S05E17 - All Paws

"All Paws" is the seventeenth episode of Season 5 of We Can Fix Pawbert.

Synopsis

Icener launches a suicide assault on ZSI headquarters with dozens of operatives, planting explosive charges on the building's structural supports. The resulting partial collapse kills twenty-three ZSI personnel and traps the pack on separate floors. Pawbert saves O'Brian's life during the evacuation, while Roskova begins questioning the escalating cost of Icener's campaign.

Plot

In a Tundratown staging area, Icener briefs his commanders on a plan to assault ZSI headquarters. He acknowledges openly that the mission will be fatal for many of them, framing the sacrifice as necessary to destroy ZSI's ability to protect Milton and coordinate against his network. His commanders—polar bears, wolverines, snow leopards, arctic foxes, and tundra tigers who followed him from Vladifrostok—accept the cost without hesitation. Roskova stands at his shoulder, composed but harboring a flicker of doubt about the mammal she is following.

The morning finds the pack scattered across ZSI headquarters on routine duty. Pawbert reviews old Lynxley Holdings documents at a workstation in the Crisis Coordination Center on Sub-Level 2. Luther and Shaw study Tundratown tactical maps in a Level 3 conference room. Judy sits alone in the Level 4 break room—Nick has stepped out for the Level 2 restrooms. Bauer reviews deployment schedules at the lobby security checkpoint. The episode establishes the split-screen simultaneity of four quadrants before the assault begins. At 08:32, vehicles screech to a halt outside and dozens of armed operatives flood every entrance. Bauer is already in the lobby when the metal detectors erupt; he takes cover behind a pillar and engages, dropping multiple operatives while ZSI guards fall around him. The security lockdown seals stairwell doors throughout the building, trapping the pack on separate floors—Judy alone on Level 4 with no override access, Nick stranded in a Level 2 corridor, Luther and Shaw locked behind a conference room door that Shaw overrides with command codes.

Luther and Shaw fight through to the lobby, where the firefight has become a killing floor. Bauer identifies the operatives' true objective: they are planting explosive charges on the building's structural columns, dying to complete the mission rather than fighting for cover. Luther, Shaw, and Bauer kill operatives as fast as they can, but for every one stopped, another reaches a column. A wounded polar bear operative reaches the entrance with a detonator. Luther screams for everyone to get down. The charges blow half the structural supports.

The explosion throws Luther, Shaw, and Bauer across the lobby. The building lurches twenty degrees—a catastrophic lean that turns floors into slopes and sends everything sliding. In the CCC, the underground level stays level but the ceiling cracks and begins collapsing. Costa orders immediate evacuation. O'Brian is still at her station, frantically downloading data to a portable drive when a concrete slab cracks directly above her console. Pawbert lunges across the distance, physically grabs the raccoon, and yanks her away just before the slab crushes her workstation. He rallies the survivors toward the north stairwell—the only exit still partially intact—and leads the evacuation. But the gecko operator at the Reptile Station cannot move fast enough, and the mouse coordinator on the Micro Platform is stranded when debris blocks her ramps. A massive ceiling section collapses between Pawbert and those still behind him. He cannot reach them. He turns and leads the survivors up and out.

On Level 4, the tilt flings Judy against a window overlooking the street four stories below. The glass holds—she is small and light. A hippo agent loses his grip on a filing cabinet and slides into the window beside her; the stressed pane shatters under his weight and he falls to his death. Judy squeezes through a gap in the warped stairwell frame, using her rabbit size to navigate where larger mammals cannot, and descends toward Nick. Meanwhile, Nick follows a Level 2 evacuation group down and out the west side. In the lobby, Luther, Shaw, and Bauer push toward the south entrance but find it blocked; they reroute through the loading dock, emerging on the east side just before part of the dock collapses behind them, pinning them in a debris pocket. A USAR sniffer wolf detects their scent signatures, and heavy squad rhinos and elephants extract them.

