The Last Balloon

"The Last Balloon" is the second segment of the fourth episode of the first season of the 2021 series of Rugrats. It premiered on Paramount+ on May 27th, 2021.

Characters Present

 * Tommy
 * Chuckie
 * Phil
 * Lil
 * Susie
 * Randy
 * Chas
 * Stu
 * Didi
 * Betty
 * Barry
 * Eve

Summary
Tommy and the babies help Chuckie take care of what he thinks is the last balloon in the whole wide world. -Description from Paramount+

Plot
Chuckie and his father Chas are out shopping at a farmer's market. As they walk along, Chas slips on some walnuts. As he recovers and walks away, a female teenage employee tapping away on her phone asks Barry if cleaned up the walnuts. "Yeah, totally, Eve," he agrees, then realizes "Wait... no." Chas has Chuckie hand a turnip to a clerk for checkout. She calls him a "good helper," handing him a red balloon in return, saying that she's been looking for a good helper herself to take care of it. She says it's the very last balloon and that makes it extra-special, like him. Although Chas finds this fun, Chuckie looks troubled.

At the Pickles' Household, Didi and Betty are poised with laundry baskets strapped to their chests, which they're using to test a catapult made by Stu. Lil asks Tommy what his daddy is doing next to the catapult and Tommy calls it a "'speriment." Stu activates the catapult, but it's clear that there are still glitches that need to be worked out, as he succeeds only in activating several nearby car alarms. Just then, Chas arrived, complimenting the quality of the farmer's market's turnips. Stu finally succeeds in activating the catapult, only to very nearly end up launching the bear into Chas's face, but makes a diving catch. He tells Chas he was never in any real danger, thanks to his lightning dad reflexes. He throws the bear, hitting Chas in the face, and says they need to work on his dad reflexes, suggesting the catapult as a good tool for this.

Chuckie approaches Tommy, Lil and Phil and Tommy asks why he's clutching his balloon to his chest. Chuckie explains that he's keeping it nice and safe because it's the last balloon in the world. Phil asks to bounce it, but Chuckie refuses, telling him that he has protect it. Tommy says they'll teach him how to take care of a balloon. They head inside, where they explain that the first rule is to never let it fly away, instead keeping it weighed down. Chuckie agrees he could do this, but wonders how to keep it from popping. Tommy tells him to keep it away from sharp stuff, especially the "balloon popper machine," i.e., the ceiling fan. Chuckie wonders why houses would even have such a thing. He decides that balloon-care isn't so hard after all and agrees to let the others play with it. Back outside, Stu continues to test Chas's "dad reflexes," but only succeeds in setting off more car alarms and possibly troubling an old man's pacemaker.

Back inside, Chuckie ends up breaking the balloon from its weight when trying to squeeze through a play tunnel. It floats away, but Stu saves it using his "dad reflexes" after Chas fails to rescue it. He tells Chas that this is why they're doing the work. Chas ties the balloon to Chuckie's hand to keep it safe as Randy arrives to drop off Susie. Chuckie pleads with Tommy to tell him his father took the balloon away, but Susie tells him that it's going to go everywhere and do everything he does. Chuckie wonders how he'll ever do anything fun again and how this turned into the worst day of his life. He lays down to take a nap while the other babies go outside, having a nightmare in which a group of balloons surround him, declaring him to be the last baby in the world. He tells them he just doesn't know where his friends are, but they say he must be lonely and deflated. He shouts out for his friends, who are now there, waking him up.

He tells them that being the last balloon is scary and he has to help it find its friends. Susie replies that she knows where he can find more balloons. They go outside and she points to the sky, saying that she was scared when her balloon flew away, but her father told her that balloons that fly away go to a big party in the sky. Lil wonders how they can get it to the sky, given that it's tied to Chuckie. Chuckie says that he can fly, saying that if he makes himself not so heavy, then he can take the balloon up to the sky party. He starts taking off all his clothes, stripping down to his shorts. Tommy asks if he's scared to fly and he says he can be scared if it helps the balloon. He steps into the catapult and tries to leap to fly, but is still too heavy. He takes off his shorts and ends up launching himself with the catapult.

Chuckie rises and rises and is thrilled to be almost there, but then starts falling, saying that if the other balloons can hear him to come back to their friend. Finally finding his "dad reflexes," Chas catches him and Stu compliments him as the true reflex master. Tommy congratulates Chuckie on flying, but Chuckie laments that he didn't find the other balloons, or the party. He apologizes to the balloons, but just then, a large batch of balloons comes flying by. They shout after the balloons and Betty, coming out of the house and seeing them, performs a series of ninja-like moves to catch them. The fathers stare in awe and she asks if they've never heard of mom reflexes. Didi suggests they take the balloons inside before someone flies away with them, but Betty tells her stuff like that only happens in epic parent fail videos. Back at the Farmer's Market, Eve asks Barry if he weighed down the balloons. "Yeah, totally, Eve," he comments, listening to someone else his phone, then realizes "Wait... no."

Trivia

 * Chuckie's underwear is shown to be white with dark purple spots.
 * This episode marks the very first time where Chuckie's underwear is revealed in the reboot.
 * Yet, the episode, also marks the first time any of the babies (in this case, Chuckie) take off their clothes.
 * This is the second episode of the reboot in which Angelica doesn't appear.
 * Closed-captioning throughout incorrectly spells Chas' name as "Chaz."