Fridge / Carmen Sandiego

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2019 TV Series

Fridge Brilliance

General

• Carmen's Animal Motif is a Sheep. That doesn't sound like an awesome animal to base off a thief, but according to the Chinese Zodiac, people born in the year of the Sheep are known to be auspicious, benevolent, good observers, and are very persevering which are traits that Carmen shows very well.
• Why is Carmen the best thief in the world? Because while her former classmates were taught by the five best thieves in the world, Carmen was personally raised by them throughout her life. And as Season 2 revealed, her father was a former V.I.L.E. Council member and an extraordinary thief. In other words, Carmen was born and raised a superthief.
• Carmen’s transition from VILE’s prodigal student to independent master thief working for good parallels her classmates as they graduate to become VILE agents. New VILE recruits are cut off from all outside communication, accepted they were becoming willing killers, conditioned to obey all rules and go to any extreme for their crimes, and even give up their own names to become cold-hearted thieves/killers. Carmen, who was raised into VILE and had always been cut off from the world, broke the first rule by contacting an outsider (Player) when she stole the phone. Second, Carmen always had a penchant for breaking the rules anyway and never learned about VILE’s acceptance of killing, so there’s no way she’d ever go along with the “leave no witnesses” belief. Lastly, since she was already born with her codename, her choosing a full name for herself to become her own person runs opposite of how her friends fully committed themselves to giving up their names/autonomy for VILE.
• Why do ACME agents only use non-lethal gas guns? Back when the Chief was an agent, she fired and killed a suspect when he was only pulling out his keys from his pocket. That kind of trauma and guilt could definitely cause her to make policy changes when she became head of ACME.
  • More than that, they're on the hunt for an international criminal syndicate who make a point of burning any paper trail they leave in their tracks. Their only means of acquiring actionable intelligence is by interrogating captured enemy operatives, and dead men tell no tales.

Becoming Carmen Sandiego, Part 2

• Carmen literally pulls her name out of a hat.

The Opera in the Outback Caper

• Graham giving Carmen a time and address to meet him feels a little forward and maybe even trappish until you remember that VILE doesn't allow contact with the outside world, he probably doesn't have a number to call yet.
• Crackle’s induced amnesia actually makes perfect sense. Many have questioned why V.I.L.E. didn’t just kill him for being captured by the authorities and that’s probably what they did if they existed before the internet. If the authorities think that this random Australian man is just an innocent civilian, killing him would raise suspicions that; if nothing else, he was connected to something shady and V.I.L.E. operates as a whisper of a rumor wrapped in intrigue and someone would notice he was missing. So if the authorities think they’ve caught a normal person, that is exactly what they will get. Also; as Player pointed out, they may have also turned him into a sleeper agent.

The French Connection Caper

• Shadowsan has the aesthetic of a samurai. What were samurai known for? Honor and Nobility! This makes sense as to why he intentionally rigged Carmen's test because he wanted what was best for her.
• Shadowsan objected to Paper Star being put on the Magna Carta caper claiming that it was because she was undisciplined and unruly like Carmen. With the reveal that he was protecting Carmen, this puts it into light that he was objecting because he knew how dangerous Paper Star was and would probably even give Carmen trouble.
• And with the reveal that he was trying to protect Carmen, one has to wonder about Shadowsan's true motives for deciding to interrogate Chase Devineaux alone when VILE concludes (wrongly) that Chase was Carmen's partner. Or at the very least, one has to wonder if Chase would have gotten that mind-probe clamped to his head had Coach Brunt not gone with Shadow-san.
• Furthermore, the reveal that Shadowsan was deliberately failing Carmen because he knew she’d reject VILE once she learned how ruthless they could be makes perfect sense when we see the scene where the graduates from VILE Academy learn that the staff had been profiling them to test their allegiance to VILE and their willingness to be ruthless. Shadowsan would have been profiling Carmen as well and no doubt would have realized that she was too good for VILE; thus, he opposed her enrolling in the school and did his best to fail her.

