Hamstergeddon

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Hamstergeddon is an episode of the television series Invader Zim. Originally produced as episode 9B, the episode was aired as episode 7B on August 8, 2001.

[edit] Plot

At the start of a new 'skool' day, Ms. Bitters approaches the back desk, where a large metal container is sitting. The container, which has a big red button on it and a clock counting down from one minute, is made to seem menacing, especially with dramatic camera shots and suspenseful background music. As the children creep out of their desks and back away, the tension builds. Ms. Bitters reaches out and presses the button and the machine begins violently shaking and shooting smoke, as well as making an escalating high-pitched noise. The children cower as the container then violently explodes, blowing halved sections of itself into opposing walls. When the smoke clears, the children see what was inside—a glass cage with a small animal inside. Ms. Bitters then announces the skool board's plan to reduce misery in skoolchildren by giving them a pet hamster, name: Peepi. As the children gather around, cooing and acting foolish for the adorable little beastie, Zim comes up for a look, screaming in fright when he sees it. Dib halfheartedly (he seems dispirited over having no one listen to him about Zim) points out to Zim that humans find hamsters cute. Zim, noticing the effect it has on the children, begins fantasizing about using the creature's cuteness to his advantage. He imagines riding a giant version of Peepi down the street, hypnotizing humans with its cuteness, and then destroying them with fire-breath from Peepi. Zim watches the hamster run in his exercise wheel and ponders a plan while Ms. Bitters tells the children to watch the hamster closely to prepare themselves for their future lives in their "nightmarish corporate system."

Later that night, Zim enters the skool and is seen approaching Peepi menacingly.

The next morning in class, Ms. Bitters is having the children sit on their heads as she times them with a stopwatch. Dib interrupts and asks if anyone has noticed that the hamster has grown three times its normal size and has a "hideous throbbing alien device" attached to its back. As Zim begins to worry, he goes to activate a wrist device meant to control Peepi somehow. A crash is heard from the back of the room before he can activate it though. Peepi has grown so large he's crashed through the bottom of his cage, through the desk it was on, and through the floor below. As the children look back in curiosity, a section of the floor gives way and one of the children suddenly crashes down to the floor below—desk and all. Another child falls and Zim goes looking for the source, finding a hole in the wall to the outside and Peepi, now as large as a medium-sized dog, running across the skoolyard. The hamster approaches the fence and chomps out a hole, growing a little larger (and shrieking like a monster) after swallowing it. Peepi crosses the street as Zim follows, encouraging the mutating hamster to grow more. Peepi continues eating his way in a straight line, taking out a light pole and chomping into a building out of site. Zim then tries to take control of Peepi by speaking into his wrist device. It has no effect, however, and Peepi continues destroying or eating everything in his path. As Zim cries out for Peepi to obey, a nuclear power plant begins exploding and "Ultra Peepi" emerges, grown to the size of a skyscraper and looking very Godzilla-like. Dib then comes up behind Zim and asks him if there's anything he'd like to confess (as Peepi begins demolishing the city). Zim cries out, "No! Don't be silly."

Ultra Peepi then goes on a rampage of destruction and death. A TV reporter is seen broadcasting from the station's offices as Ultra Peepi crashes into the building and kills the broadcaster. He then picks up a school bus and eats half of it and uses a radio tower as a toothpick. A woman below notices this and goes google-eyed from the cuteness as the hamster drops the bus on her.

As fighter planes attack (and are knocked out of the sky by his now artificial projectile leg.), Zim continues to call for the giant hamster to obey him. As Zim looks around though, he notices all the destruction and mayhem and realizes that Ultra Peepi is doing what he wants anyway—destroying the humans—so he decides he can just let him continue.

In a military tent, military men are trying to strategize (unable to fire a rocket though because of Ultra Peepi's cuteness) when Dib rushes in. Dib tells them about Ultra Peepi's origin and the general commends him. He then asks Dib how to stop it. When the general finds out Dib doesn't know, he has him thrown out.

Back at Zim's house, Zim enters the living room and finds GIR sitting on the couch, watching TV. Zim sits on the couch next to him and asks him what he's watching as they each grab a Fun Dip stick from a package Zim has and suck on it. When GIR tells him he's watching the angry monkey, Zim replies with, "that... horrible monkey!" GIR agrees and asks Zim where Ultra Peepi is, to which Zim merely replies, "he's workin'."

