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[popculturebuffet]

Thomas The Tank Engine Season 4b: The One With the Indignation Meeting (Comission for Lachey V)

Hello all you stupid train children and welcome back to my exaustively long look at thomas the tank engine. After way , way too many delays we're back to finish off season 4. As mentioned last time, season 4a was mostly a chance to adapt the books they hadn't yet since the trains would've cost a lot to make with so many new models. So what's Season 4b now we're back with our usual gang of idiots? WHATEVER THEY HAD LEFT BABBYEEE! Season 4b is a few magazine stories and every book they still wanted to adapt, but hadn't for expense reaosns, time, they didn't like cows. As a result season 4b might be my faviorite episode batch thus far. Season 4b has a LOT of bonkers, as you could tell by the indignation meeting. I mean if your here for a gentle relaxing kids show, this will still do the job but if your like me and your here for the nonsernse, then it does the job better than anyone. So join me under the cut for an indignation meeting as we discuss Thomas the Tank Engine season 4b

Rusty to the Rescue:

We do get to see Rusty, my beloved one last time. The Fat Controller needs an engine for his "bluebell railway" so Rusty procedes to be the best by going to a disel railyard, The Great and Powerful Oz railway given they TALK IN A BOOMING ECHOEY VOICE WE'VE NEVER HEARD FROM A DISEL. Seriously are they delivering god's party sized cool ranch doritos? Who are these guys? Rusty talks back to them and finds an engine, Stepny, a jolly chap basedon a real life famous engine whose old driver is keeping him compnay. Honestly it's more.. sad than fucked up seeing a train abandoned this time. Stepny's simply rusted and is kept company by his old friend.. instead of you know, sentenced to death or used as a living battery presumibly left there screaming and rusting for all time. Rusty rescues stepny though, the fat controller buys him and we have a guest engine for a few episodes. A really good episode and a nice sendoff to rusty until we see him again. It's a neat way to bridge the other railway with our main one, ease the audience back into our usual nonsense.

Thomas and Stepney

Everyone rightfully loves Stepny. Thomas is a jealous twit about it. Thomas learns not to be jealous twit. This episode sure did happen.

Train Stops Play So after a brief stop for a bog standard Thomas episode, we get some of the series finest , premium, day one edition bolllocks: So some crickiters, because this series took "This series couldn't possibly get more british" as a challenge instead of a statement of fact, get their ball stuck in stepny. Now most perosns would just.. call the railway or simply use their car to go to the next stop along to get their ball. I get at least that buying a new one probably isn't super easy on a small island like sodor, or may be expensive. Instead they chase and holler after the train, and the conductor soundly and rationally decides THEY WANT TO RACE, so we get a race between a bunch of crickiters and a train while the poor cricketmobile eventually gives out. He also has nice eyes. What i'm saying is this car deserves his own spinoff and this episode is more my speed. And that's the speed of a bunch of idiots chasing a train while a train conductor says BRING IT ON BITCH BRING IT ON.

Bowed Out (Very Useful Engine Award Winner) I'm bringing back my best episode reward I forgot the last few times and decided to keep gone... because man oh man this is the best. I mean as a WHOLE the episode is .. fine. A new disel shows up, he's a racist dick, everyone's mad, and he gets his compuance. Standard Disel formula and really standard series formula; someone's a cocky dick and gets the wrath of god on them.

What makes this so special... is this is where ourarticle image comes from. As a refresher

I swear I did not edit this. I got this straight from an offical video containing the episode, and while it seems to just be autocaptioned, said caption got it exactly on. The various trains HAVE AN IDIGNATION MEETING.

INDIGNTATION MEETING

INDIGNATION MEETING

INDIGNATION MEETING

It's everything I never knew I wanted. The missing piece if you will. The trains HAVE had indignation meetings before, this isn't new.. but the fact the narration NAMES it that will never not be the best thing. This series has peaked. I can see why the next season is considered the last "Golden Age" season, because after an indignation meeting how do you go on? How do you top that? And they certainly do try as we certianly do get some grade a bollocks. Just because your series reaches it's highest of highs. .dosen't mean it still can't be good. But I don't think anything will ever top this. Their certainly welcome to try though.

Henry and the Elephant Apparently Henry's suffering is eternal, as once again god decides to humilate him, this time for really no reason. He was cross with James.. after James brought up the tiny incident where Henry was bricked inside a tunnel for his hubris for at least a week and traumatized into being a very useful engine.