The Hot Rocks of Rio Caper (Part 1)

• Shadowsan's mask is that of a crow. While it's simply easy to chalk it off as crows being thieves, if you put it in connection to a karasu tengu (a crow-like goblin) then there's plenty of symbolism. They dislike braggarts (Shadowsan has an utter dislike of Tigress) and punishes those who misuse information (giving the hardrive of V.I.L.E activities to Carmen at the end of Season 1) and were even known as symbols of war (him defecting causes an internal war between the last four V.I.L.E council members)
  • Another thing karasu-tengu were known for were kidnapping adults and children; in a way he helped Carmen move away from a life of crime.
• Shadowsan reveals his true allegiance to Carmen by giving the wrong details about where and how Carmen came into V.I.L.E. custody in the first place. He says Coach Brunt found her in Moscow. This lie probably perfectly matches the others' assumptions. Carmen herself had suspected Coach Brunt was the one who found her thanks to her warm and maternal treatment, and since Carmen's most prized possessions are a set of Russian nesting dolls, it makes sense to assume she came from Russia. Even Carmen's closest friend at the Academy didn't know she was from Argentina.

The Daisho Caper

• Shadowsan being Suhara makes a lot of sense as in the previous show he was Carmen’s mentor and an ACME detective, meaning unlike Bellum and Maelstrom he’s ultimately good.

The African Ice Caper

• In "The Sticky Rice Caper", first episode after the pilot, VILE is able to spring Crackle because of someone filing the right paperwork to get his release from Interpol. At the end of season 2, VILE is revealed to have people in British Security, to help keep track of police operations against their operations. They likely have other low-key assets in place in Interpol and other powerful law enforcement groups to help spring their captured people.
• Related to this, since they have no one in ACME, and Mime Bomb wouldn't (or possibly couldn’t) tell of his failure, the Faculty never learned of his capture by Chase. This is why he escaped the memory wipe punishment.

The Deep Dive Caper

• Dexter Wolfe’s Animal Motif of wolves perfectly complements his daughter’s one of sheep due to the connection between the two in folklore.
  • It even makes his daughter a Wolfe in Sheep's clothing.

The Himalayan Rescue Caper

• It would seem strange that Graham Calloway would join VILE considering that his friend Carmen swore that she would stop VILE and the fact he regretted trying to hurt Carmen and not want her to be in a dangerous position, but it actually makes sense. If Gray returned back to civilian life, he would lose all of his memories of VILE, including memories of Carmen. He would have no idea what might have happen to her essentially losing a close friend in the process. But if he became a member of VILE, he would have a much better overview of what's going on with Carmen and what she is doing, knowing that Carmen will be alright.

The Dark Red Caper

• Graham Calloway aka Crackle is by this episode an official member of V.I.L.E but defects by turning himself to the Icelandic Police allowing him to reach A.C.M.E. How come V.I.L.E has not been alerted about Graham's arrest you might ask? That's because V.I.L.E's member, Roundabout was assigned a role specifically to release arrested V.I.L.E members from custody allowing them to remain hidden until V.I.L.E sent Roundabout to the dungeon in Season 4 Episode 1 right after he was arrested last episode. Because Roundabout is the dungeon, they are unable to easily release their members from custody as it took them a while to search for Graham Calloway in Season 4 Episode 3 but it doesn't take long for A.C.M.E to find him as they have influence over major law enforcements. Graham knows this, given Le Chevre learned of his brain wipe in Season 1, so he would've knew Roundabout's arrest when he brought back to VILE as a member.

• After Graham tries to heal the brainwashed Carmen with the experimental A.C.M.E. tech she views him as a traitor, and decides to kill him. She decides to use his own shock stick, which was revealed in the second episode to be capable of killing someone if turned all the way up. Therefore, when she turns it all the way up and shoots him, the audience is lead to believe that she just killed him. However, he survives. It is revealed that at some undetermined point, Graham modified his shock stick so that it was unable to produce the lethal shots. There are a few possible explanations for why he would do this.
  • Did he do this after he rejoined V.I.L.E. out of fear that he would have to shoot at Carmen?
  • Or did he eventually take Carmen's words to heart and decide that he couldn't bring himself to actually kill anyone?

Fridge Horror

Becoming Carmen Sandiego, Part 2

• Since Carmen was chloroformed by the Cleaners, that means that Crackle and the others were free to kill all of the archaeologists witnesses.
• Given the cold-hearted nature of Crackle, Tigress, Le Chèvre, and El Topo, one has to wonder how the VILE Council found such budding psychopaths in the first place?
  • Added to that, a young Carmen was constantly around older people who were quite amoral.

The Sticky Rice Caper

• Played for Laughs or not, the fact that the VILE Council fed a toddler Carmen VILE branded rice raises a pressing question and concern: Did they, or Dr. Bellum specifically, use Carmen as a guinea pig for other experiments?

