Seeing Is Believing

Seeing Is Believing
Air Date (US)	April 20th, 2004
Air Date (France)	September 10th, 2003
Written by	Françoise Charpiat
Storyboard by	Luis Ruiz
Season	1
Episode #	2
Production #	101
Preceeded by	Teddygozilla
Followed by	Holiday in the Fog

Seeing Is Believing (original title "Le voir pour le croire", litt. "See it to believe it") is the second episode of Season 1 of Code Lyoko.

Plot

The episode begins with the Chief Engineer at the local nuclear power plant giving a lecture on the basic operations and safety measures of the power plant to a class at Kadic. Most of the students find the lecture boring and aren't paying much attention to it, but Jeremie asks him if there is a process for using virtual particles and materializing them in the real world. Odd and Ulrich look at Jeremie knowingly (they know that he is searching for a way to bring Aelita to Earth), but the scientist tells him that it's only in the realm of science fiction. Mrs. Hertz then comments that Jeremie is "an excellent student, but a bit of a dreamer", which causes the other students to laugh at him. Suddenly, the power to the projector goes out. Mrs. Hertz assumes that it is just a blown fuse.

After class, Yumi meets up with Jeremie and the others. Jeremie thinks that X.A.N.A. may have something to do with the projector, but Odd says that it was just a short circuit. Mr. Delmas then comes up to Odd and tells him that he will allow Odd to form his group, the Pop Rock Progressives (which Mr. Delmas accidentally refers to as the "Foxtrot Fanatics"), as long as he allows anyone to try out for it. Odd is very enthusiastic and wants to make copies of the leaflets about the Pop Rock Progressives right away, but Jeremie would rather check out the power outage. Jeremie goes to his room and starts to look for signs of trouble on his computer. He tells Aelita about the school's electrical problems and asks her if anything is going on at Lyoko. She says no, but Jeremie starts a scan for an activated tower anyway before heading off to the cafeteria.

Meanwhile, Odd is handing out leaflets for his group, even giving one to Jim. However, he refuses to give one to Nicholas when he asks for one. Later, Odd is trying to decide what he wants from the vending machine. He comments that the soup tastes like dishwater, so Ulrich quickly pushes the button for soup. However, the machine only manages to pour a few drops before quitting. Jeremie thinks that it may be another power failure and decides to keep checking for problems while the others go to the gym to hold auditions.

In the gym, Emmanuel tries out for drummer, but Odd doesn't like his heavy metal rhythm. Naomi then shows up to try out for drummer. She is obviously very new at it, but Odd, apparently attracted to her, likes her performance anyway. Meanwhile, Jeremie finds out on his computer that 400,000 volts are circulating in a high-tension pylon. He is about to tell Aelita about it when the power in his room goes out. Jeremie runs outside to the main gates where he catches a glimpse at the pylon, which is surging with electricity. He heads to the gym and tells the others that X.A.N.A. has to be involved because the pylon is way over its voltage limit and could explode. They are trying to figure out why X.A.N.A. would do something like that when Sissi and her gang walk in to insult the group and ask if Nicholas can be allowed to try out for drummer as her father said Odd had to allow everyone to give a try.

Jeremie runs off to the Factory while Nicholas plays the drums with far more skill than Naomi and impresses Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi. Sissi's gang leaves, but Odd still doesn't want him in the band, no matter how good he is. Odd (the guitarist) threatens to leave the band if Nicholas is allowed to join, while Yumi (the singer) threatens to leave the band if he isn't allowed to join. Just then, Jim walks in playing a trombone and, much to the group's surprise, asks if they need a trombone in the band.

Meanwhile, Jeremie has arrived at the Factory, where Aelita confirms that X.A.N.A. has woken up. She heads to the Desert Sector to find the tower while Jeremie finds out something bad and interrupts Jim's audition by calling the others to come to the Factory. Once they arrive, he tells them that X.A.N.A.'s plan is to gather enough voltage in the pylon so it can unleash a blast of electricity at the nuclear power plant to cause a meltdown. Meanwhile, the pylon is raining sparks and an electrician calls in to say that he cut the wires but the power in the pylon won't die.

