Ghost Channel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ghost Channel is the twenty-fourth episode of the French animated television series Code Lyoko. It premiered in France on February 11, 2004 and in the United States on May 20, 2004.
Contents |
[edit] Summary
After another successful battle against XANA and another return trip, Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi are nowhere to be found. They, however, do not see anything wrong with where they are. XANA has trapped them in a world of its own design, and fashioned it after the city to ease their suspicions. Meanwhile, in the real world, Jeremie is being questioned on the group's disappearance. It will be up to Jeremie to save his friends from being deleted by XANA.
[edit] Recap
The episode begins as our heroes are fighting in the Ice Barrier Sector. They are trying to get Aelita to a Tower after an attack not shown in the episode. While they are trying to do this, they are being attacked by numerous Bloks. They defeat them with a good combination of saber, Tessen fan and laser arrows. They usher Aelita to the Tower where the Code LYOKO is entered and the Tower deactivated. Outside, the three are talking to Jeremie. Odd makes very dry and unhilarious joke ("Hey, Jeremie. Next time just enjoy the show and let the real pros get the job done, okay?"), that illicits rebukes and glares from Ulrich and Yumi. Odd asks them what he did wrong, but Jeremie (in a hurt tone of voice) says, "Return to the past now." The white bubble expands out from the Holosphere and engulfs the Universe and timestream, sending them backwards.
The previous day, Odd, Ulrich and Jeremie are in Mrs. Hertz's class while she takes roll call. Odd whispers to Jeremie, who is sitting at the lab table in front of him, that he did a great job operating and that there are no hard feelings over his joke. To Odd's mild surprise, Jeremie ignores him and continues to type away at his laptop. Ulrich tries to get Jeremie's attention. Instead of responding to his friend, Jeremie looks up at the blackboard where a complex scientific equation is written out. With his eyes closed, Jeremie points out all of the errors in the equation to Mrs. Hertz, justifying his corrections with one of Bronzky's Theories. Mrs. Hertz turns around and says (surprised) that Jeremie is absolutely right. Odd and Ulrich stare at each other.
The next few days at school, Jeremie notices that Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi are not in any of their classes, neither are they in their rooms. This concerns their teachers and the administration team. Jeremie, feeling panicked that he has lost his friends (he states that something must have gone wrong in the return trip) goes to the Factory and asks Aelita if they're still on Lyoko. She responds in the negative, much to Jeremie's chagrin.
To make matters worse for the prodigy, Jim sneaks into Jeremie's room before the boy returns. When he apprehends the boy genius Jim takes him to Headmaster Delmas' office. There, the Headmaster asks Jeremie where the others are. Jeremie tells him he doesn't know. This answer isn't good enough for the Headmaster and he pressures Jeremie, believing the boy knows more than he shows. Jeremie says he can't recall or concentrate with this pressure and asks for a three-minute break. Headmaster Delmas consents.
On a row of seats in the hallway outside the office, Jeremie contacts Aelita on his laptop and explains the predicament, telling her that he must get to the Factory but is trapped in the Administrative Wing. Aelita suggests she create a diversion. When Jeremie asks Aleita how she can do this, she tells the surprised Jeremie that she can hack into the school's computer systems just like XANA. Aelita give Jeremie instructions.
In the Cafeteria, the students are bickering over peas and talking about a new hit single from the band Rock Out. Yumi walks over to Ulrich and Odd's table and says that she had noticed some very unnatural phenomena that morning, citing her English class that morning. The teacher was quoting Shakespeare, when she suddenly cut herself off and repeated the same line again, to no one's surprise except Yumi's. Sissi walks by with her meal tray. However, her midriff shirt, instead of the usual pink, is now completely yellow. Odd jokingly asks Sissi if she put too many canary feathers in the wash. Sissi angrily retorts that yellow is the "in" color now. She then walks away from a "hmph!". As Odd turns back to his food, he hears something strange:
- STUDENT ONE:"Pass the peas!"
- STUDENT TWO: (in a prissy tone) "No! You can reach them yourself!"
- STUDENT THREE: "Did you hear Rock Out's new single?"
This was the exact dialog heard minutes earlier. To add oddity to the situation, Sissi walks by again and yells at Odd that yellow is the hip fashion color this year, "hmph"ing again as she takes her leave. Odd protests, saying he didn't even make that joke that time. Yumi responds to this by reasserting her point and points out the odd behaviors of Jeremie, who is sitting at the next table over working on his laptop, completely ignoring his friends.
Minutes later Jeremie pop's into Headmaster Delmas' office and informs him and Jim that he knows where his friends are. Jeremie then leads the Headmaster and Jim to the School's Boiler Room, where, under Aelita's command, the pipes explode and Jeremie escapes through a concealed door to the Factory. Jim and Headmaster Delmas run choking out of the Gymnasium (the Boiler Room was located in that building's basement) and onto the Track. There, they realize Jeremie got away.
