The Bank Trick

"The Bank Trick" is the second segment of the seventh episode of season 2, and the twentieth Rugrats episode overall.

Characters Present

 * Tommy
 * Chuckie
 * Didi
 * Lou
 * Ms. Haze
 * Harriet Trencherman
 * Mr. Loew
 * Mr. Poltax
 * Richter
 * Simms
 * Crowd Member
 * Brinks Guard
 * Customer 1
 * Bank Tellers
 * Mechanic
 * Female Cop

Synopsis
''Didi takes Tommy and Chuckie to the bank. While the babies look for the "M&M" machine (the ATM machine), they inadvertently foil a bank robbery by 2 crooks posing as bank examiners.''


 * - Description from Klasky Csupo

Plot
The first thing shown is Tommy and Chuckie fiddling with a Chess set, unaware that they are ruining a game of “Correspondence Chess” that Tommy’s Grandfather, Lou, is playing with someone long distance via mail. As Lou comes into the room while reading a letter that states his opponent’s most recent move (and confident that he’s got the winning edge), Lou sees what the babies are doing and rushes over shocked (“DAH! What in tarnation have you sprouts done?”). Didi comes into the scene, wondering what all the commotion is. Lou replies: “I’ve been playing this chess game by mail for 15 months, and they went and destroyed it in 15 seconds!” Didi replies: “Oh come on pop, it’s just a game. I’m sure you can put it back together. I mean, how many different combinations can those little pieces make?” Hearing that prompts Lou to break down crying. Convinced that Lou needs some “time out”, she decides to take Tommy and Chuckie with her on an outing to do some errands. Tommy, however, doesn’t look too excited to hear that. While in the car, Tommy asks Chuckie if she heard what his mom said. Chuckie replies that she said they are going with her while she does her “hairums”. Tommy asks if Chuckie knows what “hairums” are, and Chuckie replies with “No!”. Tommy goes on to explain: “That’s when the grownups take you to big buildings where there’s nothing to play with and they make you sit still forever and not have any fun.” Chuckie replies that it sounds boring and Tommy agrees: “It’s the most boringist thing in the world! Even more boringer then when my Dad watches the ‘stuper bowl’.” Chuckie asks in light agony what he and Tommy are going to do. Didi then stops the car at “27th National Bank”, and states to the babies that their first stop is the “ATM Machine”. Chuckie however thinks she said “M&M Machine” and tells Tommy: “Did you hear that? The M&M Machine!”. Tommy is excited to hear that and concurs that it might not be as bad as they had thought.

The group (with Tommy in Didi’s arms and Chuckie walking by her side) walks up the ATM Machine, and Tommy is mesmerized when he sees the machine up close. As Didi attempts to type in her pin on the machine’s keypad, Tommy reaches over and frantically pushes the keys himself until the machine ejects Didi’s bank card. Didi calmly tells her son: “Mommy doesn’t think this is very funny.” Didi puts her card back in and tries again, but Tommy again gets to the keys before Didi can enter her pin. Soon, the machine ejects Didi’s card again. Didi comments to Tommy that he’s “a little ball of fire”. Didi puts her card back in once more, but the machine shreds the card without giving Didi another chance to enter her pin. Later, she and the babies go inside the Bank. The group goes to one of the desks, and Didi explains to the teller (named Ms. Haze) that they had a little accident at the ATM. Ms. Haze apologizes for the trouble and has Didi complete an application for a replacement card. As the babies sit on the floor beside the desk were Didi is completing her application, Tommy points out to Chuckie that he got up to the machine, but couldn’t make any M&Ms come out, and further states that he and Chuckie need to get back to the machine so they can get it to give them candy. Chuckie however remarks that he doesn’t want to get into any trouble “today”, but Tommy replies to Chuckie “Alright! If you don’t want any M&Ms, see ya’ later.”, and he begins making his way back to the ATM machine. Chuckie ponders for a moment on ‘M&Ms vs. Trouble’, and then decides on ‘M&Ms’ and catches up to Tommy. Didi is too focused on completing the application (which is starting to ask rather redundant if not personal questions such as “blood-type”) to notice that the babies have wandered off.

