The Color Clock Car

This article is about the episode

Were you looking for the train car instead?

Overview

Season	Episode	Overall
3	5	25

Broadcast Information

Air Date

August 13, 2020

Production Code

V305

Credits

Written by

Justin Michael

Storyboard by

Angela Kim
Jessie Wong

Guide

Previous	Next
"Le Chat Chalet Car"	"The Campfire Car"

"The Color Clock Car" is the 5^th episode of Season 3 of Infinity Train and the 25^th episode overall. It aired on August 13, 2020.

Synopsis

A giant, color-changing clock creates a shifting-maze puzzle that the gang has to solve before they can leave the car.

Plot

The group is only a car away from the rest of the Apex, but Hazel is tired from their journey and wants to take a nap. Simon tries to force her along only to be confronted by Tuba. Grace reaches a compromise, suggesting Hazel take a nap in Tuba's arms while they travel through the next car. Simon once again argues they get rid of Tuba, but Grace tells him to hold off until they reunite with the Apex. Simon suggests he take Tuba out on his own, only for Grace to firmly tell him off, not wanting to hurt Hazel. They arrive in the Color Clock Car, where the amnesiac denizen Roy (a clock himself) welcomes them but proves rather unhelpful in fully explaining the car besides the fact they will need to use teamwork and that teamwork begins with two people trusting each other. The group figures out various objects, obstacles, and walls appear and disappear with the colors on the clock, with the lock and indeed the door only appear at "Red O'Clock." The group splits up to find the key, with Hazel forcing an annoyed Tuba and Simon to pair up to try to make them friendly.

While traveling through the car, Hazel questions Grace's annoyance with Roy, to which Grace explains her philosophy on "Nulls," or denizens, and how they cannot be trusted. Hazel questions this, noting Tuba is good, to which Grace reluctantly suggests Tuba is "one of the good ones." Tuba and Simon look for the key during "Green O'Clock," where Tuba appears to see a ramp that Simon cannot. Tuba expresses that "Bugle" was more mature than Simon. Simon finds the key only to realize it is green, and it promptly disappears when the time hits "Blurple O'Clock," and a massive cage appears around them. Tuba manages to destroy the cage using her tubas after telling Simon to cover his ears, proving Roy's teamwork point. Impressed, Simon questions who Bugle is: Tuba explains Bugle was her daughter, who she is no longer with, and she is lucky that Hazel came into her life. The time reaches "Red O'Clock" again: while trying to look for the key again, Simon realizes Tuba can see and interact with both the green and red objects like the red ramp because she is color-blind, and thus she is able to find the green key. Tuba finds it and is able to bypass the maze and unlock the red door with help from Simon and his harpoon pack.

Just as they are getting ready to exit, the car starts to move, leading Grace and Simon to believe One-One found them. They try to escape to the next car only for the bridge to retract while they are crossing, leaving Tuba and Hazel separated. Tuba throws Hazel across the gap against her protests but nearly falls over the edge, leaving her clinging for her life. Simon tells Hazel and Grace to go to the next car while he uses his harpoon pack to go back for Tuba. Instead of saving her, however, Simon cruelly turns on his boots, stomps on Tuba's hand, and allows Tuba to fall off the car into the wheels, killing her and sending his number upwards! Simon returns to Grace and Hazel, where he stuns them by declaring Hazel is "safe" and that he wheeled Tuba. Hazel is devastated and runs off, while an angered Grace goes after her despite Simon's belief she would be happy with his decision.

Finding Hazel outside the car, Grace tries to comfort her but is instead left horrified when the girl's true status is revealed as she gradually transforms into a turtle-like creature...

Features

Characters

Grace Monroe
Simon Laurent
Hazel
Tuba (death)
Roy (debut)
The Apex (mentioned)
One-One (mentioned)
Bugle (debut; mentioned)

Locations

Wasteland
Infinity Train
- Color Clock Car (debut)
- Campfire Car (debut)

Trivia

Behind the scenes of the voiceover session for this episode.

End tag: Against the background of the Campfire Car. Tuba's hand is now gone, Grace's hand is still covered, and Hazel's hand, rather than waving playfully, fearfully trembles in its turtle form with webbed fingers and claws. Simon's hand remains fixed with the same number.
The sound effect for the maze obstacle course changes is the same one used for the Adventure Time episode "Vault of Bones." The sound is heard when Flame Princess uses her heat sense to find a dungeon entrance.^[1]
Contrary to what is depicted in this episode, red and green do look different to people who are colorblind.
This episode's dark ending breaks what fans of Infinity Train referred to as "the episode 8 curse," where the eighth episode of a season ("The Ball Pit Car" for Book One and "The Wasteland" for Book Two, respectively) takes a considerably dark turn compared to prior episodes. As Owen Dennis explained in a tweet shortly after the season premiered, "It takes 3 to make a pattern. There's only been 2."^[2]
This was the only episode from Book Three where the entire cast (Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Kyle McCarley, Diane Delano, Isabella Abiera, and Justin Michael) recorded their voices in the same session: voice overs for Infinity Train were generally recorded in group sessions, but due to Howell-Baptiste's busy schedule she often recorded her lines separately, as did the rotating cast of guest performers.^[3]^[4] McCarley described recording the ending scene of Simon telling a sobbing Hazel that he killed Tuba as extraordinarily difficult due to Abiera's performance.^[5]

Storyline analysis

This episode in many ways marks a turning point in Book Three: until this episode, the concept of each car on the train is the protagonists learn a lesson and come out with personal growth in their journey (this was previously lampshaded in "The Wasteland"). Indeed, the lesson of the Color Clock Car is stated by Roy as "teamwork begins with two people trusting each other." However, Simon, who has been one of the season's protagonists up to this point, explicitly rejects the lesson in his decision to murder Tuba, in turn beginning his descent into his role as the season's main antagonist.

Continuity

Tuba's nest from "The Jungle Car" was shown to have claw marks of unknown origin. When Hazel transforms into the turtle creature, one of the first things she is shown growing are sharp claws, suggesting she is the source of the claw marks.
Simon's method of killing Tuba when her hands were clinging on a ledge seems to tie into Grace's advice in "The Debutante Ball Car" that they would take out Tuba without using "brute force."
Simon showcasing his number to Grace after killing a denizen refers back to "The Musical Car", in which he and Grace compared numbers after murdering the denizens of the Musical Car.

Deleted Scene

The episode was suppose to begin with a segment of the gang running away from the librarian in a library catacomb car.^[6] This scene would have demonstrated Tuba's strengths, introduced another disagreement on how train's puzzles should be solved, and given more details on Simon's novel. It is unclear why this scene was excluded from the episode. One of the reasons might have been a lack of time.