| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Ninjception" is the eighteenth episode of the second season (and seventieth episode overall) of Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja. It premiered on November 27, 2014.
Synopsis[]
Stuck in a dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream, Randy must figure out how to escape the loop.
Plot[]
The episode opens with a bright green flash and booming sound effect before shifting to the Ninja battling a gargoyle utop the Norrisville Van Dam, with the gargoyle trying to steal the Chaos Pearls or otherwise known as the Sorcerer's power ball currently in the Ninja's hand. In the background a vending machine for McBubbleBurp, as well a billboard advertising the drink. The fighting continues and the gargoyle manages to successfully swipe the ball and flies away, the Ninja, left with no options chooses to destroy the ball to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. He stabs the ball with a Ninja Sai, which results in the ball erupting into a massive explosion, flooding the screen with bright green light, and wakes Randy up revealing that it was just a vivid nightmare. Howard is shown to be present in Randy's room, eating cereal room. He asks Randy if he had a bad dream, Randy confirms the guess before he questions if Howard was watching him sleep. Howard response by confirming it, while also commenting how straight Randy was while he was sleeping, but the points he listed were normal behavior such as, eyes closed, and head on a pillow. He then calls for Randy to go to the Game Hole, Randy so does so but not before bringing his power ball along with him just to be safe.
The scene then immediately shift to a shot of a vending machine for McBubbleBurp in a deserted Game Hole. While the boys enter, Howard criticizes Randy, for destroying the world after he learned the events of Randy's dream. Randy replies that he didn't have much options, however, Howard response by saying that there is always more alternatives. The boys play a new never before seen game titled, Key Turnin' Ball Jammer. The concept of the game revolts around the main character with a green ball escaping from bandits and must unlock and hide, or jam (in the game's terminology), the ball into a box. Howard boldly makes the claim that Randy should have done the same as the character in the game, but Randy only responses with sarcasm.
Suddenly a moth monster crashes into the Game Hole, Randy transforms to deal with it but the fight immediately takes to the street outside. The Ninja crashes into a banana vending machine, and takes a moment to inspect the power ball in his satchel. Relieved to see that it is okay, he turns to assure the people that he is fine as well but finds the entire street empty and devoid of life. The moth monster then emerges from the Game Hole and continues it's assault on the Ninja. During the fight, Randy realise that the monster is after the ball, Howard tells him to find and jam the ball into a hole and points to a manhole cover. The cover has the same design as the mosaic carp fish usually seen in the high school lobby. The Ninja is hesitant to follow through with Howard's suggestion with his better judgement warning him not to. At that moment the moth creature rams into him, slamming him into a wall so hard that it pins him there. It further tries to attack his head, but the Ninja is able to avoid getting hit. The monster then chooses to just swipe the ball from his hand and fly away. The Ninja tries to stop it but launching Ninja rings at it, but it accidentally hits the ball instead, causing a massive explosion that sends the Ninja flying to the air and causing him to wake from what seemed like another dream.
Randy finds himself inside the theatre of the silt museum, with Howard, seemly having fallen asleep while watching a movie, called "Silt Wars- Episode 3: Revenge of the Silt." Which is sponsored by McBubbleBurp. The boys then exit the museum as Randy explains once again his strange dreams. Howard repeats the same criticism of destroying the world and during their conversion, mentions the arcade game that the boys previously played in the last dream. Randy begins to feel a strong sense of DeJa vue, when out of nowhere, a large gila monster appears and steals the power ball from his satchel and carries it in its mouth as it climbs Mt. Chuck. Howard uncharacteristically responses by joyfully exclaiming that it's ninja time, which highly Randy notices and calls out, but Howard brushes it aside and continues to encourage him to transforms. The Ninja fights the gila monster at the top of the volcano, while he manages to retrieve the ball he accidentally falls into the volcano straight down and lands right on the hatch inside. Immediately Howard then appears on a ledge inside the volcano, loudly instructing the Ninja to throw the ball into the hatch. The Ninja instead takes a moment to to explain how the current events are extremely similar to his previous dream. But, Howard seems unsympathy, the Ninja then turns to the Nomicon for help but finds to his surprise that the ancient book is completely blank and cannot shloomps him inside. When the monster returns for another round, after a brief fight, it attempts to steal back the ball with its incredible long tongue from the Ninja's hand and the two engage in a kind of tug of war. Howard again advocates for the Ninja to throw the ball into the hatch, but instead the Ninja releases his grip and allows the monster to take the ball but not before feeding it some ninja boom balls. This once again results in another explosion which traveled a wide range and catches up with Howard who failed to escape its blast range, and which turned his body into a skeleton, and caused Randy to be deeply disturbed by the sight.