We see the babies crawl under a small door that leads to the area behind the tellers’ counter, marked “Authorized Personnel”. The babies pause for a moment as they observe one of the bank’s officials (named Mr. Loew) giving 2 bank examiners (agents Richter & Simms) a tour of the bank and introducing them to the bank’s friendly tellers (who all turn and smile at the 2 examiners). Neither of the bank examiners are enthused to hear that the tellers are friendly, claiming that to not be a good sign. Mr. Loew then directs the examiners’ attention to red buttons on the floor where the tellers are standing. He explains that each one is connected to the police station and a SWAT team will have the bank surrounded in 5 minutes if any of the tellers steps on one. However, one of the examiners claims that 5 minutes is “hardly record breaking”, and the other agrees. The babies then make their way (walking close to all the tellers’ legs, nearly stepping on their red buttons) toward a large window overlooking the ATM machine outside. We see that people are trying to use the machine but are having trouble with it. Chuckie states: “Well, there it is Tommy. But how are we going to get the candy?” Tommy sees a repair man working in a nearby room from where the ATM machine’s front panel sticks out of the wall, shutting down the machine for repairs. Tommy figures that it must be where all the machine’s M&Ms are kept. As Tommy and Chuckie walk in, Chuckie wonders where exactly the M&Ms are, and Tommy points to someplace high up on what is the back of the ATM machine. The babies then proceed to climb up the back of the machine to where they think M&Ms are. As they do so, we see one of the customers who was trying to use the ATM machine before it was shut down complaining. But as the babies continue climbing up, Chuckie accidentally pushes down a lever, which turns the machine back on and causes it to start shooting out its cash as if it were confetti. All of the people at the ATM then start grabbing the cash for themselves, and one of them remarks: “Hey, hey, hey! Come on baby! Daddy needs a new cellular phone.” As the babies watch the machine empty out its cash (without a clue as to what they had just done), they see that it doesn’t have any M&Ms and figure that the repair man who was there ate them all.

Suddenly, the babies then hear someone shouting: “Move aside!”. We then see that two guards are bringing in a “Mint Shipment” (a shipment of bags full of Cash) and are bringing it to the bank’s vault (“Mint Shipment coming though!”). Tommy believes that they are talking about “a whole ship full of mints”. He climbs down from the machine, as he and Chuckie start to make their way over. As the guards drop off the bank’s “Mint Shipment”, Mr. Loew brings the 2 bank examiners over so that they can get a close look. One of them remarks that a “Mint Shipment” during business hours is “highly irregular”, and the other concurs. Mr. Loew explains the specifications of the vault as the guards handling the shipment of cash open it. He also mentions that an electric eye (security beams) protects the vault while the vault’s door is open, and the vault would seal an intruder inside if he/she were to walk though the beam while it's on. We also see the guards temporarily disable the security beam to get the shipment inside by turning 2 keys (one on each side of the vault opposite each other). Mr. Loew states that a fly couldn’t get into the vault undetected and one of them remarks: “A fly, no; a corrupt bank official, who knows.” The babies walk into the vault while the beam is off and the guards backs are turned, and they turn the beam back on once the babies are inside. Chuckie states to Tommy: “Wow Tommy, how much candy do you think they keep in here?” Tommy then points out the bags of cash and figures that they must keep mints inside, and both he and Chuckie run over and open one of the bags and pull out its contents. But of course, it’s cash instead of real mints. The babies wonder what it is they pulled out of the bag. Tommy remarks that it doesn’t look like candy, while Chuckie licks the cash he’s holding and remarks that it doesn’t taste like candy either. Tommy figures that the candy is in the bottom of the bag as if it were a prize in “Reptar Cereal”. Chuckie agrees and they start digging though the bag, throwing the cash it contains all over the place in the process. Not long after they started, Chuckie concedes and remarks that the bag’s contents just look like green wrapping paper. Just then, the babies see a well-dressed, elderly woman looking at shiny rubies of hers in the bank's safe deposit room. They mistaken the shiny rubies for candy and start to make their way over. Even though the vault’s electronic eye is on, the babies are able to walk under the beam and get out of the vault without it closing on them. Just as the babies are out of sight, the guards come back and both gasp when they see the mess the babies made. One of the confused guards walks into the safe with its electric eye on and get’s sealed inside. We hear him calling for help as the other guard strangely walks away and leaves him in there.

