Suggested Title: Supercomputer Samurai Cyber Squad

 

Summary:

 

Jeremie and Aelita talk as Jeremie continues to test variations on his virtualization program. He leaves his room with a simulation still running, and shortly thereafter Aelita is surprised by some unseen force.

 

Which solves the problem of what to get for the sentient computer virus who has everything except the achievement of his nebulous goals.

Free Samurai armor, including a sword? This is like Christmas to Xana!

Ulrich helps Yumi bring some family heirlooms to school for a presentation about her heritage. These heirlooms include full samurai armor and a katana. I can’t be the only one who sees where this is going.

 

The principal shows up to Odd, Ulrich and Jeremie’s class to introduce Taelia the new transfer student. There’s something off about Talia…maybe it’s the fact that she’s an identical copy of Aelita? No it’s probably just the enormous socks. Jeremie uses the most lackluster excuse he can muster to ditch class and check Lyoko for Aelita, reasoning that if she’s there, she’s not also here. After a brief scan he is fully convinced that Taelia is Aelita.

 

The haunted samurai armor goes to attack Jim and I have no idea how he survived. Team Lyoko quickly realizes how serious it is to have haunted armor attacking people indiscriminately with a sword and they head for Lyoko right away. Well everyone except Yumi, who is questioned by the police (and rightfully so, that was a stupid thing to do, Xana or not). Jeremie, saves Taelia from the samurai en route and helps her escape to the factory, where she tries to convince him to destroy Lyoko.

 

Odd and Ulrich stop Jeremie from being a complete moron and convince him to send them to Lyoko to try and confirm Aelita’s existence before pulling the plug on his girlfriend. In the confusion, Taelia escapes the factory, where she contacts the authorities.

 

I hope Ulrich eventually evolves into something more useful.

Ulrich go, use Double Team! Now use your splash attack!

After a brief search on Lyoko, Odd sees one of his visions of the obvious: Aelita trapped in the guardian sphere from episode 7. Of course last time this came up Aelita saved Yumi with her plot powers, so now it’s time to try and outsmart it…which sucks for them. Their attacks do nothing, but Jeremie has a realization: no matter how clever Xana’s plan is, whatever he’s done is still a computer program, so he sets to work programming a virtual clone of Aelita using science.

 

Ulrich combines his super speed and cloning abilities to “Triangulate” around the Blok monsters. Have you ever seen a Pokemon use Double Team in the anime? That’s what we’re dealing with.

 

Of course the real Aelita makes it to the tower just in time to save Yumi from the samurai (who she’s managed to hold off for a shocking amount of time), and to stop the police from pulling the plug on the Lyoko computer. After the return to the past Ulrich explains that Taelia is an orphan who didn’t want to discuss her past, which is why the subject was so touchy…

 

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Also not pictured are a sense of humor or any Earthly explanation for her appearance in this show.

Pictured above: Taelia, NOT Aelita.

What ISN’T explained is the bafflingly impossible coincidence that Aelita’s identical twin shows up to school the same day Xana traps her in a forcefield on Lyoko. And that’s got to be one of the worst plot holes in history. I didn’t remember this really significant plot detail ever coming up again, so I did some research, and this episode is the ONLY appearance of Taelia. Which…I don’t even have words to describe how ridiculous that is!

 

At first I wanted to believe that Xana was somehow behind Taelia’s appearance, after all it would be a similar trick to what he pulled by cloning Yumi, and it further explains his use of the guardian. However, Taelia’s first response to hearing about the world of Lyoko (of which she previously had no memory) was to unplug the supercomputer as it was a menace to society. There’s no chance that Xana, the guy who avoided using a super accurate space laser on the factory out of self preservation, would jeopardize himself that way.

 

That leaves only one possibility for Taelia’s appearance at Kadic; it was the most conveniently timed and preposterously unlikely coincidence, possibly ever. What are the odds that Aelita has an unrelated identical twin running around? Then, what are the odds that her unrelated twin would end up at the same school as her friends? And on top of that, what are the odds that Taelia would appear at said school while she just happened to be trapped in a scanner-proof prison on Lyoko? It boggles my very mind.

 

Awfully convenient how you can't see the prisoner inside the Guardian, EH animators?

Deja vu is the sensation you've done something before.

All things considered, Xana’s plans this week are both pretty good. Trapping Aelita in the guardian sphere makes sense because she’s their means of stopping his plans and she was potentially their only way to free someone from a guardian. If Jeremie hadn’t remembered that the computer generated world were generated by a computer, they may have been in serious trouble! And while the plan of possessing Samurai armor isn’t exactly thinking outside the box, it does pose a pretty legitimate threat. I certainly don’t want to face an evil enemy with no weakness and infinite stamina.

 

One last complaint I have is that Taelia seems to have little trouble convincing people that Lyoko is real and that Xana is a threat, since the police are ready to shut down the computer by the end, but Yumi tried this same trick in an earlier episode and they wouldn’t give her the time of day. Either Yumi failed speech class or Taelia is a Jedi.

 

What’s odd is that the individual elements here are really interesting. I would have loved to see an episode with more samurai in it, as it is a very dangerous enemy that they can’t just hide from in a closet with a towel under the door. And they could have done something really interesting with Aelita’s doppleganger, or at the very least made some plausible explanation for her existence. It still would have bothered me, but at least it would make for an interesting one off, if it made any blasted sense. As is this episode is one big crazy samurai mess.

 

P.S. – One MORE thing, actually. I promised at the end of last week’s double feature that the mysterious math equation would come up again, and it does right as the class Jeremie ditches begins:

What does it mean!?

The likely explanation is that whoever wrote these episodes doesn’t really know what topics are being taught in school now so they found something generic and stuck with it. I mean, they did have a nuclear engineer come in to lecture the class once, so it IS a probable explanation. However, I submit that this equation has some secret meaning, just like those cursed numbers from Lost. Maybe this simple equation is the key to materializing Aelita, or maybe it’s a sign that Xana’s taking control of the school! In any case I’ll be keeping an eye out to try and solve this mystery.