S05E01 - Golden Age

"Golden Age" is the first episode of Season 5 and the season premiere of the final season of We Can Fix Pawbert. Set two years after "Loud and Determined", it establishes the contrast between Zootopia's peaceful domestic life and a lethal foreign threat.

Synopsis

Two years after Pawbert's birthday celebration, ZSI operatives are killed in Vladifrostok after discovering an infiltration campaign targeting Zootopia. Meanwhile, Pawbert celebrates the completion of his Post-Release Supervision, unaware of the danger gathering abroad.

Plot

The episode opens on a black screen with the sounds of running paws, gunfire, and labored breathing. In Vladifrostok, three ZSI rabbit operatives---Perkins, Botasky, and White---are in the middle of a catastrophic mission failure. They have uncovered evidence of an infiltration campaign targeting Zootopia, but their radio is jammed and their intelligence device cannot transmit. White, their sniper, has already been killed by an RPG on a maintenance catwalk. Perkins and Botasky fight through the facility's oversized corridors, killing a polar bear, a tiger, a leopard, a dhole, and a gray wolf in a desperate running battle. Botasky is shot through the abdomen during the junction firefight. As he lies dying beside his partner of fifteen years, Perkins grabs both their weapons and kills a red fox and brown bear before taking a fatal round to the chest himself. In his final moments, Perkins reaches for Botasky's paw and whispers his farewell. A massive, unnamed polar bear---the mastermind later identified as Icener---arrives, picks up the intelligence device, and tosses it to a corsac operative who cancels the transfer. The intel that could have warned Zootopia dies with the operatives.

The tone shifts entirely to Zootopia, now two years later. Pawbert is thirty years old and working as a licensed social worker at Zootopia Reentry Services. His office is modest---a desk, two chairs, a jade plant, his framed GYU diploma, and a photograph of the pack caught mid-laugh. His nameplate reads "PAWBERT LYNXLEY, LSW." When his colleague Sorrel brings in his afternoon appointment, Pawbert meets Wiley, a coyote four days out of ZCF on a breaking-and-entering conviction. Wiley is defensive, wary, and convinced no one will hire a felon. Pawbert sits beside the desk rather than behind it, recognizes the body language from his own experience, and tells Wiley he understands what he is carrying. He offers employer partnerships, sets clear expectations---he will vouch for Wiley if Wiley does the work, and will not lie for him if he does not---and earns the first fragile thread of the coyote's trust.

Pawbert walks home through Savanna Central in the golden hour. He passes Snarlbucks and waves to Lane, Brim, and Selma through the window without stopping---the ritual of acknowledgment enough. He passes a newsstand where the headlines are mundane: park renovations, farmers market hours, crime at a fifteen-year low. No Lynxley name. No scandal. He boards the ZTA and watches the city scroll past---Rainforest District canopy glittering with moisture, Tundratown snow falling in engineered patterns, Sahara Square shimmering with heat. The weather walls, once the mechanism of his family's power, are just part of the skyline now. The city breathes. This is Zootopia at peace.

At the Central Parole Office, Pawbert finds Luther, Nick, and Judy already waiting in civilian clothes---Luther in a gray henley, Nick in a clashing flowery shirt, Judy in practical civilian wear. Murray Burrows, his parole officer, calls him back for his final appointment. Murray reviews three years of Post-Release Supervision---no violations, no incidents, no concerning behavior---and tells Pawbert how rare that is in twenty-two years of doing this job. He runs through the standard compliance questions, pausing only when Pawbert confirms the gun room in his residence that he has never accessed. Then Murray asks an off-the-record question: what has Pawbert learned? Pawbert answers that he learned he is not what he did, that asking for help is not weakness, and that he is allowed to exist---to take up space and want things and be here. Murray signs the Certificate of Completion and shakes his paw: Pawbert is free.

In the waiting room, Pawbert holds up the certificate and tells his pack it is done. Nick pulls him into a brief, tight hug and tells him he is proud. Judy embraces him fiercely, and Pawbert corrects her "You did it" to "We did it." Luther simply holds him, steady and wordless, and responds to Pawbert's thanks with "Always." The pack drives home to the Pawthorne Mansion in the Meadowlands---the stone-and-timber estate that has become their home over three years. Luther reveals the gun room PIN is 1126, Pawbert's birthday, and admits it has been the same code for over a year because Nick kept forgetting the monthly changes. Over dinner---Luther's efficient pasta, Judy's precise salad---they talk about Judy's recent detective promotion, Nick's weeks-away promotion, and Luther's quiet liaison work. Pawbert teases Nick about trying to train Clawhauser. The pack settles into Friday movie night: La La Lamb on Deersney+, a musical about aspiring lambs in Los Zangeles.

