Infinity Train: The Black Market Car

January 2, 2020 4:42 PM - Season 2, Episode 1

Looking to be her own person and not a reflection, Mirror Tulip or "MT" (sporting a complete makeover) ventures through the Infinity Train, experiencing the vast array of worlds within the cars. But for someone who has broken the rules of the Mirror Car, such a life means being on the run from the law, who would love nothing more than to grind her into literal dust...

Yes, this episode marks the start of the new season of Infinity Train, subtitled Book Two. This time, the passenger is Jesse - a cheerful and excitable teen boy who couldn't be any different from Tulip if he tried. But you don't wind up on the Train unless you've got something to sort out...

(Technically, the air date for the episode is 1/7 - however, the episode is available on the Cartoon Network app right now, if you're interested in seeing it.)

posted by NoxAeternum (2 comments total)

Let's be honest - Book Two has high expectations, as the first season of Infinity Train was a powerful story that took a fantastic adventure through vaied worlds, and then turned that into a powerful meditation on grief and loss, and its impact on people. But from what we see in this first part, Book Two has a solid concept to work with - identity and who you are.

We start the episode with Mirror Tulip undergoing a particularly extreme makeover to change her appearance, folding into a short montage of her wandering through the train's various cars and experiencing their worlds, before we get to the titular car (which has a very Hong Kong night market feel that works well for the setpiece.) Said setpiece is a confrontation and chase scene between MT and the mirror cops who are looking to literally grind her into dust, in which we see why MT is paranoid about reflecting surfaces - the mirror cops can use any such surface to pursue her, and are frighteningly effective in doing so (as we get to see.) I am a sucker for competent villains, and the mirror cops are very much so, using their warping ability in effective ways that show why they're a terrifying threat, and thus why MT's paranoia is entirely justified.

The final third of the episode slows things down, and gives MT time to decompress and bond with the deer who protected her, before we get to finally meet Book Two's passenger, Jesse. Jesse is, at least from first impressions, very much the anti-Tulip - brash and gregarious, socially confident and relaxed. (Knowing what we do of the Train's purpose, this is assuredly a front, and we're going to find out about the trauma that brought him on board.) MT is initially put off by Jesse befriending the deer (and flips out over the glasses he put on the deer for reasons we understand, but Jesse doesn't.) But we then get a good bit of interplay that gives us some characterization - Jesse "names" the deer, which clearly hits MT personally in her need to define herself by herself and nor by others, which then has her arguing against naming the deer - an argument cut short when said deer falls into a hole, leaving the two staring after it.

So yeah - solid start, with a bunch of hooks for later episodes.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:00 PM on January 2, 2020

Looking forward to the rest. But that deer just kept getting weirder.
posted by Marticus at 11:08 PM on January 3, 2020 [1 favorite]