False Start

False Start
Air Date (US)	May 24th, 2004
Air Date (France)	February 25th, 2004
Written by	Alain Serluppus
Storyboard by	Paul Beneteau
Season	1
Episode #	26
Production #	125
Preceeded by	Code: Earth
Followed by	New Order (Season 2)

False Start is the twenty-sixth and final episode of Season 1 of Code Lyoko.

Plot

Aelita's materialization program has worked and she's now living on Earth. The next day, Aelita begins her very first class. She is nervous because she knows nothing about the history. The guys console her and Sissi becomes jealous of all the attention she is receiving. She explains to Nicholas and Herb that Aelita is only acting frail. After class, they meet up with Yumi and decide to turn off the Supercomputer.

In the Factory, they find Jim (who has been squatting there since he got fired) and they go with him to the Supercomputer Room. Once there, Jeremie proceeds to shut down the supercomputer. However, after pulling the lever, Aelita passes out. She wakes up hours later, and Jeremie scans her discovering X.A.N.A. has given her a virus that links her to the supercomputer, which prevents the group from shutting it off without killing Aelita in the process. Jeremie has the computer start a program to analyze the results of the scan in the hope of finding an anti-virus. He walks Aelita home to Yumi's house and explains her a bit of how nature works and Aelita points out that it's a wonderful thing being alive. Along the way stop at a photo booth which she believes to be a scanner and Jeremie takes her there to take some pictures together. when they arrive at Yumi's home, she thanks him for the lovely walk and even despite the discovery of the virus, it was one of the most memorable moments of her life.

Later, while in the science lab of the school, the gang discovers X.A.N.A. has materialized Kankrelats into the real world in mass numbers and has unleashed them on the school. Ulrich and Yumi offer to stay at the school to protect it while Jeremie, Odd, and Aelita go to the Factory to deactivate the tower. When the three of them arrive at the Factory, they find Jim destroying Kankrelats. After Jeremie deactivates the scanner X.A.N.A. has been using to materialize the Kankrelats, Jim heads for the school to help Yumi and Ulrich fight the Kankrelats there, with a nail gun Odd gave him. He volunteers to fend off the Kankrelats while Yumi and Ulrich head for the factory to get to Lyoko.

Odd and Aelita go to the Ice Sector where they notice the activated tower on top of the iceberg, but before they could approach it they are attacked by the swarm of Hornets. Odd decides to fight with them and Aelita runs towards the tower. Moments after Yumi and Ulrich are joined to protect Aelita from the monsters. They manage to deactivate the tower just in time as Jim has taken many injuries and was just about to be killed by a final shot from a Kankrelat. Jeremie then launches a return to the past and the gang finds themselves back to the morning in Jeremie's room when they told Aelita about the materialization program. Jeremie wants to materialize Aelita for good, but she knows she still has the virus. She does agree to visit for a few hours, but no more than that since it would be too risky with X.A.N.A. still on the loose.

Meanwhile, with the Lyoko Warriors taking more time than before to talk to Aelita, they get caught in Jeremie's room by Jim and the principal. Jim accuses them of planning and scheming and they falsely confess to planning a prank on Nicholas and Herb to prevent Principal Delmas from firing Jim, saying that if it weren't for Jim, they would have been late to class. Mr. Delmas lets them off with a warning and walks away. Jim asks them why they did that (having forgotten how he helped them) and they thank "Jimbo" on their way out of Jeremie's room. Yumi even gives him a kiss on the cheek. As they walk to class together, Jeremie is seen holding one of the pictures of himself and Aelita that had been taken in the photo booth.

Trivia

The cover of the book adaptation

• The original French name for this episode is Faux départ.
• This is the only episode to feature a recap of the previous episode, much like a 2 part episode despite not officially being one.
• Originally this episode was going to begin with Aelita being materialized, with the ending for Code: Earth being a cliffhanger. This was changed at the request of France 3.
• Sharon Mann, Aelita and Jeremie's voice actor in the English dub, has cited the scene where Jeremie walks her to Yumi's house as one of her favorites. She even uses it as part of her voice demo for the series on her YouTube channel.
• This episode marks:
  • The first of two times in which X.A.N.A. sends one of its monsters to Earth.
  • Aelita's only virtualization in Season 1.
  • The first of only two times in which the return in time is used to go back to events that happened in a prior episode. In this case, Code: Earth.
    • The other time is in X.A.N.A. Awakens.
  • One of the few times that the surface of the ice sector is used for skating. In majority of other episodes the terrain is portrayed as normal.
  • The last time the instrumental version of A World Without Danger is used in the end credits.
• This episode was released in book form, but only in French.
  • Oddly enough, the book cover features Aelita in her Season 2 outfit.
• This was the last episode distributed by Antefilms. After Season 1 was made, Antefilms bought France Animation and renamed themselves Moonscoop after the merger. Moonscoop continued using the Antefilm name internally as the studio Code Lyoko was produced at, as seen on storyboards in later episodes.
• Jeremie is seen holding the picture of Aelita and himself at the end of the episode. Normally, this photo would have been erased during the return to the past, however, Jeremie could have uploaded the photo beforehand onto the Supercomputer and then printed it after.

Errors

• This is the only episode where Mrs. Meyer is not the math teacher at Kadic. Instead the power plant's chief engineer Mr. Delâcre from Seeing is Believing is used. Jérôme Mouscadet later confirmed this was a mistake.
• In the previous episode, Jeremie sprained his ankle. However, despite the beginning of the episode being set on the same day, he is seen walking without a limp.
• Aelita says there is no air on Lyoko. However, Yumi's hair on Lyoko is seen blowing back, which could not happen without air. Also, the characters breathe heavily when they run.
• Jim has a wristwatch for the scene when he is monitoring Aelita's breathing, but never again.

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