The holographic young Mad Mod
Revolution is the 33rd episode of the Teen Titans series and the seventh episode of Season 3.
Synopsis
It's the Fourth of July and everyone prepares for the traditional evening fireworks. But just two seconds before they can start, Mad Mod suddenly pops up on the city's public TV screens and announces that the American Revolution has never happened. Right after this he activates his hypno-screens; the Titans are already wise to his tricks, but the rest of Jump City's population is not so fortunate and easily falls under Mod's sway, who proclaims himself king.
The Titans confront Mad Mod in the subway, but he manages to separate Robin from his teammates and activate a device in his cane which drains Robin's youth into Mad Mod, restoring him to his until then imaginary young age and reducing Robin to a decrepit old man. Mad Mod makes his escape, and Starfire, Cyborg, Raven and Beast Boy find themselves back in a black-and-white facsimile of London, England. They are soon attacked by Mad Mod's robot army, and outmatched, they are forced into hiding.
Once they have regrouped, however, the Titans start bickering about what to do now: Starfire suggests to find Robin and restore his youth, Cyborg votes for thrashing the robots in a full frontal assault, Raven wants to find and apprehend Mad Mod first, and Beast Boy ... well, his proposal to assemble and train a gerbil commando force is unanimously shunned by the others. They try out the first three plans one by one, but whatever they do, Mad Mod anticipates their intentions and gets them caught in an ambush.
Evading the robots, the Titans end up in the city hall, dejected. But then it is Starfire, as an alien, who realizes one of the inner principles of democracy: Compromise. When Mad Mod parades through the city, the Titans combine the key elements of their respective plans, including Beast Boy's gerbil commando suggestion, depriving Mad Mod of his cane. Before he can retrieve it, Robin manages to get hold of it, reversing the aging effect and then, by breaking the cane, eliminating Mad Mod's control over the city, which reverts back to normal. The Titans gather proudly, only to be forced to chase after Mad Mod yet again when he tries to slip away.
Trivia
- The facsimile city, Mad Mod's appearance as God in the skies, and the foot squashing the other Titans as they try to run, are references to Monthy Pythons Flying Circus - the TV series and the movie The Holy Grail.
- The shape Mad Mod adopts in his final confrontation with the Titans is the version of a Blue Meanie from the animated Beatles film Yellow Submarine. Likewise, Mad Mod immortalizes the Beatles in place of the famous Presidents at Mount Rushmore.
- The android foot soldiers are of course a parody of the famous British Coldstream Guards with their distinctive headgear.
- The three items Beast Boy mentions are traditional British dishes: "Bangers and mash" = sausages and mashed potatoes; "bubble and squeak" = potatoes and leftover vegetables fried together, sometimes with meat; "toad in the hole" = sausages baked into doughy Yorkshire pudding.
Quotes
- Beast Boy: [imitating George C. Scott as Patton] What we need to do is go underground, organize a resistance movement! Starting with a trained gerbil army!
- Beast Boy: Now I know how George Washington felt when Napoleon beat him at Pearl Harbor.
- Beast Boy: No cake, and no tea! - See, it all started back in 1492 with this tea party, in Boston. King George - or maybe it was King Norm? - Anyway, the British were trying to make the colonists drink all this tea. But they were like, "Dude! No way! We're sick of nasty old tea and your crummy English muffins!" So they decided, "Revolution!"
Raven: Where did you learn history? A cereal box?
Beast Boy: What's your point? - [Mad Mod loses his pants, revealing Union Jack briefs]
Raven: [with a sour face] Okay, really not something I needed to see.