As the elderly woman continues to look over her rubies, Mr. Loew and the 2 bank examiners arrive. An employee introduces her to the examiners as Mrs. Trencherman and states that she is one of the bank’s most valued depositors. The 2 examiners introduce themselves to Mrs. Trencherman and flash their badges. The employee states to a surprised Mrs. Trencherman that there’s no need to be alarmed as it’s just a routine investigation (one of the examiners remarks that: “Of course, they all start out a routine”). One of the examiners comments on Mrs. Trencherman’s rubies and state’s “obtained legally I presume”. Mrs. Trencherman replies, “well of course!”. As the babies walk into the room and make their way toward Mrs. Trencherman’s rubies, Richter then goes on to state that it makes him sick knowing how many criminals infiltrated the banking system. Mrs. Trencherman, insulted, replies: “Criminal types!? Why! Mr. Loew, I don’t know who these gentlemen are, but no one speaks to Mrs. Harriet Trencherman that way.” As the babies reach into Mrs. Trencherman’s safe deposit box and pull out her rubies, Mr. Loew tells the bank examiners: “Gentlemen, please: Mrs. Trencherman is one of our oldest customers.” But stating that unintentionally gives off the wrong message and only further insults Mrs. Trencherman: “Old!!? Why! I, I!” Mr. Loew replies nervously: “Mrs. Trencherman, when I say ‘old’, I didn’t mean to imply…” Mrs. Trencherman cuts him off and rebuttals angrily, “It’s true that I’m no giggling school girl Mr. Loew; but I would hardly consider myself old.” Mrs. Trencherman slams the safe deposit room’s door on the men once outside, and we then briefly focus attention on the babies biting on Mrs. Trencherman’s rubies and finding out that they are not candy (Tommy: “Hey, these aren’t candies! They’re rocks!”). We then focus back on Mrs. Trencherman as she walks back over to her safe deposit boxes, remarking to herself: “Old indeed! At least I’m old enough to know the best way to hang onto my money. Not in cockamamy stocks and bonds, but in diamonds and rubies that will last forever.” Mrs. Trencherman then looks down at her safe deposit boxes, and noticing in shock that they are empty, she shrieks and faints! Tommy and Chuckie see this, but Tommy only figures that it must be her nap time.

Tommy and Chuckie walk out of the Safe Deposit Room and notice Ms. Haze from earlier licking a lollipop as she walks by. They figure that she knows where candy is and decide to follow her. We briefly focus on Didi still working on the application, that is now asking her for her "great grandmother’s maiden name". Ms. Haze walks up to a door, puts the lollipop in her pocket, and then opens it to talk to whom appears to be one of the bank executives, Mr. Poltax. Just as the teller walks up and gets Mr. Poltax’s attention, he angrily tells her: “Ms. Haze, if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a million times, please don’t interrupt me when I’m reviewing loan applications!” Ms. Haze shamefully apologizes, and Mr. Poltax replies: “People’s futures are at stakes here! These are life and death decisions! Don’t let it happen again!” Ms. Haze then walks out to let Mr. Poltax work. We then see the babies walk inside and up to Mr. Poltax’s desk, but he doesn’t see them.

Not long after, Ms. Haze bursts back in (much to Mr. Poltax’s annoyance) and tells him that Mrs. Trencherman had fainted. Mr. Poltax’ immediately gets up and follows Ms. Haze to the safe deposit room in a hurry, hoping Mrs. Trencherman is alright, and pointing out that “she’s worth Millions!” With Mr. Poltax gone, the babies are now free to explore his office. Tommy remarks: “Wow Chuckie, look at this place.” Chuckie Replies: “I don’t know Tommy, it doesn’t look like any candy store I ever saw.” Tommy however is confident that there’s candy hidden somewhere and he and Chuckie start to look around. Chuckie climbs up on the desk and starts to stamp papers with a stamper. Tommy goes over to a file cabinet and starts digging though its contents, throwing them out onto the floor as he does so. Chuckie then notices a computer terminal that’s turned on and online. Je makes it out to be a TV (“Hmm… I wonder what kind of TV this is”). Chuckie presses a key on the keyboard, and this prompts the computer to display an arrow going up and make ascending beeping sounds. At another location, another computer terminal at a man’s desk begins doing the same thing. This prompts the man to excitingly get on his phone and say: “Marty! Pork-Belly prices are going up like crazy! BUY! BUY! BUY!”

It then cuts to a view of the New York Commodities Exchange, where the soaring statistic that Chuckie made happen is being shown on a large screen and excitement is ensuing on the exchange floor in response to that. Back at the bank, Chuckie (who of course has no idea what he’s doing) doesn’t think it’s “a good channel” and presses another button on the keyboard. This prompts the computer to display an arrow going down and play descending beeping noises. The man from a moment ago now sees the statistic plummeting on his computer, and he gets back on the phone and says in panic: “Marty! T-There’s been a change! SELL! SELL! SELL!”. The plummeting statistic Chuckie made happen is also shown on the large screen at the New York Commodities Exchange, and now panic begins to ensue on the floor. Back at the bank, Chuckie decides to walk away from the Computer, stating to himself: “This is the worst TV I ever saw.”

