Recap / Rugrats S 4 E 5 Radio Daze Psycho Angelica

The fifth episode of the fourth season of Rugrats (1991).

Radio Daze

The babies imitate a radio drama as they try to keep Angelica from getting to a woodchuck figure filled with malted milk balls.

Psycho Angelica

Angelica pretends to be a psychic.

"Radio Daze" provides examples of:

• Deliberately Monochrome: The babies reenacting the "Masked Detective" radio drama.
• Femme Fatale: Lil, who slips Tommy some warm milk to get him asleep and tries to convince him to run away with her and all the candy. She also appears as a deliberately feminine woman to lure him to her side.
• Honor Before Reason: When Lil reveals to Tommy that she hid the malties from Angelica, she tells him that if he joins her, they can run away and eat all the chocolate together. Tommy tells her that as much as he likes chocolate, he has to follow Lou's rule that he can only have one a day, as babies who break rules end up doing hard time-out.
• Iris Out: This episode ends with one on Tommy as the "Masked Defective" after he drinks from his bottle and belches.
• Malaproper: The babies mispronounce "detective" as "defective".
• Mook–Face Turn: Lil turns on Madame Evil (Angelica) and helps Tommy escape.
• Noir Episode: The episode is both an homage to radio programs of the 30s and 40s and the Film Noir genre of the 40s and 50s.
• Shout-Out: When the Masked Detective (Tommy) learns that Chuckie put the malted milk balls into the woodchuck:
  "So this is the malties' woodchuck."
• Show Within a Show: "The Masked Detective", which aired on the radio before World War II.
• Tickle Torture: Angelica ties Chuckie up and gets Phil and Lil to tickle him to get him to spill the beans on Tommy's whereabout.
• Warm Milk Helps You Sleep: Warm milk was used by Lil's Femme Fatale character as the equivalent of a drugged drink for Tommy's detective character.

"Psycho Angelica" provides examples of:

• Human Ladder: The babies form one to get cookies for Angelica. However, the babies believing that they're turning into bugs compromises the mission.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Throughout the episode, Angelica causes discord among the babies by claiming that Chuckie will get sand up his pants, Spike will melt like a snowman, and the babies will turn into bugs, all to scam them out of their animal crackers. She ends up with an entire pizza on top of her head because she was trying to get at some cookies.
• Malaproper: Angelica and the babies refer to a psychic as a "psycho."
• Noodle Incident: Stu has had knee surgery not too long ago as far as the timeline goes, since it was apparently caught on tape, which he, Didi, Howard, and Betty watch for their amusement.
• Phony Psychic: Angelica pretends to be a "psycho" to con the babies out of their candy.
• Shout-Out: The opening of the episode echoes the opening of The Lion King (1994).