Code Lyoko Episode 6 Review

[AeonFrodo]

Code Lyoko Season 1 Episode 6: Cruel Dilemma

In today’s episode, Odd accidently figures out the right keys to create the martialization program. Problem is, Jeremie’s got one shot, and a cryptic Future Flash on Lyoko gives Odd a horrible foreshadowing of what’s going to happen to one unfortunate person.

Jeremie has been really quiet on his side of things. Apart from speaking to Aelita, he hasn’t really made a lot of progress on the materialization program. So when he suddenly reveals that he’s close to completion, it begs the question, why wasn’t the audience updated on this before? Perhaps there is a time period skip that wasn’t mentioned? Either way, it’s incredibly sudden and it would’ve been nice if they had shown some progress in previous episodes.

But what’s really great about this scene is that Jeremie is beginning to doubt his own abilities to make this program work. Jeremie probably has attempted a test run of the materialization program over a thousand times, and with no success. It shows that despite his genius mind, Jeremie is a human being, and it’s a matter of time before he breaks down. He has to be under a lot of stress to get this program completed as fast as he could. It also puts in perspective that the materialization program is a lot of work, and is evidently draining Jeremie’s energy.

After the accidental discovery of the materialization program thanks to Odd, the Jeremie holds a meeting about Aelita coming to Earth soon. However, out of all people, Ulrich points out a major problem with bringing Aelita to Earth currently. She doesn’t exist. It means she does not have any medical, school records or even a birth certificate. It’s great that the writers had thought out the extra information required to materialize Aelita onto Earth, as they’re more to fit into society other than just physically being on Earth. Not only that, it shows there are cracks in Jeremie’s logic and enthusiasm to bring Aelita to Earth. It’s good that Jeremie’s logic isn’t perfect, especially when influenced by his own feelings towards Aelita, creating a rare moment of illogical thinking by the computer genius in the show.

Another awesome thing about the episode that it immediately jumps into the XANA attack after the meeting scene, where it usually gets delayed in these early episodes. And it makes XANA a respectable villain after the antics of the last episode. Also, this is the first XANA attack that occurs at night in the series, so taking advantage of a human being’s need to sleep is a smart tactic by the A.I.

Since this XANA attack eventually becomes a direct threat to the Lyoko Warriors themselves with Ulrich foolishly remaining in the XANA controlled bulldozer for too long, somebody has to rescue him or else he’s going to die and a return to the past wouldn’t bring him back to life. A direct attack on the heroes themselves, that lasts a lot longer when the threat is near them by the end of the episode, puts their lives on the line because Aelita is nowhere near deactivating the tower. This is another intelligent distraction to not only jeapordize a life on Earth, but also the Lyoko mission. It’s surprising it took over a week to have an episode to have all these elements, but it’s a fantastic method to attack by XANA, listed by all those reasons.

The Lyoko section of the episode is a significant improvement over last episode’s. Odd actually shows that he’s a decent fighter by avoiding five Krankrelats firing at him and Aelita, and using cover to his advantage to take out nearly all of the Krankrelats. What was really intriguing about Odd’s time on Lyoko was his Future Flash scene just before he gets ambushed and consequently devirtualized. He sees a rather horrifying premonition of Yumi falling into the Digital Sea. For me, it wasn’t surprising to see Odd in one episode get an image of one person actually falling to their death, but having the person in question, Yumi, not being overly concerned about what could happen to her. Odd did use the information he received wisely, despite being devirtualized the moment he came back to reality. The sad thing was, there was really nothing to prevent Yumi’s fall into the Digital Sea. There have been plenty of shows and video games that have prevented a person’s future premonition from coming true, but seeing Code Lyoko execute somebody’s future vision coming true, displays that there are some events in the future that cannot be stopped. What’s even sadder that this was Yumi’s first time saving the day, three episodes overdue from her first Lyoko appearance. Too bad that it had to be a double-edged sword for the group to deal with.

