next Time." YouTube.
2. ↑ The Roundtable - "Cartoon Network's TRICKING You With Infinity Train!"
3. ↑ Owen Dennis on Twitter, April 22, 2020: Today is the day that Tulip leaves off the #infinitytrain! Oddly, we didn't really predict that everyone would be under quarantine when she got off the train. If we ever did something with Tulip again, it feels like that would have to be mentioned.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 Book 1 DVD Commentary: "The Engine"
5. ↑ Book 1 DVD Commentary: "The Cat's Car"
6. ↑ Owen Dennis tweet: "The original engine had a bunch of tiny singing mouths on the floor and they would all sing about the conductor."
7. ↑ "I view our relationship as two teams of artists just trying to make something together, so I didn't like the idea of pushing back on them when they wanted to try to improve something with the work." - Dennis

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