Changes: The Eggbaby

Revision as of 12:14, 23 January 2012

"The Eggbaby" is the thirty-fourth episode of Batman Beyond. In order to pass his Family Studies class Terry must take care of a computerized Eggbaby. Dropping the Eggbaby means failure and he soon finds that there is no one else to take care of it. Unfortunately this means taking the Eggbaby with him on missions as Batman, as he deals with a family of rogues.

Plot

A truck drives up to a large mansion just outside of Gotham. A trio of people gets out: two men (Carl and Slim) and a middle-aged woman. The three break into the house and convince the butler to show them where the safe is. After finding the safe, the group blows it open and the woman (the mother of the two younger men) sorts through the valuables and steals a ruby ring. All other items are shunned.

The next day, Bruce calls up Terry and tells him about the robbery. Apparently, Ma Mayhem has been stealing ruby jewelry but for unknown reasons. However, before Terry can deal with it, he has to go to his Family Studies class, which he's failing.

In class, the teacher assigns her students to take care of computerized Eggbabies. They are programmed to act and respond as real babies do, and if they drop the Eggbaby, they fail. The class is divided into mock couples. Unfortunately for Terry, he's paired with Blade who's massively uninterested in the assignment. In fact, that night, before Terry can go off on his mission as Batman, she dumps the Eggbaby with him and leaves to go on a date.

Unable to get rid of the Eggbaby, Terry takes it with him on his mission and spies the crime family looking to steal ruby earrings. Unfortunately, the Eggbaby starts crying and alerts the thieves to his presence. One of the men, Carl is sent to take care of Batman and during the ensuing fight the Eggbaby is almost dropped. When Batman tries to save it, he's almost killed but manages to escape. But because of their advance warning, the gang escapes.

Day comes and Terry takes care of his Eggbaby along with a few of his classmates. However, when Terry tries to give Blade the Eggbaby she refuses to take it. That being the case, Terry still has to keep it when he goes to the batcave. Bruce is upset about the Eggbaby but Terry's mother refused to take it too and Matt abused it. Even Bruce refuses to take care of the Eggbaby and Terry is forced to take it on another mission.

After reaching the next location, the Museum of Fashion, Batman leaves the Eggbaby on an air conditioning unit and attacks the group. Unfortunately, they are ready for him and fight back. Batman manages to hold up his own against the group but in the end they manage to escape once again. However, things are even worse for Batman when he sees that the air conditioning unit was really the gang's truck in disguise. They take off in it taking the Eggbaby along by accident.

Desperate not to fail Home Studies Batman heads out to find the Eggbaby but can find no trace. However, Bruce manages to come up with a way to track the Eggbaby when it first starts to cry.

Back at her hideout, Ma Mayhem celebrates her victory in getting the entire set of ruby jewelry, which was the first thing she and her husband stole. While she deals with her upset children, the Eggbaby starts to cry again. Batman is alerted to the Eggbaby's location and heads out to the hideout. He arrives just in time to watch Carl reluctantly drop the Eggbaby from a high window. Batman saves the Eggbaby and is subsequently attacked by the group. Ma Mayhem decides to let Batman go and instead opts for a speedy get away. Batman quickly gives chase while the Eggbaby enjoys the ride.

After a brief, yet intense time of being dragged by the family's truck, Batman manages to stop them and forces them to land on a building. After setting up a smoke screen Batman manages to get Slim to attack Carl, thereby knocking him out, then knocks out Slim himself. All that's left is Ma Mayhem and she proves to be a much stronger opponent than Batman first thought. However, he manages to cut the straps on her bag causing it to fall off the roof of the building. Ma Mayhem desperately jumps after the bag and manages to catch it before Batman catches her with a cable but the bag opens and drops all of its contents to the street.

With his mission complete, Terry returns to his Family Studies class and is shocked to receive the top grade. As the teacher explains, the other couples performed adequately at feeding and nurturing their babies, but Terry's was the only one whose mind was fully stimulated—i.e., his baby had the most fun. The teacher calls Terry "ideal father material." Terry's a little embarrassed, but Dana looks at him happily.

Continuity

Miss Pinto calls out names of several one-episode classmates, including Jackie Wallace (from "Earth Mover"), Adam Stepnik (from "The Last Resort") and Corey Cavalieri (from "Sentries of the Last Cosmos").

