| Ex Marks the Spot | |
|---|---|
| Season 2, Episode 10a | |
| |
| Mission | CN547 |
| Historical Figure/Event | Johann Gutenberg Joan of Arc |
| Time | 1430 |
| Place | Mainz, Germany |
| Aired | April 4, 2003 |
| Directed by | Dave Wasson |
| Written by | Dave Wasson, Carlos Ramos, and Michael Karnow |
| Storyboards by | Trevor Wall |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous Father Figure of Our Country |
Next Horse of Horrors |
To see the episode's transcript, click here.
Synopsis[]
The paths of Officer Tuddrussel and Lieutenant Sternwell's teams cross once again on missions to Europe. As they reminisce on old times, Larry and XJ5 worry that the two officers are falling in love all over again.
Plot[]
The episode opens with Larry in the satellite's kitchen. He sings as he prepares a turkey, then fills it with a whole can of gravy, "just how Tuddrussel likes it". Otto asks why Larry has been so nice to Tuddrussel lately. Larry replies that, since he is programmed to be a humble housekeeper and a delightful companion, why fight it? "Oh sure, he's a stupid, repugnant, arrogant, smelly, ignorant, selfish, insulting manchild," Larry says as he tops the turkey with a cherry. He sighs and flutters his eyes. "But he's my stupid, repugnant, arrogant, smelly, ignorant, selfish, insulting man child." He muses that Otto will understand when he's older as he brings the turkey to Tuddrussel, who is watching television. Tuddrussel promptly devours the turkey and finishes just as the History Instability Alarm goes off. He gives Larry a friendly smack on the back as he starts walking to the control room.
In the control room, the Time Squad finds that their mission is to go to Johann Gutenberg in Germany in the year 1430. Otto excitedly explains that he was the inventor of the printing press. "Without him, we wouldn't ever have the ability to print books, newspapers, or comic books!" Tuddrussel gasps. "No comic books? Well, that's terrible! Let's go, Otto!" He runs offscreen and then back for a moment to address Larry. "You too, rust-butt." Larry smiles at the nickname and says that he "has got to write that down."
The team zaps into 1430s Germany, right outside Ze Print Shop that is owned by Gutenberg. Immediately they hear frustruated shouting from inside as a chair is thrown out of the window. Tuddrussel believes that there is a disturbance in progress, so he whips out his phaser and strafes to the door. Larry tries to look inside the window, but gets smacked with a flying mallet and falls to the ground. Tuddrussel bursts inside, ready to shoot, only to find a French woman beating Gutenberg's invention with a mace. The woman turns out to be Joan of Arc, who's supposed to be leading the French army to fight the English. "But if you're here, where's Gutenberg?" asks Otto.
Meanwhile, in France, we see an army of soldiers beat up and shambling past a war tent. A bearded man is inside, drawing up a map. One soldier addresses the man as Gutenberg and tells him that his plans to conquer to English army to the north have failed. Gutenberg is in disbelief that his army could lose with such a nicely-designed and formatted war map. The soldier cries out that the army couldn't stand a chance as he touches the map. Gutenberg gets frustrated that his map is now creased and smudged, and sends the man back out to the front lines.
With a flash, Lieutenant Sternwell and XJ5 zap in. Sternwell says that that they have to find Joan of Arc as XJ5 scans with his wrist computer. He notes that they are in the midst of the Hundred-Year War, and that their target must not be far away. Suddenly, Gutenberg grabs XJ5 to look at the projections coming from his arm. "Look at all the grids and perfect horizontal lines! What font is that, Helvetica?" XJ5 pulls his arm away and Sternwell explains that they're looking for Joan of Arc, the leader of the army. "You're mistaken," says Gutenberg, "because I'm director of this army." He shows the team the certificate that he designed as proof. XJ5 pricks him with a needle and scans his DNA, revealing that the he is indeed Johann Gutenberg. "Well, if he's leading the French army, then where's--"
"Joan of Arc?" Tuddrussel and his team walks over with Joan of Arc captive. She escapes from the officer's grasp and attacks him, bringing him to the ground. Otto nervously speaks to Joan. "Miss Joan of Arc, ma'am, you're supposed to be leading this army." Sternwell addresses Gutenberg. "You need to go back to Germany and begin your work creating movable type." Both of the figures realize their errors, and Gutenberg leaves as Joan hops on a horse, riding off to battle.