By the time Jeremie arrives at the Lab, Aelita has an idea of what has happened to the others. She shows him a sound byte, which according to her is a sort of radio or TV station transmission. She warns him to be careful in watching it, as it is very weird. In it, Ulrich and Odd (as well as several other kids) are doing aerobics, stretching, and push-ups with Jim on the Athletic Field. Suddenly, Nicholas hits Herb, who then proceeds to yell at his friend. Immediately, the two fizzle, rewind, and Nicholas does the same thing. Yumi goes over to Jeremie, who is sitting on the bleachers immersed with his laptop. She tells him that she has been noticing odd goings-on about the school and town. To this, Jeremie informs her he is having difficulty contacting Aelita. She then asks Jeremie why he isn't doing Physical Education. He replies that Jim agreed to excuse him. Jim then waves at the two from the track, and Yumi comments that it is incredible since Jeremie wasn't a star athlete. Jeremie says that "You have to know how to work him, unlike those two." He motions to Ulrich and Odd who are doing punishment push-ups while the rest of the class crowds around.
The real Jeremie is freaked out by this, asking Aelita what is going on. She says she doesn't know and Jeremie yells hysterically, "I'M WATCHING MYSELF?!" Aelita says she is in the dark on this one and is clueless as to how this is occurring, until a notion hits her. Aelita questions if some kind of Parallel Universe exists. Jeremie ponders this, and after a few moments, he realizes that XANA has captured his friends. He hypothesises that XANA captured the other three during the time reversion and placed them in an artificial world modeled after the school and surrounding area, a perfect snare. When Aelita asks what they are going to do, Jeremie says he will rescue his friends, clearly showing his courage despite what happened last time he tried to go to Lyoko (see the episode "Frontier"). When Aelita says that this is too dangerous, Jeremie responds by saying that if he does go into a virtual world, he would much rather do it to find Aelita waiting there for her quasi-boyfriend. As Jeremie leaves the Lab, Aelita looks after him on the computer pop-up window with a very concerned look on her face.
Aelita remotely operates the scanner to virtualize Jeremie. He ends up inside the artificial world, materializing on the path meandering through a rose garden in the Park. As he runs down the path towards the main school complex, one of the flowers morphs into an Eye of XANA, which turns out to be a security camera. XANA, in the form of the virtual Jeremie, is at the desktop computer in his dorm room. Through the grainy transmission from the flower camera, he notices that Jeremie has arrived. He says, "Heh heh. There he is at last. We have visitors, Jim." Jim is standing in the doorway, but he looks very odd. His skin has become gray and clammy and his eyes are lacking pupils. His only language is a series of growls and grunts. This is an example of XANA's zombified form for a human. As Jim lumbers off to intercept the real Jeremie, XANA-Jeremie muses, "Soon I will have no more obstacles. Heh heh heh heh...."
In the Park, Jeremie is heading towards the manhole that will connect him with this world's parallel Factory. However, he is attacked by the zombified Jim. Jeremie dodges and escapes towards a row of bushes, but two equally zombified copies of Hervé and Nicolas emerge from the foliage and block Jeremie's progress. As they growl, Jeremie pushes past them. The two about-face and morph. Both grow about an extra foot, their hair becomes frazzled, their skin becomes a shade of gray and their fingers turn into claws and their teeth into fangs. They growl loudly before running after Jeremie. Zombified Hervé, Nicolas and Jim charge after Jeremie through the foliage, but lose him when the real Jeremie reaches the school's retaining wall (this wall is never seen in the second season). The sky suddenly switches from afternoon to night as Jeremie cleanly hops the wall and runs down the sidewalk passed several parked cars and heads for a row of houses on the next street. In the distance, a dog howls at the full Moon, which suddenly flickers and fizzles in the night sky.
Odd and Ulrich get a call from Yumi, who is now scared and panicking. She is at her parallel home's kitchen and she says her parents are ignoring her, acting strange and repeating their actions. Her "parents" are sitting at the kitchen table eating soba noodles. Mrs. Ishiyama keeps stirring the noodle bowl with her chopsticks while Mr. Ishiyama alternates between eating, fizzling and sleeping in the chair. She orders Odd and Ulrich to go to the Factory.
Once in the Factory, the three find XANA-Jeremie in the Lab. He tells them coolly that XANA has launched an attack and if they don't go to Lyoko, it and Aelita will be deleted. XANA-Jeremie begins ushering his three enemies towards the Scanner Room. Suddenly, the elevator's door opens and out emerges the real Jeremie. This confuses the Odd, Ulrich and Yumi, who are now caught in the bizarre paradox of having two of the same person in a room at the same time. XANA-Jeremie dismisses the real Jeremie as a cheap copy of XANA's. Real-Jeremie hurriedly explains to his friends that they are trapped in an artificial world of XANA's design and that the virus aims to delete them in the parallel Scanners. Real-Jeremie adds that he came via the real Scanners to rescue them. XANA-Jeremie scoffs and says, "You've just given yourself away, XANA. Everyone knows that the real Jeremie is much too afraid to enter the Scanners." Real-Jeremie gulps, realizing his mistake while XANA-Jeremie regards the real one with utter contempt. Odd suddenly breaks the ice and silence at once, saying that he believes that Jeremie would rescue his friends if they were in danger, despite his fear. XANA-Jeremie dismisses this, but is taken aback when Yumi and Ulrich agree. Realizing that he is losing his advantage, XANA-Jeremie panics and stutters, "Bu-but it's not logical! He's much too afraid to enter the Scanners. I'm too afraid!" But Odd, Yumi and Ulrich stand firm in their conviction that the real Jeremie is the one who came via the real Scanners. To this, XANA-Jeremie's voice deepens and viciously contorts and his head begins to glow. Screaming, "IT'S NOT LOGICAL!" XANA-Jeremie turns into a levitating and glowing zombie. With his clammy clawed hand XANA-Jeremie summons zombified Jim, Hervé and Nicolas to apprehend Yumi, Odd and Ulrich. The three zombies appear out of midair and firmly grasp the three. XANA-Jeremie cackles, "YOU ARE ALL GOING TO DIE! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" He then raises cables out from the floor and ties Real-Jeremie up with them, crushing the screaming boy.
