"Change of Heart" is the fourth episode of The Zeta Project. It first aired on February 17, 2001.
Zee and Ro visit a science museum where Dr. Selig, Zeta's creator, is scheduled to speak. While the pair hide from guards amid a tour group, a little girl gets trapped inside a fusion reactor. Zeta must reveal his identity in order to save the girl.
Plot[]
Act One[]
Zee and Ro head to the Grandview Science Museum
Following a tip they picked up from the net, Ro and Zeta are on their way to the Grandview Science Museum, where Dr. Selig is scheduled to make a rare appearance lecturing on advanced neural simulators and their practical applications. On their way, the duo is greeted by a pair of NSA hover busses piloted by Agent Bennet and his team.
As soon as he receives confirmation from Agent Lee that they have a positive ID on the car their tailing, Bennet orders his crew to open fire. However, once the fugitives' car is taken out of commission, Agent West attempts to take the lead. With West's hovercraft much closer, Zee launches the electronic projectile fired by the NSA agents back towards their own ships, causing the two to collide and crash land in a nearby clearing. Not seeing a point in performing repairs, as the NSA has already ID traced the car, Zeta and Ro ditch their damaged vehicle, and head out on foot towards Grandview City with the agents not too far behind.
Zeta excitedly attempts to communicate with early synthoid models at the Grandview Science Museum.
The following day, Ro and Zee visit the museum, where Ro expresses the possibility that maybe Eli Selig wouldn't want to see Zeta. "Somebody created me. Doesn't look like they care how I ended up." The synthoid, not understanding his friend's point of view, continues to study the museum's map hoping to find where Selig will be giving his lecture. The duo head to the fourth floor and find themselves touring a robotics hall filled with experimental synthoid designs that engineers have developed over the years. Thrilled to be exploring his roots, Zeta's response, and overall excited demeanor continues to fill Ro with a sense of unease as she's made to think of her family lineage.
Meanwhile, a group of museum patrons disperse as they wait for the next fusion reactor demonstration. Among them are Cora Kay Walker and her mother, Whitney Walker, who head towards the restroom just past the antique-electric-car exhibit, and under the giant electromagnet. Rounding the corner, Zeta and Ro find themselves heading the same direction, discussing a careful approach to meeting Dr. Selig given the danger they've faced to this point so far. However, not having kept up with the tour group, the two remain wholly unaware of the electromagnet until it catches Zee and suspends him high in the air, drawing the attention of patrons and museum security. Recognizing Zee from his federal warrant, the head of security orders the guards to leave him be as he contacts the NSA.
Act Two[]
The "human body ride thru" at Grandview Science Museum.
Among the chaos, Ro notices the control switch for the electromagnet and hurriedly frees Zee from its grasp, raising the alarm of on-looking security staff. Dropping to the floor, Zeta leaves behind a set of indented footprints where the weight of his body struck the ground, piquing the curiosity of confused patrons. The two evade the security guards, with Zee eventually holo-morphing into an even younger boy as they enter the human body ride alongside Whitney and Cora Kay Walker. On the ride, Whitney kicks off a conversation with Ro, asking her if she and her "brother" are enjoying the ride. "It's good when families do things together," she tells Ro before suggesting they check out the robot exhibit after the ride.
Elsewhere in Grandview City, the NSA continue to track Zeta. Agent Bennet debriefs West and Lee on their new destabilizer weapons, designed to disrupt Zeta's gyroscopic balance with soundwaves. Agent West attempts to assure his leader that the mission rests in capable hands, but accidentally sets off his weapon launching himself across the bus.
Back at the Grandview Science Museum, the security team continues their search for Zeta. The head of security finally let's his floor staff in on the idea that Zeta's a killer robot, and let's them know the NSA is on the way. Before ending the call, the security head suggests keeping an eye out for Ro rather than the robot.
On the ride, Zee, Ro, and the Walker family pass by the heart, sparking a conversation over the idiom "to keep one in your heart". Taking the term to be literal, Zeta tells Ro that there are matters of the heart that puzzle him "Like what it means when people say broken hearts, heartthrobs, heartache." This prompts Cora Kay and her mother to reveal her father passed away from a heart attack when she was two years old. "She has his smile," Whitney Walker says, leading Zee to ask his friend who's smile she has.
Exiting the ride, Zeta and Ro head towards where Eli Selig's recently finished his lecture. Meanwhile, the Walker family return to their tour group as they head towards the fusion reactor demonstration. Without her mother noticing, Cora Kay slips away and wanders into the unattended reactor. Zee and Ro aren't having much luck either as they come to find out Bennet is headed their way with Agent West and Agent Lee. As Ro suggests the two leave, Whitney Walker shrieks in horror realizing her child is trapped within the reactor. Zee and Ro run towards the piercing sound and come to find out the reactor has three minutes until it goes off.
