| Mommy Fearest | |
| Episode name pun on: The phrase "Mommy Dearest" | |
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| Airdate: | November 18, 1998 |
| Credits | |
| Director: | John McIntyre and Craig McCracken |
| Story: | Chris Savino |
| See also | |
| episode transcript |
image gallery |
| Episodes | |
| Previous "Monkey See, Doggie Do" |
Next "Insect Inside" |
| Rating | |
"Mommy Fearest" is an episode in The Powerpuff Girls season 1. It aired on November 18, 1998.
Plotline
When the girls are asleep, the Professor sadly slouches off to bed. Lying down he glances next to him in the bed for two, it is made clear that he feels sad to be a single parent.
The next day at the supermarket the Professor meets Ima Goodlady, a seemingly sweet and beautiful young woman who was shopping and just happens to cross their path. The girls set the to pair together and set a date with the lady for the professor since he's still too much in awe to say anything other than "I-I-I…."
That night after much primping the Professor sets off on his date leaving the mayor as the babysitter. When he returns home he finds all of them asleep on the couch. Waking the Mayor up and thanking him, he sends him home & the girls find Ms. Ima Goodlady standing propped behind the Professor. He explains she is going to move in to “help out” and leaves the four alone with each other. Once they are alone without the professor, however, Ima turns very mean, strict, and abusive to the girls.
The next day, Ima makes them clean like normal little girls, declaring that they will no longer be allowed to use their powers or fight crime. She and the professor also put them to bed early. The Powerpuff Hotline rings and the girls sneak off past their curfew to answer its call. They almost silently arrive back much later to sneak back in bed, but then the lights flick on and they are caught in the act by Ima. After waking the Professor, Ima pities him into grounding them for the first time ever.
Later that night, Ima sneaks out of the house and the girls receive a call that the Mayor's priceless jewels have been robbed by the mysterious Sedusa not long after Ima left the house.
The connections are quickly made...
Carrying a bag, Ima Goodlady sneaks back into the Utonium household seemingly unnoticed. The light then flicks on and the girls confront her in the act and unmask her as Sedusa, enraging her.
After a quick fight, the professor finds the living room in a mess and priceless jewels sprawled all over the carpet from the bag Sedusa had brought back with her. Despite being unmasked, she attempts to pity the professor again but is unsuccessful and the professor tells the girls to call the police, vowing that Sedusa will never deceive them again. The next morning, when the doorbell rings, a beautiful young woman from down the street came to see the professor for catching Sedusa and she made him a pie, which the girls are implied to shortly intercept.
Characters
- The Powerpuff Girls (Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup)
- Professor Utonium
- Sedusa
- The Mayor of Townsville
- TV Puppet Pals
Trivia
- The episode title is a pun on the phrase "Mommy Dearest."
- This is Sedusa's first appearance.
- In spite of this, people talk as if she's appeared before.
- The Professor is shown sleeping in a double bed alone. This may be just a one-time thing to emphasize how lonely he is or an indication that he was married at one point.
- Buttercup slips something unknown into the Professor's pocket, one of the first adult jokes that were sneaked in on the show.
- The name Ima Goodlady is a play on the phrase, "I'm a good lady."
- The Professor is usually shown sleeping on the right side of the bed, but in this episode, he is shown to be sleeping on the left side.
- The Girls watch the T.V. Puppet Pals for the first time, a show-within-a-show shared with Dexter's Laboratory.
- This is the first episode of the season to not be directed by Genndy Tartakovsky; instead, it was directed by John McIntyre.
- The episode was briefly shown in the 2000 M. Night Shyamalan hit film Unbreakable.
Errors
- At the beginning when the Professor tells the girls it's time for a bed, for a split second, you can see Buttercup's mouth vanish.
- When the Powerpuff Girls approach Ima Goodlady for the first time all of their three voices are heard, but only Buttercup's mouth is moving.
- When the Powerpuff Girls tell Ima Goodlady (Sedusa in disguise) for the first time that they're going to fight crime and Ima objects their plan, Bubbles' mouth does not move when she says "Duh!."
- Sedusa's shoulders turn red like her suit while the part covered by her red gloves becomes white like her pale skin for a brief moment when she calls the girls liars when her identity is revealed to the Professor; the parts of her arms covered by her suit and left exposed had inverted by accident.
- After Sedusa calls the Powerpuff Girls liars when her identity is revealed, her hair appears to be somewhat scorched. It lasts until the Professor subdues her.
- Rob Paulsen's name in the credits is misspelled "Rob Paulson."