In Lyoko's Ice Barrier, Aelita spots a large orange bubble that resembles a Guardian in an ice crater. From her perch on an icy promontory Aelita says, "I'd better get a closer look." She approaches the bubble, which has lighting emitting from its origin to points along its surface. Aelita kneels on the Ice Bridge and absorbs the bubble with her hands via Creativity.
This disrupts the continuity of the artificial world. XANA's power over it is broken and he screams "NOOOOOOOOO!" as XANA-Jeremie explodes and the three zombies disappear. Real-Jeremie is released from the cables and ejected through the formerly-solid ceiling, de-virtualizing him. His three friends scream, "No! Jeremie!" as Aleita completely absorbs the artificial world and releases them.
Jeremie finds himself in the real Scanners again. Collecting himself, he enters the elevator and ascends to the Lab where he contacts Lyoko. Aelita tells him that Odd, Yumi and Ulrich have reappeared in the Ice Barrier. They don't know what happened, except for that they blacked out for some time. Aelita tells Odd, Yumi and Ulrich that Jeremie helped her rescue them. Odd exclaims incredulously, "No way! Jeremie went to Lyoko?!" Aelita responds in the affirmative, to which Odd shouts, "All right, Einstein! Welcome to the Extreme Risk-Takers Daredevil Club!" Jeremie replies with, "Thanks Odd, no hard feelings, right?" At this moment, a large army of Bloks appears on the icy plain facing the four in Lyoko. Ulrich says they'd better do what they are best at doing. Odd and Yumi heartily agree, brandishing their weapons. Screaming a war cry, Yumi, Odd and Aelita, led by Ulrich, charge the Bloks which begin to open fire. A few forward Bloks explode after being hit by laser arrows and metallic boomerang fans. The episode ends with this battle.
[edit] Memorable Quotes
- XANA-Jeremie: (to the gang) YOU ARE ALL GOING TO DIE! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
- Jeremie: Aelita, can you hear me? Of course not, that would be too easy.
- XANA-Jeremie: XANA, is that the best you can do? A cheap imitation to delay us?
- Jeremie: (to Zombie-Jim) For a program, you're a pretty good imitation!
- Odd: As far as friendships go, it's not approximative. It's double-zero.
- Odd: Score! Jeremie, you should leave the real stuff to the pros.
- Odd: Sure, Yumi's what you might call intuitive, but let's face it. Any girl that has a crush on you, can't be considered normal...
[edit] Trivia
[edit] Cinematic Notes
- Weirdly, in the opening battle, Ulrich and Yumi were not de-virtualized, but only Odd and Aelita run towards the tower and are recognized on the terminal screen. They reappear after Odd gets shot by another Blok.
- In the scene where Aelita goes "I only hope it's not too late," her dangle earring is on the wrong ear.
- In the last scene, it shows the computer screen's labels on the blocks. According to it, there were 15. There were more than just 15 when it showed them charging the blocks.
- Ulrich and Odd are shown in the sound byte wearing identical PE uniforms. In the second and third seasons, everyone wears their own style PE clothes.
- When everyone charges towards the Bloks at the end of the episode. Aelita runs toward them, too, even though she has no weapon and will die if she loses her life points.
- Aelita tells Jeremie that a tower was activated to create the parallel world bubble. When the world is destroyed, the tower is nowhere to be seen.
- Xana-Jeremie knew that real Jeremie was coming but he kept saying it wasn't logical for Jeremie to come even after Xana revealed himself.
- Xana-Jeremie looked like a zombie fied Jeremy
[edit] Allusions to the Real World
- The Matrix allusion:
In this episode what they call "inconsistencies" or "effect of broken record" seems to be an allusion to the 1999 movie, The Matrix, of which CL takes some elements from. In that movie, every time the mainframe changed something, it would be manifested to the plugged people like a "déjà vu" or a "fail of the Matrix", this phenomenon described the XANA's mistakes trying to simulate the way of life on Earth.
- English Teacher: All the world's a stage, and all the men and women are merely players. They have their entrances and...
This famous line comes from Act 7, Scene 2 of William Shakespeare’s play, As You Like It. When the teacher reads this line from the play, she leaves out, “their exits”.
| Preceded by: "Rock Bottom?" |
Code Lyoko episodes | Followed by: "Code: Earth" |
