S05E21 - Final Position

"Final Position" is the twenty-first episode of Season 5 of We Can Fix Pawbert.

Synopsis

The largest operation Zootopia has ever seen converges on the Reptile Ravine lighthouse to rescue Luther and Pawbert from Icener. Underground, Pawbert discovers Agnes's original inscription on The Root's console and triggers her failsafe code, permanently locking all weather wall systems. Luther kills Icener but collapses from his injuries, coding on the tunnel floor while Nick performs CPR.

Plot

At Mr. Big's mansion—now serving as ZSI's makeshift command center after their headquarters collapsed—Costa coordinates the response with his arm still in a sling. O'Brian struggles with salvaged equipment until Garcia arrives with the rest of the BAU and helps stabilize the drone feeds. When the overwatch comes online, it captures the moment that changes everything: a transport vehicle arrives at the Reptile Ravine lighthouse, and two figures—a gray wolf and a lynx, both bound and beaten—are dragged inside. Nick identifies them immediately. Costa realizes that Icener has consolidated everything at one location because The Root is there, beneath the lighthouse, and now he has the mammal with the codes. If Pawbert gives up the access codes willingly or under duress, Icener gains control of every weather wall in the city.

Costa mobilizes the largest operation Zootopia has ever seen. At a parking structure south of Tundratown repurposed as a staging area, Chief Bogo arrives leaning on his cane and refuses to stay behind, declaring that two of his people are down there—one who has bled alongside his officers for years, and another who has saved the city more than once and earned the right to have them come for him. Grey brings Precinct 7 ready for assignment. Fru Fru, dressed in black with her father dead less than a day, arrives at the mansion with twelve polar bears led by Koslov—committing the Big family's muscle for the city her father believed in. Athena Grant brings additional ZPD support from precincts across the city. Judy demands main entry alongside Reacher's team, insisting that Luther and Pawbert are pack and that she and Nick are going in. Reacher intercedes with Costa and agrees to take them, with one condition: they stay behind him and their job is to find Luther and Pawbert.

Costa assigns final vectors. The east approach—Precinct 1 heavy units, Koslov's polar bears, and supporting precincts—will clear the eastern defensive line. The west approach—BAU field agents, Precincts 7 and 4 and 8—will clear the western flank. Main entry—Reacher's team, CTU under Bauer, with Nick and Judy—will punch through to the lighthouse once the flanks open a lane. Holt and the Nine-Nine seal the outer perimeter. Jake steps out of his cruiser and quietly quotes a Die Hard line—no smile, no comedy. The full scale reveals itself: hundreds of vehicles, hundreds of mammals, every tactical asset Zootopia has to offer surrounding the ravine. Medical units stage at the rear—Station 118 among them, with Chimney, Eddie, Buck, and Hen ready for the casualties everyone knows are coming. Bogo speaks for everyone who has been lost, and Costa gives the order to engage.

The assault erupts on all fronts simultaneously. On the east, Koslov leads the polar bears in a charge, crashing into Icener's defensive line with overwhelming force. Francine trumpets once and crushes a secondary position, scattering bodies. Higgins and Bloats hit the first barricade like living battering rams. Raymond takes a round to the shoulder but keeps moving. A tapir officer from Precinct 3 goes down with a leg wound, and a polar bear named Nikolai is killed. On the west, Bradford blows the perimeter fence and Chen is through first, dropping two operatives before anyone else clears the gap. Morgan and Prentiss push alongside them. JJ takes a round to the arm and keeps fighting. Nolan catches shrapnel from a grenade and wraps it in the field, refusing to fall back. Athena anchors the western push with grizzly-bear firepower. Once both flanks clear their sectors, Costa sends main entry forward. Three BearCats roar through the gap, plowing through scrambling operatives. Reacher explodes out of the lead vehicle and tears through the lighthouse entrance, his team and CTU flooding in behind him. Nick and Judy fight through the interior without hesitation—Nick drops multiple wolves with cold precision, Judy clears a doorway of three operatives in seconds. CTU secures the upper floors. The lighthouse falls, but the cost is steep: Viktor dead, the Precinct 3 tapir dead, Chevre badly wounded, multiple officers hit across every team.

Inside the lighthouse, Nick discovers a massive shaft blasted through the foundation, dropping sixty meters into ancient tunnels. The walls transition from modern concrete to old brick to carved stone as they descend. Costa confirms it: that is The Root. Reacher, Nick, and Judy ride the crude elevator platform down into the passage network and advance through tunnels full of Icener's remaining operatives. Deep underground, in a control chamber lined with century-old equipment and modern upgrades, Icener stands behind Pawbert at the console. Luther kneels nearby, held by two polar bears, beaten far worse than the mansion—face swollen, ribs broken, shoulder wound reopened, blood soaking through his torn shirt. Icener demands the codes with terrible patience, punctuating each refusal with another blow to Luther. Pawbert agonizes over the impossible choice: enter Milton's code BUILT_BY_LYNXLEY and give Icener control of every weather wall, or refuse and watch Luther die.

