Calvin and Hobbes wake up on a Saturday and prepare for an intense day of TV watching, only for his dad to shut off the TV and inform him that today is father-son day. Calvin rebukes him - after all, there's a hole in reality that must be contained! Unfortunately for him, his father refuses to believe him and hands him his bike helmet. Resigned, he tells Hobbes to stop the hole himself.
Meanwhile, Brainstorm and Jack are doting about their lab (the latter saying Danny Phantom should have won) when a call from Mother Brainstorm comes in. She tells Brainstorm that she and her husband are coming over, which sends him into a panic.
As this is going on, Calvin is trying to ride his bike with his father, but Calvin's bicycle is once again acting up, and his father refuses to believe him. Eventually, he finds himself kidnapped by the bike, and both him and Dad crash.
The third plotline is initiated when Hobbes asks the MTM about the black hole. The latter says that Calvin "was trying to install a special feature into me that would allow me to travel through time into different universes, but it didn't go through splendidly as he tried to splice the time vortex and an interdimensional portal together. The two forms of energy combined ripped a hole open in time and space." It grows stronger with time, and by 10:07 it'll destroy the entire universe if untamed. Thankfully, it's not too strong yet, and is currently invisibly sucking up light, air, and time. With that, the two try to close it - first by firing electricity at it, then by trying to close it with the MTM's Extendable Arms. Neither attempt works.
The scene shifts to Brainstorm's lab, where we meet Father Brainstorm for the first time. He is a skinny man with green hair who seems like a perfectly nice guy. Unfortunately, not long after he shows up he starts acting like the standard Amazingly Embarrassing Parent, revealing all of Brainstorm's embarrassing aspects (i.e. his enormous stamp collection), which Jack finds very amusing. Brainstorm, naturally, is humiliated and quickly excuses himself to his room. There, he calms down and hopes that his father doesn't go in detail about his childhood... which he does.
Meanwhile, Dad fixes his bike while reminiscing about his childhood while Calvin tries to placate his own. It doesn't go too well, of course.
After this, Hobbes and the MTM try to stop the rupture by firing a different brand of lightning at it. All it does is make it wider, and another attempt to stop it makes it a perfect circle.
Meanwhile, Father Brainstorm continues to tell everyone embarrassing stories about Brainstorm's past, eventually escalating to home movies as well - just as Jacqueline shows up, ready for the family dinner. Needless to say, Brainstorm is less happy than ever, and he sneaks out and flies out of the lab, eager to leave.
As Calvin's dad decides to take his son along to fish, Hobbes and the MTM try to straight-up move the void, which only makes it really, really big.
Calvin arrives at the booth, and he realizes that the person working there is Klein - more specifically, the one that worked at the movie theater. He shares the same sentiments on fishing as Calvin, but nonetheless Calvin's dad starts fishing.
Meanwhile, Jack and Brainstorm's parents hang out at home, and when the former tries to find Frank he discovers the latter's absence. Shortly after, Calvin escapes the boring fishing trip in his cardboard box before meeting Frank, and the two discuss their fathers for a bit before Klein shows up again, delivering a little spiel on the importance of one's parents.
Realizing the error of their ways, Calvin and Frank part ways - the former transmogrifies their lures into fish, and the latter returns home and directs the embarrassment at Sheila instead of himself. Meanwhile, Hobbes and the MTM try to deal with the void, their deadline almost up, when it suddenly closes itself up. As Calvin returns home from the trip, they decided to never speak of it again.
Tropes:
- 20% More Awesome: When the void threatens to destroy the world, Hobbes admits that the MTM is "twenty per cent less annoying" than he usually says he is.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Father Brainstorm reveals the embarrassing parts of Brainstorm's childhood
- Anachronism Stew: In what world would Avatar: The Last Airbender and Sabrina the Teenage Witch both be nominated for a Kids' Choice Award?
- Anti-Climax: The void seals itself up.
