S05E03 - Soft Target

"Soft Target" is the third episode of Season 5 of We Can Fix Pawbert.

Synopsis

A joint ZSI-ZPD raid on a shell company warehouse captures nine operatives, but the network retaliates with simultaneous weather wall malfunctions across three districts. When a transport convoy is ambushed and the most dangerous prisoner escapes, the investigation links polar bear visitors at ZCF to the network, and Pawbert agrees to visit his father.

Plot

At Zootopia Correctional Facility, two polar bears sit across from Milton Lynxley in the maximum security visitation room. They are urgent, pressing—they want something and have wanted it for weeks. Milton listens with characteristic patience, offers a few measured words, and watches their frustration mount. When their tone turns heated, he simply ends the meeting on his own terms, pausing at the door with a slight smile before guards escort him back to his cell. There, he picks up his book on pre-unification territorial conflicts, a receipt marking the chapter on siege warfare. The visitors will keep coming back. They need what only he can provide, and until they offer something worth trading, they will keep leaving empty-handed.

At the CCC, Shaw briefs Luther and Costa on the traced phantom credentials: every fake maintenance worker identified originates from the same source, a shell company called Meridian Shipping, incorporated six years ago—three months after the Lynxley convictions. Costa orders a joint ZSI-ZPD raid on the warehouse before the operatives can relocate. Luther coordinates with Precinct 1 and briefs the combined task force: ZSI tactical will breach while ZPD provides perimeter security. Familiar ZPD faces fill the briefing room—Grizzoli, Bucheron and Chevre, Fangmeyer and Delgato—alongside Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps.

The raid on the Canal District warehouse unfolds with precision. Luther counts down and calls the breach. Inside, the operatives are already attempting to evacuate—shoving equipment into trucks, feeding documents through an overworked shredder. A snow leopard named Yuri Volkov stops walking and raises his paws without resistance. A polar bear named Kira Roskova does the opposite, bursting through stacked crates and putting a cougar through a shelf before Luther, Shaw, and three agents bring her down. Outside, Nick and Judy intercept a corsac fox runner, Bucheron and Chevre handle two more at the north exit, and Grizzoli's team catches a sable scaling the fence. Nine operatives are captured in total.

Luther splits the two key prisoners: Volkov goes to ZPD Precinct 1, Roskova to ZSI—separate buildings, separate routes, separate personnel. At Precinct 1, Nick and Judy interrogate Volkov. The snow leopard is weary and forthcoming about motivations: Vladifrostok's climate control system failed years ago, and every request for help—diplomatic channels, aid requests, technical expertise—was refused by Zootopia. He describes himself not as a villain but as a mammal who watched his home die and chose to act. He refuses to name his leader or reveal operational details, but warns that what is coming cannot be stopped, and apologizes for it. Across the city at ZSI, Roskova sits through twenty minutes of interrogation in total silence, tracking every movement and cataloguing every face. She speaks only one sentence—a cold warning that they have no idea what is already in place.

While the CCC processes the warehouse haul, alarms flash across the holographic map. Three weather wall stations malfunction simultaneously: Tundratown's ice roads soften to slush, the Rainforest District's humidity surges to dangerous levels, and Canal District water levels rise two feet in under a minute. Each disruption lasts exactly ten minutes before systems return to normal. Costa reads the message immediately—the network is demonstrating that the warehouse raid captured only a fraction of what is in place, and that it can manipulate the city's infrastructure at will. O'Brian detects coordinated encrypted traffic spikes during all three events, confirming the disruptions were orchestrated.

The situation deteriorates further when Roskova's transport convoy is ambushed on an industrial access road. Six operatives with military precision attack the three-vehicle convoy, killing or wounding the escort agents and breaching the prisoner transport in ninety seconds. ZSI agents Cackwell and Tuftridge are both wounded—Cackwell critically, requiring surgery. Roskova disappears into waiting vehicles with her rescuers. Back at the CCC, Costa, Luther, and Shaw realize the truth: Roskova was never truly captured. She allowed herself to be taken, gathered intelligence on ZSI procedures and response times during her brief captivity, and then her people extracted her on schedule. She was a reconnaissance asset, not a prisoner.

