The Christmas Special

"The Christmas Special" is the half-hour Christmas special of Regular Show. It is the ninth episode of season four (and eighty-eighth episode overall) and premiered on December 3, 2012.

Synopsis
The groundskeepers must destroy a present built by one of Santa's elves that could mark the end of Christmas forever.

Plot
The episode starts inside Santa's building, which explodes and Quillgin is shown with the box, running towards Santa's sleigh. Quillgin then flies off to the outer limits of the North Pole and is about to open the present box, but something crashed against the sleigh. Santa Claus comes flying in with a floating snowboard and takes the present away from Quillgin. They fight in the sled for awhile, but Quillgin pushes Santa to the wall and starts to open the box again. Santa yells a command to Rudolph, his lead reindeer. Rudolph shoots Quillgin with a laser coming out from his nose, which stops Quillgin for a second. Santa then takes the box and jumps onto the edge of the sleigh. Unfortunately, Quillgin shoots Santa and he falls out of the sleigh, taking the box with him. The opening scene ends when Quillgin whispers, "Merry Christmas, Santa Claus..."

There is a Christmas party going on at the park house. Muscle Man is eating cookies, and Pops is busy taking some candy canes off the tree. Audrey comments that Benson's sweater should be the winner for "Ugliest Sweater" and Benson nervously excuses himself to get some soda. Meanwhile, Mordecai and Rigby are doing a mini skit for Margaret over the phone, who is at her parent's. Mr. Maellard leaves quickly while Benson's about to get some soda, saying that he needed to attend six more parties and again that his sweater is terrible. There is no more soda, and Benson tells Thomas to get some more soda from Skips's garage. Apparently Thomas' head got stuck between the stair rails and can't get out, so Mordecai and Rigby volunteer.

Mordecai and Rigby are talking while they are going to the garage, but Mordecai sees something fall in there. They quickly go inside, and see an injured Santa. Santa starts to tell them to take the box but finds out who he was talking to and ends up saying, "Aw man...you two?" Rigby picks up the present box and is about to open it, but Santa quickly tells him to stop. Then he continues to say that they must destroy it. Mordecai questions who is the man, and he sarcastically tells the two that he's Santa McMurphy. The two start to doubt him and tell him to prove that he was the real Santa. Santa says what Mordecai and Rigby wrote to him ever since they were kids, the two believe him. Rigby asks why the box must be destroyed, and Santa starts to tell the story.

It began a few months ago, when Quillgin suggested a present box that would grant anything the person desired. Santa did not know that dark magic was used, and so when a testing family used it, they turned evil and the box had to be locked up. Quillgin is chasing after the box to get revenge; the destruction of Christmas forever. Santa then passes out, lastly stating that Quillgin won't stop until he gets the box.

Mordecai and Rigby lead everyone back to the garage a few minutes later, but Santa is gone. Everyone thinks that it was a prank but the park workers start to fight for the box after Benson opens it up. Muscle Man tries to break the box with a huge hammer, but the hammer exploded upon contact. Skips states that the box is made by a dark magic and the only way to get rid of it was to push it in into lava.

East Pines is the closest place where lava is, in an abandoned mineshaft. The park workers start to quietly go through the snow, but Rigby wants to "fix their snowman's nose" before going, and he moves the carrot. An alarm goes off, and the East Pine workers capture them. Meanwhile, Quillgin arrives in Skips' garage and knows that the box was there. They move out and towards where the workers are.

Benson explains to Gene, the boss, why they were here, but Gene doesn't believe him, thinking that Benson was mad that someone got him "a horrible sweater for Christmas." He takes the box away from them and tells another worker to open it. the East Pines workers start to fight for the box after opening, and Mordecai gets it once the box was close enough. The security cameras start beeping after, and the screens show Quillgin entering the park and beating up the guards. The park workers start to beg Gene to let them go, but the door starts to bang, and it opens. Rigby yells that it's too late, and the scene ends for a commercial break.

Fortunately, it was an East Pines worker with some egg nog, not Quillgin. He tells them that there is a creepy elf dude trying to break in. Then, Gene leads the park workers to the abandoned mineshaft, finally believing them. He warns them about the booby traps, then heads off.

