| The Blue Car Line | |
|---|---|
| Season 2, Episode 16 | |
 | |
| Air date | January 25, 1992 |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous Star Dust |
Next Birds of a Feather |
The Blue Car Line is the fifteenth episode in the second season of Captain Planet and the Planeteers.
Main Characters[]
Plot Synopsis[]
Gaia becomes suspicious when air pollution suddenly skyrockets in an Australian city with one of the best mass transit systems in the world. The Planeteers, helped by a local reporter, Sam, investigate the case.
Episode Summary[]
The episode opens with Wheeler on a surfboard riding a wave. He appears to be having a good time, until the wave he's riding breaks! The loss of momentum causes Wheeler to start to lose his balance and dip the tip of his surfboard into the water! He is forced to lean over to the point, were a wipe out seems unavoidable. Suddenly, a wave comes up from behind and gives him push to the side, allowing Wheeler to regain his balance! To Wheeler's delight, the wave boosts him up, giving him some serious air! Wheeler has trouble but manages to land, without wiping out. Then, just when it seems that Wheeler is indestructible, another wave comes up underneath him and boosts him up high. Wheeler loses he balance and wipes out! The next scene shows poor Wheeler, sitting upright soaked with a releaved expression on his face. (We see that Wheeler's surfboard is upside down, showing the wave caused him to do a complete somersault!)
Wheeler, after sitting on the beach for a few seconds, sees Ma-Ti and decides to grab his board and stand up. Ma-Ti tells him that he brought him some peanuts. An unsuspecting Wheeler thanks him. When he opens the can, he's scared off balance by the paper snakes that jump out of it. He falls backward and lands on his behind. Needless to say, Ma-Ti finds this funny. Wheeler decides to show Ma-Ti a "top of the line" practical joke. He sets up a coconut with a troth and a pole at the end, supporting a leaf full of water. As bait, he uses a stuffed animal. Linka and GI come by, Linka grabs the stuffed animal, but the coconut only makes it half way down. The girls comment that the stuffed animal is cute and walk away. Wheeler go's over to the troth to find the coconut stuck. Before he can do anything, it begins to roll! Wheeler tries desperately to run away from leaf, but is soon knocked flat on his belly and soaked by the cold water! Ma-Ti agrees that this was a top of the line practical joke. This clearly was not what Wheeler had in mind!
Gaia summons everyone to the crystal chamber, she shows them that a city of Australia is having severe smog problems despite an extensive lite rail system, wich every one lives just a few blocks from. Somg is so bad that even Gaia cant see throght it. She tells the Planeteers to go and investigate as to why no one is currently riding the train.
When the Planeteers arrive, they quickly see the extent of the smog. It's almost impossible for everyone breath. Once on the train, they find it has auto seat belts and is very comfortable. They meet a reporter named Sam, who is also investigating why no one is using the train. He tells them that there are reports of strange things happening on the train.
They depart, soon things start to wild. The train car they are riding in is diverted to another track, where it goes through loop de loops. The lights go out, ghosts appear, the seat belts start to tighten up! Finally, the car is rejoined to the train. The Planeteers decide to see if they can get to the bottom of this mess. They split up, Ma-Ti, Linka and Gi decide to try and get into the office of the car company. Wheeler and Kwame meanwhile, sneak into the tunnel and see if they can find out what is going on with the train.
Wheeler and Kwame quickly discover that the whole thing is a setup, by none other then Looten Plunder and Argos Bleak, who now own or have invested in the local car dealers. The sceam, complete with projected ghosts and a crazy alternate trackfor the train to follow, with a roller coster loop type invertion, is to scare people off the train, so they will buy cars to get around insted, making, Looten Plunder and Argos Bleak rich in the process.
Meanwhile, using Suchi infiltrate the office of the car company and find that all of it is the property of Looten Plunder. They also find that the company has been dumping train cars into the ocean.
Meanwhile, Wheeler and Kwame have been captured by Looten Plunder and have been placed on one of the train cars about to be dumped into the ocean. The rest of the Planeteers save them, only to find themselves in the exact same place, with the exception of Ma-Ti, who uses a water tower to take out Bleak and Plunder. He sneaks aboard the train and unties everyone. They then summon Captain Planet who saves them. He gets the other cars out of the water and puts everything back on track. This puts an end to Bleak and Plunder's scheme. They quickly make their escape by car.
Sam gets his story and Wheeler managers to finally show Ma-Ti a top of the line practical joke with a pen that shoots water into Ma-Ti's face.
Planeteer Alerts[]
- First Planeteer Alert
Wheeler: Bumper-to-bumper traffic is no picnic for anyone.
Linka: (coughs) And no one likes to breathe the pollution produced by too many cars!
Gi: But there are things we can all do to help the environment.
Kwame: We can carpool.
Gi: And combine several errands into one trip.
Captain Planet: Everyone has to do their part if we want clean air. Right, team? (kids cheer) Remember, the power is yours!
- Second Planeteer Alert
Captain Planet: Some people want to drive the biggest car on the road.
Gi: And large cars use up large amounts of gas, and that means more air pollution.
Wheeler: But no matter what size a car is, it's important to keep it tuned up.
Kwame: Cars that are not cared for make the smog problem even greater.
Wheeler: Avoid the hog and the smog.
All: The power is yours!
Significant Moments and Facts[]
- This is the only episode were Wheeler "surfs". He normally windsurfs, but appears to have had his windsurfer stolen in The Predator, when he left it on the beach. From the mistakes he makes, he appears to not have much experience with regular surfing. It looks like he decided to take advantage of the good weather, borrowed a board from Gi and gave it a try.
- Wheeler dose not appear to be quite as muscular, in the surfing scene in this episode, as he appeared in the population bomb.
- From 2:21 to 2:31, Linka's swimsuit undergoes a change in the back.
- After wheeler wipes out, his surfboard is seen at his feet. In the next shot, which is zoomed in, his surfboard is behind him.
- Captain Planet sings the song "I've Been Working On the Railroad" when throwing the train cars out of the water into the rails on land.
Quotes[]
Ma-Ti: (laughing at Wheeler's backfired prank) You are right, Wheeler! That is a top of the line practical joke!
Gaia: (appearing as a hologram) I don't even wanna know. Wheeler, Ma-Ti, I need you in the Crystal Chamber. We have an eco-mystery.
Gallery[]
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