Todd Barstow
Portrayed By: Noah Shebib (TV)
The main protagonist of Go Eat Worms! An extreme worm enthusiast who gets more than he bargained for when his pets begin to turn against him.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Very downplayed. Todd still isn't a very Nice Guy at all in the TV episode but some of his more disturbing Troubling Un Child Like Behavior is toned down. Because of this, he comes across as more of your average Jerkass rather than the borderline sociopath he is in the book.
- Aesop Amnesia: Even after a giant worm tries to get revenge on him for killing one of them, he just switches to killing another species of animal, apparently not having learned his lesson. Unsurprisingly, this doesn't end well for him.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: And how! The book and the episode show him slicing a worm open mainly for his sadistic amusement. And in the book, even after he gives up on worms, he apparently thinks that butterflies are more friendly and harmless, and promptly targets them. In the episode, he instead uses fish, and while we don't find out what he planned on doing with them, it likely wasn't pretty.
- Big Brother Bully: It's unclear which one is the older sibling (if he is the younger one, then he would be an Annoying Younger Sibling), but he spends most of the first half of the book tormenting his sister Regina with worms.
- Collector of the Strange: He collects and is obsessed with worms, though less out of affection for them and more to torment other people and even the worms themselves.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: It's mercifully left unclear, but the book ends with him about to be impaled on his desk with a giant pin in sick irony for how he treated all those small creatures.
- Didn't Think This Through: After escaping from a giant vengeful worm, he apparently thought he was safe by just abusing butterflies instead. But then a giant butterfly comes to his house one night with a massive pin, letting Todd know how wrong he was. By then, it was probably too late.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the TV episode, he is fishing in a lake, when an offscreen giant fish yanks on his line, sending him dragging into the water. Todd pleads to be let go, and (surprisingly) the fish complies. Except, Todd is dismayed to learn that he has to swim back, as ominous music plays in the background. Since the episode ends right there, he probably drowned.
- Everyone Has Standards: He may have enjoyed doing practical jokes involving worms as well as torturing them himself, but he is absolutely revolted and unamused when he bites into a worm that was in his sandwich.
- Green-Eyed Monster: He becomes furiously jealous at Regina's friend, Patrick, when he makes a worm project as well, not to mention that it is a much more impressive worm project. And during the science expo, he had an urge to "accidentally" bump the worm project table so Patrick's project will come down, leaving only Todd's project left standing. Yet, Todd resists himself from doing it.
- Hate Sink: It's pretty clear that R.L. Stine never intended to make Todd likable.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: While the giant versions of animals that go after him are mainly doing it for revenge, Todd, as far as the audience knows, is only doing his cruel deeds for his own sociopathic and selfish intentions.
- Hypocrite: He enjoys tormenting his sister with pranks, but when he finds out that she is pranking him, he becomes furious and seeks revenge, even though she was probably doing it because of something he started first.
- I Lied: Says this trope word for word with a big grin on his face when he puts a worm in Beth’s soup bowl after telling her that he dropped his worms outside.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Most likely the case at the end of the final chapter in the book.
- Irrational Hatred: He constantly holds an intense grudge against Patrick MacKay. This is all due to both jealousy and envy of how he has a better social standing as well as performance at school and the Science Expo. But the fact is that Patrick seems like a Nice Guy who is unintentionally rude at times, and is unaware of the standoffish attitude that Todd has towards him. Not to mention that he shows better skills as a comic writer and architecture that Todd simply does not have.
- Jerkass: Aside from abusing animals, he is rather nasty to his sister and her friend, as well as getting so jealous of Patrick that he decides to trespass on his property and spy on him.
- Karmic Death: Implied at the end, when a giant butterfly shows up, intending to impale with a pin for doing the same to other butterflies. Given his unpleasant personality throughout the book, this can come across as being incredibly satisfying to the reader.
- Killed Offscreen: The book ends with a giant butterfly attacking him with a pin, intending to kill him for his animal cruelty.
- Lack of Empathy: He shows very little for the animals he tortures.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He constantly pranks his sister with worms, only to be bombarded with worms orchestrated by her.
- Lean and Mean: His mother jokes that he is "as skinny as a worm", and he is also a massive Jerkass throughout the book.
- Never Bareheaded: He wears an Oakland Raiders cap he only rarely takes off. Even his own mother comments that she seldom ever sees his hair. Averted in the episode, where his hat is nowhere in sight.
- Never My Fault: As he is running out through the lunchroom to the baseball field, he bumps into a teacher of his, spilling her lunch on her. When Danny talks to him about it afterwards, Todd replies that it wasn't HIS fault that she was in his way.
- Oh, Crap!: He has plenty throughout the book, but the biggest one he has is at the end, one night when he is working in the basement. He glanced up from his desk, and SCREAMED in horror when he saw a giant butterfly, which was as big as a bedsheet, fluttering towards him while holding a giant metal pin. And given that there is no Regina, Danny, or Beth to save him, he's probably screwed.
- Redemption Rejection: Played With. After he is saved from being killed by a giant worm out to get him for his animal cruelty, he becomes much nicer to everyone else, especially Regina, but he STILL enjoys torturing small animals. In the book, he switches to butterflies; in the episode, he switches to fish.
