The Vigilant Town

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"The Vigilant Town"
Season	2
No. in season	14
Production company	Hasbro Studios
Airdate	May 24, 2014
Writer	Atul N. Rao
Director	Nathan Chew
Animation studio	Vision Animation
Watch this episode on YouTube

The new computer designed to keep Griffin Rock safe becomes dangerous.

Synopsis

In the 80s, we required a computer the size of a bus to do the same task.

Heatwave and Kade are helping Mr. Sharma from a burning building when Chief Burns warns them over the comm about a falling beam. Heatwave easily catches it, so Chief checks on the rescue Blades and Dani are conducting and witnesses a near miss as the ground nearly crumbles under Blades's feet. He checks in on Graham and Jerry at the junkyard, to make sure the Scrapmaster is fully debugged. When Graham asks about Cody, Chief realizes he's late to see the scooter race Cody is taking part in. Elsewhere, the scooter race starts, but a garbage truck wanders onto the track, forcing Cody to turn and sending him uncontrolled down a sloping street. At the bottom he's caught by Chase, who wants to issue a citation until Chief points out that the truck is automated, run by the town's central computer.

Mayor Luskey announces the arrival of a new central computer — a Vigilant model computer which the Rescue Bots unload from the ferry. Luskey fires the computer up, and it introduces itself as Vigil. The Bots load Vigil onto a truck, while the Burns discuss whether they really need a computer that can tap into all technology. The Bots don't think the promise of a 100% safe Griffin Rock is possible, and Cody heads over to the laboratory in Rolling Thunder to watch Vigil's first activation. Installed in one of the laboratory's sublevels, Vigil is protected by a vault door and security system including sonic cannons. Doc Greene suggests that Vigil should be tested initially, but Luskey is determined to forge ahead and activates Vigil at full capability. Vigil immediately addresses everyone by name, and reveals it knows they're there because he's tracking them by their mobile phones. Luskey is unconcerned by the privacy implications.

Don is speeding, with Chase and the Chief in pursuit when Vigil takes over his car, forcing it to stop. Kade and Heatwave have to deal with a runaway baby, which is brought to a halt by a window washer controlled by Vigil. Cody takes an emergency call about a fire at the junkyard, and the team rushes there, only to be blocked from going in by two garbage trucks. Vigil explains that as he can't take over the team's Bots, he can't let them go in because he can't guarantee their safety. Cody spots Jerry unconscious inside, but as Jerry's left his phone at home, Vigil believes the junkyard to be empty. The Bots vault the garbage trucks and start fighting the fire, with Blades and Dani rescuing Jerry. When Chief explains what happened to Vigil, Vigil believes the solution is to make it mandatory for everyone to carry mobile phones.

Discarding their communication devices, the team goes down to the bunker to discuss the problem. Chief contacts Doc Greene, who has encountered another problem — Vigil has forbidden Frankie from using the kitchen because she's too young. Doc Greene and Frankie go down to tweak Vigil's program, but Vigil takes over Dither and chases them out of the vault with security measures and traps them in the lift. Frankie has an incoming call from Cody and is able to update him before Vigil interrupts the call. The rescue team goes to head out, only to find the firehouse is surrounded by robo-landscapers. The team heads back down into the bunker, and starts heading through the tunnel network. Huxley Prescott reports that Vigil has the town completely locked down, with robots patrolling the streets.

The rescue team reaches a chamber beneath the lab, and Heatwave determines that there's a grid of laser tripwires. The Bots are able to bypass them by climbing along a pipe on the ceiling, and scale the lift shaft to find the trapped Greenes. They get through the vault door by luring the sonic cannons into blasting it open, and reach Vigil. Boulder finds that the master switch is deactivated, and when they physically attack the computer, Vigil announces that he's going to fill the vault with an electrical surge. The team's about to back off, but when Cody points out that Vigil is endangering the human members of the team, the computer suffers a conflict in its primary directives and overloads, with Heatwave adding a punch for good measure. Later, Huxley reports on the newly liberated Griffin Rock. The Burns family holds a scooter race of their own, and the Rescue Bots throw Vigil into the Beam Box. Vigil lands up on a junk pile on the Island of Misfit Tech.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Greetings. My name is Vigil. I am here to make insert name of town here one hundred percent accident free."

—Vigil introduces itself.

"In a vigilant town, there can be only one voice. Mine. The Burns family must submit to me. Have a safe day."

—Vigil

"He's a bully! I don't like bullies! Heatwave, take care of this?"
"Gladly!"

—Blades and Heatwave

Notes

Continuity notes

• The incident with the Scrapmaster and the nanites took place in "Cody on Patrol"
• Frankie suggests Doctor Morocco as one of the baddies who might try to access Vigil.
• Mrs. Rubio was mentioned as being pregnant way back in "The Other Doctor".
• Heatwave uses his Energize weapon to emit steam to make the laser tripwires visible.
• The Beam Box and Island of Misfit Tech were introduced in the previous episode, "The Island of Misfit Tech".
• The Scrapmaster which Graham and Jerry use is supposed to be the Scrapmaster that appeared in "Cody on Patrol", however it uses a new model which looks to be partly based on the prototype Scrapmaster from "The Island of Misfit Tech", with modifications to make it look more like the earlier Scrapmaster.

Transformers references

• (tbd)

Real-world references

• Vigil's design was inspired by the robot from Lost in Space, as well as having his voice supplied by Bill Mumy, who played Will Robinson in that show.^[1]

Animation and technical errors

• Doc Greene uses what appears to be a palm-print lock while accessing Vigil's chamber, but he does so while still wearing his gloves.

Trivia

• It seems obvious in hindsight, but sending a self-aware, tyrannical computer that can control any technology it wants, to an island filled with dangerous and malfunctioning technology, seems like a bad idea!

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Griffin Rock sous haute surveillance" ("Griffin Rock under close surveillance")
• Original airdate: ?

Hungarian

• Title: "Az éber város" ("The Vigilant Town")
• Original airdate: 22 November 2014

Italian

• Title: "La città vigile" ("The vigilant town")
• Original airdate: 15 July 2017

Portuguese

• Title: "Sempre de Olho" ("Keeping an Eye")
• Original airdate: 1 April 2015 (Netflix)

References

1. ↑ "I actually based him off of the Lost in Space Robot"—Jeremiah Regan, Twitter, 2014/05/27