Pest Control is the second half of the first episode of season 1.
The episode was produced in 2002 and premiered worldwide on October 18, 2002 in Australia and on Nickelodeon in the United States on August 1, 2003.
Synopsis[]
Having vowed revenge for all the injustices placed upon them, Dr. Wakeman's mutated lab rats, led by Vladimir (a.k.a. Mr. Scruffles), have sworn to destroy their "oppressor", and they plan to literally turn Jenny into their vehicle of revenge.
Plot[]
Tuck's Toy Car[]
Pest Control (2002) begins with Brad and Tuck setting up tracks for Tuck's toy car in Jenny's bedroom, and Jenny helps out by using her head and pigtails as a ramp for the car to drive on. Dr. Wakeman walks in on them while the car is speeding through Jenny's room. When Jenny accidentally lifts her head up, the car runs on her head, and flies through the glass of one of Jenny's TV's. Brad and Tuck notice how angry Dr. Wakeman is about the broken television, and they leave Jenny's house. Dr. Wakeman lectures Jenny about how she should have more respect for her body, and leaves Jenny's room.
Lab Rats[]
A group of mutated lab rats that live in the broken television set overhear Dr. Wakeman's speech, and they decide to take revenge on her. However, their leader Vladimir notices Jenny sitting on her bed and suggests that they should take over her body instead. The rats put her to sleep by playing a lullaby through the room's TV monitors. Once asleep, the rats move out by the thousandths led by Vladimir. They enter her body through her belly vault like door that can only be unlocked by using a combo. Vladimir cracks the combo the rats begin to infest her body. The rats go to submarine-like stations.
Hostile Takeover[]
Jenny wakes up to see the rats entering through her belly panel. She begins to frantically throw the rats out of her body, but Vladimir orders the rats to disable her central wiring system by chewing the wires linking to her robotic brain apart. In the process of disabling her, her systems begin to malfunction. Jenny tries to reassure herself that she is okay, but Vladimir unscrews her head from the inside, taking her body for himself and leaving Jenny's disembodied (though still functioning) head behind. Once the rats have fully taken control of her body, Jenny bites her body's toe, only for Vladimir to smash her head against the wall. He then swings her foot letting her head go of it and knocking her unconscious.
Ridding the Rats[]
After the rats leave to attack Dr. Wakeman, and later the world, Tucker comes in to get his car, and finds Jenny's head thinking Dr. Wakeman dismantled her because of the crash.
Tuck gathers Jenny's head to a pile of stuffed animals, but continues to cry while saying that she was the "best freaky creepy robot friend a boy could ever have". Jenny suddenly gains conscious upon hearing this. When Brad arrives, Jenny explains the situation and that they would set up a plan.
The rats are about to attack Dr. Wakeman when Brad and Tuck come in with their toy car (with Jenny's head placed on it) to stop it. They eventually send him into a swimming pool and Nora gave him red shorts (similar to those of Mickey Mouse's) as his punishment.
Quotes[]
- Vladimir: Our once strong, thick tails have been made thin, stringy and limp! Our subtle, sensitive ears, blackened, mis-shapened! And our sleek forepaws, mutated, into swollen, freakish, hands!
- Tuck (upon placing a disembodied Jenny in a pile of stuffed toys): There you go! Surrounded by all your friends? What's there to be smiling about?! Oh Jenny! You were the best, freaky, creepy, robot friend a boy could ever have!
Jenny: Hey! Who are you calling creepy? - Tuck (is about to give a high five to Jenny's head): Yeah! High fiiiiiii-- never mind.
- Mrs. Wakeman "you turn yourself into a child's play toy, you need to treat your body with more respect"
- Jenny "they got what they deserved for turning my body into their play toy"
- Vladimir: Last one in is rotten borscht!
Trivia[]
- Like most episodes of the series, this episode premiered in a handful of countries before the United States.
- This episode (and the series) premiered in Australia on October 18, 2002.
- This episode (and the series) premiered in the United Kingdom on November 3, 2002.
- This episode (and the series) premiered in Mexico on February 7, 2003.
- It is unknown why the American premiere was delayed to August 2003 when the first season was ready to air in 2002, though it could be that Nickelodeon felt that the show was too edgy to air in 2002, so soon after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City.
- Vladimir and his comrades are a homage to the early designs of Mickey Mouse, particularly the pair of little mouse pants that Nora reveals at the end. Also, Mrs. Wakeman's shoes are similar to Minnie Mouse.
- The Soviet background of the rats could be a reference to a children's book, where Soviet rats take over a farm, which refers to the Russian Revolution in 1917. (A sickle and hammer can be seen on the episode's title card.)
- The title card of this episode is reminiscent of Russian artist El Lissitzky's Bolshevik propaganda poster, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge (1919).
- In this episode, it shows that Jenny has gadgets that seem pointless when it comes to saving the world.
- It is also shown that it is all blue and very submarine-like inside XJ-9, or at least in her abdomen area.
- After the split screen credits of It Came From Next Door/Pest Control, Sibling Tsunami/I Was a Preschool Dropout, and Daydream Believer/This Time With Feeling on Nicktoons Network in 2008/09, the season 1 theme song of Rocko's Modern Life plays during the Frederator logo instead the person shouting "FREDERATOR!". This was corrected in 2009/10.
- This is the first time where Nora calls Jenny "Jenny" instead of "XJ-9".
- Tuck wants to give Jenny's head a high five, but he, and a majority of the other characters in the show, just have four fingers.
- This episode last aired on Nickelodeon on November 22, 2007.
Production Notes[]
- Although this episode premiered in the United States on August 1, 2003, it was actually produced in 2002 according to the credits, as with every other season 1 episode.
- This episode was finished in July of 2002. [1]
- This episode (and every episode up to This Time With Feeling) was added to the United States Copyright Office on December 13, 2002.
- This episode was finished in July of 2002. [1]
- The first draft of this episode's script is dated April 15, 2002.
- The second draft is dated April 18, 2002.
- The third draft is dated April 24, 2002.
- The script was finalized on April 30, 2002.
- The episode's production code is 102-005.
Gallery[]
Credits[]
It Came From Next Door / Pest Control (credits)