Code Lyoko Episode 5 Review

Code Lyoko Season 1 Episode 5: Big Bug

In today’s episode, XANA takes out the infrastructure of a country in a matter of seconds, while the Lyoko Warriors have an incredibly embarrassing performance on Lyoko…

Let’s begin with the conclusion. This episode was unbelievably stupid. The plot of this episode was incredibly bland, except for signs that Yumi is showing feelings towards Ulrich. Everything that happened on Lyoko was horrendous, and was used to drag out the episode because of a lack of plot. It’s a real injustice to what happened in the previous episode.

The only amazing thing about this episode was Yumi interacting with Jeremie about how Ulrich feels with her. Even though the scene is small, it advances on the plot on what the previous episode had made, making some continuity between the episodes, despite Season 1 being known for not using continuity. Sadly, this is the only thing that really impresses me greatly about this episode.

First of all, the voice acting in this episode has a lot of ups and downs, and barely stays consistent with some of the characters. It’s still early days, but now with Odd and Sissi’s voice actors being permanently a part of the crew, there should at least be a bit more consistency by the fifth episode of the show. Funnily, Jeremie’s voice seems to be similar to what it sounds like in Season 3, and is probably Sharon Mann’s best performance as Jeremie so far. Also, most of the lines from the majority of characters sound forced and strained throughout the episode. It doesn’t help the emotional and suspenseful parts of the episode.

Second, the XANA attack doesn’t make a lot of sense. The news report in the episodes states that XANA infected banking systems, communications, air traffic control, subway systems and the trains that are going to inevitably collide into each other, one of which is carrying toxic chemicals. Simply put, XANA has effectively taken control of France’s infrastructure in a couple of seconds. Yet no one appears to be panicking that they cannot access their money, speak to each other over long distances on any device except mobile phones and that planes and trains cannot be used to get the population in the dangerous area away quickly. It’s hard to take a villain seriously if the audience is not shown the widespread panic this would’ve caused. It’s only done verbally through a news report, so would children pay attention to the news? Certainly not. Not to mention that the two trains colliding themselves could’ve possibly caused a disaster similar to Chernobyl. Since XANA did that all in one go, how come he’d never did something like this again? And how powerful exactly is he anyway? Oh, and also the news report actually said the authorities were considering evacuating people in the immediate area. Considering people to get out of a chemical disaster zone is not an option.

Third, Lyoko. It’s hard to describe how to feel after seeing it. It’s in the Desert Sector for the fourth time in five episodes. There are three other sectors in Lyoko, and yet, two of them have not been used at all. The audience would probably be wondering if Lyoko was just the Desert Sector by its lonesome if it wasn’t for the third episode. And then there’s what the Lyoko Warriors do. For some odd reason, before they approach the large rocks where the activated tower resides, they stop in an open field, and literally wait for Jeremie to spot monsters on his screen. Two minutes later, they’re in the same spot, but ambushed by four Bloks with absolutely no cover. Jeremie then suggests to them to go to the rocks that they saw two minutes ago. Seriously. This is just stupidity in its barest form, only used to create suspense and to drag out the Lyoko scene longer. Also in past episodes, the Lyoko Warriors have used cover and attacked from there, so how the hell did they not realise that they’re out in the open and could easily get attacked?

The worse part is, the stupidity doesn’t end there. Ulrich actually leads them to the rocks, where Yumi and Aelita were heading to deactivate the towers. Since he was buying time for the girls, he should’ve made sure the Bloks were focused on him only and ran the other direction. At least he took care of three of the four Bloks before he was devirtualized. But then, Yumi and Aelita see the single Blok and run for their lives. Since the Blok was heading right towards them, Yumi could’ve just thrown her fan and ended it there, but no. They had to go back, and have Yumi use telekinesis to take care of the Blok. It drags out the Lyoko part of the episode for a bit longer. But believe it or not, the next stupid thing that happens would blow anybody’s mind.

Aelita runs up to the tower, raises her arms signalling that she’s about to enter the tower to put in the code… and she stops to take a breather one metre away from entering the tower. As if it wasn’t obvious back then that the writers were extending the Lyoko section of the episode, they are now. Whatever suspense they build up to make a close call with the trains in real life is so obviously set-up due to the failures of the Lyoko Warriors on Lyoko. If the writers were writing the characters that way, why not make them fail on Lyoko and why not destroy Aelita too while they’re at it? Oh, speaking of Aelita, somehow she teleports away from the tower too.

This episode does have its great comebacks and funny moments, where Jim walks Kiwi, allowing Odd to escape, and Ulrich’s thought up prank on Sissi. But the actions on Lyoko and the XANA attack just overshadow everything that’s good in the episode and just makes it downright horrible.

Score: 0.5/10

Loose bits: First, Nicholas insults Milly and Tamiya and Sissi tells him he should be defending the girls, but then, she ends up defending him after Odd throws a smart insult at her and her cronies.

Did Ulrich’s bed just collapse in on itself from one scene to another while he was talking to Odd in their dorm room?

How was Ulrich’s phone on vibrate when Yumi tried to call him? Did he anticipate that Yumi was calling him or just left it on vibrate for the whole day?

Odd magically changes his bottomwear to match Sissi’s when Kiwi sits next to Odd in the classroom he’s confined to.

While Yumi and Aelita are running away from the lone Blok, there’s no tower in sight straight ahead of them.

Quotes: “Well, what do you know. It’s Miss Conceited in person.” – Odd

“You’re wrong. I’m not shy at all. Not at all. I’m just allergic to anyone that’s stuck up. And in that category you win hands down.” – Ulrich

“Wow, you ought to be a dog trainer when you grow up.” – Ulrich

“Rules are made to be obeyed.” – Sissi

“I...uh... have to go outside for a minute. They have certain needs, you know.” – Odd

“How do you suggest we do it? Sprout wings?” – Ulrich

A few comments I jotted down yesterday while watching some of the episodes. Some of them are probably the same as your notes.

CL-makers the pervs:
- Herb tackles Sissi and lands on top of her in a very suggestive way.

Stupidity:
- "The trains will collide in 26 minutes." "The authorities are considering an evacuation of the area." Well get on with it!
- "Yumi's trying to reach us. She's gonna blow out cover!" "Gotcha. I'll shut off my cell phone." If Yumi's trying to reach you, it's probably important.
- "You're gonna run off as soon as you're outside. I'm not gonna fall for that." "I wouldn't do that, Jim." "[...]I'M going to take the dog out, and you're going to stay in here." Odd leaves through the window as soon as Jim's out of range.
- Aelita is running, and she's running from the Mega Tank, and she's running, and she stops in front of the tower to catch her breath. Me: "WHAT?! YOU IDIOT. AT THIS POINT IN THE SEASON, YOU'RE STILL AN AI. YOU SHOULDN'T NEED TO CATCH YOUR BREATH."

Animating inconsistencies:
- Odd is in the study hall with Jim in trouble because of Kiwi. Kiwi goes to sit down at his feet, but instead of Odd's feet, it's Sissi's in the scene.


I remember originally not being terribly impressed with this episode, and later when I would rewatch Code Lyoko episodes, this one just never drew me in again.