- Sanity Slippage: As he starts finding worms in his things, he starts to lose it. For instance, after he brings back some worms to the basement after finding them in his bed, he actually apologizes to them for slicing one of them in half, promising that he won't do it ever again. He then lampshades this by thinking that maybe he HAS lost his mind. Later that night, he takes a bath, and has a Catapult Nightmare in which worms start coming out of the faucet and clinging to Todd's body.
- Sibling Rivalry: He competes with Regina in the school science fair and ends up sabotaging her project (a papier-mâché robin) by stuffing worms in the beak.
- The Sociopath: He comes off as this due to his disturbing interest in harming and killing animals, which is one of the early signs of sociopathy.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: The narration notes that he didn't look at all mischievous, and he usually had a serious look on his face. This is further compounded by Todd's actor in the episode, as seen above, who matches this book's description.
- Too Dumb to Live: You'd think that after nearly getting killed by a giant worm who intended revenge, he'd learn not to torture animals, yet he just starts killing butterflies. This is what results in his implied death.
- Took a Level in Kindness: After Regina's robin saves him from a giant worm, he becomes much nicer to her and takes up butterfly-collecting. This is debatable though, since he still abuses animals. In the TV episode, he takes up fishing instead.
- Toxic Friend Influence: His best friend, Danny Fletcher, is hardly nice to begin with, but Todd convinces him to help him trespass and spy on a house. In fact, Danny was almost killed along with Todd by the giant worm due to the latter's influence.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: He is way too fascinated with how much pain he can put animals through, be they worms, insects, or fish. His mother is rightfully worried about him.
- Uncertain Doom: He's last seen about to be impaled by a giant angry butterfly. It's never revealed whether he escaped, but given the story is told in third-person, his chances don't look good.
- Villain Protagonist: Debatable. While he isn't entirely villainous per se, he's still a flat-out jerk and a sociopath who tortures his sister and her friend with worms and abuses small creatures. And he gets his comeuppance at the end.
Todd's Worms
Dozens of worms that Todd keeps in a basement tank and seek revenge when he cuts one of them in half.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The giant worm that lives under the softball diamond and attacks Todd at the end.
- Big Bad: The giant worm. Though, considering that Todd might be the villain of the story and the giant worm is just after him to protect any worms that might be harmed by him, this trope here is debatable.
- It Can Think: After Todd cuts a worm in half, his other worms poke their heads up, as if staring at him angrily. Afterwards, worms start showing up everywhere, and Todd begins to think they're getting back at him. He's half-right: Regina put the worms everywhere as a prank, but there is one worm (see above) that does want revenge. In the TV episode, several worms form the sentence "Todd, we will make u squirm" on the wall.
- Mama Bear: "This is the mother worm. She's coming up to protect her babies."
- Mistaken for Quake: The giant worm causes the softball diamond to shake when it begins to surface.
Regina Barstow
The sister of Todd. She is constantly harassed by his pranks.
Portrayed By: Kristin Fairlie (TV)
- Accidental Hero: When Todd and Danny are almost dragged under the ground by a giant worm, Regina shows up with her friend Beth and is carrying their large paper mache bird robin, Christopher Robin. The giant worm looks up and presumably sees the sculpture and thinks it's a giant bird out to eat it. So it released Danny and Todd, and sinks back into the ground. That means Regina accidentally saved her brother and his friend's lives. Well, at least, mainly Danny's life. Todd, on the other hand, is implied to only live for a few weeks after it and then is killed, according to the implications of the ending.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Has brown hair in the book, but has blonde hair in the episode.
- Chekhov's Gun: "Christopher Robin" ends up saving her brother's ass in the end.
- The Dog Bites Back: She decides to give Todd some practical jokes herself by tricking Todd into going to a creepy abandoned house by saying that it's Patrick's. Also, she spends a good chunk of the book putting worms into his things so he could think they are out to get revenge.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: With his worms gone, Todd no longer pulls any practical jokes on her, and she finally has a happier life. At least, for a brief time. Given the nature of the ending, one can imagine how she'll react to her brother's supposed death.
- Hidden Depths: She turns out to be quite the manipulative prankster herself, as well as a great actress for pretending to not have anything to do with how Todd's worms are showing up around him.
- Jerkass Has a Point: She may have an attitude most of the time and doesn't take responsibility for her role in the Science Expo fiasco, but she is completely right on how much of a pain Todd is.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Although she can have an attitude sometimes, understandably towards Todd and Danny, she is quite friendly with Beth and Patrick. Either way, she is certainly more nice compared to Todd.
- Not a Morning Person: Every morning in which she wakes up, she starts shouting matches with her mother over anything she can think of. This is why Todd likes to sleep in most mornings, so he can wake up when Regina is usually done.
- Rage Breaking Point: Usually just brushes off most of Todd's pranks. However, then one of his pranks causes many worms to fall out of Christopher Robin's mouth and onto the Science Expo judges, making her and Beth look bad. She immediately realizes that Todd is behind it, and she furiously pushes him into Patrick's skyscraper project, knocking it down onto another involving liquids and gases, creating an explosion. This also starts her book long revenge plan against Todd.
- Silent Treatment: After the Science Expo disaster, she tries this on Todd, not talking to him for days. However, she botched it at one point. When Todd asks her if she's not speaking to him anymore, she stupidly replies, no, she's never talking to him ever again.
