S0WE32 - Express Lane

"Express Lane" is the thirty-second episode of the W-Series. Luther's driver's license runs out in two days, the online renewal is down, and Nick knows someone at the Department of Mammal Vehicles who can help. It is a comedy, and it brings Flash Slothmore, the sloth clerk from Zootopia (2016), into the series for the first time.

Synopsis

At breakfast Luther finds that his driver's license expires on Friday. ZSI renews licenses only for field agents and the city's website is down for maintenance, so he has to go to the Department of Mammal Vehicles himself. Nick steers him to the Savanna Central office, where an old friend can get him into an express line. Judy, who once lost an entire afternoon in that building, warns him off, and Pawbert asks to come, because the friend once blocked a dart with his car and Pawbert never thanked him. Every clerk at the DMV is a sloth. Nick's express ticket takes the pack past the regular line, but two other customers are ahead of them and it is past noon before Luther reaches the window of Flash Slothmore. Pawbert thanks Flash for Burning Mammal, and Flash and Luther find they both straighten their documents. One keystroke from the end, Flash tells a joke, passes it along to Priscilla at the next window, and presses the key that starts a mandatory software update across the counter, which closes the DMV for the day. Flash knows of an annex Downtown that closes at five. In rush-hour traffic the trip should take longer than they have, so Flash drives them in his red sports car and gets them there with time to spare. The annex prints the license in ninety seconds. That night Maris says Luther's license photo has his father's face.

Plot

It is 7:15 in the morning at Pawthorne Mansion, and Luther is reading his license at arm's length in the kitchen. It expires on Friday, two days away. Pawbert listens to his options while the mugs are filled. ZSI handles renewals only for agents in the field, which makes a liaison an ordinary civilian here, and the city's online portal is offline for scheduled Woofdows maintenance. Nick lifts the card off the counter on his way past and takes more pleasure in the date than anyone should. He puts it down crooked and watches Luther straighten it, then brings up the pantry Luther once reorganized over some tomatoes.

Nick's plan passes over the nearer office in favor of Savanna Central, where an old friend at Window Six can get Luther into his express line. The word express catches Luther. Judy tries to stop Nick, who adds that his friend is the fastest driver he knows and claims he ran track, which Judy denies. When he starts on the best part, she covers his muzzle. She tells Luther she went to that office once, went in during the afternoon and came out after dark, and remembers chiefly the parts where she was wronged. Pawbert has worked out who the friend is: the driver who stopped a dart with his car, whom he never got to thank. He asks to come, and Luther says yes. Nick messages the precinct about a family matter, Judy writes off Luther's hopes for his hotspot, and Maris texts Luther to bring a book, having heard everything from Pawbert. Judy packs a book, a thermos and some dried mango for the wait.

A line has already formed outside the DMV before the doors open, and an alpaca in it has brought his own chair. Inside, the line fills a rope maze that runs back and forth toward a long counter, and every clerk behind it is a sloth. Luther understands what Nick has done. Nick then produces an express ticket, number 621, and will not say where he got it. He walks the pack past the whole maze to a bench at the end of the counter while the regular line watches. The express line has its own queue: a mountain goat dressed in a three-piece suit is at Window Six, and a kangaroo in pearls waits on the bench. Luther tells Nick he will find whatever Nick loves and make it take all day. Luther will not sit down.

Through the morning Nick calls out the Five Stages of DMV Grief as Luther goes through them. First comes denial, when Luther decides the counter's little display must be broken. Anger comes at a vending machine that takes only coins next to a change machine that is out of order. Nick bets half of Judy's mango that Luther never reaches acceptance, and Judy reminds him whose mango it is. Luther's hotspot fails, and he gives up on his laptop and sits down. He borrows the alpaca's pen and draws a better layout for the DMV on the back of his ticket, which Nick calls bargaining. Maris asks for an update, Luther tells her where the display stands, and Nick declares depression. Pawbert spent time in prison and is fine with all of it, so Nick awards him acceptance and tells Judy the bet is still on.

Just after noon the display turns over to 621. The clerk at Window Six is Flash, and Nick greets him by the old nickname. Flash remembers that Judy was in a hurry the last time, and she tells him she is not today. Flash recognizes Pawbert from Burning Mammal, one of three mammals there, and says he looks better. Pawbert, near tears, thanks him, and Flash takes so long to finish his answer that Pawbert's ears go back before he hears the end. Nick thanks him too, for coming when he called on the worst day of his life, and Flash brings up the lunch Nick bought him, a churro. Luther introduces himself. Flash squares Luther's documents before Luther can, and each notes that the other aligns his paperwork. Flash asks about hobbies. Luther reads procedure manuals, and when Flash asks what he does for fun, he guesses wrong at the end of the question and then gives the same answer. Flash notices that Luther's emergency contact has changed to a mammal with the same last name, looks at the two rings, and congratulates them.

