The Robots (Code Lyoko episode)
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"The Robots" is the twentieth episode of the French animated television series Code Lyoko. It premiered in France on January 14, 2004 and in the United States on May 14, 2004.
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[edit] Summary
During a school robot competition, XANA sends a robot of his own to deal with the group. Ulrich and Yumi are forced to enlist Hervé's help to destroy it while Jeremie and Odd head to the Factory to shut down the Tower.
[edit] Recap
The story starts out in science class, where Mrs. Hertz is telling the class about titanium and why it is used by NASA for their spacecraft. To demonstrate why titanium is tougher than steel, Mrs. Hertz attempts to punch a hole through the sheet of titanium using a power drill. She doesn't even make a dent in the slab. Nicolas tells Hervé that he should have used titanium for his robot for the Robot Competition, to which Mrs. Hertz tells them that the alloy is extremely expensive. Then she informs her class that the Robot Competition is in the afternoon, and that the students should all have their robots finished by now.
The scene then switches the Factory's executive office area. In the Control Center, one of XANA's ghosts floats out of a plug and enters the mainframe computer console. The Eye of XANA appears on all the monitors along the back wall of the computer control room. On the Assembly Line in the machine rooms, the various conveyer belts and automated tools come to life. The drills, ceiling track plugs and robotic arms take metal scraps and car mufflers, welding them into a new creation. It is not shown at this point what the metal actually becomes, but it breaks into the Lab and hacks into the computer's interface. From their it surfs the Internet and arrives at Kadic's network systems. Picture IDs of the students and faculty whiz by on the monstrosity's HUD. When it identifies photos of Yumi, Odd, Ulrich and Jeremie, it is content and leaves.
In Hervé's dorm, Hervé shows Sissi and Nicolas his robot, the Iron Sissi, a tribute to Sissi. The robot's namesake isn't too pleased, as she thinks it is extremely ugly. The robot rolls around for a while and accidentally swipes at Sissi's face, to which she gets quite frightened of the machine. Hervé stops the mechanical contraption from causing too much trouble. Sissi says that if Hervé doesn't win, he and Nicholas will have to leave her gang.
Meanwhile, in Jeremie's dorm, Jeremie is similarly showing off his robot to the team. Named the Kiwi 2, it is modelled after Kiwi, as its name suggests. Aelita (watching from Jeremie's desktop computer) finds the robot cute, and the rest of the gang agrees. Jeremie demonstrates the robot's movement to the group using the RADIO-MECH brand remote control. The mechanoid then urinates oil on Odd's shoe, to which Jeremie notes it must be taken outside once a day, just like Kiwi.
In the next scene, only the grand finale of the Robot Competition is seen. Jim announces the two contestants: Iron Sissi and Kiwi 2. Then informs the human operators that they will have to play basketball with their robots. In the stands Milly and Tamiya have been recording the battle on their video camcorder. Milly says that this is exciting, to which Tamiya replies in a bored tone that Jeremie is going to win. The two human contestants (Jeremie and Hervé) then shake hands. Hervé reluctantly does this (to which someone in the crowd says, "Look at them shake hands!"), and the battle begins. Both robots seem equally competent, and soon the match is tied 4 to 4. Headmaster Delmas comments that the Iron Sissi performs well, despite being the ugliest robot he has ever seen, much to Sissi's chagrin. Jim announces the game ball, and Kiwi 2 quickly grabs the basketball and heads for the basket. But Hervé, chuckling to himself, presses a button on his control panel. His opposition explodes in a cloud of dust and metal scraps and Iron Sissi takes the ball, scoring and winning. Jim, instead of announcing Hervé the winner, tells the ninth grade they have gym in five minutes. Many moans are heard.
Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd comfort Jeremie, who is sitting dejectedly on the side of the robot court, tinkering with the broken parts of Kiwi 2. When he says he doesn't understand why the robot exploded, Milly and Tamiya come up and show him their recording of the contest. When they replay the explosion in slow motion, the camcorder shows that the Iron Sissi fired a metal nut from its mouth to damage the Kiwi 2's internal components. Jeremie goes over to talk to Hervé (who is gloating to Sissi and asking if he is still part of the gang, to which Sissi responds in the affirmative). Suddenly, a gigantic robot breaks into the Gymnasium, sending frightened students scrambling for their lives. The robot attacks and slams Jeremie against the wall while Hervé and Sissi run for cover. Ulrich then grabs Jeremie and runs with him to the boy's locker room, along with Yumi and Odd. Upon seeing Yumi and three eigth graders in the locker room, Christophe M'Bala (one of Yumi's ninth grade classmates), demands to know what they are doing. He and Emmanuel Maillard, who is changing farther down the locker row, are told to run. When the robot tries to bash in the door, M'Bala and Maillard flee in terror. Jeremie contacts Aelita on his laptop. She tells him she felt Pulsations in the Mountain Sector, and Jeremie takes Odd with him to the Factory whilst Yumi and Ulrich try to stop the XANA-robot.
