Angelica's Worst Nightmare | Gallery | Transcript |
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Season 3 Episode 21a | |
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Angelica's Worst Nightmare | |
Original Airdate | March 16, 1994 |
VHS release | Angelica the Divine Volume 1 |
DVD release | Season 3 Complete Series |
Previous Episode | Mr. Clean |
Next Episode | The Mega Diaper Babies |
"Angelica's Worst Nightmare" is a Season 3 episode of Rugrats.
Characters Present[]
Characters Introduced[]
- Angelica's younger brother (only in her dream)
- Dr. Daniel Prescott
Synopsis[]
Charlotte might be having another baby, and Angelica doesn't like the idea of having another mouth to feed. - Description from Klasky Csupo
Plot[]
As usual, Angelica's relishing her status as an only child. However, it's possible that said status might be over, because after taking an at-home pregnancy test, Charlotte informs Drew that she's going to have another baby (while also making an appointment with their doctor to have an official test done). When they tell Angelica the next day, she laughs, thinking it's not possible, but they tell her they really are going to have another baby. Later, Angelica asks her parents to take her to the toy store, but they're too busy with preparing for the new baby to do so.
At Tommy's house, she tells him that "her friend" is going to have a sibling, (not wanting to reveal that it is really her) and is afraid that she now won't get the attention she used to get. Didi steps in and tells Angelica that she is excited for her and Charlotte. She explains to her that her parents will be too busy for anything else when the new baby comes. The phone rings, and Didi leaves to go answer it. Tommy then tells Angelica that it was funny how she and "her friend" are both going to have a new sibling. Angelica replies to this by calling him a dope.
At Angelica's house, she asks her mom not to have the baby, but Charlotte says that when the baby comes, it comes, and nothing can be done about it. In her room, Angelica calls Dr. Daniel Prescott (a therapist). She tells him that she thinks her mother having another baby is a bad idea and she thinks her parents won't have anytime for her. The doctor tells her that she needs to think about others and not be selfish. She (of course) does not listen and calls the doctor a "quack." At the dinner table, Drew and Charlotte do not seem to pay attention to her. They do so only after she shows them that she ate her peas. The parents continue to discuss about where the baby will sleep. In her room, Angelica mimics how they can't stop thinking about the baby. She falls asleep on her bed saying, "Babies, who needs them?".
Angelica has a dream. In it, she wakes up to find that the baby has already been born and her parents are in his room. She talks to them, and they don't recognize her. Drew then remembers she is their "old kid", meaning that they forgot about her and her name. He and Charlotte leave to call the newspaper about their new baby. Angelica goes up to the crib, and the baby suddenly begins to speak in a man's voice. He tells Angelica that he's the new baby and she is the old baby, and that the house and their parents belong to him now. He tells her that she has one chance to leave home right now. Screaming and freaking out, Angelica runs to her mother and tells her that the baby talked to and threatened her. Charlotte dismisses Angelica's worries, as a baby talking is impossible. Drew steps in, telling Charlotte that Angelica's room is perfect for the new baby. Charlotte informs Angelica that they are giving the baby all of her toys. She also tells Angelica that she will sleep in the laundry room and to do the laundry. Charlotte adds that she was too busy to make Angelica dinner and gives her only a small slice of cheese. A devastated Angelica now believes that her parents don't care about her anymore and they only care about the new baby now.
Suddenly, her baby brother (who now has appeared to have grown even taller than her) barges in the laundry room and states that he told her to leave home. He steals her food and tells her that he warned her to leave but since she wouldn't listen, he will "teach [her] a lesson". He then chases his sister around the house until Angelica hides in a closet, and her brother passes her hiding place, but then finds her. Angelica goes into the garage, and manages to drive away, seemingly safe, until she stops in front of her brother again (who now has grown even taller than the house). He picks up the car and wonders aloud what it tastes like. Angelica pleads with her brother, telling him how she is his big sister, but he simply ignores her and says that she is now "num-nums". He then proceeds to eat Angelica, who screams "No! No!" in her sleep. She then awakes with a violent start. The nightmare ends with Drew coming to her room. Angelica tells him about her dream in which she ended up being forgotten. She says she doesn't want to be forced to live in the laundry room and breaks down sobbing. Drew assures his daughter that she won't be forgotten, and she will always be loved and cared for. Relieved, she goes back to sleep.
The next day, Drew and Charlotte reveal to Angelica that Charlotte went to the doctor, and found out that she isn't really pregnant, so they aren't going to have another baby---at least not right now. Angelica tells her parents she had started to look forward to them having the baby and sadly goes up to her room... only to then reveal (to the audience only) that she's secretly pleased to be remaining an only child.
