The Griffin Rock Express
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| "The Griffin Rock Express" | ||||||
| Production company | Hasbro Studios | |||||
| Airdate | July 19, 2014 | |||||
| Writer | Greg Johnson | |||||
| Director | Nathan Chew | |||||
| Animation studio | Vision Animation | |||||
A mysterious superhero keeps a close eye on Griffin Rock while the Rescue Team rebuilds a train tunnel.
Synopsis
It's night in Griffin Rock. All is quiet, except for a small figure zooming through the streets on a high-tech cycle. The figure streaks up the side of a building to watch over the building site below, where Graham is supervising trucks removing dirt from a tunnel. A bump causes a huge rock to fall from one of the trucks, and Graham is only saved when the mysterious figure grabs him and the boulder phases right through them. Graham assumes it's Cody playing Rescue Boy again, but as Boulder, Chief and the rest of the family emerge from the tunnel, the hero speeds off and disappears through a building. Back at the fire station, Cody arrives in the bunker to find the team confronting him about his nighttime activities. Cody, it turns out, is none-the-wiser but the team's too tired to investigate further as to who the mysterious superhero could be.
The next morning, Cody pauses in his search through Griffin Rock surveillance to watch Huxley Prescott's report from the mainland on the inaugural journey of the hover train that will be the Griffin Rock Express. The tunnel itself was built fifty years ago, but never completed when the Griffin Rock council voted to stop funding. Shortly after, Cody's contacted by Barney at the town jail, to report that Evan and Myles have been caught by the superhero during a bank robbery attempt. As the rescue team puts the finishing touches on the tunnel, they reflect on the fact that they really don't want that many visitors from the mainland. They're all ready to turn in, but Chief breaks the news that Mayor Luskey wants them to be on the train for its first trip in the evening.
Still searching for the vigilante, Cody has to see the rest of his family off on the ferry from the fire station. His surveillance search pays off when he spots the hero saving Don from a texting-and-driving accident, but before he's able to go investigate, he gets an emergency call from Jimmy and the hero speeds off. Cody reaches the trash yard just in time to encounter the mysterious figure pulling Jimmy out of an old cargo container. When Cody attempts to chase the figure down, the hero has to save him from crashing Rolling Thunder, and reveals herself to be none-other-than Frankie Greene. They retire to the fire station where Frankie explains how she borrowed some technology and became Rescue Girl. The Rescue Bots are unimpressed, given her lack of training, and she promises to tell her father what she's been doing.
Back on the mainland, everyone's loaded aboard the Griffin Rock Express for its first trip through the tunnel, though 3/4 of the Burnses aboard are asleep as the train starts off. Huxley raises a concern that they're not going very fast — it turns out the train's boosters haven't get been calibrated, but the Mayor orders the robo conductor to increase speed anyway. Naturally this causes the train's systems to overload, and it becomes runaway. Alerted by Huxley's news report, the kids look up maps of the tunnels and work out they can break down the rock wall at the end of the tunnel and give the train more leeway to stop. On board, Doc Greene sends Dani and Kade to the back to work the reverse engine lever, while he and the rest of the family attempt to reach the train's booster through a floor panel in the front cab. The Rescue Bots manage to break through the rock wall in time, sending the train down a longer tunnel, and the Bots set off in pursuit. The train is initially too fast for them, but Kade and Dani manage to slow it with the reverse lever long enough for the Bots to jump on board. Boulder proves unable to break through the roof, so Frankie uses her phasing tech to enter the train and get everyone to safety aboard the Bots before the train explodes. Back at the station, Luskey gives a speech and Huxley asks about the technology Frankie has been using, but Doc Greene says it's top secret tech for a client. Meanwhile, Madeline Pynch is watching Huxley's report.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"All this manual labour has actually made me miss flying. Wait, no it hasn't."
- —Blades
"This is not a stunt on my award-winning show 'I Dare Me' (check local listings) so get me off this runaway train!"
- —Huxley Prescott
Chase: Success! Exactly what is our plan now?
Heatwave: We're hopping that train and getting those people off.
Blades: We're hopping that WHAT?!
Graham: A sharp S curve ahead. Can the autosteering unit handle it?
Doc Greene: This autosteering unit?
Chief Burns: Guess I'm driving!
Notes
Animation and technical errors
- Right after Graham's rescue, Boulder comes running out of the tunnel followed by Chief, Graham, Dani and Kade.
Continuity errors
Continuity notes
- Cody's adventures as Rescue Boy took place in the episode "Rescue Boy".
- Barney previously appeared in "The Haunting of Griffin Rock".
