| Stray Bullet | |
| Episode name pun on: Either the term "Stray Bullet" or the song by KMFDM "Stray Bullet" | |
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| Airdate: | July 5, 2002 |
| Credits | |
| Director: | Rob Renzetti Craig McCracken |
| Story: | Lauren Faust Shellie Kvilvang |
| Writer(s): | Lauren Faust Shellie Kvilvang |
| See also | |
| episode transcript |
image gallery |
| Episodes | |
| Previous "Nano of the North" |
Next "Forced Kin" |
| Rating | |
Synopsis
Bubbles saves an injured squirrel by giving it Chemical X, turning it into Bullet, the Powerpuff Squirrel. With its newfound super powers, the squirrel joins the girls and helps them fight crime.
Part 1
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Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, as they appear in this episode.
While enjoying some family time in Townsville's local forest, Bubbles saves a helpless little squirrel from a hawk, who attempts to harm the poor creature.. As she and her sisters stare at it, the squirrel loses its consciousness. It wakes up again with the girls still gazing over it, only this time the squirrel is in a box in the girls' room. Buttercup then asks what they should name it. Blossom and Bubbles suggest girl names while Buttercup suggests a boy name. They then get into an argument on declaring if it's a boy or girl (the squirrel's gender is never confirmed, but it is mostly referred to as a "she"). The Professor then enters their room and tells the girls that the squirrel may not make it and there's nothing he can do. Some time after the lights are out, Bubbles gains an idea. She races to the lab and gives the squirrel three drops of Chemical X before getting into bed. The next morning, the Professor awakens the girls and tells them the squirrel is sleeping. Instantly, the girls receive a call from the Mayor. Blossom and Buttercup dash away, but Bubbles stays. With a little support from her father, Bubbles chases after her sisters. When the girls arrive at the Mayor's office, they find evidence thatMojo Jojo has been there and they fly to his lab only to discover they've fallen into his trap. Before he can destroy them, a figure surrounded in orange light defeats Mojo and frees the girls. The orange light is shown to be the squirrel and Bubbles tells her sisters she gave the squirrel Chemical X in order to save it. Instead of being mad, Buttercup says it should fight crime with them, but before it can they have to do something first.
Part 2
Now at home, the girls hold a ceremony and welcome the squirrel into the family. They name it Bullet the Powerpuff Squirrel and it begins to fight crime alongside the girls. A few days later, Bullet hears the cries of a baby mouse in trouble and races to save it. The girls follow and watch Bullet battle with the same hawk that nearly killed her. Bullet defeats the hawk and is thanked by the woodland creatures, but Bullet's fame is short lived when the girls call her to come home. On the way back, the girls notice Bullet looking back toward the forest only to see the squirrel fly back. Once caught up to Bullet, Bubbles talks to the squirrel. Bullet tells her that she's worried about the animals in to forest and wants to stay and protect them. Blossom and Buttercup tell Bubbles to tell Bullet they need her and she should stay with them, but Bubbles tells Bullet to stay in the forest. At first when they hear this, Blossom and Buttercup are in total shock but after laying some ground, they finally understand and say their fair-wells to Bullet.
Bullet, the new hero of Townsville Forest
Once the girls have left, Bullet rescues a baby rabbit and the animals welcome the Powerpuff Squirrel as their protector.
Characters
Major Characters
Minor Characters
Trivia
- Bullet is the only member of the Powerpuff Girls who is not a human.
- This is Bullet's first episode appearance.
- Even though she chose to live in the forest, Bullet is still a PPG member.
- This is the second episode where the girls avoid getting hypnotized, the first one was in Beat Your Greens.
- Blossom's summoning of the Girls, Professor, and Bullet with the toy microphone set to celebrate the promotion of Bullet to be a Powerpuff Girl is a direct reference to Woody summoning the committee of toys in the movie Toy Story. Blossom's line "Testing, testing. Is this thing on?" is identical to Woody's dialogue, and the mic set in the episode is identical to that in the movie.
- This episode is the last episode to use the 2000 circle designs of Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, which first appeared in the episode "Cootie Gras".
- The forest where Bullet lives is essentially a woodland version of Townsville, complete with a gopher/groundhog that resembles the Mayor, a fox that resembles Miss Bellum, and a firefly for a Powerpuff Hotline.
- There is a Powerpuff Girls DC comic with a similar plot.
- Buttercup insist throughout the episode on that Bullet should be named Bruce. This could possibly be a reference to the artist Bruce Springsteen, as this episode does have the exact same name as one of his songs.
- The subliminal message that flashes on screen while Bullet is beating up Mojo Jojo reads, "NUTS".
Goofs
- When Powerpuff Girls and Bullet notice crying cats, Blossom's hair bangs are red instead of orange.
- When Buttercup destroys the flasher and during the removal of the three trucks, the girls' dresses are black, with the belts in their respective colors.
- The flypaper in Mojo's observatory isn't shown until he mentions it. Instead it looks like the girls are standing on the regular floor.
- Blossom has pink hair when the girls are sleeping.