Background information

Home video releases

Production notes

The DVD features a commentary by Bruce Timm, James Tucker, Andrea Romano, Glen Murakami, and Will Friedle.
According to the commentary, this was supposed to be the most childish episode the writers could think of.
Also stated in the commentary, the Mayhem family's flying car is modeled after a Chevrolet El Camino.

Production inconsistencies

Despite Miss Pinto dividing the class into teams of two, several couples, including Nelson and Max and Jared and Chelsea, have received two eggbabies.
When Batman throws a Batarang to disarm Slim, it changes into a disc he fires from his forearms.

Trivia

From this episode on, the title screen and opening billing get a new font.
This episode won an Emmy Award.
This was the first episode James Tucker directed, after Curt Geda was engaged working on Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.
Bruce Timm said in the commentary that this was the only episode he worked on that he allowed his daughter to watch.

Cast

Actor	Role
Will Friedle	Terry McGinnis / Batman
Kevin Conroy	Bruce Wayne
Lauren Tom	Dana Tan
Cree Summer	Max Gibson
Seth Green	Nelson Nash
Melissa Disney	Bobbi "Blade" Sommer
Ruth Zalduondo	Miss Pinto
Kathleen Freeman	Ma Mayhem
Andy Dick	Slim
Mark Rolston	Carl
Max Brooks	Howard Groote
Michael Ensign	Butler

Uncredited appearances

Quotes

Terry: What does she want with rubies?
Bruce: I don't know, but I'll bet she's not making slippers.
Terry: Slippers, from rubies?!
Bruce: Before your time.

Terry: It's Family Studies and I'm failing!
Bruce: (to Ace) How does someone fail Family Studies?

(Eggbaby Cries)
Bruce: What's going on there? Is that a baby?
Terry: Um.
Bruce: You brought a baby with you?
Terry: It's not what you think, really.
Bruce: Terry, is there something you need to tell me?

Garbage Man #1: Was that Batman? Dumpster diving?
Garbage Man #2: A fella's got to eat.

Nelson: Something's wrong. He's not eating! Why isn't he eating?
Terry: Maybe because you're trying to feed him through his nose.

Max: Here's the bio and civics.
Nelson: Thanks, hon. What about the math?
Max: It's coming, keep your shirt on.
Terry: I get it. You're doing his work for him so you don't have to take care of the baby.
Max: We opted for the traditional marriage: one breadwinner, one homemaker.
Nelson: Beats algebra.

Blade: And how's our little A+ doing?
Terry: He's sleeping. You'll hardly know when he's around.
Blade: Forget it! Jurgen has this new vid I wanna check out. (leaves)
Terry: I want a divorce!

Bruce: Do you have to keep lugging that thing around with you?
Terry: I need the grade.
Bruce: Even real parents with real children find ways to get away for a night.
Terry: I tried leaving it with my mom but she said she was too young to be a grandma.
Bruce: What about your brother?
Terry: I tried that too, and I caught him shooting rubber bands at it. Hey, you know maybe you could...
(Bruce turns and gives Terry a hard stare.)
Terry: Nevermind.

Terry: The poor kid's going to cry until he shuts down.
Bruce: Its cries are computer generated right?
Terry: Yeah. So.
Bruce: That would mean the cries would have certain quantifiable digital properties.
Terry: Then I can set the Batmobile to scan for it, can't I?
Bruce: Uh huh. Unless they've already made an omlette out of him.
Terry: Oh, hey!

Ma Mayhem: This is getting old, Batman.
Batman: Look who's talking.

Carl: But Ma, dad's not dead. He just ran off with... (she hits him) Augh!
Ma Mayhem: Don't ever talk that way about your father!

Ma Mayhem: Here, give it to Mama! it kind of reminds me of when you two were little...
(The Eggbaby continues to cry.)
Ma Mayhem: Get rid of it!

Template:Epbrowser

@@ Line 138: / Line 138: @@
 '''Terry''': He's sleeping. You'll hardly know when he's around.<br />
 '''Blade''': Forget it! [[Jurgen Blaine|Jurgen]] has this new vid I wanna check out. ''(leaves)''<br />
-'''Terry''': I wanna divorce!
+'''Terry''': I want a divorce!
 |
 '''Bruce:''' Do you have to keep lugging that thing around with you?<br />