By the time they reach the photograph, Judy has finished her book. Flash adjusts the camera and puts it back almost where it started. Luther does not smile for photographs, and neither does Flash, who smiles at him anyway until Luther's mouth gives a little at one corner. With one keystroke left, Flash stops to tell a joke about a buffalo and his son, laughs at it in slow bursts, and turns to tell it again to Priscilla at Window Seven while the llama at her counter listens. Nick sees the two window numbers and Judy presses a paw to his chest before he can say anything. Luther holds the edge of the counter, and Pawbert puts two fingers to the inside of his wrist. Flash presses the last key, and every terminal down the row stops for a mandatory Woofdows update. A sloth manager announces that the DMV will complete no more transactions that day. The alpaca packs up his chair without ever reaching the counter, and Luther lets out a long whine and leans his forehead on Pawbert's shoulder.

At half past four Flash's shift ends. He tells them about an annex Downtown, on a second floor and a separate system, which closes at five, and Judy's phone puts the drive at thirty-five minutes in the traffic. Judy guesses he will call ahead, and he offers to drive. The walk across the parking lot takes Flash eleven minutes, and he makes a full stop at the painted line before he floors his red sports car, whose plate Judy recognizes. He weaves through rush hour in the express lane, signaling his lane changes, and reaches the curb at 4:50, nine minutes after the lot. An anteater at the annex finds Luther's record complete and prints the card in ninety seconds. On the stairs Luther tells Flash he has been driven by professionals and Flash is better than all of them, then waits for Flash's paw to reach his own. When they get outside, the car is gone.

They get home after dark. Maris calls Pawbert's phone on speaker to say that Luther's father once lost three hours to the Department of Waterway Vessels and came home and labeled the garage. She asks to see the license photo, which matches Harlan's face in the portrait over the stairs, and tells Luther to frame it. Pawbert asks where the day ranks, and Luther says top five. Flash finally finishes a text to Nick offering Luther a ride tomorrow, and Luther tells Nick to say he is licensed.

Key Moments

• Nick learns the license expires on Friday and is delighted
• Nick sells Luther an express line at the Savanna Central office, and the word is enough
• Judy covers Nick's muzzle before he can explain the best part
• Every clerk at the DMV is a sloth
• Nick walks the pack past the entire rope maze on an express ticket, into an express line that has its own queue
• Nick narrates Luther's Five Stages of DMV Grief and awards acceptance to Pawbert
• Flash recognizes Pawbert from Burning Mammal, and Pawbert gets to thank him
• Flash and Luther discover they both straighten their documents
• Flash congratulates Luther on the emergency contact with the same last name
• One keystroke from done, Flash tells a joke, Priscilla hears it, and a mandatory update shuts the counter down
• Flash drives them to the annex in his red sports car, faster than he walked to it
• Luther tells Flash he is the best driver he has ever had
• Maris sees Harlan's portrait in the license photo

Key Lines

Characters Introduced

Locations

• Pawthorne Mansion — The kitchen at breakfast and after dark
• Department of Mammal Vehicles — The Savanna Central office: a rope maze, a long counter divided by curved wooden partitions, and a sloth at every window
• The annex — A second-floor DMV office Downtown on a separate system
• The express lane — The drive from Savanna Central to Downtown at rush hour

Items

• Luther's driver's license — Renewed at the Downtown annex, with a photograph taken at Window Six (first appearance)
• Express ticket #621 — Produced by Nick; Luther draws his redesign of the DMV on the back with a borrowed pen
• Flash's sports car — Low and red, with the plate FST NML
• Harlan's portrait — Over the stairs; mentioned by Maris

End Credit Song

"Life Is a Highway" (From 'Cars'), Rascal Flatts

A gag cue. Rascal Flatts' road anthem from Cars (2006) closes an episode whose one highway run is taken at speed by a sloth, after a day in which nothing else moved faster than the line at the DMV.

Notes

• Flash works Window Six and Priscilla Window Seven, part of an in-universe "67" running gag.
• Priscilla's last name is now Slothmore, having been proposed to in Zootopia+ (2022)
• Woofdows is the Zootopia version of Microsoft Windows.
• Nick's Five Stages of DMV Grief follow the five stages of grief described by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.