This page is a transcript for "Tough Love". Feel free to edit or add to this page as long as the information comes directly from the episode.
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(Opening shot: the city skyline in the morning. Car horns honk in the background.)
Narrator: The city of Townsville. The city of brotherly love. (laughing) Or should I say, sisterly love? Love for those devout doers of dangerous deeds and dutiful, uh, things. (Cut to the girls in flight.) The Powerpuff Girls!
(They stop short at the sound of meowing and dash in; an old woman looks up at a tree, in whose branches a cat is caught. The girls arrive on the scene and go to work. Blossom picks the woman up, and Buttercup uproots the tree and tips it over so Bubbles can rescue the cat, which promptly licks her cheek. The woman is set back on the ground, and the cat is returned to her. She pats each girl on the head. They take off, and she waves after them.)
(Cut to the exterior of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten as the girls fly in; inside, pan slowly along the classroom and stop at the end. The teacher steps into view, her foot landing on a stray toy roller skate. She sails into the air and down o.c., but Blossom carries her back into view. Buttercup pulls up a chair for her to be set down on, and Bubbles brings her an apple. Halos appear above the heads of the girls, now back at their desk, and the class applauds their efforts.)
(Close-up of the hotline, buzzing and with a big smile on its face, then to the exterior of the school as the girls take off. A quick flash of the exterior of Townsville Hall as they fly in, then of the window in the Mayor’s office. They crash through, ready for anything; close-up of the Mayor, struggling mightily with some piece of apparatus. Pull back to show this as a large jar of pickles he is trying to open. Finally, he gives up and holds it out for the girls. Ms. Bellum stands near him. Blossom flies into view and takes the jar. She holds it up for Buttercup, who zaps it with a quick blast of her eye lasers, and Bubbles then succeeds in removing the lid, much to the Mayor’s delight. All five help themselves to pickles as a celebration, and we next see the office window from outside as the girls crash out through it.)
(Cut to the exterior of their house as they fly in through the front door. Inside, the Professor is hard at work in his lab, his back to the camera. They fly up behind him; he turns around and smiles at them. He holds up a flask of liquid, to which Bubbles adds a drop from a test tube. Blossom pours in a shot from another flask, and Buttercup shakes the mixture vigorously. The Professor watches the flask intently, the girls gathering around him, as it bubbles and froths. After a few seconds, it explodes and chars them evenly all over. They stand stunned for a moment, then laugh. We do not hear them laughing.)
Narrator: (laughing) Those little scamps are so adorable. How we just love the Powerpuff Girls!
(Pull back slightly. The image begins to waver and ripple as if being reflected off the surface of a body of water.)
“Him”: (from o.c. effeminate voice to evil) Ohh, how I HATE the Powerpuff Girls!
(On the end of this, his claw strikes the water and breaks up the image, then pulls out of view.)
Narrator: Hate the Powerpuff Girls?! Who could hate the… (uneasily) Oh, no. (Camera turns up as he continues.) Please don’t let it be “Him”!
(Stop on “Him,” sitting in a full bathtub. He is very angry, seething with fury at how Townsville loves the Powerpuff Girls so much.)
“Him”: (effeminate voice, mocking tone) “Oh, Powerpuff Girls, save us!” “Oh, Powerpuff Girls, we need you!” “Oh, Powerpuff Girls, we love you!”
(As he continues, he submerges up to his eyes and the bathwater begins to turn into boiling red hot lava.)
“Him”: (evil voice) Powerpuff Girls! Powerpuff Girls! (Pull back across the room; he sits up.) POWERPUFF GIRLS!!
(Close-up of the steam rising from the bath. A rubber duckie is lifted into view, and “Him” leans in to talk to it.)
“Him”: (effeminate voice, to evil and back) Oh, Mr. Quackers, am I the only one who HATES those miserable little brats, hmm? (He squeezes the duckie, making it squeak.) You hate them, too? Oh, I knew I could count on you. But how could I possibly beat them with all that— (to evil) —LOVE surrounding them?
(He squeezes the duckie again and holds it up to his ear.)
“Him”: (effeminate voice) What’s that, you say? (Squeak; he grins broadly.) Yes! (to evil) That’s brilliant!
(Pull back to show the entire bathtub. He reclines into it and lifts one leg as he continues.)
“Him”: (effeminate voice) Oh, Mr. Quackers, you are soooo smart. Quite a positively evil scheme you’ve hatched. (sitting up) And I’ll finally be rid of those girls—
(The water in the bathtub erupts into red hot lava like a volcano from behind him, silhouetting him, as he raises his arms.)
“Him”: (evil voice) —FOREVER!!