- Arch-Nemesis: From Father Brainstorm:"Oh yes, yet another mark of pride! Our young mad scientist was already finding his adversaries! We were so impressed. When I was his age, I had to wait until my first job until I could find someone to do battle with."
- Awkward Father-Son Bonding Activity: Calvin ends up dragged along by his dad to go fishing.
- Balloon Belly: Mother Brainstorm gets one at the end.
- Bring My Brown Pants: As a child, Brainstorm did this after a security guard startled him.
- Cassandra Truth: Calvin's father, unsurprisingly, doesn't believe Calvin's worries about the universe.
- Continuity Nod: The Klein staffing the booth is the same one that worked at the theater in "Attack of the Monsters".
- Dye Hard: In-Universe, Father Brainstorm dyed his hair green to hide his age.
- Embarrassing Nickname: In retrospect, Brainstorm's old nickname "Bubbles" is this.
- Embarrassing Old Photo: Brainstorm's tenth grade class photo.Jack: Nice braces by the way.
- Fainting: Brainstorm does this after a particularly humiliating anecdote.
- Hands Go Down:"And here is our most popular attraction at Yellowstone, Old Faithful," he said, pointing at the geyser. "Now, who here has ever seen Old Faithful go off?"
Several kids raised their hands.
"Who here has actually been here when Old Faithful went off?"
All hands went down.
Uh huh. - Have a Gay Old Time: In-Universe, Dad tells Calvin to "shove off" (referring to the canoe), and Calvin fires back with "You shove off!"
- Hollywood Kiss: Averted in one of Father Brainstorm's anecdotes:"....Then she moved in to kiss him and as he saw her puckering up and moving forward, he smiled and she accidentally kissed him on the teeth!"
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Hobbes and the MTM decide to do this when the void closes itself up.
- Mr. Exposition: The MTM.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The MTM and Hobbes manage to increase the size of the void twice.
- Noodle Incident: The recipient of the Kids' Choice Award is never shown - Calvin changes the channel right before it's announced. (Apparently, it wasn't Danny Phantom, according to Jack in the next scene.)
- Also, one of the unfortunate incidents that plagued young Frank is never shown.
- One-Word Title
- Out-of-Character Moment: Lampshaded as Calvin breaks character "for the briefest of moments" when hugging his dad.
- Race Against the Clock: Hobbes and the MTM have until 10:07 PM to stop the black hole.
- Rushmore Refacement: Played with - apparently, as kids Sheila and Frank Brainstorm argued over who would do this first after they took over the world.
- Sarcasm Failure: Calvin tries to snark at Klein's Aesop-delivering speech, but the text notes he wasn't doing a very good job of it.
- Saw It in a Movie Once: Young Frank pretends to be a pioneer for this reason.
- Shout-Out: The opening is loaded with them. Calvin and Hobbes freak out upon realizing they're missing SpongeBob SquarePants, but it turns out it was delayed for a rerun of a Kids' Choice Awards ceremony, where the nominees for an undisclosed award are Ed, Edd n Eddy, Danny Phantom, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and The Simpsons. After Calvin changes the channel, the two discuss catching the last half-hour of Garfield and Friends on Cartoon Network, and then (post-SpongeBob) watch a Doctor Who marathon on BBC America until something else interesting pops up on Nickelodeon.
- Calvin's dad also talks about Captain Kangaroo.
- Tempting Fate: "Just as long as Dad doesn't go into too much detail about my childhood, everything will be just fine."
- Third Line, Some Waiting
- Twitchy Eye: Brainstorm gets one after the home movie.
- The Unreveal: In-Universe, Calvin changes the channel right before the recipient of the award is announced, much to Hobbes' annoyance.
- When I Was Your Age...: Father Brainstorm says this a lot."When I was your age, we didn't have all this fancy shiny techno-gear! Our servant rays were made out of straw and leather!"
- Calvin's dad also does this while talking about TV.
- You Didn't Ask: Jack's reason for not telling Brainstorm the caller was his mother.
