This review is at the request of User:Eddieblake, who requested that I review "Revelation," for some reason. My scoring system is simple: 10 - 0 with 10 being amazing, and 0 being Melanie Tran's acting. My review is, as usual, based on the English dub. Before we begin, I would like to point out that the English and French titles of this episode were stolen from the bible. I understand that book is so old that the copyright has expired, but if you're so uncreative that you can't think of a title, at least steal your title from something that wasn't full of plotholes, like The Trap. Let the review begin:
The Review[]
This episode's titlecard starts with a green tower. Since the tower isn't red, we know the episode will be interesting. It's color-coded-for-our-convenience! We get stock scenery-porn of the Desert Sector and Carthage, with an "Aeltia-Gets-Data-While-The-Others-Guard-Her" battle. Yumi comments that she has a bad feeling about what is going to happen, which considering XANA's habit of targeting her for no obvious plot-related reason, is justified. The Mantas attempt to kamikaze the warriors, but end up just getting destroyed. For some reasonn, one of the mantas survives getting sliced in half, but not an eye shot from Odd. By the way, THIS ISN'T EVOLUTION, BAYWATCH, OR 300, SO DON'T USE SLOW-MOTION! The warriors escape via stock footage, with Yumi faking that she's leaving behind Aelita.
It turns out that they now have enough data to decrypt Franz's diary, with Aelita pointing out that it will require an absurd amount of processing power to do so, meaning let's get Jeremie's tower activated! Being the only sane competent one, Yumi points out that the last time they did that, it didn't go well. Jeremie counters that they have no other option. We get an Odd-Food moment, complete with him being Svelt, not scrawny. Some of them compare grades, with Ulrich at a low C, Odd at a Middle C, and Aelita at a Mid-A. There's a subtle gag here, where Aelita mainly because of math, and Ulrich, the low C person, points out that was only possible if she got As in nearly all of her classes. They have an awkward moment, where they point out that Aelita is an insane AI, not an insane Human. Aelita amazingly doesn't start a fight about this, and comments about a Deja Vu feeling she gets about the campus.
Odd gets a text from a girl who wants to meet him in the woods. The number is masked. In real life, this would turn out to be a pedophile, hacker, or crazy person. Ulrich makes fun of the show's drama, as does Odd, then a tower activates. Cue the usual call tree...
Meanwhile, we see Odd alone in the woods, with dramatic music, and a mysterious figure in the background. It's easy to see what's coming. We hear Odd scream and see birds fly away. Despite the cliche, I have to respect the show for doing this scene in the daytime.
We get the depressed music, with Ulrich of all people, pointing out that Odd bailed on them for some girl. Considering how unreliable Ulrich was in season 1, I think this is either being crass or showing character growth, or both. Jeremie points out that they now have to multitask on Lyoko. He then tries to call Odd, whose phone is abandoned on the ground. Cue the recycled virtualization footage.
Odd then arrives, and since we want the viewer to figure things out quickly, we notice something odd about Odd. Jeremie then gets a warning from the supercomputer, saying it just ate itself. We also get the attack music. Odd arrives on Lyoko, and the tower deactivates, with Odd using spectre audio for his movements. This scene could have had a lot more suspense, but instead, the writers made things obvious. MINUS ONE POINT! Also, they just saw something suspicious happen, and still go through with the plan.
The warriors travel to the tower, with Yumi pointing it out when it's right in front of them. Aelita then runs into it, like she should when it's activated, and uses more recycled footage. Jeremie then activates the tower, and Aelita starts the decryption. As if something Jeremie making something that works correctly wasn't suspicious enough, we hear the season 1 virtualization music. I can hear the doom coming. For some reason, the fog in the Mountain sector gets about 200% thicker. Since this is Season 2, cue the Tarantulas. Odd then turns traitor, devirtualizes Yumi, and starts attacking Ulrich. I would like to point out that the footage of Yumi in the scanner looks like something out of Garage Kids.
Odd wakes up in a bond-villain-meets-Edgar-Allen-Poe trap. By the way, what kind of house has a random, sealed over, concrete pit in the side yard? And how did XANA get Odd in there? And why didn't he just kill Odd when he was unconscious? This scene has more cliches than the Scary Movie franchise. MINUS ANOTHER POINT for bond villain stupidity.
Since Ulrich is the one without a ranged weapon, Odd pursues him, while shooting at him. Yumi shows up, with Jeremie figuring out what the viewer did 3 minutes ago, that it's a clone! Meanwhile on Lyoko, the Tarantulas we forgot about show up and wait at the tower. X.A.N.A. tries to take over the tower, so Jeremie finally figures out that it's a trap, "really? it took you this long?" and tells Aelita to abort the mission. Meanwhile, Aelita is probably thinking, "shouldn't we raise the mission for 6 months, then abort it? Oh wait, this isn't season 4 yet."
Jeremie is suddenly back to being competent, and determines that Odd is near the north-east corner of the woods, based on his phone, which is abandoned on the ground. yeah. Yumi heads to that general area.
Meanwhile, the "Everything Jeremie Makes Breaks" rule is in full effect, and Aelita can't stop the decoding program. Despite everyone else remembering the last time Jeremie used a tower, XANA took it over, Jeremie doesn't remember, and didn't think to sandbox the tower from their critical files, which includes things like the weapons, vehicles, Franz's diary, and Aelita's Materialization Program. Despite this incompetence, Jeremie thinks to isolate their tower from the tower network, and tells Ulrich to cut the Lyoko Wires.
Noticing that Odd hasn't worked for taking out Ulrich, XANA changes the clone to match Ulrich. Ever since "Image Problem," whenever the ratings got low, the Code Lyoko writers would make a mirror fight. It looks looks like they saw the rest of this episode and did exactly that.
Meanwhile in the woods, Yumi finds Odd's abandoned phone, and despite all horror movie logic, she isn't attacked next. The tower alternates colors, and since all Aelita can do is press a button labeled "stop," that doesn't work, thinks are looking bad. Back to the mirror fight, which maintains that label by making perfectly symmetrical violence. Odd's bond-villain water is still rising,
We finally hear the season 2 virtualization music, so we know things are about to get fixed, and Ulrich devirtualizes the clone, and runs back to the tower. Remember the third tarantula? Ulrich doesn't, and he is devirtualized. Yumi finds Odd, and we get deus ex machina from Franz. The characters call eachother, and meet at Kadic. Having met up at Katic, Jeremie reveals that Aelia is Franz Hopper's daughter.
Review Summary[]
A lot of this episode was predictable, and the episode ignored what little opportunities there were for suspense. There were numerous cliches, especially with the trap Odd got stuck in. The overall rating: 2 / 10. This episode was uncreative, and it showed.