Chuckie walks over to Tommy and tells him to stop and that he’s now certain that they aren’t going to find any candy. Tommy agrees with him and adds: “wherever they hide it, they hide it good.” Chuckie then states that they should find Tommy’s mom, and they start to make their way back. As they’re walking back (walking among the tellers legs as they’re standing at their front counter where their red floor buttons are), Chuckie ponders that perhaps there’s no candy anywhere in the building. Tommy adds: “But if they don’t have any candy, what’s all the fuss about?” Chuckie then accidentally steps on a teller’s red button and this sets off an alarm at the police station. A hefty female officer who sees the alarm gets on the radio and says: “Calling all cars! Calling all cars! 2-11 in progress! 33rd and Main!” Meanwhile, Tommy and Chuckie have just come back to Didi, who has just finished her application. Ms. Haze then comes over (and takes out a bag of Lollipops) and asks Didi if she’s finished. Didi says she is, but points out that it was a challenge. Ms. Haze apologizes for that, but also points out that “rules are rules”. Not knowing what the babies had been up to the entire time, Ms. Haze also gives the babies 2 Lollipops for being so well behaved. Back in the car, as Tommy and Chuckie and enjoying their Lollipops, Didi tells them that they were great and that it’s such a relief that she can bring them with her when she does her errands.

Meanwhile, the 2 bank examiners are walking outside and getting ready to leave the bank as well. It’s apparent that the bank didn’t fair well in their examination as they've filled their suitcases with cash they have confiscated and Mr. Loew is pleading with them, and pointing out that: “Our bank has a spotless reputation!”. One of the agents replies: “I’m sorry Mr. Loew; until your security procedures are improved, we’ll be taking this money down to headquarters to keep…” Suddenly, police cars pull up and surround the group on all sides. The hefty female officer seen earlier gets out of one of the cars and orders the 2 examiners with: “Hold it right there you two!” As the two examiners are apprehended, Mr. Loew asks what the meaning of all that is and points out that they are bank examiners. But the female officer goes on to state that they are not really examiners and are in fact ”the 2 most notorious bank robbers in the whole country” and that the force had been after them for years (Mr. Loew is shocked). She also adds: "Thank goodness someone had the fore-sign to trip the alarm, otherwise we might never have caught ‘em." A flabbergasted Mr. Loew takes the suitcases of money back, and Richter remarks “I don’t know where we went wrong. It should have been like taking candy from a baby”; and as he says that, we get a view of Didi driving away with Tommy and Chuckie (who, as he’s enjoying his lollipop, is unaware that he became a hero as it was he who'd unintentionally saved the day by stepping on the red button and summoning the police). We get one more overhead view on the scene and the episode then ends.

Trivia

 * Some of the information requested on the application:
 * a. blood type
 * b. Your great grandmothers maiden name
 * c. Your weight on the moon in kilograms
 * The name of the episode makes a reference to the 1940 movie The Bank Dick starring W.C. Fields.
 * This is the first episode where Tommy is seen wearing just a diaper.
 * This episode marks a rare instance of a real-life brand or product being mentioned; in this case, the M&M's candy.
 * Simms (the "bank inspector" in the sunglasses) is wearing a dress and appears to be a woman, yet is referred to as a man. It's implied that Simms was disguised as a man as part of her "bank inspector" charade.
 * Moral: Bring something like a toy or a coloring book to keep your kids occupied so they don't misbehave.

Goofs

 * When Didi arrived at the bank and inserted her card into the ATM, Tommy (thinking the machine is a candy machine) pushes the buttons at random, causing the ATM to spit out Didi's card in shredded pieces. Normally, if anything suspicious were to happen to an ATM card (i.e. delinquent payments, too many invalid PIN numbers in the same session, etc.), the machine would simply "impound" the card by not returning it to the customer. It'd usually be stored intact inside a special hold area of the ATM.
 * About three minutes into the episode, a sign is shown in the bank advertising 20, 30, and 50 year car loans. In the early 1990s, when this episode took place, most car loans had very interest but were typically for 60 months (5 years). Today interest rates are lower, but the typical car loan is still way less than 20 years (anywhere from 3 to 8 years is the norm).