Luther, through blood and broken ribs, tells Pawbert to let him go. He says he loves him, that he is proud of him, and that those codes in Icener's paws would mean the end of everything—not just one life, but tens of thousands. Pawbert, tears streaming, refuses Icener outright. He will not give the codes for Luther, for anyone. If Luther dies, he dies knowing Pawbert did not betray everything they built together. Icener registers surprise, then grudging acknowledgment, comparing Pawbert to his father. Pawbert's response is cold: his father can rot. In that moment, his eyes drift past Icener to the console frame, where faded text is etched into the metal itself—BUILT BY TWO, with the rest worn illegible by a century underground. Pawbert recognizes it as the original inscription, the words Ebenezer never bothered to replace because only he and Agnes knew The Root existed. Gary's words echo in his memory about Agnes's founding phrase—five words, a partnership, a purpose. The failsafe is the missing half.

Icener shoots Luther in the leg. Pawbert screams and lunges for the console. He tries FOR_EVERYONE first—the modern Zootopia motto—and the terminal flashes red. His mind races: Agnes was not writing a slogan, she was writing a failsafe. The simplest expression of the original intent. He enters FOR_ALL. The system responds. Every weather wall station across Zootopia goes into emergency lockdown—not destruction, but preservation mode. Systems frozen, protected, inaccessible. Every display flashes the same message: FAILSAFE ACTIVATED, ROOT ACCESS REVOKED. Icener's rage boils over. Pawbert, still crying but steady, tells him that no code will ever work again—the city survives, and Icener loses. Icener throws Pawbert across the room and beats him, then draws his pistol to execute him. His finger tightens on the trigger, and the door explodes inward.

Nick and Judy pour through the breach with Reacher's team behind them. The control room erupts into a firefight. Nick drops one of the polar bears holding Luther; Judy kills the other. Luther wrenches free, grabs a dead bear's pistol, and pursues Icener into a maintenance tunnel as the polar bear drags Pawbert with him. Reacher, Neagley, O'Donnell, and Dixon clear the remaining operatives in the control chamber. The teams fan out through the tunnel network while Nick and Judy follow a blood trail south. Luther tracks Icener to a dead end where the polar bear holds Pawbert at gunpoint. Luther emerges from the darkness—barely upright, weapon raised, his eyes carrying the absolute certainty of a mammal who has already decided how this ends. Pawbert lunges at Icener's gun paw, claws and teeth sinking into the polar bear's wrist, and the gun fires wild. Icener flings Pawbert away, but those seconds are enough. Luther's first shot takes Icener in the shoulder. What follows is a brutal close-quarters fight—Icener's mass against Luther's desperation. Pawbert intervenes twice more, clawing and biting to buy Luther moments, and kicks the lost pistol back to Luther's paw. Luther systematically disables Icener shot by shot—knee, shoulder, knee—reciting the cost: Shaw dead, over a hundred civilians dead, his home invaded, his family taken. Standing over the fallen polar bear, Luther declares that there is nothing he will not do to protect his family, and fires the final shot.

Luther drops the gun and collapses. Pawbert catches him as they both go down. Nick and Judy arrive seconds later. Luther's eyes flutter open long enough to ask if he got Icener, and Pawbert tells him it is over. Then Luther's eyes close. Nick checks his pulse, starts compressions, and shouts for Luther to stay. Judy calls desperately for medical on the radio. Pawbert holds Luther's paw, begging him to stay. The episode ends with Nick performing CPR on the tunnel floor, Pawbert holding Luther, Judy shouting coordinates into the radio, and Icener's body cooling behind them—the city saved, and Luther slipping away.

Key Moments

• Drone overwatch captures Luther and Pawbert being dragged into the Reptile Ravine lighthouse, confirming The Root's location
• Bogo arrives on his cane and refuses to stay behind, declaring that Pawbert has earned the right to have them come for him
• Fru Fru commits twelve polar bears to the assault in her father's memory
• Judy demands main entry with Reacher's team, insisting Luther and Pawbert are pack
• Costa gives the order to engage—the largest police mobilization in Zootopia's history
• Koslov leads the polar bear charge on the eastern approach
• Nikolai is killed; the Precinct 3 tapir is killed; multiple officers wounded across every team
• Reacher's team and CTU breach the lighthouse; Nick and Judy fight through the interior
• Luther tells Pawbert to let him go, accepting death rather than let the codes fall to Icener
• Pawbert refuses to give Icener the codes, choosing principle over Luther's life
• Pawbert discovers Agnes's original inscription—BUILT BY TWO—etched into the console frame
• Pawbert enters the failsafe code FOR_ALL, permanently locking all weather wall systems
• Reacher, Nick, and Judy breach the underground control chamber
• Luther pursues Icener into the tunnels; Pawbert bites Icener's gun paw to buy Luther seconds
• Luther kills Icener after systematically disabling him, declaring his pack as his motivation
• Luther collapses and codes on the tunnel floor; Nick performs CPR while Pawbert holds his paw