Act Three[]
Swiftly, security attempts to free the little girl, but to their dismay the reactor override is jammed. Listening in, Zee overhears their concern that there's nothing they can do in time. He realizes that if he doesn't step in, this little girl will die in front of all these people. Ro makes one last plea to leave before Bennet and his agents apprehend them but resolved to help Cora Kay, Zeta jumps into action.
Finally making his way to the security office Agent Bennet demands to know Zeta's location. However, the chief of security is preoccupied with the seemingly impending death of Cora Kay.
Zeta frees a terrified Cora Kay Walker from the fusion reactor.
Back at the fusion reactor, Zee makes a break towards the device. Dodging the guards, he rips the handle clear off the reactor door. The electrical feedback disrupts the synthoids hologram and reveals his true form to the museum audience including the NSA agents watching from the security monitors. With all of his strength, Zeta pries his fingers into the reactors metallic casing and rips a whole in the side freeing the frightened child and returns her to her mother.
With a matter of seconds left until the reactor goes off, a security guard informs Zeta that if he doesn't re-seal the whole, the radiation will leak causing mass harm to the museum patrons. As Zee works to weld the hole shut, the security officer sends his boss a notice to evacuate the building. The guard attempts to get Ro out as well, but she refuses to leave her friend.
Preoccupied with everyone's safety, Zeta notices Dr. Selig on an upper floor balcony amongst the throngs of evacuating patrons. However, before Zee was even able to get a good look at the doctor, he vanished. The synthoid returns to the task at hand, and continues to weld the hole shut, finally making it with 2 seconds to spare.
The peace is short lived as Agent Bennet and his team arrive just moments after the reactor finally begins its demonstration. Ro implores the guard on duty to help save her and Zeta, but instead he grabs her by the wrist, and drags her off leaving an opening for the NSA agents to apprehend Zeta. To the agent's surprise, as Agent Lee and Agent West rush the synthoid, they're caught by the electromagnet and left dangling in the air.
As the security guard allows Ro to make her escape, Agent West unbuckles his weapons vest to chase after them. Luckily for him, Agent Lee reacts quickly and catches her partner before he's injured by the fall. Elsewhere, Bennet continues to tail Zeta throughout the museum. Zee, using his robotic arms as grappling hooks to propel up the museum levels, is cut off by Ro who leads them to the hall of robotics to hide from Bennet. Unable to conduct a timely search through the hall filled with synthoids, Bennet gives up.
Outside, Zeta and Ro hail a taxi and ask the robotic driver to take them to the nearest bus depot. Ro congratulates her friend on a job well done. Zeta enthusiastically informs her that he saw Dr. Selig during the commotion. Ro admits that she's envious of Zee's progress in his quest, but before he's able to fully inquire, she asks him if he had Selig's smile.
Ground Wire gag for Change of Heart
Ground Wire Gag[]
Ro: Here Zee, I got one for ya. It's an oil can, get it? Tin man, Oil can? |
Continuity[]
- Ro and Zee ditch the car they acquired in "The Accomplice".
- This episode develops a contrast between Ro's relationship with her family with Zeta's fondness for his "roots" and his search for Dr. Selig. Over the course of the show, this familial relationship becomes a subplot spanning episodes "Hicksburg", "Ro's Reunion", and "On the Wire".
- Ro suggests to Zee that they need to be careful in approaching Dr. Selig as he may turn the synthoid into the authorities "just like everyone else". We saw this happen in "His Maker's Name" when Dr. Arroyo worked with the NSA to capture Zeta.
- Bennet refers to the events of this episode again in "Absolute Zero".
Background information[]
Home video releases[]
Production inconsistencies[]
- When the NSA agents depart their crashed vehicles, Agent West is noticeably miscolored.
- A re-colored Bodhi can be seen passing in front of Eli Selig as patrons evacuate the Grandview Science Museum.
Trivia[]
- The NSA's sonic destabilizer weapons work to disrupt balance with the use of sound waves. While a direct parallel isn't drawn in the episode, this is similar to Walter Shreeve's work with acoustics as seen in Batman Beyond episodes such as "Shriek", "Babel", and "Where's Terry?".
- At the end of the episode, Ro refers to Zeta as a Tin Man with a heart, a reference to L. Frank Baum's novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", perhaps more widely remembered for its 1939 film adaptation, The Wizard of Oz.
Cast[]
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Zeta / Zee | Diedrich Bader |
| Rosalie "Ro" Rowan | Julie Nathanson |
| Agent Bennet | Kurtwood Smith |
| Agent West | Michael Rosenbaum |
| Kid Zee | Eli Marienthal |
| Agent Lee | Lauren Tom |
| Richards | Roger L. Jackson |
| Cora Kay Walker | Ambrosia Kelley |
| Edwards | Charlie Rocket |
| Whitney Walker | Bianca Taylor |