When he wakes up once again inside the school bus from yet another dream; he commented on how he saw his best friend's bones and tries to explain his dreams but Howard only responded by yelling that he hates hearing about Randy's dreams having dreams. Inside the empty high school Randy becomes extremely paranoid, frantically explaining his situation and being scared by loud noises. He states that he can no longer distinguish what is a dream and what is reality, and further mentioning that in every dream a monster appears to steal the ball and sure enough one does appear (albeit with a slight delay), which this one appearing as a large octopus headed monster. Randy is too mentally exhausted to fight the monster but proceeds to do so anyway. The fight seems to go nowhere and Howard once again yells for the Ninja to jam the ball into a hole and points to the sorcerer's prison. The Ninja is uncertain of this but comments how not jamming the ball results in the world getting destroyed. Upon further pushing from Howard, the Ninja momentarily gives in believing that this too is just a dream. However, once he turns the Sorcerer's Key to unlock the prison and sees the green stank seeping from the pit, he becomes reluctant to do so, and considers if this isn't a dream. At this point Howard snaps and orders the Ninja to jam the ball, further mentioning how he had kept telling him this in both the Game Hole and Mt. Chuck, but The Ninja immediately notices the inconsistent error in Howard being able to know this despite the fact that Randy never told Howard about those specific dreams and promptly catches on, locking and removing the key from the eye of eternities. This results in the octopus monster disappears and Howard turning into a monster with red eyes, sharp teeth, green tinted skin and menacing floating in the air. This monstrous Howard then tries to attacks the Ninja, but is thrown aside when the Ninja uses his weapon. He thinks for a moment of destroying the ball but realizes that it would just toss him into another dream. He tries unsuccessful to wake himself up when monster Howard attacks him again with stank and throws him into a hallway like a rag doll, but doing so leads the Ninja right in front of a vending machine for McBubbleburp, with the tag line stating, "Wake Up and Taste It!." Right next to the vendor, from his vision, he sees a nomicon doodle Ninja, pointing to the machine, the tag line then swaps and changes to "Taste It and Wake Up!" The Ninja then realizes that if he drinks a McBubbleburp, then he will wake up from his sleep. When he proceeds to drink the beverage, he releases a burp so large that it manages to wake him from his deep sleep and finally ending the circle of dreams.
Randy finds himself inside the high school sleeping on the main lobby right on top of the carp mosaic. Right beside him is the real Howard, eating a bowl of cereal. Randy is happy to be back in the real world but is horrified to see that in his sleep state he had nearly unlocked the Sorcerer's prison and threw the power ball inside. Randy questions why Howard didn't try to stop him, which Howard that Randy seemed very determined. At that moment, the power ball begins moving on its own, trying forcibly to reunite with the Sorcerer. Randy tries forcefully to get the ball away from the school and asks his Howard for help, Howard quickly downs his cereal and aid his friend. The carp mosaic glows a green hue as stank seeps through it. The boys pull the ball away from the prison with their might and successful make their way out the door. Immediately upon leaving the building, all the windows and door magically slam shut, stopping the stank that was escaping from said entrances. The crisis is averted and Randy reveals that the power ball was controlling his dreams trying to get him to free the Sorcerer and reunite him with the power ball, but Randy's subconscious saved him by knowing that a burp would wake him up. The episode ends with the boys walking back home in the direction of the sunrise, while Howard very in-character mentions how instead of Randy's subconscious being the hero, it was actually his ability to quickly consume the bowl of cereal that makes him the real hero, with Randy only responding how he's happy to be back.
