Hey remember last episode where they had a really good idea for a character episode but squandered it? This one somewhat makes up for it by being about an obsessed scientist in a glacier. No, not victor fries.
The Teaser:
in the gloomy depths of… glacier land I guess a guy in a red anorak climbs out of a long almost perfectly round giant hole, presumably cut by the Kawoosh from the beta gate… or not as it’s Greenland. The guy reaches the radio tower at the top and calls IR telling them they have a breakdown.
The Episode:
It’s virgil/Ultra Magnus’/Zack’s/Worf’s birthday today and his family/Daniel and wheelie/the other rangers/literally just Deanna want to throw them a surprise party like literally nobody in real life does. The tracy boys proceed to be a dick to him, as is the trope, and then he’s called away in firetruck-2 to save that guy from the teaser. he arrives and shoves breakdown man in the microwave. He’s about to head back home but then notices the Kawoosh hole and configures a pod vehicle into a neat three pronged tunnel crawler (I guess using a “the mole” pod would be kinda redundant with the hole already there). Down in the glacier Virgil, fingerless glove induced frostbite and all, discovers a cave with a broken down laser drill and two scientists Dr rozenko (or whatever) and Dr Peck. Dr Peck wants to keep on drilling for science but then there’s a cave in and Virgil has to evacuate them in the pod. He saves dr ramona (or whatever) and goes back down for Dr Peck who has of course gone off exploring the caves on his own. virg chases after him in his Exosuit (still no glove fingers) but then things start collapsing more, almost dropping him into a gorge and trapping Peck’s legs. Virgil climbs up to drag the ice rocks off of peck and tell him that they have to go, peck explains that he’s hunting a rare bacteria that only lives here and if the glacier collapses will be lost, presumably for too long for him to get back. Virgil is like “no knowledge should be worth that” except it is because ice bacteria is the best shot peck has at curing his terminally ill daughter and those like her of future cancer, and he didn’t say this earlier because he’s doing this all behind his cheapskate boss’ back. Virgil helps him get the ice stuff and they escape before the caves collapse. Dropping the doctor off he returns home to find he missed his surprise party but then the Doc calls him up to tell him that the bacteria cure is working, thanks and happy birthday. So all in all a birthday well spent.
Final Thoughts:
The voice acting for Peck is pretty damn good if even if the shot direction seems to be focused around saving on animating expressions so we don’t really see his face which kinda sucks. Plus as I said this is an Obsession episode so it, by nature is about character bits even with all the action they lump in.
Don’t want to be a Canadian idiot…