(The water washes over the screen; when it drains away, we see a very long shot of Townsville. The clouds begin to swirl and circle, the full moon turns red, and a second red spot appears to make a pair of eyes. The entire collection resolves into Him's face, laughing evilly and looking down at the city.)
“Him”: (effeminate voice) Poor, unsuspecting Townsville, all snug in your beds. Unaware of the evil that takes place high above your heads.
(Now his arm is visible.)
“Him”: (stirring air with claw) And so with a flick of my wrist and a twirl of my claw— (The clouds swirl again; transition to evil voice.) —I’ll get rid of those girls once and for all!
(A broad swath of pinkish-red vapor emerges from the clouds; camera turns down to follow it as it descends toward Townsville and spreads across the buildings. It permeates the streets and works its way into the sewers. Next, it engulfs the tree that had the cat stuck in it, Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, Townsville Hall, and the Girls' house. All the places they had helped out at the day before. Back to Him’s head, still floating above the city. He starts laughing evilly; the sky dissolves to morning as the laughter dies away and he fades from view.)
(Cut to the girls in flight, looking quite pleased with their exploits of the previous day. Once again the sound of meowing brings them up short.)
Bubbles: (pointing o.c.) Hey, look. That cute little kitty is stuck in the tree again.
Blossom: Come on. Let’s help out. (They zip down.)
(Cut to just behind a cat in a tree—the same one they rescued earlier. Bubbles flies up.)
Bubbles: Hello, kitty. It’s Bubbles here to save you again.
(Close-up of the cat, yowling and swinging its paw to fend her off, then of Bubbles.)
Bubbles: (bewildered) Hey! What’s gotten into that cat? (Close-up of the same old woman.)
Old woman: (angrily) I said, get your hands off of me!
(Pull back; Blossom once again has hold of her.)
Blossom: But, lady, we’re trying to help you get your cat out of the tree.
Old woman: (pulling away) I said, get!
(Both are startled by snarling from o.c. Back to Bubbles, who is holding the cat and getting her cheek shredded instead of licked.)
Bubbles: Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow! (Back to the old woman.)
Old woman: Land sakes, take your paws off of my cat!
(Cut to Buttercup, who has once again uprooted the tree. She too looks quite puzzled. Tossing the tree aside, she joins her sisters.)
Buttercup: What the heck is going on?
(The old woman reaches into view and starts beating all three of them over the head with her cane. They cry out in pain. The sound of the school bell interrupts the thrashing; Bubbles takes one final hit.)
Blossom: Saved by the school bell. Let’s beat it! (They take off.)
(Cut to the classroom as they zip into place at their desk. The teacher is writing on a clipboard.)
Teacher: (dryly) Well, well, well, the Powerpuff Girls— (angrily) —tardy!
Blossom: What?
Bubbles: Huh?
Buttercup: No way! (A wad of paper is thrown into view, hitting Bubbles.)
Kid: (from o.c.) Ha-ha!
Bubbles: Hey! (raising hand) Ms. Keane! Billy threw a paper ball at me.
Teacher (Ms. Keane): Billy Lipowitz! Throwing paper just won’t do. (producing apple from behind back) You should try apples. They’re much harder.
(She throws the apple and it hits Blossom.)
Girls: Hey!
(Ms. Keane now holds up two apples.)
Ms. Keane: Class, please join me!
(She and the other kids let fly with a barrage of apples and school supplies. The girls can do little more than throw their arms up to protect themselves.)
Blossom: I’ve heard of class struggles, but this is ridiculous!
(Close-up of the hotline, buzzing. It now has a very angry expression. Back to the girls.)
Blossom: It’s the Mayor! Let’s get outta here! (They take off.)
(Cut to the Mayor’s office as they fly in. The pickle jar is back on his desk, and Ms. Bellum stands next to him.)
Blossom: Mayor, we got here as soon as we could. What’s the problem?
(Cut to a close-up of the jar, the focus shifting from the Mayor and Ms. Bellum to it, then back to the girls.)
Blossom: (smiling) Oh…the pickle jar again. (Side view of the desk; she flies up and takes hold of it.) Don’t worry, Mayor. We’ll have that jar open in a jiffy.
(This time, he reaches across the desk and starts trying to pull it away from her.)
Mayor: Hey! Unwield my pickles, you fiend! (yanking jar back) Why, that’s grounds for immediate incarceration! Get ’em, boys!
(All over the office, SWAT officers charge in through the doors and windows. An overcoat and hat on a rack leap off on their own, an officer poking his arms, legs and head out. More cops barge into the office; guns are drawn and cocked, and the girls find themselves surrounded by weapons of all types and calibers—including a slingshot. The Mayor and Ms. Bellum confront them, with a row of cops backing them up.)