It is later revealed that Randy is sleepwalking while holding the power ball that control his dream the whole time as reach the school as seen the security footage and the screen fades to black.
Characters[]
Main characters[]
- Randy Cunningham
- Howard Weinerman (Normal and Dream Howard)
Secondary Characters[]
- Gargoyle monster
- Poddle moth monster
- Gila monster
- Tentacle-faced monster
Background characters[]
Series continuity[]
- The Sorcerer's Key makes its first reappearance since its premiere in "Randy Cunningham and the Sorcerer's Key".
- The first dream Randy experienced includes the reappearance on the Norrisville Van Dam since "The Ninja Supremacy".
- Randy's robe and underwear from "Randy Cunningham's Day Off" and his cow costume from "Dawn of the Driscoll" make reappearances in Randy's closet.
- Morgan's Cat reappears since its appearance in "McFreaks".
Trivia[]
- The title is based on the 2010 film Inception.
- The Chaos Pearls, as depicted in this episode, are revealed to have the ability to possess and intercept a person's dreams through their wielders.
- The McBubbleburp appears multiple times in the episode (the first time where its vending machine and a billboard advertisement can be seen in the background of some scenes while Randy fights off a gargoyle on the Van Dam, the second time when the vending machine is seen in the background in the Game Hole where Randy and Howard are playing arcade games), foreshadowing the event where Randy drinks it in order to free himself from the dream loop in the latter part of the episode.
- The ninja doddle that appears pointing to the McBubbleburp seems to resemble the Ninja of 'O5.
- During Randy's dream, Howard doesn't say his friend's name, foreshadowing that he's not the real Howard. This is reinforced when Randy wakes up and the real Howard immediately says, "Nice burp, Cunningham!"
- For the first time, Randy wears his mask with it rolled up to show his mouth.
- This is the first episode to show Randy in his pajamas.
- Randy has three pillows on his bed.
- This is the first episode to feature solely Randy and Howard as the main characters.
- This is also the first time an episode has no background characters. However, Morgan's Cat and Sundown appear in the security footage.
- The Ninja 9 symbol appears on the monsters trying to take the ball in Randy's Dream.
- The monsters that appear are, in chronological order, a Gargoyle, a Poddle Mothra, a Mutant Gila Monster and lastly a tentacle-headed monster perhaps inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos."
- The colorful leaves seen blowing in the dream world are similar in appearance to those in the 1995 film Pocahontas.
- The game that Randy and Howard play makes reference to the theme song of the 1996 film Space Jam, "I Believe I Can Fly."
- The title of the film that Randy and Howard are watching in one dream, Silt Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Silt, is based on the 2005 film Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
- In that dream, Mt. Chuck appears again since its previous appearance in "Monster Dump."
- There is an inconsistency in this episode, in that apparently Randy and Howard are now capable of touching the Chaos Pearl without being corrupted by it.
- The plot was inspired by an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
- There is a banana cart with the name "Banana Karenina," a reference to Leo Tolstoy's famous 1878 novel, Anna Karenina.
- When Randy attempts to 'shloomp' into the Nomicon for advice while a Gila Monster approaches him, the Nomicon appears blank and will not allow the 'shloomping' process to occur, which reinforces the fact that the different aspects of language such as reading are impossible to fulfill while a person is dreaming.
Goofs[]
- As a continuity error, it's revealed from multiple security cameras that it would take almost thirty seconds for Randy to reach from his home to the school on foot, but in the first episode of the series, Randy had to his bicycle to get from school to his house and back again.
Gallery
Click here to view the gallery.