TRON: Uprising S01E02 The Renegade, Part 1

This article is written from a Real World perspective.

The Renegade, Part 1
Media Type	Television series
Director	Charlie Bean
Producers	Edward Kitsis Adam Horowitz
Starring	Elijah Wood Bruce Boxleitner Lance Henriksen
Release Date	June 7, 2012
Gallery

Beck and Tron rode their light cycles through the Outlands; it was Beck’s first training session, and he was doing well until Tron made a jump across a chasm, expecting Beck to follow him. Beck fell short, barely making it to the opposite ledge and losing his baton as he struggled not to fall. Tron told him that the problem was that he hesitated, and Beck reiterated his doubts about being the next Tron when he couldn't even match the real one. Beck left for Argon but was sighted by a Recognizer; pursued for violating the city's curfew, Beck made his way to a checkpoint and was forced to hide in a giant crate, closing the door before realizing but that there were other programs inside. One, Cutler, told him that he had made himself a prisoner. The crate was lifted by a Recognizer and Beck realized that they were heading for the Games.

At the Coliseum, Beck and the other programs were met by Sirens, who provided them with protective gear for the Games. One of the other captives, Rilo, believed that they would all die and blamed the Renegade for the existence of the curfew. Beck told him to calm down and to stick close. The group was pitted against Black Guards in a game of Disc Wars, with the difficulty level set to extreme. General Tesler, Pavel, and Paige were revealed to be attending, and Tesler gave the signal for the Games to begin.

Rilo gained confidence after seeing Beck fend off a Black Guard, and joined in the fight, managing to derezz one of their opponents out of luck. However, he failed to notice another leaping at him from behind, and was derezzed. Beck, distracted by Rilo’s death, was pushed out of the way of another incoming enemy by Cutler. Together, the two were able to defeat all the Black Guards. In their holding cells, Beck expressed guilt and doubt, still haunted by Rilo's death. Cutler said that he'd felt the same way when the ISO war was lost, revealing himself to be a veteran, and added that his remaining friends who'd survived had begun to disband until they heard about the Renegade. Cutler had come to Argon City to join the Renegade, believing him to be Tron.

While being transported to the light cycle arena for the next Game, Beck caused a distraction among the other programs and attempted to escape with Cutler, but they were discovered by Paige. Handcuffed to each other and without batons, the two were thrown into the light cycle arena to face three Black Guards on bikes. Despite their disadvantage, they were able to use the light ribbon from a guard's bike to cut the line holding them together, and rallied to defeat all three guards. The crowd applauded them, displeasing Tesler, who felt that Beck and Cutler should be derezzed as conspirators; but Pavel suggested an alternative way of showing the audience that rebellion would not be tolerated.

Pavel escorted Beck and Cutler back to the disc arena and informed them that the winner of the next game would go free. Beck asked who they would be fighting, and both he and Cutler were shocked when Pavel announced that they would be fighting each other to the death.

In the subplot, Able asked Zed and Mara whether Beck had showed up for work. He was going to let Beck put up one of his favorite bikes, the ENCOM 786. Mara was excited, exclaiming that the bike was one-of-a-kind, built for speed and favored by Kevin Flynn himself; but Zed, preferring newer models, was not impressed. Able told Zed and Mara to let Beck know that the light cycle would be in his office, and hoped that Beck wasn't getting into trouble.

Zed and Mara later went to the 0001001 Club, where Zed, embarrassed to dance with Mara due to his interest in her, sat alone and sulked while she danced with their other coworkers. An attractive program, Perl, approached to talk with him. When Mara returned from the floor and invited Zed to dance with her, he was irked that she referred to him as a friend and left with Perl. The two talked for a while, but options for fun in the city had been limited since the occupation, and Zed, hoping to impress Perl, took her to the garage. Perl talked him into showing her around Able’s office, but she appeared disinterested in Able's collection of relics (including a Bit) and hinted at leaving. In a final effort to get her to stay, Zed showed her the ENCOM 786. Though she appeared intrigued, she asked Zed to have a look at her own light cycle, claiming that it had been acting up. Zed rezzed the bike and couldn’t find anything wrong, but as he turned to tell Perl, she hit him on the head with the vintage baton and rode off in it. Finally realizing his mistake, Zed called himself an idiot, a sentiment to which the hovering Bit agreed.