Recap / The Powerpuff Girls 2016 S 02 E 24 Midnight At The Mayors Mansion

The Mayor is haunted by a monster roaming the halls of his office. The girls, dressed for Halloween (Blossom as Rosie the Riveter, Bubbles as the Mayor, Buttercup as a vampire hunter), investigate, only to find that the Mayor himself is the monster.

This episode contains examples of:

• Absurdly Ineffective Barricade: Blossom uses a Furniture Blockade to barricade the group in the Mayor’s game room, and Buttercup lampshades this trope:
  Buttercup: Every time people lock themselves in a room, they lock the monster in with them! We’re sitting ducks!
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • When the girls walk into the Mayor’s office, they see his body hanging after an apparent suicide. It’s revealed however that he had just hung up his jacket while still wearing it.
  • When all her other attempts to cure the Mayor fail, Buttercup says there’s only one thing left to do and raises a wooden stake above her head, implying that she’s going to stab the Mayor with it. It turns out she was just staking it into the floor to make a sundial in order for them to wait until morning for the effects to wear off.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Buttercup trying to turn the Mayor back into a human is portrayed as an exorcism.
• Enemy Mime: At the beginning of the episode, the girls are watching a movie in which a woman is being attacked by zombie mimes.
• Genre Savvy: Buttercup complains to Blossom when she suggests they split up, citing that it's the last thing you wanna do in a horror movie. She likewise notes when in a locked room the monster is always locked in with them.
• Growling Gut: When Bubbles and the Mayor are searching for the monster, they hear a growling sound but it ends up just being the Mayor’s stomach.
• Halloween Episode: Set around Halloween though the girls opt to watch scary movies rather than go trick-or-treating.
• Here We Go Again!: Said verbatim by Buttercup when Bubbles turns into a monster after eating the tainted pickle chips.
• Jekyll & Hyde: The monster haunting the Mayor is the Mayor himself. He turns into a monster after eating expired Transylvanian pickle chips. When the girls realize this, they have to tie the monster Mayor to a chair and wait it out until he changes back to normal.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Bubbles when she hears a strange noise:
  Bubbles: My mayor sense is tingling.
• Properly Paranoid: Blossom may be annoyed with Buttercup’s “movie monster paranoia,” but all of her predictions end up being correct.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Mayor in monster form has red eyes.
• The Reveal: The girls finally realize that the Mayor himself is the monster when he transforms in front of them.
• Scooby-Dooby Doors: Even contains a Shout-Out to Scooby-Doo with the Mayor pulling up in a pink van similar to the Mystery Machine and saying "Zoinks!"
• Shout-Out:
  • Blossom is dressed as Rosie the Riveter, even striking the same pose from the poster.
  • Buttercup is dressed as Van Helsing.
  • To Scooby-Doo during the Scooby Doo Door chase, even refencing the meeting the Globetrotters (the basketball team that pops up), the Mayor driving the Mystery Machine, and even having him sprout out "Zoinks!".
  • When dealing with the monster Mayor, Buttercup says “The power of juice compels you!” which is a reference to The Exorcist.
  • Many of the movies Buttercup mentions are references to horror movies: A Nightmare in Banjo Room, Chair-Raiser, Rosemary’s Chair, and Night of the Living Room.
  • Buttercup also makes a reference to The Shining, replacing Danny’s “redrum” line with the phrase, “red room”.
• Staggered Zoom: On Bubbles when she sees the monster for the first time.
• Sudden Anatomy: Buttercup develops fingers in order to reference the classic “redrum” line from The Shining while making her finger talk like Danny does.
• Tempting Fate: Blossom asks what could possibly go wrong, right before the power goes out.
• Way Past the Expiration Date: The Mayor turns into a monster because he keeps eating expired Transylvanian pickle chips.