Speed Demon

Episode name pun on: the phrase itself meaning fast
Speed Demon
Season 2, Episode 12

Airdate:	June 2, 2000
Credits
Director:	Randy Myers Craig McCracken
Story:	Charlie Bean
Writer(s):	Amy Keating Rodgers
See also
episode transcript	image gallery
Episodes
Previous "Cover Up"	Next "Mojo Jonesin'"
Rating

Speed Demon is the first half of the 25th episode in the second season of The Powerpuff Girls, preceding "Mojo Jonesin." It aired on June 2, 2000.

Synopsis

The Powerpuff Girls are looking forward to a vacation in the Bahamas after school but a race home soon sends them to an alternate timeline where they discover that they've traveled fifty years into the future and that due to their absence, Townsville and its people have all paid the ultimate price for the Girls disappearing. Furthermore, one of their enemies has become a huge threat...

Plot

At Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, Buttercup is impatiently looking at the clock at school, waiting to go on vacation to the Bahamas. Ms. Keane gets her back to reality by calling Buttercup's name and insisting that the young Powerpuff pay attention.

For the next few minutes, Ms. Keane begins talking to herself while scribbling complicated forms of math on the board as her young charges look on.

She gets so distracted she loses attention before realizing that her class is staring at her, puzzled. She snaps back to herself and, as the bell rings, bids the children goodbye. The group races past her, waving goodbye.

Outside, the door springs open with Buttercup announcing that they're free at last just as her classmates come out the door. It's soon revealed that the girls are all excited as they're going to the Bahamas for the weekend.

Bubbles even announces that she's going to work on her tan with Blossom stating that they've got a whole weekend away from the people of Townsville and Buttercup agrees, telling them that they'll be free from the Hotline too.

This has both her and Blossom laughing and embracing one another. Buttercup then arrives, telling them which one of her sisters aka the slowpokes wants to race her home with Bubbles angrily retorting, "Who are you calling a slowpoke, fathead?".

The three girls then line up and after taking turns to count down, race off at the speed of light with Ms. Keane biding them goodbye while on the street. With their sheer power having destroyed a car, a passer-by, a man with a mustache, urges them to slow down.

Soon, the race gets very intense.

A tunnel of blurs ensues.

Blossom and Bubbles are evenly matched but Buttercup sails past them, forcing her two other sisters to increase their speed until they're all level again and then suddenly, everything just stops with the three girls themselves having frozen.

It then cuts to a close-up of the girls as Buttercup's voice is heard echoing as she says, "I told you I'd win!"

Finally, the whole thing begins moving slowly at first before returning to normal speed and the girls all land outside their house, not noticing that the sky is red and that windows of their house have been smashed.

Buttercup's thrilled about her victory but Bubbles isn't so happy, convinced that Buttercup cheated, causing Buttercup to make fun of her by pulling her pigtails. Bubbles starts crying, calling for the Professor but he's not there.

They then head down into the lab where they discover an aged and miserable Professor apparently struggling to create another set of Powerpuff Girls but his ingredients don't work nor do they match whatsoever.

Upon seeing the girls, he chases them out of the lab, convinced that they're nothing more than mere hallucinations, revealing that he's also senile.

Frightened, the Powerpuff Girls flee and head outside but are shocked to discover that Townsville has been reduced to nothing but a barren wasteland as far as the eye can see.

The girls then fly through the decimated city, eventually reaching City Hall where inside, they find Ms. Sara Bellum who has gone old and insane. She's mourning the death of The Mayor of Townsville. Upon seeing the girls, she then orders them to get out, saying that the Mayor is hers.

The girls flee and soon reach Pokey Oaks Kindergarten which has been destroyed as well.

They soon find Ms. Keane who, like the Professor and Ms. Bellum has now aged and is also senile, endlessly waving over and again while repeating the same sentence.

Blossom tries to talk to Ms. Keane to get some information but she isn't listening, instead repeatedly stating that she stood to wave after the girls went missing for fifty years.

The girls are stunned at the revelation, realizing they crossed a border between two time periods, just as HIM's laughter emerges.

As he explains what happened, wisps of smoke begin emerging from the ground as Blossom sweats, obviously under pressure and as they glance around, the smoke appears from behind Blossom while HIM soon emerges, gleefully telling them that seconds, minutes, hours, days, and nights crawled by on hands and knees as they raced the speed of light.

HIM then appears and floats up past them. Sensing something behind them, Blossom and Buttercup turn around while Bubbles points at HIM who is now sitting on the edge of a cliff, asking Buttercup if she remembers.

Suddenly, Buttercup hears herself arrogantly challenging her sisters to a race and as this happens, she clutches her head in dismay, saying, "No!" HIM gleefully agrees and soon gets up from where he was sitting before stating that as the girls traveled through time, "the whole world went to Heck".

Blossom urges her sisters not to believe the lie and they all take off, approaching HIM who simply lets out an evil laugh.

For the next few minutes, the girls channeling all their anger, rage, and grief into their attacks proceed to beat HIM and after silently crying, they give one final punch which sends HIM crashing to the ground.

HIM, however, recovers quickly and snaps his claws just as the girls descend on him again.

As they continue fighting HIM, it then shows various newspaper headings hanging on the walls with some detailing the Powerpuff Girls' disappearance, the Professor being exposed as a fraud, the Mayor presumably dying at the age of 83, and "Who is HIM?".

Once the fight with HIM ended, HIM, having recovered at a frighteningly fast level, mockingly asks the Girls if they're finished. But, Buttercup assures HIM that he is while Blossom tells him that he can never beat them.