During the film's final sequence, Luther's phone buzzes with the urgent ZSI pattern. He steps into the hallway and answers. The voice on the other end reports that Vladifrostok station went dark eighteen hours ago: three operatives---Perkins, Botasky, White---are MIA, presumed KIA, and their intelligence never reached ZSI. Luther stands in the hallway listening to his pack laugh at a movie, and for the first time in years, feels a deep, primal fear. The analysts have been calling this period the golden age---crime at historic lows, no threats on the horizon. Luther watches through the archway as Pawbert laughs, Nick quips, and Judy shushes them. The world is about to change. He just does not know how yet.

Key Moments

• ZSI operatives Perkins, Botasky, and White are killed in Vladifrostok during a running firefight through an oversized facility
• Icener captures the intelligence device before its data can reach Zootopia
• Perkins reaches for Botasky's paw in their final moments, whispering his farewell after fifteen years of partnership
• Pawbert mentors Wiley, a newly released coyote, at ZRS---sitting beside his desk rather than behind it
• Pawbert walks through a peaceful Savanna Central, passing mundane headlines and waving to friends at Snarlbucks
• The pack gathers in civilian clothes at the Central Parole Office for Pawbert's final appointment
• Murray Burrows asks Pawbert what he has learned; Pawbert articulates that he is allowed to exist
• Murray signs the Certificate of Completion, ending three years of Post-Release Supervision
• Nick hugs Pawbert and tells him he is proud; Luther responds to thanks with "Always"
• Luther reveals the gun room PIN is Pawbert's birthday, unchanged for over a year
• The pack shares dinner, domestic banter, and movie night at the mansion
• Luther receives the ZSI call confirming three operatives are MIA, presumed KIA
• Luther watches his pack through the archway, feeling fear for the first time in years

Key Lines

Characters Introduced

Locations

• Vladifrostok - Foreign city-state; ZSI covert operations facility
• ZRS - Pawbert's workplace; Savanna Central
• Savanna Central - Street, Snarlbucks exterior, newsstand, ZTA station
• Central Parole Office - Murray Burrows' office; PRS completion
• Pawthorne Mansion - Pack home; Meadowlands

Items

• Perkins' device --- Intelligence transfer pending; captured by Icener; intel never reaches ZSI
• Pawbert's LSW nameplate --- "PAWBERT LYNXLEY, LSW" on ZRS desk
• Jade plant (ZRS) --- On corner of office desk; distinct from home plant
• GYU diploma --- Framed on ZRS office wall
• Pack photo (ZRS) --- Pack caught mid-laugh; on desk
• Certificate of Completion --- PRS completion document; signed by Murray Burrows
• Gun room PIN (1126) --- Pawbert's birthday; unchanged for over a year
• Four green ceramic mugs --- Pack symbol; mansion kitchen
• La La Lamb --- Musical film on Deersney+; movie night selection

End Credit Song

"Audition (The Fools Who Dream)" (From 'La La Land'), Emma Stone

"Audition (The Fools Who Dream)" serves as a mournful tribute to both the ZSI operatives who died in the cold open and the pack's golden age that is about to shatter. The episode opens with Perkins, Botasky, and White—three operatives who believed in their mission enough to die in Vladifrostok—and closes with Luther learning their intel never reached ZSI. The song's celebration of "the fools who dream" and "the mess that they make" honors these unnamed heroes who dreamed of protecting Zootopia and paid for it with their lives. Meanwhile, the pack watches La La Lamb in domestic bliss, unaware that their own golden age is ending. Emma Stone's wistful delivery matches Luther's final moment in the hallway, watching his pack laugh at a movie while he feels the first cold tendril of fear he hasn't felt in years.

Notes

• This episode establishes a two-year time jump, the largest gap between seasons in the series.
• Pawbert's PRS completion marks the final lifting of all institutional constraints from his conviction.
• Icener appears only as an unnamed shadow figure; his name is not confirmed until "Activation."
• The three ZSI operatives---Perkins, Botasky, and White---are modeled after characters from Cat Shit One (also known as Apocalypse Meow), giving the unfinished manga/anime series a fitting send-off.
• The cold open's graphic violence establishes the return to action-thriller intensity after the slice-of-life tone of the previous season.
• La La Lamb is the in-universe version of La La Land, featuring lambs instead of humans.
• Pawbert's coyote client Wiley is named after Wile E. Coyote from Looney Tunes.
• Sorrel's mention of a "2-1-1 referral" references the real-world 2-1-1 helpline, a free service in the United States and Canada that connects people with local health and human services resources.
• This is the only episode in the series where the title card appears significantly later than the cold open. The "WE CAN FIX PAWBERT" title card does not appear until after Act Three, following an extended sequence of Pawbert riding the ZTA train through the peaceful city---emphasizing the contrast between domestic tranquility and the violence that opened the episode.