WARNING: This is a full episode recap, so if you wish to avoid spoilers, please watch the episode before reading this.
Prisoners are loaded aboard a Recognizer. Beck dons his Renegade disguise and attacks the ship, shattering the windshield and invading the cockpit. One of the pilots tells him that he was the one that derezzed his friend Bohdi, the act that sent Beck on his mission. He is distracted when the other pilot jabs a Light Disc into his chest.
Oh. It’s just a simulation. Nevermind.
Tron critiques Beck’s performance and wants to run another simulation, but Beck says he has to get to work. Suddenly there is a electronic blackout and Tron deploys Beck.
Beck has to ask for more time off from his boss Able, who is put off. Beck says he’ll get Zed to cover for him. Zed, however is busy making a deal with some shady programs, Bartick and Hopper, to participate in the Argon Race, utilizing a new Light Cycle he’s designed. “Thirty percent faster than anything anyone has used before.” Zed does agree to cover Beck’s shift.
Tessler and Pavel arrive at a giant drilling site and ask Paige why the drill is turned off. She points out that the drilling caused the blackout, but Tessler doesn’t care if a few programs are derezzed because of his actions and orders the drill be turned back on. He then relieves Paige of her duties and places Pavel in charge. “You’ve been sloppy lately,” Pavel jabs.
Tron and Beck are watching from above and Tron states that if the drill hits the Power Pool, they’ll all lose their lives. Tron gives Beck an explosive device and tells him to plant it on the drill, accessing it through “The Tunnels,” the same place where the Argon Race is about to start. Tron urges him to hurry.
Beck enters the Tunnels and scales a wall, coming very close to the drill. He activates the bomb, but a guard knocks him down and he drops it. They battle and Beck knocks the guard out. He manages to disarm the bomb before it explodes.
Pavel is busy disciplinging his new charges, so Beck slips past them and climbs up the drill. He activates the bomb and plants it. But from atop the drill, he spies a beam of light reaching to the sky. “Zed,” he mutters as his friend is about to start his race.
Zed’s bike is indeed fast and he quickly out-paces the others, but there are no rules in this race and some of the more cut-throat customers surely have tricks up their sleeves. Beck’s baton is damaged, so he must take a four-wheel utility vehicle, which lacks the speed of a Light Cycle.
Paige finds the downed guard, who mutters, “It was the Renegade.”
Beck is too late to stop the race, but he plants two bombs and blows up a bridge. Ruthlessly, Bartick and Hopper take down their fellow racers and catch up to Zed, who activates his overdrive and pulls ahead of them, but they all must stop when they reach the debris of the destroyed bridge. Beck/The Renegade tells them the race is over and warns them about the bomb. Bartick and Hopper leave, but Zed is upset because he was winning. Paige is standing nearby and says she will disarm the bomb. Beck swipes Zed’s baton and jacks his bike to go after her.
The energy drill becomes destablized and the computer orders an evacuation, but Pavel tells everyone to get back to work. A countdown begins, so Pavel decides to “supervise from a distance” and boards his ship. Meanwhile, Beck tries to reason with Paige, but she won’t listen. They reach the drill just as the countdown hits two…
They retreat back into the tunnel as the drill explodes, wiping out all power to The Grid. They dodge shooting fire, until Beck takes his Light Disc and causes a collapse to shield their escape. It only works momentarily, though. Realizing that Paige’s cycle isn’t fast enough, he urges her to get on his. She rebuffs him, but he grabs her and forces her onto his bike. Although he just saved her, she begins beating him. He uses his Light Disc to clear a blockage in their path and points out that he just saved her life again. She threatens to end this, when the blue fiery explosion catches up to them. She puts her Light Disc away and grabs hold of him as they narrowly escape the tunnel ahead of the explosion. Paige topples to the ground and Beck tells her he’ll see her around.
Pavel is reporting to Tessler that Paige and The Renegade were both derezzed in the explosion, when she enters and says she doesn’t feel derezzed. She states that The Renegade also survived, but she has an idea of how to handle him.
Beck finds Zed in the shop, building a new bike to replace the one The Renegade stole. Zed is upset and Beck is clearly torn by the fact that he can’t tell his friend the truth. He tries to comfort him, but leaves. Bartick and Hopper approach and ask Zed if he can build more bikes. He asks why and Paige appears. She is forming a team to take out The Renegade and she wants Zed to be part of it.
Tessler addresses the people of Argon and tells them that their power loss was the act of The Renegade and vows to bring him to justice, as the people cheer passionately. Well, not all of them. Mara and Able stare defiantly upward as everyone else celebrates. Watching from overhead, Tron tries to reassure Beck, but he stares wide-eyed at the crowd, uncertainly.
The race storyline was a bit trite, but the development at the end of Zed possibly joining Paige and Tessler’s faction was a big deal. Once again, this show is pretty sophisticated for an animated series that airs on Disney XD. I’m looking forward to where all of this will lead!
Did you miss an episode? Check out our recap of last week’s ‘The Renegade part 2‘.