Mayor: Ms. Bellum, would you care to go first?
Ms. Bellum: (drawing and cocking a revolver) It would be my pleasure.
Blossom: (nervously) Um…we’d love to stay and hang out with you guys, but, uh…I—I think I hear the Professor calling.
Buttercup: (stammering) Yeah, some other time.
Bubbles: (giggling nervously) Maybe we can have tea. (They inch to one side, then zip away.)
(Cut to them in flight.)
Buttercup: Wow! This has turned out to be one freaky day.
Bubbles: Yeah. Something strange is going on.
Narrator: (very irritated) Aw, for cryin’ out loud, would you three shut up for once?! Always griping and moaning about something! Sheesh, you give me a headache!
(The girls turn toward the camera, surprised, as soon as he speaks. It is clear that, despite his earlier fear upon first seeing "Him", the Narrator was not immune to the spell "Him" cast on everyone and was affected by it as well, making him as ornery and hostile to them as everyone else was.)
Blossom: Let’s go see the Professor. Maybe he has some answers.
(Cut to the Professor, again in his lab with his back to the camera. The girls fly up behind him.)
Blossom: Professor! Something odd is happening around Townsville, and we need your he—
(On the end of this, he lets out a low, exasperated groan. Zoom in on him.)
Professor: (low, menacing tone) How many times have I told you girls not to come barging in like that? (turning around, very angry as the irises in his eyes are red and his face has contorted into an expression of pure rage.) IT’S NOT NICE!!
(His perspective of them, looking up at him.)
Blossom: Whoa!
(Cut to behind them as he advances on them, arms outstretched to grab them so that he can beat them up.)
Professor: (menacingly) Now come here, girls.
(Darting away before he can lay hold of them and start pummeling them, they flee up the stairs and down the hall.)
Blossom: Quick! Out the front door!
(They reach the door and fling it open, then gasp in surprise. They slam on the brakes and skid through the doorway out of view. Head-on view of a vengeful mob that includes the Mayor, Ms. Bellum, Ms. Keane, the old woman with her cat, and several of the SWAT team members. All the eyes that are visible are glowing bright red, and all the faces we can see are frozen in scowls. The girls turn around to dodge back into the house, but the Professor is coming up behind them. His eyes have also gone red like everyone else. They're trapped, with no where else to escape to.)
Professor: Destroy Powerpuff Girls!
(The mob begins to close in on them.)
Mob: (as if hypnotized) We must destroy Powerpuff Girls! (Close-up of Buttercup.)
Buttercup: Why are you people doing this? (Pan to Bubbles.)
Bubbles: Don’t you love us anymore? (Pan to Blossom.)
Blossom: Yeah! You act as if you— As if you…
“Him”: (voice-over, effeminate voice) Hate you?
Blossom: Yeah, hate us! (frightened, stammering) W-W-Who said that?
(Pull back. As “Him” speaks, he rises into view behind the mob.)
“Him”: (effeminate voice) Why, I did, of course.
Girls: It’s “Him”!
“Him”: (evil voice) Right you are, girls!
(He disappears, then pops up behind the Professor and drapes his arms over the man’s shoulders.)
“Him”: (effeminate voice) And right you are about your loved ones!
(Extreme close-up of him licking the Professor’s cheek. Back to the girls.)
Blossom: Take your claws off the Professor!
Bubbles: What’s he ever done to you? (“Him” leans into view.)
“Him”: Oh, it’s not what he’s done to me, but what he’s going to do— (evil voice) —to you!
(Close-up of his disembodied head.)
“Him”: (effeminate voice) And, you see, I’ve taken all of their love for you, and turned…
(On the word “turned,” which he draws out considerably, his head rotates over 360 degrees.)
“Him”: …it into… (evil voice) …HATE!
(The girls gasp in shock, and “Him” wraps his arms around them.)
“Him”: (effeminate voice) Now they will destroy you, (pulling one of Bubble's pigtails; to evil voice) and you poor, helpless creatures— (evil voice) —won’t be able to fight back!
Bubbles: Ow!
(“Him” picks Blossom up and addresses himself to her.)
“Him”: (effeminate voice) Because the Powerpuff Girls would never hurt the ones they love. Oh, no, they wouldn’t.
(On the end of this line, she cries out and struggles to pull free. He disappears and pops into view over the mob, pointing o.c. at the girls.)
“Him”: (evil voice) NOW DESTROY THEM!
(Blossom is grabbed by the leg, Bubbles by the hair. Buttercup dodges a swipe at her. Blossom is punched, Bubbles gets clawed by the cat, Blossom receives a kick under the chin, and a fist slams down on Bubbles’ head. She bites down on her tongue as a result of this hit.)