They go in and they are greeted by a dead end, which turns out to be a slide. Everyone stumbles to the ground for a second, and Mordecai starts to keep moving on, but a skeleton is right in his face. It was a skeleton above some press-able tiles, with two icicles jabbing through it. Benson steps on a tile, and a sharp icicle almost slays him. There are some instructions written on the wall, and Skips reads it. The instructions said to step on the correct tiles shown below, but you will be killed in one wrong step. Mordecai starts to use the dead skeleton, but it falls to the ground. Then Muscle Man volunteers to push the tiles. Before he starts, he gave Benson his sweater that his mom made. He then starts to press the tiles in some strange dancing fashion, and completes the trap. By the time he got out of the trap, all the icicles just sheathed out of their hiding place. Muscleman said that he almost died in there. There is another slide, and everyone goes down it. At the same time, Quillgin is looking at the workers with the spy cameras back in Gene's office. Gene,trapped,said that they destroyed the box but before he could finish talking,  one of Quillgin's henchman fliped him over.

The second booby trap is a pinball machine game. The instructions say that if you rack up points, a bridge will grow, but if you missed a ball, a part of the ground will break down. Benson does this one, and starts to quickly get points. He misses one ball, and Muscle Man almost falls down. Quillgin interrupts everyone, and chases them. Everyone run across the bridge, and Benson barely makes it in time before the bridge drops. Some to Quillgin's henchmen fall down instead, though Quillgin himself is still alive.

The final trial is to "wrestle a bear, don't lose" according to the instructions. A polar bear comes into the room, and Pops gladly steps into wrestle the bear. Pops seems at a disadvantage, but he quickly beats the bear, pinning him onto the ground. The bear stands up again, congratulating them for finishing the last test, and a portal opens up in his belly, signaling them to go in. The slide leads them to the lava pit.

Before Mordecai drops the box into the pit, Quillgin steps out from the smoke and points a gun at them. He came from the stairs, the easy way to get there. Mordecai is about to hand over the box, but something takes Quillgin's gun away and throws it to the lava pit. It is Santa, who was invisible, thanks to the invisibility cloak. Santa wasn't actually hurt when he got shot thanks to his bulletproof clothes; he just got stunned for a bit. Angry, Quilgin throws a grenade at them, and the park workers are separated from the box. Quillgin takes it, and wishes that Christmas will be destroyed forever. A red button appears in the box, which would explode the whole Earth and everything that has Christmas in it.

Mordecai charges and tackles Quillgin, both getting sent into the lava. Rigby quickly follows them in. While they are falling into it, Mordecai, Rigby and Quillgin are fighting to get the box back. Mordecai is able to get the box and wish for floating snowboards, and the two friends escape the lava. Quillgin gets hold of the button, but he falls into the lava to his death before he could push it, along with the present box.

They all leave the mine and arrive home with a ride from Santa's sleigh. They each say bye to him, and Benson asks Santa for his opinion on the sweater. Santa tells him that he should have thrown that thing into the lava pit, and Benson just throws the sweater onto the ground and goes back inside. Santa thanks Mordecai and Rigby, and leaves with his famous "Ho ho ho!"

Back in the house, Benson startles Thomas, freeing his head, then Benson tells Mordecai and Rigby to clean everything up. He leaves to get the cleaning supplies, but there is a present under the tree for Mordecai and Rigby. It is an invisibility cloak, and the duo play video games after Benson can't find them.

Characters

 * Mordecai
 * Rigby
 * Benson
 * Skips
 * Pops
 * Muscle Man
 * Hi-Five Ghost

Minor Characters

 * Thomas
 * Gene (Semi-antagonist until the middle)
 * Rival Park Members (semi-antagonists until the middle)
 * Santa Claus
 * Santa Claus' Reindeer
 * Santa Claus' Elves
 * Quillgin (antagonist)
 * Quillgin's servants (Semi-antagonists)
 * Polar Bear (Semi-Antagonist)
 * Audrey
 * Mr. Maellard
 * Starla (cameo)
 * Margaret (mentioned)

Gallery
The gallery for The Christmas Special can be found here.