Book 3 Arrives At Its Final Destination – Infinity Train
By: Alex Bonilla
Alex Bonilla, Michelle Anderer, Maddie Potter & April Collins give their reactions and breakdowns of the final two episodes of Infinity Train Book 3: “The Origami Car” and “The New Apex”.
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Alex Bonilla
Customer service and data cleanup guy for Sports-Reference, Alex finds solace in emotionally resonant television and bad puns. Also a member of the r/stevenuniverse moderation team.
4 Comments
Since Simon’s tears at the end were immediately followed by laugh-crying, I don’t think they were trying to make him sympathetic in that moment, I think they were showing that he’d completely lost his mind. Yes, that shot was supposed to be memorable, but in a haunting way, not in a way that glorified him.
Another commenter already said they stopped feeling for Simon after he killed Tuba, and I agree with that, but I also couldn’t feel bad for him because so many serious problems today are caused by people denying facts. He reminds me of people who say climate change or Covid are hoaxes, even when the facts are staring them in the face. His refusal to accept that denizens were people directly led to his refusal to accept that Grace lied to him to protect Hazel, and of course later he refused to accept that he was wrong about the conductor.
About the train’s “morality”: Amelia never would’ve learned to move on from her past if it had made a car recreating her old life, but its refusal to do so indirectly led to passengers probably being on the train longer than they needed to, and the formation of the Apex, who have hurt and probably killed many denizens. Isn’t one person not learning their lesson worth it if the alternative is that innocent people could be hurt or killed?
Something I’d like to see in a future season is a passenger who is a parent. We’ve had two teenage passengers whose lives were greatly affected by their parents, and part of me wonders why they weren’t the ones on the train instead. It seems like the kids are always the ones who have to change.
I don’t want to come off as rude, so apologies in advance if so—but I was curious if anyone on this podcast episode is a person of color? I, an East Asian woman, always was under the impression that Grace had the majority of the focus. She’s the one with the redemption arc (or, at least, the redemption narrative), her backstory is the one we directly and fully see, her relationship with Hazel is the heart of the season. To me, Grace is clearly the one with the ‘A’ plot.
I think it would be wise to re-evaluate some (unintentional, I know!) internal biases if many of you saw Simon as more prominent than Grace. I think it is also a disservice to focus a majority of the podcast on Simon, when, again, I personally found Grace to be more of the main character.
I really enjoy this season probably my 2nd favorite next to book 2. Now to the topic of Grace and Simon yes this is gonna be another novel of a response. To be completely honest I lost any sympathy I had for Simon after he killed Tuba and just told Hazel that like it was no big deal. Any sympathy I had around Simon or involving him was with Grace, Hazel, and Samantha the cat like someone mention that the time spent with Simon seeing the cat could have been spent on someone else but if you think about it was at least to me. Like you hear Simon story then eventually see what happen between Simon and the cat I felt for the cat in that scene the look on her face when Simon said she abandoned him I felt for her and that she wanted to help him.
Personally I feel that the text around Simon was intentional besides the fact he killed with not remorse he’s really into war and battles plus he even said battles scars give men character the red flags were there also even with Grace and the Apex like he disobeyed her orders with Tuba and seems so offended when she pulls rank on him add to the fact that he possible had romantic feelings for Grace makes his controlling behavior around her worst especially since Grace is black. Like all the scenes with him being physical and just a straight up incel with Grace reads 10 times worse and the end where he just wanted kill her. Her saying it’s not her responsibility for his problems hits differently from a black woman’s perspective.
With Grace’s backstory there some nuance with that like you can say her parents we’re jerks to her but as someone who grew up in predominantly white neighborhood and went to a mostly all white school there’s a lot of pressure put on black and other POC kids to be like a model minority in mostly white dominated places we know Grace’s parents are really wealthy they go to events and care about status but they could be like the only POC there and they have to be that way to Grace it’s not right but someone said Grace looks like she could lose everything at any minute she very much could if your not a model minority. Which brings something interesting between Grace and Simon since Grace is a rich kid and Simon is not Grace is the leader of the Apex and even the kids from the Apex seem to like her more Hazel really liked her more considering how she basically ignore Simon Apex speech. Anyway there the fact where Grace really has it all on the train and is well respected where Simon isn’t there he feels entitled and he used that entitlement over Grace like her feelings of being alone why she said what she said to Hazel to not lose Simon him basically taking over her memories to get her to come back to his side and when that fail and left her for dead his first thought after seeing her again was to have her killed.
I remember in the last 2 podcasts you guys talked about Simon’s trauma and it effect his relationship with Grace to me his trauma after he killed Tuba had became a non-factor it doesn’t matter what trauma you went through it doesn’t justify killing an innocent person. I feel like any sympathy around Simon before the end of the season was mostly because fans wanted focus more on making him sympathetic than the show actually does. Nobody is born a monster and it’s completely human to want to be sympathetic and want people to be redeemed. I’m guessing everyone on this podcast is white and someone saying that they felt uncomfortable with Simon’s actions well I hope you don’t take this the wrong way but I feel that’s a good thing and the point. This is an uncomfortable reality that BIPOC people go through and people like Simon who embodies white fragility, white privilege, toxic masculinity, and racism they don’t change and they don’t want to change. As black woman I was already seeing the signs in book 2 the way Simon talked to Lake and how he called Jessie weak and Grace told him have some sympathy for him I felt this type of narrative was going to happen.
Again I feel like some fans wanted to be sympathetic to Simon because we’re human and we want people to be sympathetic and redeemed themselves even Grace saved him from falling of the train and even tried to save him from the Golm after he kick her off the train she still wanted to save her friend her crying over his ashes is a very human thing I didn’t feel bad when Simon died I did for Grace that was her friend.
In media and animation things like redemption and empathy looks and works very differently if your a BIPOC