Mommy Fearest is the second episode of Season 1.
It first aired on Cartoon Network in the United States on November 18, 1998.
The title of the episode is a pun with the phrase: "Mommy Dearest".
Plot[]
Professor Utonium meets a beautiful single woman at the supermarket, but the Powerpuff Girls are unnerved at the idea of her being their potential mother, especially when they experience just how dangerously overbearing she is. Could she be hiding something far more sinister up her sleeves?
Synopsis[]
After sending the girls to bed, the Professor sadly slouches off to bed. Lying down, he glances at the empty spot next to him in his bed for two, feeling sad to be a single parent.
The next day at the supermarket, the Professor meets Ima Goodlady, a seemingly sweet and beautiful young woman who was shopping and just happens to cross their path. The girls set the pair together for a date; the Professor is too much in awe to say anything.
That night, after much primping, the Professor sets off on his date, leaving the Mayor as the babysitter. When he returns home, he finds all of them asleep on the couch. Waking the Mayor up and thanking him, the Professor sends him home and the girls find Ms. Ima Goodlady standing propped behind the Professor. He explains she is going to move in to help out and leaves the four alone with each other. Once they are alone without the Professor, however, her true colors are revealed: Ima bosses the girls around.
The next day, Ima makes the girls clean the house before letting them go on their superhero patrol and forces them to clean the mess she made like normal girls. After she and the Professor also put them to bed early, the Powerpuff Hotline rings and the girls sneak off past their curfew to answer the call. They almost silently arrive back much later to sneak back to bed, but are caught in the act by Ima. After waking the Professor, Ima frames the girls; the Professor takes her stance.
Later that night, the narrator laments the terrible situation and the consequences that will follow, before noticing Ima sneaking out of the house. Seconds later, the girls receive a call that the Mayor's priceless jewels have been robbed by the mysterious Sedusa not long after Ima left the house; the girls quickly make the connection.
Carrying a bag, Ima Goodlady sneaks back into the Utonium household seemingly unnoticed. However, the girls confront her in the act and unmask her as Sedusa, enraging her. After a quick fight, the professor finds the living room in a mess with priceless jewels sprawled all over the carpet from the bag Sedusa had brought back with her. Despite being unmasked, she attempts to force the Professor again, but is unsuccessful. The Professor tells the girls to call the police, vowing that Sedusa won't be deceiving them anymore. The next morning, after the Professor apologizes to the girls for not believing them, he opens the door to find a sweet and beautiful young woman from down the street who brought him a pie to congratulate him for catching Sedusa, which the girls are implied to shortly intercept or greet her, only to be cut off by the end shot.
Characters[]
Major Roles[]
Minor Roles[]
Locations
Trivia[]
- Moral: People aren't always who they seem; looks can be deceiving.
- The episode title is a pun on the 1978 autobiography and the 1981 drama film Mommie Dearest.
- This is the first episode where Bubbles cries, which becomes common on the show. Although by production, the first episode was Powerpuff Bluff.
- This is Sedusa's first appearance.
- The Professor is shown sleeping in a double bed alone. This may be just a one-time thing to emphasize how lonely he is.
- The name "Ima Goodlady" is a play on the phrase, "I'm a good lady."
- The Professor is usually shown sleeping on the right side of the bed, but in this episode, he is shown to be sleeping on the left side.
- The Girls watch the T.V. Puppet Pals for the first time, a show-within-a-show shared with Dexter's Laboratory.
- This is the first episode of the season to not be directed by Genndy Tartakovsky; instead, it was directed by John McIntyre.
- This is the only time one of the Girls (in this case, Bubbles) have been shown in their undergarments.
- Irony: The girls could have flown through their bedroom windows upon returning home instead of the front door, to avoid being spotted by Ima.
- When Ima Goodlady reveals her true form as Sedusa, the narrator at one point mentions "Uh oh, something is a miss!", coincidentally foreshadowing Sedusa's next major appearance in the episode "Something's a Ms.".
- Brief clips of this episode have been displayed in other movies and shows.
- This episode was briefly shown in the 2000 M. Night Shyamalan hit film Unbreakable.
- In the Everwood episode, "Extra Ordinary", Amy was watching the scene where The Powerpuff Girls went shopping with Professor Utonium on TV.
Production Notes[]
- Although "Monkey See, Doggie Do" and this episode were the first to air, they were not the first episodes produced. Those would be "Insect Inside" and "Powerpuff Bluff", which aired a week afterwards.
- This episode was finished in July of 1998.[1]