The pack reunites in stages. Nick and Judy find each other outside the perimeter—running in opposite directions until instinct makes Nick turn. They collide and hold each other. Judy, shaking with delayed shock, describes the hippo who died in the exact spot where she had been standing moments before, and invokes Athena's words about Bobby having "that look" every time she went on a call. Luther sprints from the east staging area toward the north, where sub-level evacuees emerged. Pawbert pushes through crowds from the north toward the east, where he heard USAR pulled survivors from a collapse. They spot each other through a gap in the crowd and run together. Luther holds Pawbert so tightly he can barely breathe.

At the north staging area, the full toll becomes clear. Bauer reports twenty-three ZSI personnel confirmed dead with fifteen still unaccounted for, including the gecko and mouse operators from the CCC. Costa, on his feet with his arm in a sling, absorbs the news. O'Brian approaches Pawbert with her head bandaged and data drive still in her paws, telling him she would have been dead if he had not pulled her from that station. Bauer confirms Icener lost thirty operatives—more than a quarter of his force—burned in a single suicide assault. Costa observes that Icener spent his people like currency. In the tag, Roskova delivers the casualty report to Icener in his emptier warehouse: thirty dead, including commanders Vostokoff, Dreykov, and Oksana. She confronts him directly, asking how many more they will spend before it is over. Icener's answer—as many as it takes—confirms that the mission has consumed him. Roskova leaves, and for the first time since Vladifrostok, real doubt crosses her face.

Key Moments

• Icener briefs his commanders on a suicide assault against ZSI headquarters, acknowledging it will be fatal for many
• The pack is separated across four floors when the security lockdown engages during the assault
• Bauer holds the lobby, engaging dozens of operatives while they plant charges on structural columns
• Luther, Shaw, and Bauer fight to stop the charge-planting but cannot prevent enough detonations
• The building lurches twenty degrees when half the structural supports blow
• Pawbert saves O'Brian by yanking her away from her console moments before a concrete slab crushes it
• Pawbert leads CCC survivors through the north stairwell, taking command of the evacuation
• The gecko operator and mouse coordinator are killed when a ceiling collapse separates them from the group
• A hippo agent falls to his death through a shattered Level 4 window, moments after Judy was pressed against that same glass
• Judy squeezes through a warped stairwell frame using her rabbit size to escape Level 4
• Luther, Shaw, and Bauer are trapped in a loading dock debris pocket and extracted by USAR
• Nick and Judy reunite outside the perimeter; Judy invokes Athena's words about Bobby
• Luther and Pawbert find each other between staging areas after each feared the other was dead
• Twenty-three ZSI personnel confirmed dead; fifteen unaccounted for
• Costa sustains a broken arm; continues issuing orders on his feet with his arm in a sling
• Roskova confronts Icener about spending their people like currency; doubt visibly crosses her face

Key Lines

Locations

• ZSI Headquarters — CCC (Sub-Level 2), lobby, conference room (Level 3), break room (Level 4), Level 2 corridor, north stairwell, loading dock, multiple staging areas
• ZSI Headquarters exterior — North, south, east, and west perimeters; USAR staging areas; medical tents
• Tundratown — Icener's staging warehouse

Items

• Explosive charges — Planted on ZSI headquarters structural columns by Icener's operatives
• Detonator — Used by a wounded polar bear operative to trigger the charges
• O'Brian's data drive — Downloaded during the attack; saved when Pawbert pulls her from her station
• USAR tags — Search and rescue identification on Luther's wrist after extraction

Notes

• The deaths of the gecko and mouse operators highlight how small mammals face unique dangers in structural collapses—they physically cannot navigate debris that larger mammals can climb.
• Pawbert saving O'Brian reverses the protection dynamic that defined his early arc: the former victim is now the one pulling others from danger and commanding evacuations.
• The episode uses split-screen simultaneity extensively—first showing four quadrants of routine morning operations, then four experiences of the same catastrophe, then parallel reunion sequences.
• Judy's survival is species-dependent: the glass held because a rabbit weighs far less than the hippo who shattered it moments later.
• Costa's arm is broken under a fallen console; he remains on his feet with his arm in a sling and continues commanding. The destruction of the building forces the relocation of ZSI operations.
• Icener loses more than a quarter of his operational force in a single assault, confirming his desperation.
• Roskova's confrontation with Icener represents the first visible fracture in his command structure.