"Well, that was interesting," says XJ5. "Great seeing you, Larry, and little boy." He gets ready to leave but Sternwell stops him as she goes over to see how Tuddrussel is doing. Larry pats him on the back and tells her to leave him be. Tuddrussel says that he just has to "walk it off". Larry helps him to his feet, and he leans on the robot as they walk away. Sternwell asks Otto how the officer has been, and he replies, "About the same, really." Tuddrussel runs back, rejuvanated, and jokes with Sternwell. They reminisce about their old missions together, and he offers to get dinner with her. She considers it, and he says that they can talk about old times. Sternwell agrees, and both XJ5 and Larry are stunned. XJ5 tries to convince Sternwell to go back, but she just tells him to wait there. They walk off together.
"Oh no!" Larry laments. "Oh no what?" asks XJ5. "Don't you see what's going on here?" asks Larry. "They're falling in love again! And just when things were going so well!" Otto tells the robots that the idea is crazy, but they ignore him as they talk. "They did seem to be getting along better than usual..." ponders XJ5. Larry, visibly distressed, says that they have to put a stop to it. Otto asks if anyone is even listening to him, but is ignored again as the robots hurry off together.
Inside the French restaurant, Le Petite Oui-Oui, Sternwell and Tuddrussel are seated and looking at menus. Larry peeks out at them from the kitchen and prepares to move onto the next part of his plan. Otto watches disapprovingly as XJ5 finishes tying up two recently-captured chefs. Larry speaks to himself. "Soon, Tuddrussel's lovefest will be a hate-feast when they bite into these disgusting dishes!" He begins to "ruin" food he prepared for the officers: an extra pinch of salt for the escargot, steak tartare garnished with a lemon wedge instead of parsley, and a seven-layer strawberry crepe with only six layers instead of seven.
The officers get the food and are impressed. Sternwell says that she usually finds escargot bland, but the extra pinch of salt is fabulous. Tuddrussel exclaims that the lemon wedge used to adorn the tartare is "mag-no-fique". Larry bursts out of the kitchen and grabs Tuddrussel's plate, letting the food fall to the floor. "No! This food is terrible! I cooked it!" Tuddrussel tells Larry how impressed he is, and Sternwell tells him how the crepe had the perfect number of layers. "You were supposed to hate that meal!" Larry cries. "Because you see, nobody's taking Tuddrussel away. I don't care how in love you two are!" The two officers look to Larry, then back at each other in stunned silence. Then they break out laughing. "Come on, man, she's a completely repressed workaholic who's incapable of having fun of any kind!" Tuddrussel explains. "And he's a man totally at the mercy of his own fragile male ego, who hasn't progressed emotionally or intellectually since early childhood!" says Sternwell with a laugh. Larry is in disbelief, and asks if there was never anything between the two. They start laughing again.
Outside the restaurant, Sternwell says goodbye to Tuddrussel. He returns it with a chuckle. XJ5 looks at a defeated Larry and calls him an idiot, then zaps his team away. Tuddrussel grabs Larry's shoulder, friendly, but Larry smacks him away. "Don't touch me! Tonight, you're sleeping on the sofa!" Both Otto and Tuddrussel giggle as Larry angrily taps on his wrist computer and zaps away.
Trivia[]
- Larry sings a song at the beginning that has the same tune as Meet the Flinstones.
"Time Squad, meet the Time Squad
They're a futuristic family
From the year hundred million
It's their job to fix up history."
- Larry's apparent change in attitude towards Tuddrussel is never seen again after this episode.
- This is both Sheila and XJ5's final appearance on the show.
- Gutenberg shouldn’t have the knowledge of the font Helvetica as the sans-serif typeface was developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann, 527 years later from when the episode takes place.
Gallery[]
