"Grounded" is the fourth episode of Static Shock. It first aired on October 14, 2000.
Plot
Carmen Dillo rises from a dumpster to steal food from customers in a nearby restaurant and, when Static tries to stop him, he manages to flee into a construction site, where he knocks Static down. Just before Carmen can strike Static unconscious, a blob-like creature rises from beneath the ground and ensnares one of his feet. Static uses the distraction to place Carmen under arrest and sends the blob running away.
Later at school, while working on a walkie-talkie for their science class project, Virgil discusses with Richie that there's no possibility that creature could ever have been human. Frieda storms in, fuming because the funding for the newspaper club was cut and one of her editorials went unpublished. They jokingly suggest she should go on a strike, and Frieda takes it as a serious suggestion. Later, when Richie goes to get his coat, they are stopped by Mr. Janus, the cranky school janitor, who blocked off a section of the hall for cleanup, where Richie's locker happens to be.
Later that day, Static and Richie are testing their walkie-talkies (dubbed "Shock Boxes"), when Static detects another disturbance, this time at the Dakota Meat Packing Co. The blob from before has broken in and is eating the meat by dissolving it into its body. Static goes in for the fight, and the blob reacts by extending tendrils to attack him. Static then uses his powers to throw a truck through the blob, sending it scurrying away again, but Static can use the glass cap of a lamppost to pick up one of the blob's chopped-off tendrils. He later shows it to Richie, so they can analyze it in the school lab. While Virgil wants to wait until the next day to analyze it, Richie proposes they break into the closed school so they can analyze it immediately (a task they find easy). Unbeknownst to them, the blob is trailing them.
In the school, they find Mr. Janus again, and give an excuse to stay after hours. They then encounter Frieda and her newspaper partners, Leon, Kim and Omar, and they promise not to tell on each other.
At the lab, Virgil and Richie have difficulty pinning the blob's tendril down, but manage to extract a piece of it for analysis. They find out it is an ordinary bacteria, mutated by the Quantum Vapor, as it seeped into the ground. Meanwhile, at the newspaper room, Frieda has just printed an unauthorized edition of the newspaper, when Mr. Janus comes along. They hide and he ends up locking them in.
When the blob sample escapes, Virgil has to crawl through the vents after it and winds up in the newspaper room, along with Frieda and the others.
The giant blob heads to the school's football field, wreaking havoc all around. Richie gets in touch with Virgil and searches for them in the newspaper room. Just as Mr. Janus catches him, he spots the escaped piece bacteria and gives chase, but is cornered by the blob, which later finds the students as Richie, having stolen Mr. Janus' keys in the commotion, breaks them out. After the newspaper club members flee, Virgil uses his powers to fend it off, then goes off to change into Static.
He first saves Leon and Kim, and then Omar. In the process, Static notices the blob recoiling in fright from the wet floor, getting an idea. Later at the gym lockers, another part of the blob is attacking Frieda, when Static uses a wet mop and a bucket of disinfectant to fend it off. After saving Frieda, Static notices the blob fleeing into the city, and goads it into consuming him before slamming two canisters of disinfectant above his head together, making the chemicals rain down on it and effectively kill it.
The next morning, the press is swarming Frieda and her friends, who use the attention to publicize their unauthorized newspaper. While Richie feels Virgil deserves some of the credit, Virgil himself is good with laying low.
Continuity
- Introduction of Carmen Dillo.
- Introduction of the Shock Box
Background information
Home video releases
Production inconsistencies
- When Static is fighting the amoeba in the locker room, a mop bucket appears between shots.
Cast
Uncredited appearances
- "Goobzilla"
- Mr. Chesterton
Quotes
Richie: (winded) This better be good, I just set the land speed record for eating chili fries. |
Static: When they say germs are harder to kill these days they aren't kidding. |
Richie: Yo, V, don't you want to be interviewed? |