| 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 |
| DVD release | Season 3 |
| Previous Episode | Mr. Clean |
| Next Episode | The Mega Diaper Babies |
"Angelica's Worst Nightmare" is a Season 3 episode of Rugrats.
Characters Present
- Tommy
- Phil
- Lil
- Angelica
- Didi
- Drew
- Charlotte
- 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 (which is the one with urine and toothpaste; and it's inaccurate), 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, Angelica 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 when it is really her. Didi steps in and tells Tommy and 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, then the phone rings, and Didi leaves the two to go answer it. Tommy then tells her that it was funny how she and "her friend" were both going to have a new sibling. She replies to this by calling him a dope.
At Angelica's house she asks her mom not have the baby, but Charlotte says that when the baby comes, it comes and nothing can be done about it. In her room, she calls Dr. Daniel Prescott (a therapist). She tells him that she thinks her mother having another baby is a bad idea. After he asks her she replies saying that she thinks her parents won't have anytime for her. He tells her that she needs to think about others and not be selfish. She (of course) does not listen. At the dinner table, Drew and Charlotte do not seem to pay attention to her. They do only after she tells them about her food. They continue to discuss about where the baby will sleep. In her room, she mimics how they can't stop thinking about the baby. She falls asleep on her bed saying, "Babies, who needs them?".
Angelica wakes up in a dream where the baby already been born and her parents are in his room. She talks to them and they don't recognize her. Drew recognizes her as their "old kid", meaning that they forgot about her and her name. He and Charlotte leave so they could call the newspaper about their new baby. Angelica goes up to the crib as she asks the baby if he's the new baby, 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, and 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 tells her that a baby talking is impossible. Drew steps in telling Charlotte that Angelica's room is perfect for the new baby. Charlotte tells 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. Upset, sad, forgotten, heartbroken, shocked, devastated, unhappy, and frustrated, 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 tells her that he already told her to leave home. He steals her food and tells her that he warned her to leave but since she wouldn't listening, he will "teach her a lesson". He then chases her around the house until Angelica hides in a closet, and her brother passes her hiding place, but finds her already. 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 asks himself what she tastes like inside it. She yells about how she is his older sister but he simply ignores her by saying to her that she is now "num-nums". He then proceeds eat Angelica who then screams "No! No!" in her sleep. She then awakes with a violent start. The nightmare ends with Drew coming to her room and Angelica tells Drew about the nightmare in which she ended up being forgotten. Drew tells Angelica that she won't be forgotten and she happily goes back to sleep and sure enough, Angelica got through that night.
The next day, Drew and Charlotte reveal to Angelica that Charlotte's doctor told them that Charlotte isn't really pregnant again, 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.
Trivia
- This is considered one of the most disturbing episodes in the Rugrats series due to the nightmare that Angelica had 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.
- In a close-up, when Angelica was sitting on Charlotte's lap, Charlotte had two lips.
- 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.
- 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 few 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 if the test results turned out blue, that would mean she's pregnant again--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 since 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 few 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:
- This is the second appearance of Angelica's first toy car, being based after a BMW during that era. For the first time, it required 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". Like the previous episode, she used it as a means of escape.
- Morals:
- Your parents will always love and care for you no matter what.
- Don’t lie to your child about serious situations. Pregnancy tests can be wrong.