Back in the Factory, Jeremie says that X.A.N.A. will be able to blow everything up once the pylon reaches one million volts. Yumi is worried because nuclear sabotage is something that is way over their heads, the whole region would be wiped out if they fail on Lyoko. She wants to warn the authorities but Jeremie is worried that the authorities will shut down Lyoko and Aelita for good once they find out about X.A.N.A. Yumi knows this, but she doesn't want to risk a nuclear disaster. Jeremie decides that they will vote on it. Yumi and Ulrich want to raise the alarm while Jeremie and Odd don't, making it a tie. Jeremie and Yumi start to argue about which of the two courses of action they should follow because of the tie when Aelita asks if she has the right to vote too, as she has been listening to the whole conversation. Jeremie tells her that she does, but she votes to tell everyone because she doesn't want thousands to die just to save herself. In the end, they agree that Ulrich and Odd should go to Lyoko, while Yumi should go off to tell the authorities.

Yumi bursts in on a meeting between Mr. Delmas, Mrs. Hertz, and the engineer from the power plant to tell them that the plant is in danger of blowing up. Yumi calls in to say that nobody believed her. Jeremie responds by saying that the pylon is 85% charged and that they can't find the tower.

In the Desert Sector, Odd, Ulrich and Aelita are heading to the oasis where the Pulsations go but they find nothing at all so they walk around it to look for some clues. Odd throws a rock into the water and it shines instead of rippling. He then figures out that there isn't any water in the oasis but rather a surface and goes into the "pool" for a better look. The others follow him and, sure enough, they land within sight of the tower. The tower is guarded by three Krabs. One of them chases after Aelita as she runs away. Odd blocks its fire with his own body and is devirtualized. Ulrich defeats one, but the pylon is up to 95%.

Meanwhile, Yumi repeats her story to the electricians near the pylon and they almost seem to believe her, but then they ask her how she knows what will happen. Ulrich defeats the other two Krabs with Triplicate. Yumi still can't get anyone to believe her about the Supercomputer and Lyoko as Aelita enters the tower. The pylon reaches 100% and X.A.N.A. launches the energy at the power plant, but Aelita deactivates the tower at the last moment and Jeremie activates a return to the past.

After the return in time, the Pop Rock Progressives (with Odd on guitar, Nicholas on the drums, Ulrich on keyboard, Yumi on vocals, and Jim on trombone) perform a song called "Mystery Girl", which is really about Aelita. While Sissi remains silent and forces Hervé to do the same, Jeremie comments that their energy is "super nuclear" and will "make the town explode".

Pop Rock Progressives

The Pop Rock Progressives never showed up as a group again after this episode. The band was started by Odd. Due to school policy, auditions had to be open to anyone who was willing to participate. Jeremie and Herb seemed to like the band's only song, "Mystery Girl", which is dedicated to Aelita.

Members

• Odd Della Robbia - guitarist
• Yumi Ishiyama - lead singer
• Ulrich Stern - organ/keyboard
• Jim Morales - trombone/trumpet
• Nicholas Poliakoff - drums

Rejections

• The kids who tried out for the drumming lessons were:
  • Emmanuel Maillard (rejected because of his heavy metal influence in the music)
  • Naomi N'guyen (rejected because she lacked drumming skills)
  • Nicholas Poliakoff (rejected because Odd didn't want him in the group. However, Nicholas was then accepted after a return to the past)

Trivia

• The original French name for this episode is Le voir pour le croire.
• More scenes from this episode are used in the Season 1 title sequence than any other episode.
• This episode, along with Holiday in the Fog, were the first episodes in production order for the series, predating Teddygozilla by 10 months. Teddygozilla is still considered the pilot by Sophie Decroisette however, and a bulk of the work in figuring out the show's formula went into that episode.
• This is the first episode in which Matthew Geczy voices Odd and Jodi Forrest voices Sissi.
• Jim is revealed to play the slide trombone in this episode.
• Triplicate is used for the first time in this episode.
• At the 7-minute mark of the episode, a Blue Screen of Death can be briefly seen just before Jeremie's computer got turned off.
• This episode was included in Movies, Music, and Mayhem.
• Aside from a single shot where Ulrich presses a button at the vending machines, this episode has a noticeably duller color palette than the rest of the series. The shots in the theme song that are from this episode interestingly have the series' regular palette, suggesting this may have been an error during production.

Errors

• On the Official YouTube Channel, this episode is misspelled as "Seing is believing".
• In the Theme Song intro, Yumi's book is light blue. However, in this episode, the blue book is still shown but it is switched with the red book.
• On Lyoko, after the group finds the tower, Odd is attacked by a Krab and in Jeremie's view of Odd's stats, he lost some life points, but in Jeremie's view of the area, it shows that he has full health.
• At one point, the Factory Interface shows three Krabs still being active despite Ulrich's clones having destroyed two of them.

Gallery

Storyboards