Walk for Your Lives

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Walk for Your Lives is an episode of the animated television series Invader Zim. Originally produced as episode 18B, "Walk for Your Lives" aired as episode 20B on September 28, 2002.

[edit] Plot

The Almighty Tallest are conducting their inspections for Probing Day (a performance review which consists primarily of pummeling the Invaders senseless) when Zim unexpectedly reports for inspection. As he brags about his genius to the Almighty Tallest over having captured his arch-enemy, Dib, in a variable time-stasis field, something goes horribly wrong and the field explodes. Zim and GIR recover from the explosion and start cleaning up the lab. GIR then finds Dib, who's still caught in the time-stasis field, and throws him out with the trash. As they continue cleaning, they encounter a small green, glowing orb. GIR tries to throw it away, but it burns his hand. The two continue to try to dispose of the object but to no avail. It burns through everything they use. The computer explains that the object is actually the explosion from the time-stasis field trapped in its own time-stasis field and is just exploding "really, really slowly." The computer goes on to explain how to get it under control when Zim, interrupting, decides that the only way to dampen the explosion is to dump it into the city's cess pool. GIR and Zim then attempt to move the explosion but quickly lose control of it. It winds up punching a hole in the front of their house and landing on their front lawn, now much larger than when they first found it. Zim then emerges from the house wearing makeup, a wig, and a huge dress that's actually some sort of containment field and exclaims, "plan 'B'!" He goes to the explosion (with GIR on a leash, dangling a few feet in the air because of the size of Zim's enormous costume) moves his "dress" over it, and pulls it up into it for transporting.

Meanwhile, Dib, who's still stuck in slow motion, goes looking for a police officer to help him. A series of strange scenes chronicle his journey toward a policeman he sees on a street corner—including everyone else whipping along at super-speed (from Dib's point of view), a huge car accident, a truckload of obese baby dolls, a man in a wheelchair, another man selling meat from his coat, and a chihuahua. The scenes culminate in the chihuahua snatching a piece of meat, dragging it along, and encountering Zim as he approaches the cess pool. At the sight of a "dog with meat," Zim panics and flails about wildly, losing control of the explosion, which flies out from under him and bounces into the middle of the street. The people of the city are shocked to see the large green, glowing orb and begin to panic, until they realize the object is expanding so slowly they can take their time in escaping. As the populace calmly walks away from impending doom, Zim returns home in frustration. As he complains about the explosion to GIR, he's inspired with another idea. He theorizes that matching Dib's time-field with that of the explosion and sending Dib flying into the explosion will bring the two in sync. He only needs Dib to do it, who, GIR informs him, is still alive. Zim's stilted reasoning figures that if the explosion happens at a regular pace, it will be done with and he can move on with his life. He quickly goes looking for Dib, capturing him moments before he's able to reach the policeman.

Back at Zim's house again, Zim hooks Dib up to a giant slingshot coming out of GIR's head. GIR and the computer continue to try to reason with Zim about what will happen when the explosion moves at a normal speed (mainly everyone's, including Zim's, destruction). Zim won't hear any of it though, convinced of the brilliance of his idea. As Dib is flung into the explosion, it, not surprisingly, explodes with tremendous magnitude. The episode ends with Zim standing in his now destroyed house in front of his broken communications monitor calling out for the Almighty Tallest. Dib walks up, looking fairly sizzled, calls Zim a jerk, and collapses.

[edit] Trivia

• The character Iggins, from the episode "Game Slave 2", makes an appearance and is seen being arrested for loitering (This is his last appearance on the show).

• When "Hobo 13" first aired on Nickelodeon, it was shown alone without this episode. It was not until a few months later that the full episode was aired on Nickelodeon with this episode following "Hobo 13."

• This is one of the very few episodes that depicts GIR thinking rationally.

• The explosion was originally red and flame-ball like, but was changed to green because of 9/11.

• A green glow had to be added to Dib to explain why he was also in slow motion.

• This episode marks the last appearance of the Spooky Chihuahua on the show.