It's soon clear that the usual fighting has taken its toll on the girls as they're all breathing rather heavily and sweating too.

HIM then begins to mockingly say if they've beaten him before he remarks with his eyes now glowing bright green that he's already won.

As he says those words, HIM promptly launches himself in the air before his whole body soon grows bigger and more muscular than ever before a jolt of lighting erupts.

As the lighting ends, it's shown that HIM now has grown into a powerful monster nearly hundred times the size he normally is.

He then gleefully remarks in a demonic voice that the beauty lies in the blame because it's their fault for leaving, before stating, "Just ask your friends."

It then cuts to show of a group of aged and broken civilians who approach the Girls and tell them that they did this.

While Bubbles puts her hands to her mouth, stunned, and a distressed Blossom says "No...", but the monstrous HIM states to the girls that all he did was take over and it was easy.

Then, now, in unison, along with the aged children's families and citizens of Townsville, while descending on the girls, they ask them to know why they did leave them (then asked again by just saying "Why?"), and telling them they weren't here to protect them (then tell them again by just saying "You weren't here", with the one that asked that they did this pointing to them), then tell that it's their fault (with the rest pointing to them), then begin chanting, "...Your fault...", while pointing to them, with the accusations leaving the girls deeply guilt-ridden and distressed.

As the chanting goes on, Blossom brokenly states, "What have we done?" while the monstrous HIM just does an evil laugh demonically.

The chanting continues as both Buttercup and Bubbles struggle to cope with Buttercup yelling "No! No! No!" while Bubbles starts crying out "WHYYY?!?!" and pulling her pigtails in distress.

As the townspeople continue chanting, the girls soon rush up into space, screaming before making a circle for a few seconds.

Then, as one, they then fly down to the planet, going back the way they came as they head back into the present, having seen the horrific future.

Once they've emerged, the girls then crash-land into some grass and after recovering, realize with joy that Townsville and its people are all intact and alive.

As they head home, the girls say hi to the male passerby who's now walking his dog, Ms. Keane, the Mayor, and Ms. Bellum. Once they see the Professor, they crash into him and while embracing him, begin talking about what happened.

The Professor is stunned but tells the girls they've got to get ready for their vacation. However, after realizing what would happen in their absence, they tell the Professor that they can't leave Townsville, not even for a weekend away in the Bahamas.

The episode ends with the Narrator fooling the viewers into believing that he was also affected with the time travel aging, and after the standard end phrase, he says he will never drive over 55 mph again.

Characters

Major characters

Minor characters

Trivia

The title of this episode shares the same title as the Michael Jackson song, "Speed Demon".
According to fans of the show, this is one of the scariest and darkest episodes of the entire Powerpuff Girls series (with the other five being "Boogie Frights" (excluding the dancing motifs), "Power-Noia", "Tough Love", "Knock It Off", "Abracadaver, "Cootie Gras", and "Collect Her".
It is revealed that Ms. Keane can teach math at a very advanced level.
During the episode, the Professor asks himself why he didn't write down how he created the girls, but in the episode Twisted Sister there's a book with it all written down.
- However, it's possible he lost and then forgot all about the book.
When the girls fly in and land in the Mayor's office, it is a direct copy of Superman 2's General Zod and cohorts as they fly into the White House.
HIM doesn't frown at all in this episode.
This is the only episode that has Buttercup letting her hair down.
Ms. Keane's math explains what happens when the Powerpuff Girls are traveling through time.
This is one of the few episodes where Bubbles impersonates The Mayor, the other being "The Powerpuff Girls' Best Rainy Day Adventure Ever".
HIM's line "Seconds, minutes, hours, days and nights, crawl by on hands and knees as you race the speed of light" is a reference to The Twilight Zone episode, "Time Enough at Last", in which a man survives a nuclear blast and finds himself alone in a shattered world. The original line goes "Seconds, minutes, hours, they crawl by on hands and knees for Mr. Henry Bemis, who looks for a spark in the ashes of a dead world".
A later episode "Power-Noia" from 2002 reuses a lot of music that played in this episode. That episode is also very similar to this one.
Despite the girls begging the Professor to never leave Townsville, in the following season's episode "Town and Out", the girls end up leaving Townsville since Professor has a new job in Citiesville. Both episodes were written by Amy Keating Rogers and storyboarded by Charlie Bean.
- This could be because they forgot the part where they abruptly traveled in time through 50 years. In "Town and Out", however, they only left their residence in just one day.

When the Narrator says, "I'm never driving over 55 again" references to the Back to the Future trilogy about driving over 88 miles per hour would travel through time.
- It's also a reference to the Sammy Hagar song "I Can't Drive 55", which was used in Back to the Future Part II when Marty explores Hill Valley ruled by Biff Tannen in alternate 1985.
Creator Craig McCracken also revealed on Twitter during a conversation with a fan of the show that all the other villains including Mojo Jojo are dead, HIM having killed them.
MsMojo ranked this as the darkest episode of The Powerpuff Girls and the #7 darkest Cartoon Network episode.

Goofs

While scribbling down the maths on the board, the chalk in Ms. Keane goes from being in her left hand and then to her right hand before going back to her left hand once again.
Ms. Keane writes 43.14 = π on the chalkboard.
- However, the correct statement would be 3.14 = π.
When Buttercup is seen in the classroom she can be seen sitting at her table alone in the middle seat. Later however all the Powerpuffs are seen at the same table, and Buttercup is present at the seat to the right. The number of seats and kids in seats and the locations of them differ.
Blossom's left eyelids change color when she and Bubbles are hugging and laughing.

Production Notes

Although this episode premiered in 2000, it was produced in 1999 according to the credits.