Todd Loses His Mind is the ninth episode of the first season of Code Monkeys. It is preceded by IPO and followed by Third Reich's the Charm.
Plot[]
The episode opens with Dave and Jerry entering Todd's office, who locked himself up five weeks before to work on his masterpiece. Inside, the office is more disgusting and smelly than normal, and Todd is on the floor naked, sporting a large beard, and half-coherently babbling about spending time with his mother. After being somewhat brought to his senses, Todd pitches his masterpiece Elfin Quest: Hunt for the Ear of Nylar to the development team, promising it to be the next level in fantasy gaming. However, there is one small hitch: Jerry's own fantasy game was released three weeks ago, and Larrity claims that more than one game of the same genre in a small time gap would confuse the marketplace. As a result, the boss, as he puts it delicately, "shitcans" Todd's game. Todd tries to process this news, as no one had bothered to inform him at the time, but soon snaps and attacks Jerry before Dean breaks them up. Todd then jumps out the window, and the development team continues the meeting.
Dave and Jerry, meanwhile, are facing their own dilemma. Benny is continuing to reject their games, which puts their careers at risk. Now on strike for being underappreciated (or just unappreciated), he gives them a list of demands. Unfortunately, since the items they bring aren't exact, Benny only passes one game. As they contemplate their plan for revenge against Benny, Todd appears screaming like a maniac and attempts to run over Jerry with his van. The rest of the staff run out to see what all the commotion is about, and Dean gets his head run over, but merely shrugs it off. When Todd turns around to make another pass, Larrity has Black Steve pull out a gun and unload the entire clip into the van, incapacitating Todd and igniting the gas. As Todd and the van burn, Black Steve throws the gun over the wall and Larrity ushers everyone back inside as he suddenly develops a craving for barbecue.
Dave hires two mafia goons to scare Benny and rough him up a bit in exchange for having one's son play their finished games, but during their deal, Benny eavesdrops on their plan and reports it to Larrity as a plan to kill him and steal his fortune.
Todd emerges from the burnt wreckage of his van almost unharmed and believes himself to be immortal, as the bullets only pierced his "first protective layer of fat". Still fresh from the incident this morning, his mind has become more warped than usual, and assumes the identity of his D&D character, Pardue the Conqueror. He soon hatches a plan for revenge against GameAVision in three steps:
- Abduct the actress Molly Ringwald
- Use her as an offering to Gary Gygax to barter additional stats to his person
- Use his newfound power to get revenge on the staff.
After grabbing supplies from a convenience store, Todd captures Molly Ringwald from Shermer High School and stuffs her in a trunk, clarifying that it was a kidnapping, not a attempt at rape. He takes her via a rental car to Gary Gygax, who lives in a house shaped like a 20-sided die. Gary appears very irritated at Todd's presence and demands him to stop acting like a crazy person before he calls the police. Todd, however, does not know who Gary is referring to and insists that he is Pardue. Finally, to avoid Molly Ringwald suing him and to get rid of Todd, Gary pulls out a wand and grants Todd his new stats. After Todd leaves, Gary vanishes into thin air, leaving Molly still trapped in the trunk begging to be let out under a promise that she won't call the police.
Todd returns to GameAVision, carrying 14 cases of dynamite with the intent on blowing up the building. Inside, the two goons chase Benny out around back, followed closely by Dave and Jerry. Larrity arrives and kills the two goons and turns his 4-barreled shotgun on Dave and Jerry, still believing they are trying to kill him. Dean disposes of the two goons by pouring gasoline all over them and setting them ablaze, but accidentally torches himself as well. As Dave and Jerry try to explain everything, Todd finishes setting the dynamite and jumps on the plunger, about to destroy the "evil" once and for all.
Right as the plunger is pressed down, the game suddenly freezes, showing A Player in live-action that is forced to eject the cartridge and reset the game. The game restarts at the very beginning, nullifying all the events that happened in the episode.
Video game references[]
- Todd's masterpiece looks very similar to The Legend of Zelda. A transition with the title "Pardue's Quest" is similar to Zelda's title screen.
- The characteristics of Todd's behavior in the beginning of the episode up until he's shot by Black Steve are very similar to abnormal behaviors in the cult-hit world building game Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf Fortress. However, due to the game's extreme obscurity along with the fact that it is still an alpha even as of 2010 makes this highly improbable; it is most likely a coincidence.
- The episode makes many references to gameplay elements in Dungeons & Dragons.
- When Dave and Jerry meet Benny's demands the game Benny is play testing is Pizza Time by Dave. Pizza Time is a reference to Burger Time the 80's arcade classic.
Movie/TV References[]
- Shermer High School is the setting of The Breakfast Club, starring Molly Ringwald.
- Johnny Handsome and Massive Pussy are parodies of "Johnny Boy" Soprano and Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero from the HBO TV series The Sopranos.
- When Todd goes insane and becomes his D&D alter ego, he becomes Pardue, an allusion to and old Tom Hanks movie, where Tom Hank's character has a psychotic episode and believes he's Pardeux (pronounced Par-du), his D&D character.
Notes[]
- This is the only episode to show the real world and reveal that each episodes really are just games.
- When The Player puts the Code Monkeys cartridge back into the console, s/he does not push down the cartridge so the ports click into place. In reality, the console would not register the game.
- The Cut-Away Scene "Todd's Masterpiece" is Michelangelo's fresco The Creation of Adam.
- The Sequence "Whac-a-Douche! reminds to the Game Whac-a-Mole.
- At the end of the episode when everything looks as though all hell is about to break loose, the show freezes, and we get a zoom out of a guy and see that the show is nothing more than a game. Like in the 80's and 90's when cartridges were still used, this person took out the Code Monkeys game, blew on it, and "started the show over".