The Fishy Doubloon Caper

• Carmen pulled out the oxygen tube on El Topo's swim gear. Had El Topo not had propellers in his swim gear and it not been a kids show, he could have drowned in the time it took to get to the surface considering how deep underwater he was.

The Duke of Vermeer Caper

• Just how did Carmen know Countess Cleo fed phonies and/or spies to dogs? Has she seen it first hand?

The Chasing Paper Caper

• Le Chèvre makes an offhanded comment that he has had more successful missions than Paper Star. Which mean Carmen hasn't been able to stop him from stealing priceless artifacts and/or items of historical importance. Meaning that a country has lost something connected to their past and whoever were witnesses are now dead. In a sad case of realistic outcomes, this means Carmen can't stop every one of V.I.L.E.'s plans and the victims they create.
  • Season 2 reveals that V.I.L.E has lost plenty of money chasing after Carmen so whatever heists the others have pulled aren't enough to compensate.

The French Connection Caper

• Coach Brunt's reply to Carmen's Armor-Piercing Question about the former finding her is particularly frightening if one listens to her words carefully - she states that Carmen's past is "one stone you do not wanna turn". In other words, Coach Brunt and most likely the other VILE Council members are more connected to her past than what was thought. And it's not good.
  • And if that's true, then it's likely that Shadowsan was lying to Carmen when she asked by Argentina, as he may be ashamed of what truly transpired.
    • Carmen’s birth family were most likely witnesses to one of V.I.L.E’s crimes.
    • The Season 2 finale reveals that Carmen's father was a former VILE operative and Shadow-san was tasked to kill him.
• Coach Brunt's attempt to kill Carmen by crushing her with a Deadly Hug may imply that the Bear Hug she gave Carmen out of "guilt" in "Becoming Carmen Sandiego - Part 2" may not have been a case of Does Not Know Her Own Strength as it seemed, but rather an Implied Death Threat.
• Coach Brunt tells Devineaux to either do the "hard way or easy way" to reveal any infromation about ACME. Their idea of the easy way is using the truth extractor which completely caused Devineaux to black out with a head injury and had to be hospitalized although he was able to recover. Given VILE's policy on killing witnesses, just imagine what the "hard way" Devineaux would have to endure.

The Deep Dive Caper

• Just imagine the worries Carmen's birth mother was thinking a mile a minute when Dexter didn't show up with their daughter.

To Steal or Not To Steal

• In the bad ending where Carmen gets her mind wiped along with Ivy and Zack, since V.I.L.E doesn't know about Player, he's the only member of the team left with knowledge of V.I.L.E and being a kid, he can't do anything
• The set up for the We Have Your Sidekicks is pretty chilling. Zack and Ivy are in position as ordered while Carmen goes in for the steal, a process she notes is too easy. Then when she defiantly tells the V.I.L.E. council that she'll never steal for them, they reveal they've grabbed Zack and Ivy, to Carmen's utter horror (since, even though it's not stated, she's probably blaming herself for putting them in position to be kidnapped in the first place). Not to mention that several bad endings involve Carmen making a split-second decision that dooms Zack and Ivy to a life serving V.I.L.E. with their personalities erased forever and in one such ending, they're brainwashed right before Carmen rescues them but subtly enough that she doesn't realize it's happened until they're attacking her.
• Depending on the canonicity of the special, we now have official confirmation that V.I.L.E. can create scarily effective sleeper agents. Suddenly, Carmen and Player's own worries about Gray becoming a sleeper agent back in season 1 have been cast in a terrifying new light.

The Jolly Good Show Caper

• One for VILE. With Roundabout’s quite public arrest and downfall, VILE has just lost their get out of jail free card and an agent with almost global reach. Fridge Horror comes in when one thinks of all the strings he has pulled for VILE, even just this season. Private Jets, Hidden castles, releasing international prisoners and presumably much more. If even just a handful of people he talked to comes forward, this could undermine VILE operations around the world. Not to mention that the government is probably going to be launching an intensive search on his actions, so who knows what they might dig up. If there was one member of the Facility you wouldn't want revealed, it was Roundabout. Now anything that was built on his contacts is going to come crumbling down and fast.
  • And even though the Cleaners managed to get Roundabout out of jail, you still have to be worried when you think about his possible fate at the hands of his colleagues on the V.I.L.E. Faculty. While failing to complete a mission successfully is acceptable as long as you escape law enforcement, getting captured by law enforcement is punished by having your memory erased of ever having worked for V.I.L.E., since capture risks having the organization exposed. But Dr. Saira Bellum can’t simply erase Roundabout’s memories of working for V.I.L.E. because he was a member of the British Secret Service! Worse, he was a member of the V.I.L.E. Council, and even if he had been very useful in the past, the others on the Council might not be inclined to give him a free pass for allowing Carmen and her crew to outsmart him and expose him so spectacularly! What do people like Dr. Bellum do to people who screw up that badly? I’m not sure that I want to know.

