The Zeta Project – 15wiredpt2

Zeta is captured by Agent Bennet and wired to a supercomputer in the NSA labs for reprogramming. It’s up to Ro to sneak in and save her friend.

Media by Borg4of3
Review by Matt Zimmer

Voices:
Diedrich Bader as Zeta / Zee
Julie Nathanson as Ro
Kurtwood Smith as Agent Bennet
Michael Rosenbaum as Agent West
Dominique Jennings as Agent Rush
Blayn Barbosa as Bucky
Jim Wise as Dr. Byrne
Vanessa Marshall as Virtual Operator
Larry Cedar as Gate Guard
Googy Gress as Buss
Amy Danles as Meg
 

And now for the conclusion to the two-part season premiere.

Zeta is being held captive at NSA headquarters while Ro is sneaking into them. She has a vid-phone conversation with ally Bucky who quickly hangs up on her and locks out her phone number once he realizes where she is calling from in a very funny scene. Meanwhile Bennett is asking Zeta who reprogrammed him while Zee tells him that he hasn’t been. West accidentally uncovers a hidden module inside Zeta’s brain that NONE of the agents knew was there. To find out what it is Bennett decides to erase Zeta’s memories.

After the memory wipe Zeta breaks loose and begins destroying much of the building. After Ro is discovered Bennett has a conversation with her over the intercom trying to get her to turn in her friend because he is a dangerous weapon. Ro tells Bennett he is wrong and that Zeta is good and has kept a roof over her head and saved countless strangers from disaster. Hearing her voice Zeta’s memory returns and they both escape.
Zeta is worried that he had become a destructive machine again once his memory was wiped but Ro says that there is good and bad in everybody and that just made him human.

I absolutely loved this episode. There are some seriously awesome scenes between all the characters. The thing I loved most about the episode was all of the great character interactions, particularly between Zeta and
Bennett and Zeta and Ro. I finally understood after seeing this episode that Bennett WASN’T a bad guy and actually believed Zeta to be dangerous. He was also really concerned for Ro’s safety. I LIKE that
Bennett isn’t a black and white villain and it makes him a complicated character.

Deideric Bader and Julie Nathanson also give strong performances as Zee and Ro particularly him trying to hold on to all of his memories and her heartfelt speech to Bennett about how Zeta was in fact good. There were also a lot of neat scenes in the episode. I found Ro sneaking by that
Synthoid "Danger Room" with robots blowing the heck out of each other especially unsettling. And I also enjoyed seeing Zeta revert back to all of the Transformations he made during the first season (including a return to the teacher he impersonated in Batman Beyond’s "Zeta"!) It was little touches like that that made the episode so cool.

I also thought that the revelation that Zeta had been shifting his memory banks from one port to the other to fight the erasure was a believable way for him to get his memory back. Usually stuff like that sounds far fetched and I was able to believe it even if I’m not the most knowledgeable guy about computers.

I have no complaints about the animation, which to my admittedly untrained eyes seemed smooth and without any flaws. Just about everything about this episode was great. Outstanding.

Story: *****
Animation: *****
Average: *****