Recap / Teen Titans S 2 E 2 Every Dog Has His Day

Soto: Bad Dog! You should not try to escape!
Beast Boy: You sure you got the right dog?
Soto: ...Now we go home.
Beast Boy: Home?
Soto: Soto's planet. On far side of galaxy.

Beast Boy, finding no-one who wants to hang out with him, turns into a dog to pick up chicks, and finds another green dog.

Tropes:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Soto's dog for Raven, in a way that seemed cute when it looked like he was just a dog but got pretty disturbing after his true intelligence was revealed.
• An Aesop: The intended aesop appears to be something like, "don't harass people in your desire for attention, or you may get attention that you don't want."
• Animalistic Abomination: Soto's dog looks like a green dog, but he can tear off and devour a car's bumper, has a long prehensile tongue, and can squeeze through grates like a liquid.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Beast Boy just wanted some attention, and he got attention from Soto. He lampshades that at the end.
• Breather Episode: A comical romp to come down from back to back heaviness of the "Apprentice" two-parter and "How Long Is Forever?"
• Clueless Aesop: Soto, a giant baby who treats Beast Boy as a source of endless personal amusement, reflects Beast Boy's impulsive tendency to amuse himself while attempting to hang out with the others, but the opening sequence indicates that Beast Boy isn't just seeking amusement, he's legitimately lonely and even willing to help Cyborg and Robin while they do their own thing. The episode's failure to distinguish between being lonely and using others for your own amusement makes it look almost like it's also condemning attempts to be with other people when you're lonely, as if you should just be content with solitude. (That Soto appears to be a literal baby doesn't help, since that suggests Beast Boy's loneliness is childish.)
• Continuity Nod:
  • Cyborg is cleaning the Titans car when Beast Boy interrupts him.
  • Starfire and Raven are meditating, the way they did at the end of "Switched."
• Cute Giant: Soto's infantile proportions aren't just for show—he really is an enormous toddler.
• Diabolus ex Machina: Beast Boy was mostly just minding his own business in the alleyway when an alien spaceship shows up and abducts him.
• Disney Dog Fight: Soto battles with the Titans to keep his new "dog", Beast Boy, but it's not until Beast Boy himself joins the fight that Soto realizes Beast Boy definitively does *not* want to be his dog.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • After being enslaved as a pet and forced to randomly change into various animals by Soto via shock collar for his own amusement, the freed Beast Boy lays a cathartic beatdown on him as payback.
  • Soto's dog becomes his master, not that he minds it.
• Epic Fail: Beast Boy trying to flirt with two girls at a pizza place. He ends up with a water glass on his head.
• It Amused Me: The reason why Soto's dog didn't just say why Beast Boy was missing until the jig was up.
  Raven: And you didn't tell us earlier because...?
  Dog: I was having too much fun.
• Karmic Shunning: Beast Boy's attempt to hang out with Cyborg comes to an end when he impulsively tries to use tools he doesn't understand and damages the T-Car. His attempt to get Raven and Starfire to be his judges in setting a tofu-eating record is shut down instantly.
• The Klutz: Beast Boy accidentally blowtorches the T-car while playing with Cyborg's tools, and when he approaches Robin he pops up right in the path of Robin's flying jump kick.
• A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: After learning that the dog is an alien and not Beast Boy, Starfire asks Raven to read his mind to find their friend, but...
  Raven: I'm still getting his drool off my face. I don't want him anywhere near my brain.
• Monster of the Aesop: Beast Boy's desire for attention and amusement is reflected in Soto, a monster who pays him too much attention and demands his own amusement.
• Not Himself: After Beast Boy's extended absence from the tower is noticed, the Titans find a green dog in the park who doesn't respond to them and acts mostly like a normal dog. They realize something is wrong and a Chase Scene ensues when the green dog runs off. It's not Beast Boy.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Beast Boy escapes Soto's inescapable collar (somehow) during the final battle, when the camera is focused on the Titans engaging Soto. Given that a later episode indicates Beast Boy is able to turn into an amoeba, it's possible he was able to shrink smaller than it could adapt.
• Running Gag: During the Chase Scene, the alien dog pins Raven to the floor and licks her face no less than three times.
  Robin: Careful, everybody. We don't want to hurt him.
  Raven: Speak for yourself.
• Spot the Imposter: Except the Titans don't until they realize that the green dog they've chased regurgitates a large car part. Soto learns immediately when he sees Beast Boy shift back into normal form. Granted, the Titans expect Beast Boy to do things almost that weird, while Soto is pretty sure his "dog" can't change into a green human.
• Suddenly Speaking: The alien dog finally begins to speak after being captured, much to the Titans' shock, and agrees to take them to his ship to get Beast Boy.
• Vague Age: It's unclear exactly how old Soto actually is. While he has the voice of a grown man and is smart enough to pilot a space ship, he has the emotional intelligence of a toddler, with his ship's controls even resembling various baby toys. So he's either an alien manchild, or a really deep voiced alien baby.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Not precisely said, but everyone present does feel their weirdness meters bury the needle when Soto's "dog" starts talking.
  Robin: Ooohkaaay, am I the only one who heard that?
  Cyborg: You talk? Dogs don't talk!
  "Dog": Perhaps not on your planet, my dear fellow.