A news bulletin then appears on the TV screen and a newscaster explains that Ultra Peepi is headed for the city's supply of hamster pellets and that if he reaches it they're all doomed. Just then, a loud thump disturbs Zim. He goes outside to investigate and more loud thumping, shaking and crashing signal the approach of Ultra Peepi on a direct course for Zim's house. Zim cries out for the monster to stop, demanding he obey him and not destroy his master's base. Ultra Peepi continues bearing down on the house, however, oblivious to Zim.

Zim then runs inside and the top of his house pops open as the Voot cruiser flies out to face Ultra Peepi, who's now right next to the house. Inside the Voot, Zim berates the hamster for disobeying him and tells him he'll have to punish him. The Voot then flies around Peepi and begins firing at him. The super hamster is only annoyed by his assault though and quickly dispatches Zim with his nuclear breath.

At Zim's crash site, Dib arrives at the scene and ponders what to do: if he helps Zim, Zim can destroy Ultra Peepi but it will also leave him to destroy mankind later. If he doesn't help Zim, Ultra Peepi will destroy mankind. As he continues pondering his dilemma, Zim recovers and calls for GIR on his communicator. GIR (in his dog costume) flies to Zim and Zim hops on his back as Dib continues talking to himself. When Dib finally notices Zim flying off, the two argue for a moment but quickly decide that destroying Ultra Peepi is their mutual goal and Zim continues off.

As Ultra Peepi approaches the pellet plant, the military is there waiting for him. They never quite get off a shot though because the men stop and fawn over how cute the giant hamster is as it kills them. Zim then appears in the Voot, with a hot dog stand shaped like a giant hot dog in a bun being carried in its tractor beam. "The weenie tempts you!" Zim cries out as he waves it in front of the hamster. Ultra Peepi then comes charging full speed at Zim. Zim narrowly escapes, with Ultra Peepi hot on his trail (and the military firing at him instead of the giant hamster).

Zim lures the hamster to an amusement park where another giant weenie is affixed to the center of a ferris wheel. Zim flies over the ferris wheel and drops four large, round disks down to the ground, where they inflate to balls and roll up to the ferris wheel and attach themselves to it. As Zim waits for Ultra Peepi, the military rolls up again. Dib tries to stop them from interfering but they won't listen and the general has him thrown in a "crazy bucket." Peepi then approaches and eats part of the ferris wheel, tearing it off its foundation. As the military finally opens fire on the giant hamster, Zim pushes a button. The disks on the ferris wheel, which are actually jets, activate and Peepi is pulled up a little. He lets go of the ferris wheel, however, and it flies off harmlessly. As the military continues firing, Zim decides to finally deal with the problem more directly. He launches disks directly at the hamster, which wrap themselves around Ultra Peepi's head and neck. The disk jets then fire and the hapless hamster is rocketed up into the sky.

As a child sniffles and asks, "why?" while watching Ultra Peepi fly off, Zim walks up and Dib bounces up (still locked in his crazy bucket). Dib begins to rant about tampering with alien life in response to the boy's question when Zim knocks him over. Zim then starts to give a speech but winds up saying, "eh, I don't know." As Zim tells the boy to not worry and that Ultra Peepi will "live on out there... in the stars," the giant hamster is then seen crashing back down to the ground, accompanied by a huge explosion.

The final scene is a shot of people hugging a bear-sized Peepi with a notice stating: "No animated characters were harmed in the filming of this production."

[edit] Trivia

• Jeffrey Jones is the reporter and two of the military men.
• According to Jhonen Vasquez there are 70 deaths in the episode.[1]
• Most of latter part of the episode (including Dib's hapless repeated attempts to assist the military and Peepi's ejection into space) parodies the 1965 Japanese monster film Gamera, a movie featured in staff writer Frank Conniff's previous series Mystery Science Theater 3000.
• Peepi's original name was Mr. Boodles in the script, but was changed into the more humorous "Peepi" for the cartoon.
• As noted in the DVD commentary, a shot of Ultra Peepi charging in attack was influenced by a similar shot from the opening episodes of the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, of which Vasquez is a noted fan.
• In 2004, this episode was released on TurboNick, a video section of Nickelodeon's Web site.
• The spikes on Ultra Peepi's back are obviously in reference to Godzilla.