Buttercup: All right, that does it!
(And with that, she knocks the entire mob flying with one punch, scattering them in all directions. “Him” is caught off-guard by this move by Buttercup (after his earlier taunts) and grunts in shock and surprise, unable to respond to this sudden defiance by Buttercup, and the other two girls fall on the front lawn.)
Buttercup: Come on, you guys. Get up and fight!
Blossom: (getting up) Buttercup, what are you doing?! (Bubbles gets up.) We can’t hurt the ones we love!
Buttercup: Those people aren’t our loved ones. Our loved ones would never want to hurt us!
Blossom, Bubbles: (realizing her point) Hey, yeah!
Buttercup: They’re just pawns in “His” evil scheme. (Cut to “Him.”)
“Him”: (effeminate voice, giggling) Well, you know. (Back to Buttercup.)
Buttercup: Which means…
Girls: Let’s get him!
“Him”: (realizing his plan has failed, evil voice) Uh-oh...
(There's nothing "Him" can do at this point as the Girls give everyone who has been brainwashed by "Him" the thrashing of justice they deserve for everything they've put them through today. Buttercup flies past the old woman. When she looks up with a scowl, her cane is gone and Buttercup smacks her a good one with it, knocking her out good and cold. Blossom and the cat face off; the confrontation ends suddenly when Bubbles flies up from behind and kicks the scowling furball back into the tree with a startled screech. Buttercup knocks the wind out of Ms. Keane, and Blossom decks two kids. She flies away just before two others charge back at her, and they slam into each other face first, knocking out themselves instead. We see Bubbles in flight, carrying the pickle jar. She smashes it over the Mayor’s head, stunning him, then doubles back for another pass and punches him out. He plows into Ms. Bellum, square in her chest head-first, and both go flying, taking out the leader of Townsville and his deputy mayor in one stroke. Now the SWAT team gets it, one man after another flying across the screen, the brainwashed lawmen and their training no match for the superpowered heroines. The last one standing is the Professor, still hunched and scowling angrily at them with those glowing red eyes from the spell "Him" cast on everyone; the girls close in and nail him with a one-two-three combination. He tumbles to the ground in slow motion, his expression now one of being knocked out cold and senseless, unaware of having been given the knockout by his own daughters. They hover behind him and address themselves to the o.c. “Him.”)
Blossom: Don’t ever make us have to do that again!
Buttercup: Or it will be your last!
(Pan across the street, strewn with unconscious townspeople from the beating the Girls gave them for their actions under the influence of "Him". Not one appears to even show any signs of life after what the Girls did to knock some sense into them. “Him” flies into view at the far end of the fight scene.)
“Him”: (effeminate voice) Tsk, tsk, tsk. You girls underestimate me. I never give repeat performances. But I assure you…I’ll be ba-a-ack!
(He laughs evilly and disappears in a whirlwind and a cloud of vapor that sucks itself up into a cloud overhead. The camera turns up to the sky, now at evening time, to follow this. The cloud explodes into shreds of pink fluff that hide the entire sky briefly before dissipating.)
(Once again the sky fades into morning. Turn down to show the hospital; inside, the girls are in the lobby, looking apologetically up at the camera.)
Blossom: So now you know why we had to do what we did. We all feel really bad and hope that you’ll forgive us.
Bubbles: Besides, it hurt us a lot more than it hurt you.
(We see the people they beat up—and they certainly did a thorough job to force "Him" into removing his spell and return them to normal. Bandages, casts, crutches, and wheelchairs are present in abundance, including a few bruises, black eyes, swollen cheeks and jaws, etc. Ms. Bellum’s face is hidden by the bandages that cover her entire head; her hair, however, looks normal. The Mayor is in a full-body cast, with only his monocle, hat, and bow tie visible. Ms. Keane, Professor Utonium, the old lady, a few classmates, and a few SWAT officers stand with them, looking just as lousy from having to get a huge dose of anesthetic and ice packs to deal with their own injuries as payback for what they did to the Girls under the spell "Him" put them under before they were returned to normal and told of what they did while under the spell.)
Mob: Well, now, we wouldn’t say that! (They and the girls laugh; occasional moans of pain are heard as well.)
Narrator: (laughing, then groaning, indicating the girls gave him a good beatdown as well and he's back to normal too) Don’t worry, we forgive you.
(The standard end shot comes up.)
Narrator: Because once again, the day is saved, thanks to… the Powerpuff Girls! Oh, nurse, isn’t it time for my sponge bath?
The End!
We’ll see you again soon!