Mother Mae-Eye (episode)

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Mother Mae-Eye is the 49th episode of the Teen Titans series and the 10th episode of the fourth season.

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Mother Mae-Eye

Synopsis

The Titans wake up from sprawling around in the Tower's Ops room and are all hungry for pie. Luckily an obese but merry and kind old woman is there to serve them pie, care for them and spoil them like six-year-old children. That woman, going by the name of Mother Mae-Eye, even turns the Tower into a giant gingerbread house and its environs into a veritable candyland with magic.

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The Titans having pie

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The Titans "going out to play."

However, Mother can also be quite stern to her young charges, as the Titans find out when the H.I.V.E. Five raid the local mall. She smooths Robin's ("Robby-Wobby") wild hair (refernce to Tim Drake) and replaces his "dangerous toys" with baby stuff (diapers, toys and milk bottles), dresses Beast Boy ("Beastie-Boo") into a fluffy pink bunny pajama suit so he can't transform into animals, Raven ("Rae-Rae") into a frilly light yellow Shirley Temple dress and braided pigtails with girlish bow ties, Cyborg ("Borgy-Bear") into a raincoat, rain hat and galoshes, and Starfire ("Twinkle-Star") into an oversized Christmas-colored sweater before she lets them out to "play." These implements, however, hamper the Titans' fighting skills, and they all end up thrashed by the H.I.V.E. before Mae-Eye steps in and gives those "nasty children" a "good sound spanking".

During the fight, Starfire is trapped in one of See-More's eye bubbles, and as Mammoth is slammed into her, she hits a lamp which breaks and gives her a solid knock on the head. But as she recovers, she sees Mae-Eye no longer as a kind old woman, but as a monstrous, green-skinned three-eyed hag. Back in the Tower, she discovers even worse things: Her friends are under a spell which prevents them from realizing the danger they're in, and Mae-Eye is actually feeding on the "love" they profess to her - and in order to get all of that "sweet nourishing affection", she intends to bake the Titans up in a giant pie while pretending to tuck them in for the night!

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Mother's true face

Starfire of course protests vehemently, but is unable to fight Mae-Eye alone and quickly overpowered. Although Mae-Eye tries her best to get her under her control again, Starfire deceives her and comes to her friends' rescue. When the mind control proves too persistent and an army of gingerbread men created by the hag moves in on them, Starfire has no choice but to give the others a knock on the head as well, freeing them from the magic.

In a moment of quiet after a lengthy battle with the gingerbread army, the Titans muse over how Mae-Eye could have come into the Tower, and finally it turns out that she had smuggled herself in with a pie Cyborg had unwisely bought from an old gypsy that remarkably has the same appearance as Mother. Then Mae-Eye attacks them, pursuing them all over Titans Island. With no way to defeat her directly, Robin resorts to tricking her, and finally they manage to banish the hag back into her pie. And in order to pay them back for their latest defeat, Robin decides to grant the H.I.V.E. a gift of free pie ...

Trivia

• The monkey's paw in the gypsy's collection parodies the horror story The Monkey's Paw.
• During Cyborg's flashback to the gypsy who gave him the pie, Control Freak's remote is seen on the counter next to her.
• When Mother Mae-Eye says "My children should be surrounded by sugar and spice and everything nice," she made a simple reference to the PowerPuff Girls.
• During the flashback sequence Puppet king can also be seen behind the gypsy.
• Mother Mae-Eye alludes to Raven's evil inner self while transforming the Titans' clothing, stating "Just because you're evil on the inside doesn't mean you can't look pretty on the outside."
• Coincidentally, this episode aired right before The End Part 1
• Mother's true form can be seen in mirrors throughout the episode.
• Starfire blushes and covers herself when See-More uses his see-through vision meaning he most likely saw her naked
• When Mother Mae-Eye changes Dick Grayson's (Robin) hair, she changes it to Tim Drake's hairstyle.
• During Cyborg's flashback to the gypsy who gave him the pie, the city of Kandor is seen on the counter next to her.
• When Mother Mae-Eye is force feeding Starfire pie, Starfire spits it out and reveals that she has nine stomachs.
• The gypsy somewhat resembles Mother Mae-Eye implying it might have been Mother Mae-Eye herself.

Quotes

• Starfire: You are not the only one with powerful eyes!
  See-More: Yeah, but I bet I'm the only one with see through vision!
• Robin: Ow! What did you do that... Um, why am I in a giant pie?
  Beast Boy: Why am I in a bunny suit?
  Raven: Why am I in a dress?!
  Cyborg: Who's been redecorating my tower?!
• Starfire: What are we to do with this evil confection?
  Cyborg: We could eat it. [grins] I'm just kidding! [sniffs] Mostly.
• Starfire: Friends, awaken! Alarm! The Mother Mae-Eye is not truly our mother but an evil witch who's tricked us all and invaded our home and forbidden our missions and stolen our boogers and keeps under her spells with frequent implantable helpings of enchanted pie!!! [breaks off, gasping]
  Raven: So...what now?
  Cyborg: [aside] I think she's says she wants more pie.
• Raven: I remember seeing Mother for the first time, right after Cyborg brought home a pie.
  Robin: Where did you get the pie?
  Cyborg: Ummm... I was walking past a dark alley at night, and there was this weird old gypsy who says...
  Gypsy: Mystical items at reasonable prices.
• Gizmo : Alright! What kind of pit-munchin' Scuzwad is dumb enough to prank the H.I.V.E. Five?! Cool, free pie!