That night, the pack gathers at Pawthorne Mansion with Costa on speakerphone. The discussion connects the pieces: ZCF records show that Milton has received six visits from polar bears using fake identification over the past month, and Milton filed a visitation request for Pawbert two days before any of this broke. Pawbert reveals he has been sitting on the request without responding. Luther takes his paw, offering him a way out, but Pawbert declares that Milton does not control him anymore—he knows how his father thinks, and he wants to help prevent more mammals from getting hurt. Later in their bedroom, Pawbert admits his fear: that he will walk into that room and be fourteen again, that everything he has built will disappear the moment he sees Milton. Luther responds with quiet certainty, reminding him of everything fourteen-year-old Pawbert did not have—a pack, six years of growth, a life that has nothing to do with Milton, and Luther himself, waiting right outside that room. In the tag's split screen, their quiet intimacy contrasts with Roskova at a Tundratown safehouse, studying a map of weather wall stations with most of them checkmarked. The network is nearly ready.

Key Moments

• Milton receives polar bear visitors at ZCF and dismisses them without providing what they want, demonstrating his control over the situation
• Shaw traces all phantom maintenance credentials to Meridian Shipping, a shell company incorporated three months after the Lynxley convictions
• A joint ZSI-ZPD raid on the Canal District warehouse captures nine operatives, including Volkov and Roskova
• Roskova fights through five agents before being subdued, establishing her as command-level and physically formidable
• Luther orders the two key prisoners separated into different buildings with different routes and personnel
• Volkov reveals that Vladifrostok's climate system failed and Zootopia refused every request for assistance
• Roskova speaks a single sentence during interrogation, warning that ZSI has no idea what is already in place
• Simultaneous weather wall malfunctions hit three districts for exactly ten minutes each, proving the network's reach
• Roskova's transport convoy is ambushed in a ninety-second extraction; agents Cackwell and Tuftridge are wounded
• Costa realizes Roskova allowed herself to be captured as a reconnaissance operation
• Volkov warns that Roskova is not the one to fear, implying someone worse leads the network
• Milton's polar bear visitors are linked to the infiltration network
• Pawbert reveals he received Milton's visitation request and agrees to visit his father
• Luther reminds Pawbert of everything he has now that fourteen-year-old Pawbert did not
• Roskova studies a map of nearly-complete weather wall installations at a Tundratown safehouse

Key Lines

Characters Introduced

Locations

• Zootopia Correctional Facility - Maximum security visitation room and wing; Milton's cell
• ZSI Headquarters - Crisis Coordination Center; interrogation room
• ZPD Precinct 1 - Briefing room; interrogation room; holding area
• Canal District - Meridian Shipping warehouse (raid target)
• Industrial access road - Site of Roskova's convoy ambush
• Pawthorne Mansion - Pack gathers for Costa's briefing call; master bedroom tag
• Tundratown safehouse - Roskova's post-extraction location (tag)

Items

• Milton's book — History of pre-unification territorial conflicts; torn receipt marking the siege warfare chapter
• Meridian Shipping warehouse — Shell company staging area in Canal District; incorporated six years ago, three months after Lynxley convictions
• Shipping manifests — Partially destroyed by shredder during raid; fragments suggest broader network
• Communication and surveillance equipment — Captured from warehouse; not weaponized but not innocent
• Weather wall devices — Demonstrated simultaneously in Tundratown, Rainforest District, and Canal District
• Roskova's map — Zootopia weather wall stations with checkmarks at a Tundratown safehouse; most stations marked complete

End Credit Song

None

Notes

• Volkov's backstory provides moral complexity: Icener's campaign is rooted in Vladifrostok's genuine climate crisis and Zootopia's refusal to help, not simple villainy.
• The ten-minute weather wall demonstrations prove the network can manipulate Zootopia's infrastructure with surgical precision and coordinated timing.
• Luther's use of "Paw" as an intimate nickname for Pawbert appears for the first time in this episode.