At the Factory, Jeremie transfers, scans and virtualizes Odd, who appears in the Mountain Sector. There, he and Aelita fight some Bloks and try to make their way to the activated Tower.
In the real world, Yumi and Ulrich are running across the Quad towards Sissi, Nicolas and Hervé. Sissi asks Ulrich and Yumi what they are doing, as the campus is being evacuated. The two ignore her and grab Hervé. Pinning him against one of the arches, they tell Hervé they need his help. He tries to walk away, saying Ulrich and Yumi aren't part of his gang. The boy and girl immediately restrain Hervé and blackmail him, telling the boy that if he doesn't help them Sissi will be treated to Milly and Tamiya's recording of Kiwi 2's destruction. Under this threat, Hervé says he has a plan, but it requires Mrs. Herz's drill.
In the Science Building, Hervé completes his mech, a robot that looks like a cross between an insect and a hummingbird. Out in the Park, they chuck it onto XANA's robot, where the Hummingbird Robot uses its drill beak to pierce the robot's metal exterior and enters it, damaging the internal components. The XANA robot shuts off, and Yumi and Ulrich head to the Factory as Hervé leaves the school grounds with the rest of the students.
In Lyoko, Odd is devirtualized, and Aelita is left alone with a bunch of Kankrelats pursuing her. She is almost shot down, but Yumi, just virtualized, kills the monsters with her Tessen fan.
In the Factory, Ulrich has infiltrated the Assembly Line where he is attempting to sabotage XANA's operation. Instead, he finds newly created robots coming off the conveyer belts. A XANA robot comes around the corner. Unlike the one that attacked the school, this one has been upgraded. It chases Ulrich into a corner of the room where Ulrich is trapped between the debris and some steel columns. The XANA robot aims its upgrade, namely a pair of arm-mounted cannons, at Ulrich. They launch a bunt of bolt nuts at high speed towards the criniging Ulrich's skull.
Aelita gets to the Tower just in the time. She enters the Code LYOKO and Jeremie activates a time reversion just before the bolt nuts make contact with Ulrich's skull.
Back in time, Jeremie and Hervé are once again at the game ball in the Robot Competition. As before, Hervé fires the bolt nut. Jeremie, knowing the projectile's path, yanks one of his remote control's joysticks. Kiwi 2's body swerves to the side, dodging the nut. Kiwi 2 makes the basket and the crowd goes wild. Jim asks the two to shake hands. Jeremie pleasently grins and holds out his hand. Hervé screams "No!" and runs out the Gym to catcalls of being a sore loser. In a corner behind the rock climbing wall, Hervé is cornered by Sissi and Nicolas, where Sissi calls him out for being a loser.
[edit] Memorable Quotes
- Milly: Jeremie vs. Hervé. Boy, isn't that original!
- Tamiya: And the winner will be Jeremie. Boy, what a surprise.
- Headmaster Delmas: (talking about the Iron Sissi) It plays really well, despite being the UGLIEST robot I've ever seen!
- Sissi: DADDY!
[edit] Trivia
[edit] The Factory
- Some of the spare materials XANA shifted down the conveyor belts to build his robots were old car parts (namely a muffler, some undercarriage pipes, etc.) This points towards the Factory having originally been utilized to manufacture automobiles, much like the Factory's real-world counterpart (the Renault Capital Ship Factory). Despite product placement and corporate sponsorship in the past, it remains unknown if Renault actually owned the Factory in Code Lyoko as well, since any corporate logos have been removed from the decaying building.
[edit] Allusions to the Real World
- Mrs. Hertz: (talking about titanium's toughness) And that's why NASA uses it for their spacecraft.
NASA is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States of America. It was the first to put men on the moon and operates a shuttle fleet and many exploratory probes/satellites.
| Preceded by: "Frontier" |
Code Lyoko episodes | Followed by: "Zero Gravity Zone" |