Goofs[]
- In a close-up, when Angelica is sitting on Charlotte's lap, Charlotte has four lips. This may be due to an animation cel layout error.
- While Charlotte says to Angelica, "Honey, there's really nothing I can do about it," part of her cheek behind Angelica's pigtail is transparent for a few frames.
- While Angelica says "Please, Mommy", Charlotte's lips disappear for a frame.
- When Angelica falls asleep she’s side on of her bed but when she’s wakes up she’s somehow in her bed unless she rolled over
Quotes[]
- Dr. Prescott (on the phone with Angelica): What you need to do is step back and take a good look in the mirror. You need to realize that there are other people in the world; things don't revolve around you. You need to learn to share and let others take the spotlight once in a while.
Trivia[]
- Angelica mentions her love of Gilligan's Island, which was previously mentioned in "Runaway Angelica".
- When Angelica falls asleep, her bedroom light is on, her door is open and she's above the her bed covers. However, when Drew comes in to wake her out of her nightmare, her light is off, her door is closed and she's now under the covers.
- This is considered one of the most disturbing episodes in the Rugrats series due to the nightmare that Angelica has about her supposed baby brother.
- This episode is similar to "Pickles vs. Pickles" because the main plot of both episodes is a nightmare experienced by a character.
- The opening credits "cut" on and off, rather than the usual "fade" on & off.
- Dr. Daniel Prescott's number for his TV talk show is 555-5555; this number was used before in "The Santa Experience", but as the number for Cogs Unlimited.
- The voice of Dr. Prescott in this episode, as well as a few voices in the next story (below), are done by Gregg Berger, who's the voice of The Gromble on Aaahh!!! Real Monsters as well as the voices of both Odie and Orson on Garfield and Friends. Dr. Prescott's voice appears to be an impression of economist and part-time actor Ben Stein (famous for his role in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
- In the dream sequence, Angelica's younger brother strongly resembles old-time actor Edward G. Robinson in speech and appearance.
- There are a few theories as to why Charlotte wasn't actually pregnant:
- Assuming that Charlotte was never actually pregnant in the first place, there are a few possible reasons. For example,
- She may have had a phantom pregnancy, in which a woman exhibits pregnancy-like symptoms when she's not actually pregnant. A real phantom pregnancy tends to be more common in animals than in humans, and in humans, it tends to be more psychological than physical.
- Charlotte could've simply misread and/or done the at-home test incorrectly, which resulted in a false positive. Charlotte told Drew that the test results turning blue, meant she's pregnant--it's entirely possible that the test results actually said that blue means you're not pregnant, and Charlotte simply got mixed up when reading the results.
- Whether or not she had done the at-home pregnancy test correctly, Charlotte could've also realized that those tests aren't always totally accurate, since she did make an appointment with her doctor to have an official test done to see if she was pregnant.
- Charlotte could've gotten her period; women don't get their periods while they're pregnant (and a missed period is a common sign that a woman might be pregnant).
- If Charlotte was actually pregnant in the first place but later turned out not to be, she could've had a miscarriage, possibly even a chemical pregnancy. For those who don't know what a chemical pregnancy is, it's a very early miscarriage that happens before anything can be seen on an ultrasound--a sperm had fertilized the egg, but the egg itself ultimately fails to survive (it usually occurs at around the fifth week of the pregnancy).
- Assuming that Charlotte was never actually pregnant in the first place, there are a few possible reasons. For example,
- This is one of the many times where Angelica's thankful for her status as an only child. The only episodes where she actually expresses a desire to have a sibling are "The Stork" and "Sister Act"---the latter episode being the only time where Angelica's genuinely saddened by the fact that she's an only child. Ironically, Angelica ends up being the only Rugrat in the series who remains an only child, because:
- Tommy gains a younger brother in Dil.
- Chuckie gets a new stepsister in Kimi---and a new stepmother in the form of Kimi's mom, Kira. Kimi later gets a half-sister, Kiki Watanabe.
- Phil and Lil are fraternal twins.
- Susie has two older brothers, Edwin and Buster, and an older sister, Alyssa.
- Timmy McNulty has four younger brothers: Teddy, Ty, Todd, and Terry.
- This is the second appearance of Angelica's first toy car, being based after a BMW during that era. For the first time, it requires the use of a key to start it like a real car instead of just pressing on the gas pedal at any time to move as it did in its previous appearance in "Runaway Angelica", where it was more like a Power Wheels car. Like the previous episode, she used it as a means of escape.
- Chuckie is absent in this episode.
- Lil appears but doesn't have any lines.
- The closing credits state that Christine Cavanaugh voiced Reptar, although Reptar doesn't appear at all in this episode or its paired episode, "The Mega Diaper Babies".
- Moral:
- Pregnancy tests can be wrong or inaccurate.