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| Sorry, globes have no answers. |
We start-out with the 3 kids sitting again at a table in a room. Some details include a blast-from-the-past of a mini-Malcolm figurine on the mantle on the right. Many people who grazed religion, such as buddhism, often have a keepsake figurine like that. I've seen homes with golden-painted Buddhas tucked away somewhere, or a Ganesh elephant-head god on a shelf. The icon kept, the faith lost and forgotten, remnants of a past time, one of hopeful spirituality lost by laziness or corruption. We also get to see more proof of Dad-Roy and Yellow-Kid together on a family portrait.
Episode 4 - Digital World
Always-present mouse-hole / rat-hole. 19th of June again. The closest one to getting to the center, to the door in the board-game is the Red-Guy (who's the oldest). He's the closest to escaping this world. 1906 also appears in the pink-sticky on the pin-up cork-board with the dad's name, Roy.
Red-Guy picks up a mystery card and the milk carton has the three kids on it (from the older lost-children on a milk-container reference from the 1980's and 1990's.) They expect the answer from the globe, which is humorous, as the globe really has no answers they seek. Many kids look there for answers but almost none get an answer they're looking for. Biggest thing in the world? Would a globe know? Nope. Just borders and continents and oceans. The kids expect the globe to talk but it never gets a chance. They're used to talking mascots at this point from the programming they've been receiving.
The computer pipes-up and interrupts the globe. Behind, a chart has 19-06-55 on it. Another June 19th, 1955 reference in the British showing of a date. US would be 06-19-55 of course. Computer's song says the time is 19:06 as well. Red-Guy is often interrupted during the song start and we don't get his name when asked. Oats are a recurring theme in this episode. Oats seemingly must be found. This is a mystery still, however. The computer refuses to answer anything until you answer all of its personal questions, which is a nice allusion to many websites these days. Sure, you may get an answer (or most often not) but first you have to give your name, birthday, etc.
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| Creepy Dad-Roy stands and waits in the darkness. |
The kids are sent to a computer-world. Strangely, number 7 is the only number that's unhappy. Not sure why. This might mean the 7th episode is going to be very dangerous as a clue. Yellow-Kid realizes it's all a simulation video-game as an avatar-character that he controls. Here, the clown-picture is allowed to exist, whereas before it was painted black. This digital-fantasy world allows things. Oats exist here too.
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| Virtual friends. |
Computer announces there's 3 things to do in this world, charts, digital-"style", and digital-"dancing" fun. Eventually charts are about useless and there's nothing behind option 1. When computers were introduced in the home-mass-market, charts were often displayed on a box (like the Commodore 64) to make things seem useful. Look! Useful charts!
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| Digital STYLE! Only Bird-Guy's brain remains and turns into a monster. |
Ultimately, however, it's just all fun and games. The reality is it's just all about fun and games. "Hey, look! Nothing! Digital-style! Digital-dancing, hey, this is FUN!" Things start to distort.
Soon, the other two kids are gone, leaving Red-Guy. A chord leaves the room. Dad-Roy sits in the dark corner ominously. It's time for Red-Guy alone. He knows the kids digitally and they exist temporarily in the empty chairs. Like a digital friendship online, they exist only momentarily. Red-Guy is becoming like Dad-Roy: an adult, consumed by the internet and reality of things. He leaves the room and follows the chord into another kitchen seen in Episode 1.
The kitchen is a set. Everything he knew is fake. Bird-Guy is actually a real duck. Yellow-Kid is a balloon with a tape-recorder. Red-Guy is portrayed as a red mop. The tape-deck of Yellow-Kid says, "I'm going to paint a picture of a clown." from Episode 1 and, "My dad is a computer." from Episode 2, and "You are not invited to the party." This means the "party" is the childhood fun and promises. Body-stocking-wearing stage-hands cut the scene. Reality as he knew it is all a lie, and Red-Guy's head explodes.
Red-Guy sees behind the lies of cartoons, TV, mascots, and other controlling influences. The magic is ruined by information and knowledge. Red-Guy has become aware and has moved beyond the kid-stage-world. Ultimately he never gets his answer to the question in the game. Just like Internet Searches, we get inundated with distractions and false, misleading "digital fun". At first, some useful stuff but so much more useless stuff as well, and of the stuff we do get, the knowledge we seek, it's all distorted anyway.
Pretty cool episode. Oats omnipresent as a clue to the next episode.
Chippy-time!
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| BURGER! |
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