Aelita can’t accept that her father is gone. She confides in Jeremy, telling him of her gnawing obsession: what if Franz Hopper is still alive somehow, somewhere on Lyoko? What if there was a way to bring him back? But Jeremy, preoccupied with other problems, refuses to bite: to him, Aelita’s father is dead and gone. Disappointed, Aelita stubbornly decides to take matters into her own hands, forsaking Jeremy’s help. Rallying Odd to her cause, she and Odd go to the factory and virtualize themselves into Sector 5. Aelita hopes to uncover information there as to the possible whereabouts of her father but the pair’s entry doesn’t go unnoticed by XANA, who immediately begins an assault…
This episode contains examples of:
- Cannot Spit It Out: Jérémie and Aelita, which Odd reminds her about that they both still like each other, and that Jérémie isn't great at rationale sometimes.
- Character Title: Aelita, of course.
- Continuity Nod:
- Aelita and Franz being virtualised is shown again, and is expanded upon with more details in this episode.
- Odd has smelly feet, something Ulrich knows all too much about.
- Aelita runs to Hermitage to be alone, which she also did in XANA's Kiss after Jeremie yelled at her.
- Odd namedrops various people he's gone out with, specifically Emily and Heidi, even meeting the former, and asking about his smelly feet.
- Deadly Euphemism: Jérémie is (understandably) slightly miffed when he realises where Odd and Aelita are, and says that he'll give them kisses later while clenching his fist. Nothing comes of it as he soon realises why she was there (to get data on Franz Hopper).
- Flashback: In Sepia-tone! Aelita and Franz are once again shown to be entering the scanners for Lyoko, but we now get more context for what happens to Franz. He can't take a human form yet as he wants to reason with XANA, and attempts to stop him. Aelita hides in the tower, and stays there.
- Ironic Description Cut: Jérémie, beginning to realize how poorly he treated Aelita earlier, (which he hadn't, since he was actually trying to reassure her after all the hard work he did for her to help find Franz Hopper, but Aelita blew up at him) asks Ulrich in the library if he truly was too hard on her. Ulrich gives him a mild What the Hell, Hero? over his actions, but comforts Jérémie by stating that Aelita is probably trying to find him as they speak. Cut to Aelita and Odd arriving at the factory so they can travel to Lyoko on their own.
- Jerkass Ball:
- The episode had the viewers paint Jérémie as having grabbed this, but it is actually subverted. Jérémie wasn't even trying to be a jerk to Aelita, and never even wanted to start an argument with her in the first place, nor did he not want to entertain the idea of finding Franz Hopper, since he had already searched every corner of Lyoko for him for Aelita’s sake. He was actually trying to reassure her, but she just blew up in his face after all the hard work he did trying to find her father for her, having searched every inch of Lyoko for any signs of him, yet he was the one who had to make it up to Aelita because of her stubbornness in the matter.
- Aelita herself grabs it even harder towards Jeremie. Jeremie had literally searched every inch of Lyoko for any trace of Franz Hopper, but Aelita just blew up in his face, calling him a lame-o, and saying to Odd that they, "didn't need Jeremie", and went to Lyoko, having roped Odd into it too, behind Jeremie's back just to spite him. And Jeremie thought he treated Aelita harshly, but in actuality, it was the other way round, and she didn't even get so much as a What the Hell, Hero? for what she did and how she made Jérémie feel, nor did Aelita apologise to him. He already felt bad about not being able to find Aelita’s father, then she just had to go and make him feel worse.
- Moral Luck: Both Odd and Aelita escape Jérémie's wrath as they both benefit from being in Sector 5, and even collect data on Franz Hopper once Jérémie asks Aelita.
- Open Secret: Odd's smelly feet. Only implied before that to be problematic for Ulrich, but every girl he's come across also takes issue with his feet.
- Plot Parallel: Odd's stinky feet is what the boys, girls, heck even the nurse knows about his stinky feet, they all can't wait to get away from him. This parallels Jérémie losing Aelita temporarily because of an argument about forgetting her past, when they both know it's not that simple.
- Sealed Good in a Can: Discussed by Aelita. She doesn't take it well when Jérémie tells her to stop focusing on the past and focus on fighting XANA, and points out that he doesn't have the experience she had of being trapped in the Supercomputer for ten years, losing her memories and then regaining them.
- Smelly Feet Gag: The B-plot concerns Odd's smelly feet. Nurse Yolanda gives him a special cream to get rid of the smell of his feet - which works because the cream smells even worse.
- Sophisticated as Hell: A dub example: in French, when Jeremie asks where Aelita is in the Core Chamber, she says "In Hell" instead of "In trouble".
- Stunned Silence: The creepers stop shooting, as XANA is quite confused as to how Odd and Aelita are in Sector 5 when part of his plan was using the tower in the mountain region as a distraction. Aelita notices this too.
- Violation of Common Sense: Jérémie doesn't notice the smell of Odd's feet, despite Ulrich pointing out that the smell cannot linger for that long. He brushes it off, instead of assuming that Odd had been virtualised.