It leads up into a wonderful scene of the group absolutely devastated without Yumi’s presence, and Jeremie having to deal with the agonising decision of which girl to bring back to Earth with his one use program. This reveals another of Aelita’s characteristics that the fandom knows her for, her selflessness, to give up her place for Yumi’s. It gives a bittersweet ending to the episode, with all the emotions Jeremie goes through in the duration of the episode of not being able to use the materialization program on Aelita. At least his friends are there to comfort him and urge him to continue on his work.

For such a great episode, it is let down by its voice acting, in particular the central character to this episode, Jeremie. It’s still early, but considering Sharon Mann’s performance last episode, it’s disappointing that it wasn’t executed on such an eye opening episode. There are other small details that do let this episode down as well, more so explored in the loose bits section.

Score: 8.5/10

Loose bits: For some reason, Jim is shown sleeping in this episode. That’s all that’s shown of Jim this episode. Couldn’t he be at the start of the episode with Mr. Delmas, supporting the new stadium being built since he’s the P.E. teacher?

Jeremie’s explanation about people on Earth having five senses while being on Lyoko the person only has two senses isn’t that accurate. This may be due to Jeremie’s inexperience to being exposed to Lyoko, as Aelita and the rest of the Lyoko Warriors do have a sense of touch on Lyoko as they can feel their surroundings. However, it is accurate that the senses of taste and smell don’t exist on Lyoko.

Jeremie’s yelling somehow didn’t wake up Jim and the other boys in their dormitories, even though he screamed at the top of his lungs to wake up Ulrich.

Ulrich calls the bulldozers ‘monsters’. They’re clearly not on Lyoko, so why mistake them for the monsters on Lyoko?

After meeting Aelita on Lyoko, she and Odd walk to the tower. It’s a XANA attack; shouldn’t they be rushing to the tower?

To get away from the bulldozers, Ulrich somehow regains consciousness and runs with Yumi. Then when the danger has passed, Ulrich has lost consciousness again, without being knocked out. Was this some way to have Ulrich move to one place to another, or some subtle way to mention that Yumi couldn’t carry Ulrich there?

Speaking of carrying Ulrich, somehow Yumi swings Ulrich over her shoulders and carries all his weight. She doesn’t appear to slow down significantly either. Also somehow Jeremie is able to receive Ulrich while being on the ladder and bring him down safely. That should be physically impossible to pull off, especially because it’s Jeremie’s physical strength.

Jeremie says that Ulrich is ‘fast asleep’ to Odd lightly when he was really knocked unconscious. Is being knocked unconscious seriously one thing to joke about when it severely affects one’s ability to go to Lyoko?

Yumi sounds incredibly distressed about Odd being devirtualized. That sort of reaction is probably reserved for someone falling into the Digital Sea... oh, that’s cruel irony.

Jeremie mentions that the scanners are destroyed just after Yumi’s overdramatized reaction to Odd’s devirtualization. How is Ulrich able to be virtualized to Lyoko after that happened?

Jeremie is shown speaking when he doesn’t say the words ‘return to the past now’, probably an animation error.

How is Ulrich holding Yumi when she’s shown to be in Odd’s arms?

Quotes: “We can be face to face in the same room. We can touch each other. Even kiss.” – Aelita

“It’s not the end of the world. I’m sure that one day, you’ll succeed.” – Aelita

“Aelita, I... I’m beginning to wonder if I’m good enough for the job. If I’m good enough for such a complicated program.” – Jeremie

“You’re a creepy genius!” – Jeremie

“Yeah, so... There’s only one Aelita.” – Odd

“Hey, come back to Earth Jeremie. Try to be practical for once. Aelita has no parents and she hasn’t got a birth certificate. What’s more she’s not enrolled in any school... okay, that’s no biggie. But all that together means she doesn’t exist in our world.” – Ulrich

“Yeah Odd, always. And one of these days I’ll tell you why.” – Ulrich

“Nice going XANA, how subtle can you get?” – Odd

“Wow, looks like the committee’s at full strength.” – Odd

“It’s all my fault. If I’d been faster, she would still be here.” – Ulrich

“I can only materialize one person. One and only one.” – Jeremie

“I’m happy, and at the same time, sad.” – Jeremie

“Why? At least you know the program works.” – Aelita

“Candy can fix anything, even a broken heart.” – Yumi