Key Lines

Locations

• Mr. Big's Mansion — ZSI command center; Costa, Garcia, and O'Brian coordinate from the grand study
• Forward staging ground — Parking structure south of Tundratown; Bogo's mobile command
• Reptile Ravine — Outer perimeter (Nine-Nine containment), east approach, west approach, main entry
• Reptile Ravine Lighthouse — Icener's final stronghold; breached by main entry team
• The Root — Agnes De'Snake's control hub beneath the lighthouse; century-old chamber with the master console
• Tunnel network — Ancient passages beneath the lighthouse; dead end where Icener is killed

Items

• The Root — Agnes De'Snake's control hub beneath the lighthouse; the master system for every weather wall in Zootopia
• Console inscription: BUILT BY TWO — Agnes's original founding words etched into the console frame; the rest faded by a century underground
• Failsafe code: FOR_ALL — The second half of Agnes's inscription; triggers permanent weather wall lockdown and revokes all root access
• Icener's combat knife — Taken from his tactical vest by Luther during close-quarters combat; used to stab Icener's wrist
• Luther's recovered pistol — Taken from a dead polar bear in the control chamber; used to kill Icener

End Credit Song

"Ne me quitte pas" (From 'Sans Attendre'), Céline Dion

This is the first and only non-English end credit song in the series, and the choice is deliberately jarring—a French torch song over an unresolved cliffhanger. The episode ends with Luther collapsing after killing Icener, his body giving out from gunshot wounds, broken ribs, and internal bleeding. Nick performs desperate CPR on the stone floor while Pawbert cradles Luther's paw and screams for help. "Ne me quitte pas"—"don't leave me"—becomes Pawbert's wordless prayer, the repeated plea transcending language as Céline Dion's voice carries all the desperate longing the moment demands. Traditionally, cliffhangers don't get end credit songs because the tension needs to carry forward unbroken. But "Ne me quitte pas" doesn't break the tension—it intensifies it, transforming the credits into an extension of Pawbert's vigil.

Notes

• The console inscription "BUILT BY TWO... FOR ALL" reveals Agnes's original vision: weather walls built by two species, for all mammals. The failsafe code is the second half of her founding inscription, preserved because Ebenezer never bothered to replace the text in a chamber only he and Agnes knew about.
• Pawbert tries FOR_EVERYONE first—the modern Zootopia motto—and fails. Agnes was not writing a slogan; she was writing a failsafe in the simplest terms possible. The distinction matters: FOR_ALL is the original intent, predating the city's marketing by a century.
• Every crossover team from the entire series participates in the final assault, making it a culmination of all alliances built across five seasons: Reacher's team, CTU, the BAU, Precinct 7, the Nine-Nine, Station 118, and Athena from ZPD special assignment.
• Judy's line "This cave is not a natural formation" is a Halo easter egg, quoting Cortana's observation upon discovering Forerunner structures in Halo: Combat Evolved.
• Jake's somber delivery of "Welcome to the party, pal"—a Die Hard reference—is played without comedy, marking how far the stakes have pushed even the Nine-Nine's most irrepressible member.
• Bauer's CTU operatives in the BearCat are named after characters from other procedural franchises: "Ryan" is a nod to Jack Ryan, "Gibbs," "DiNozzo," "McGee," and "David" are from NCIS, and "Bell" and "Zidan" are from FBI.
• The ZPD officers Morgan commands during the western approach—Deacon, Luca, and Street—are named after characters from S.W.A.T., the series Shemar Moore (Morgan's real-world actor on Criminal Minds) moved to after departing that show.
• Pawbert intervenes physically three times during the final confrontation: biting Icener's gun paw to disarm him, clawing his back to break his chokehold on Luther, and kicking the lost pistol back to Luther. The lynx who once froze under threat now fights with everything he has.
• Luther's systematic disabling of Icener—knee, shoulder, knee, then the final headshot—is accompanied by a recitation of costs that functions as both condemnation and eulogy for the crisis.
• This is the first non-English end credit song in the series. "Ne me quitte pas" ("Don't leave me") plays over Luther coding in Pawbert's arms—the emotional register transcends language.
• Luther's survival is left unresolved until the following episode, making this one of the series' most devastating cliffhangers despite the villain's defeat.