| Two Futures Part II | |
|---|---|
| Season 1, Episode 25 | |
| Air date | May 25, 1991 |
| Episode guide | |
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Two Futures Part II is the twenty-fifth episode in the first season of Captain Planet and the Planeteers.
Main Characters
The main characters featured in this episode are:
Plot Synopsis
Wheeler, faced with the dystopian future which he has unwittingly brought upon Earth, decides to find the other Planeteers (who now are 35 years older) and convince them to work together to save the planet.
Episode Summary
Wheeler changed history by preventing his past self from accepting the Ring of Fire, but then quickly regrets his decision after seeing the resulting future. Most of North America is flooded from global warming. If that weren't bad enough, he finds the future counterparts of his friends, who have all gone their separate ways, fighting losing battles (or very limited victories) against pollution. In Korea, Gi lives as a recluse, using her Water power to save some near-extinct dolphins (one of the few animals not yet extinct), while typhoons have became commonplace. In Niger, Kwame has planted a small grove of trees, but is now using his Earth power to desperately fight off attacking loggers to protect them, as they are the last trees left in Africa. In Russia, Linka uses her Wind power to put down riots as the place is suffering a heat wave due to the ozone layer being destroyed over the Northern Hemisphere, which has decimated food production. Finally, in Brazil, Ma-ti lives as a homeless person in his village community that had been heavily over-industrialized to the point the rainforests no longer exist, using his Heart power to convince the few richer people to donate money to the homeless and hungry. All four of them remember how at one time the Planeteers hoped to save the world, but due to the fact that the team was incomplete, they couldn't accomplish their mission, and disbanded as a result. Wheeler tries to convince each of them to reform the Planeteers and use their powers to save the world, but all four of them angrily rebuke him, claiming that the destruction has now gone too far to be undone, and that the Planeteers can never form ever again. Wheeler seeks out Gaia at Hope Island, but to his horror, Hope Island got converted to an energy-wasting Vegas-like island and dump site, courtesy of a now wealthy Greedly and Rigger, who stored toxic chemicals into Gaia's hut, killing her. Wheeler calls them out on how they got rich through time portal, and Greedly & Rigger are alarmed that Wheeler knows about it. They try to stop him through robo guards they created but Wheeler manages to escape through time portal wanting to set history back the way it was. Returning to the moment in history when he had stopped himself from accepting the ring, Wheeler stops his more recent past self from stopping his original past self from taking the ring, and sets things back to the way they were. Once back in the present, he and Dr. Blight are still trapped in the ice, and running out of air, but Wheeler is too happy to care. A moment later, the four Planeteers, having dug through the ice for two hours, rescue them. Dr. Blight and Hoggish Greedly attempt to use the time portal to go back in time to still speed up Global Warming, but Captain Planet reverses the flow to send them to a future where the Planeteers set a good example, and pollution and wars are reduced, and the ideals of Greedly and Dr. Blight are a laughingstock. Wheeler now also sees the same aged Planeteers he saw before, only with an older version of himself (and a younger version of Gaia).
Planeteer Alerts
Captain Planet: We all wonder what effect each of us has on the future. Every person can set an example for bad – or for good.
Linka: Together, with each of us setting good examples...
Ma-Ti: ... we can save the planet!
Wheeler: And protect the future!
Captain Planet: The power is yours!
Significant Moments and Facts
An aged Wheeler would be revisited in another episode where he is married to Linka and has fathered several children. However, due to what he saw in Population Bomb, he is not sure that is ideal.
Quotes
Wheeler: (after the Time Pool has, per his request to see Ma-Ti in the year 2026, transported him to the Amazon rainforest, which has been replaced by a sprawling, polluted city) This can't be the rainforest! There's been some kinda mistake!
(Ma-Ti, now 47 years old and homeless, is sitting nearby and sulking)
Ma-Ti: (sighs) You are right. Both times. This place cannot be a rainforest anymore. And this city is a mistake. Please, young sir, some spare change?
Wheeler: (shocked) Ma-Ti!
Ma-Ti: Forgive me, but if I ever knew you, I have forgotten. I find life is easier if I can forget the past.
Wheeler: Ma-Ti, what happened to you?
Ma-Ti: The same thing that happened to all my people. Once, we were happy and healthy. The forest gave us everything we needed. Then greedy men destroyed the forests to raise crops and cattle, and dig for gold. For a short while, they became rich. But tropical soil was not meant for farming, and it soon gave out.
(a wealthy man walks by)
Ma-Ti: Señor, please, some change?
(the man knocks Ma-Ti down and walks on; Ma-Ti aims his ring at him)
Ma-Ti: Heart!
(the man tosses Ma-Ti a gold coin after the ring's power takes effect on him)
Ma-Ti: Thank you, señor!
(he hands the coin to a homeless woman from his tribe, who is nearby with her daughter)
Ma-Ti: Here. Buy some food for your child.
Homeless woman: Oh, thank you!
(she kisses him, and then she and her daughter depart)
Wheeler: Ma-Ti, you could do so much more with your power! You could move people to care for the whole planet!
Ma-Ti: (sighs) You have much heart, young one. Why couldn't I have known you when I was a young Planeteer?
Wheeler: Well, I, uh...
Ma-Ti: But you cannot rebuild a rainforest. It is gone forever! And you think you can save an entire world?
(cries)
Gallery
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