And as if that incident coudln't possibly haunt him more, Henry is tasked to clean out a tunnel.. and instead finds some mysterious beast inside, and has no choice but to clear it out as the tunnel needs clearing. It turns out to be an elephant which understandably traumatizes him. I mean i'm not a hundred tons of steel and human face, but i'd still be fucking terrified of a pissed off elephant. They do clalm the elphant down.. but he later slpsahses henry after henry puffs a bit

It's just.. an exercise in humilating Henry because at this point i'm convinced the reverened hates him. I mean he hated him getting to see flowers and now this. What's next? "Henry's children are all murdered because god made a bet with satan?"

Toad Stands By

Hey kids ARE YOU READY FOR SOME MURDER?

So this starts innocently enough: Oliver is having trouble with trucks, who are mocking him. And because the fat controller just.. ignores the fact the trucks are all psychotic monsters who have caused 20% of accidents on the sodor railway, Toad, another car, suggests oliver show them whose boss. This leads to oliver pulling their ringleader, Scruffy APART.

And originally he STAYS dead. Or possibly in some living hell of his own making. Also the controller YELLS at oliver for this despite both not planning for this and the trucks you know.. being awful. On the bright side the trucks are cowed into fear of oliver so.. yay?

Bulls-Eye This is a weird one... not in terms of content, but more that it's an interquel: this incident hapepned during Daisy's earlier apperances on the show, and in the original books naturally, but was only refrenced. Why they didn't do it sooner?

But it's here. Basically Daisy scoffs at the idea of cowcatchers and having to actually scare a bull.. but then gets terrfied by one and mocked. I mean.. I get it. And this time it's personal experince: While i've thankfully haven't had to actually stare down a bull, I was roped into helping my grandma and uncles with one a few times as a teen with dad REALLY not getting how terrifying it is to be in the proximy of a bull and be given "stay near the gates and hope it dosen't hurt you" duty. Granted I was also upset any time I saw the bull from a very safe distance, but given cartoons had trained me to think bulls were mad beasts and not just.. tempramental male cows, still dangerous but not you know monsters bugs bunny has to fight, I stand by my fear.

Also the bull minitue is really nice. has a little moveable head I just noticed. All in all a fun little side adventure. I get why it was cut but I also get saving it for it's own episode later.

Thomas and the Special Letter

The origins of this one are so dang sweet: So the original book story came about because a little girl wrote into him asking him to meet thomas.. and he was so touched by it he wrote a story about the trains visiting London. That origin alone makes this one really special but it's also just a nice little story as Thomas is happy to have been invited, gets a swelled head, and then there's some nice tension after he stupidly hurts himself in wether or not he'll get to go. He does of course, but the series penchant for punishing trains for their hubris means there's legit tension in if Thomas will make it in time. Good stuff.

Paint Pots and Queens So after a special but pretty nice and charming episode we get a reminder this season enhaled some paint fumes as THE QUEEN OF ENGLAD HERSELF SHOWS UP. This is another interquel, though I didn't quite realize it with Thomas and Gordon havin ga pity party only to get to pull the queen. Honestly though for such a big thing as Thomas meeting THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND.. it's pretty forgetable. I.. I shouldn't have forgot Thomas Meets the Queen of England even with my stygian hole of a short term memory.

Fish

Fish delivery shenanigans with the flying kipper. I barely remember this one too though I at least like that it involves fish

Special Attractoin So this one involves bullstrode, an asshole barge who as usual gets punished for his hubris. It's weird going to boats after tugs not going to lie, but bullstroad is neat. He also gets into a pissing match with the trucks which ends with both of them nearly sinking into the harbor

A pretty standard ep but the naval setting, the target of this hubris getting a proportinate punishment (he refuses to do his job so he's left to be an attraction for kids to look at, but isn't you know.. left powerless. They'll probably still take care of him. )

Follow That Bike

A train runs over a bike. I honestly forgot most of what happened.

So that was season 4b and while it ends kind of sedately it's packed with a LOT of memorable episodes and while I like most of them for the bollocks the fact is most of them.. are really good for this show. Really solid stories that fit the tone. next time we tackle the last season for this retrospective, probably, and see what wonders happen when the writers are left to their own devices.

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