The Viennese Waltz Caper

• When the V.I.L.E. Council performs the mind-wipe on Carmen, it is made clear that they did much worse than just implant false memories. They explicitly state that they removed her ability to feel empathy for anyone outside VILE. However, Sara Bellum may well have more removed more empathy than intended, or the excessive modification could have caused that last sliver of empathy to wither away over time. We do see examples of her apparently caring little for what is best for V.I.L.E.
  • We first see mild examples of misbehavior from Carmen, such as jamming her fingers up Tigress's nose.
  • Then we see her abandon her team during the heist to go steal a Stradivarius violin.
  • Even after becoming V.I.L.E. Faculty, Carmen still goes on heists personally. This is highly unusual due to a high organizational risk. The Faculty made an exception only in the "The V.I.L.E History Caper" when they saw the Founder's treasure as their personal birthright.
• Carmen's loss of empathy could have turned her into a complete monster that eventually ruined V.I.L.E. itself, and it would have been the fault of the Faculty for transforming her.

Fridge Logic

Becoming Carmen Sandiego, Part 1

• Why was Black Sheep able to prank Cookie so many times? Her annual visit to V.I.L.E. Island was one of the most important events of the year for the organization, and the reason she delivered the data in person instead of via the web was for extra security. Yet a kid manages to get close enough to attack her on arrival regularly. If that had been an enemy with a hand grenade instead of a girl with a water balloon, Cookie would be dead and all of V.I.L.E.'s financial data for the year could have been lost. If they were so paranoid about the security of this visit, then there should have been an active effort to prevent Black Sheep from getting close enough to launch another prank (which, as a young girl, Black Sheep might have considered part of the challenge).
  • This was an unknown, off-the-map island. They know that there wouldn't be any threats from within the island. And Black Sheep learned enough from watching to be able to sneak towards the pier year after year. Well, that, and she was able to get away with a lot in her youth, as she herself said in the first episode.

The Duke of Vermeer Caper

• Carmen and Co. bribe a bunch of guard dogs with tasty meat. Aren't such dogs trained not to take food from strangers?
  • Wouldn’t be the first time this is shown in a cartoon.
  • Also, Carmen might not be a stranger to the dogs but someone who treated them nicely or whom they might have met if she’d been with Countess Cleo. If the dogs had recognized and trusted her, they’d probably trust anyone who was with her too.

The Opera in the Outback Caper

• The Boomerang rocket was known to be defective and its launch was scrubbed until it could be fixed. So why was it still fueled and on the launch pad?
  • It is possible that the damage was detected after the rocket was fueled and in position. For most rockets that big, fueling and defueling is not a trivial process, so they could have been fixing it in place. Alternately, defueling may have been scheduled soon (such as later that day), which could have been the deciding factor for when V.I.L.E. decided to strike (that is before the scheduled defueling).

The African Ice Caper

• Chase's dream, which helps him discover V.I.L.E.'s headquarters, is good, except for one detail. Why does he associate the lucky cat doll with spotting differences? That was something only Carmen (and possibly Tigress) did. He might associate Lucky Cats with the stolen stamp in San Francisco (and since he lost his lucky coat and replaced it with one with a lucky cat picture, it does have symbolic significance for him), but nothing about that case for him was a guessing game. He had no idea a particular lucky cat was important. Why did he see the lucky cat and immediately say "It's not like the others!"? It makes sense to the viewer, but it should not make sense to Chase.

Other/Multiple games

• Ann Tikwitee is Ambiguously Brown in the 95&96 versions of "World" and "USA". However, "Great chase through Time" and "Word Detective" portray her as Asian with lighter skin. Perhaps she actually got a tan traveling the world that she didn't get while traveling through time.
• Herman Nootix, Dee Plomacy, and Kim Yoonity don't appear in "Great Chase through time". Presumably, their skills would be best spent elsewhere - and Dee Polomacy would avert the One-Steve Limit (as Dee Cryption was a criminal in "Great Chase through Time".) But Dee Plomacy does send someone with skillsets like her - Polly Tix.

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