Dead at Eight

Dead at Eight is the twenty-seventh episode of season three (and sixty-seventh episode overall) of Regular Show.

Synopsis
Muscle Man's soul is put on the line when Mordecai and Rigby must babysit Death's child, Thomas, to save his life.

Plot
Muscle Man has been building a water slide for six weeks, while Mordecai and Rigby watch him. Mordecai and Rigby want Muscle Man to go down the slide already, but Muscle Man refuses to go, saying it isn't ready yet. After a bunch of teasing, Muscle Man agrees to go. It starts good at first, but then the support beams of launch ramp he was building collapses, so he ends up hitting his trailer and flies into a tree, hitting many branches, and finally landing on his car. Muscle Man is in really bad shape, but claims he is all right, but suddenly Death shows up on his motorcycle. Death tries to claim Muscle Man's soul since this counts as his death, but Mordecai and Rigby refuse to let him, saying that they will do anything. Death agrees to the duo's bargain, and says he will spare Muscle Man's soul if they agree to babysit his kid while he and his wife go out to dinner for their anniversary.

The duo agree to babysit Death's kid, but then Death puts Muscle Man inside a small amulet that is held by Mordecai and Rigby. The group goes to Death's Manor where they meet his four-armed wife and his baby son Thomas. The couple tells Mordecai and Rigby to have Thomas in bed by the time they get home, but if they fail, Death will have Muscle Man's soul. They try to put Thomas to bed already, but Thomas reveals his intellect that he keeps secret from his parents and says that he will not go to sleep unless they play with him. However, playtime ends up insane when Thomas rips apart his dolls, shoots darts toy at Mordecai and Rigby, and almost sets the house on fire.

After playtime, they try to get Thomas to go to sleep again, but he refuses to sleep unless he eats. Mordecai tries to give him a glass of warm milk, but Thomas refuses to drink it and instead eats up an entire jar of cookies and a bag of sugar, which makes him go hyper and destroy some of the kitchen. Soon enough, he disappears and they go looking for him. They find him in the library where he asks them to read him a story. He has Mordecai and Rigby read him a story called the The Hungry, Hungry Soul-Sucking Death Worm. At the end of the story, Thomas has Mordecai and Rigby pull the last picture tab in the book, where the Soul-Sucking Death Worm from the book comes to life.

The worm wants to eat a soul and won't go back into the book unless it does so. Mordecai and Rigby try to prevent this, but Thomas wants to feed the worm Muscle Man's soul and tries to throw the amulet containing it to the worm, but fails. The worm destroys much of the house and eventually Mordecai and Rigby manage to trick the worm into going back to the book. After the trouble has ended, they try to put Thomas to bed yet again, but Death and his wife have already come home. However, a chandelier drops and lands on Thomas, knocking him out, before they get to the front door.

Death and his wife soon come in and are aghast to find their house wrecked, but are glad that Thomas is asleep. Death thanks Mordecai and Rigby for watching Thomas, and releases Muscle Man from the soul amulet. Death then tells them they shouldn't think that he will spare their souls next time, because Muscle Man will soon get himself killed at a hot dog eating contest. Afterwards, the trio try to wonder how they will get home.

Characters

 * Mordecai
 * Rigby
 * Muscle Man
 * Thomas (antagonist)

Minor Characters

 * Death (semi-antagonist)
 * Death's Wife
 * Soul-Sucking Death Worm (antagonist)

Trivia

 * This episode reveals that Death has a child and a four-armed wife.
 * This is the third appearance of Death, following Over the Top and Skips Strikes.
 * Mordecai and Rigby are caring for Muscle Man more because they are willing to save his life.
 * This is the first episode in which a character is shrunk.
 * This is the second time Muscle Man gets killed (after Terror Tales of the Park). However, this one was canon, and not non-canon.
 * This episode was aired on Memorial Day, 2012.
 * Glitch: The episode is really rated TV-PG, but a glitch caused the TV-Y7-FV rating to pop up instead and the episode that aired after Dead at Eight's original airing, Think Positive, was rated TV-Y7-FV also. This was fixed in the other episodes and the rerun of this episode
 * This episode reveals that Muscle Man knows how to build a water slide, as he has been building one for six weeks.
 * The Soul-Sucking Death Worm is an obvious parody of the Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar.
 * Benson, Pops, Hi Five Ghost and Skips did not appear in this episode.
 * This is the first episode that Death appears in but does not interact with Skips, as Skips isn't in the episode.
 * This is the second episode where relatives of a non-park employee make an appearance. The first was Yes Dude Yes, when John, Margaret's cousin, made an appearance.
 * This episode reveals how Muscle Man will die and how he might be the next to die since Death said he will die soon in a hot dog eating contest.
 * Muscle Man's car from Brain Eraser and Big Winner appear in this episode.
 * Thomas looks like Harold from Harold and the Purple Crayon.
 * Goof: Muscle Man was swirling his shirt while inside the ball, but when he is shrunk it is gone for the remainder of the episode.
 * Death has the ability to see the future as he stated that Muscle Man is going to die in a hot dog eating contest.
 * Death's cell phone looks like the one Chad and Jeremy had in Replaced, looking like an iPhone.
 * This is the second time someone with more than two arms appears. The first was Really Real Wrestling.
 * The darters Mordecai, Rigby and Thomas use look like Nerf Blasters.
 * This is the second time Muscle Man wears something other than his shirt. The first was Big Winner. Also, this is the first time he wears shorts instead of his pants.
 * The fountain looks like McDonald's golden arches.

Gallery


The gallery for the episode can be viewed here.