Maxin' and Relaxin'

"Maxin' and Relaxin'" is the first episode of season six (and the one-hundred and fifty-fourth episode overall) of Regular Show. It aired on October 9, 2014.

Synopsis
Mordecai wants to get a mix tape from his parents' house, but is afraid of getting embarrassed by them.

Plot
We open on Mordecai driving CJ home after a dinner/movie night, both singing to Tag Team’s ''Whoomp! (There it is!)'' that was playing on the cart’s radio. Making light conversation, CJ reveals she did a color guard routine to the song in the ninth grade. Mordecai tells her of the mix tape he made with the song in the seventh grade, titled Maxin’ and Relaxin’ and boasts about his mix tape making skills. He absently mentions that the tapes were at his parents’ house. To his abject terror, CJ eagerly suggests going with him tomorrow to get them so she could meet his parents, in particular his mom. Suddenly breaking out in cold sweat, Mordecai could only agree as CJ thanks him for the night and leaves the cart.

In Pop’s lounge, a sullen-faced Mordecai tells Rigby that he can’t let CJ meet his mom. Rigby shrugs him off, saying his mom was “totally cool” but Mordecai claims she’d always embarrass him whenever he had a girl over (which prompts Rigby to question how many times he'd actually had a girl over.) Mordecai flashes back to his teenage years when he’d invited a girl named Daphne Gonzales over for a study session. Before they could start, his mom kicks the door to his room open, snack tray in hand. She begins dancing to the mix tape that was playing while encouraging him to do the same. Extremely flustered, Mordecai yells at her to leave. His mom obliges, but not before tearfully thanking Daphne for being the first girl her son’s ever brought home and whipping out a camcorder to capture the moment. Daphne flees and Mordecai, completely red-faced, assumes the foetal position on his bed at the horror of it all. Back to present time, Mordecai dejectedly lists the handful of girls he had over, none of whom lasted a day with his mom.

Later that night Mordecai calls his dad to inform him of his visit with CJ. Reluctantly, he asks him if he could keep it from his mom. His father makes no promises, stating he hadn't lied to his wife in twenty five years, but does tell him that she had Punchersize class scheduled for tomorrow night. Jumping at the opportunity, Mordecai arrives with CJ the next day at the specified time. They briefly chat with his dad, who introduces himself as William and tells CJ that unfortunately Mordecai's mother was not home at the moment. A "disappointed" Mordecai offers to get the mix tape and go, only to have his mom burst into the room still holding dumbbells. As it turns out her husband did tell her about the visit so she took the afternoon class instead. After embracing her stunned son and a friendly introduction to CJ, it was decided (albeit somewhat one-sidedly) that the two would stay over for dinner.

While waiting, Mordecai leads CJ up to his old room to look for the mix tape. He apologizes for his mom being weird but CJ says she thinks she's sweet. While CJ checks out the room he grew up in, Mordecai searches his closet though to no avail. Before long his mom's heard calling him from downstairs. Mordecai leaves for the kitchen where the older woman asks him if CJ was a vegetarian. He impatiently tells her she isn't, not happy that he was called down there for that and offhandedly suggests she should "just be normal" and not go too crazy. His mom tells him not to worry and offers to show him the cream pie dessert she made for them, which Mordecai discovers had his girlfriend's name spelled out with berries on it. Mortified, he acts immediately, scoffing down the part of the pie with the berries despite his mother's protests. Unfortunately for him, mom had a backup; a CJ jelly, which (she explained while Mordecai backs away ever-so-slowly) she got the likeness from by looking up pictures of his girlfriend on the internet. Rushing back to his room in a panic, Mordecai urges a confused CJ to leave with him. It proved fruitless however as he's interrupted by his mom calling them down for dinner.

Two and a half hours later, Mordecai's parents are chatting up a storm with CJ, mostly concerning embarrassing stories about their son, while Mordecai tries to remodel his side of the table with his fists. His mom brings up Mordy Moments, a home video she’d made with different footage of him as a kid. Mordecai is immediately blindsided with a traumatic flashback of his parents showing the tape to his aunt and Uncle Steve. The tape featured such memorable moments as him becoming tangled up in a wet slip slide, getting a major wedgie onstage when the harness rope connected to his Peter Pan pants failed, being covered in spaghetti as a toddler and having his pants fall down in the middle of playing in a marching band, subsequently tripping over them, falling flat on his face and getting his saxophone mouthpiece stuck in his beak. His audience’s laughs echo in the background as he sinks off the coach and slams his fists on the floor in humiliation.

Mordecai snaps out of his daze only to hear his mom announce that they could stay for a bit longer, eat CJ’s special dessert and watch the tape, to a sequence of dramatic stings. William wonders where he’d put the tape and his wife reminds him it’s in the basement, at which point Mordecai practically launches himself out of his seat to offer to look for it.

Leaving the others behind, Mordecai runs down to the basement and easily locates both the mix tape and Mordy Moments in a box of his old stuff. Muttering a quick apology to his mom, he tries to break the video cassette with his forehead, which does nothing but give him with a sore forehead. In frustration he throws the tape to the ground. It bounces directly into a VCR and begins to play. The TV emits and eerie glow of static and several ghostly figures fly out. Startled, Mordecai tries to escape but is blocked by the figures, which turn out to be the kid versions of himself from the video, with the exception of him as a toddler. They snatch up Maxin’ and Relaxin’ and tie their adult self to a chair. Present Mordecai calls out to CJ and his mother for help but the version of himself in the Peter Pan costume scoffs at the idea of mom wanting to help him after tonight. Together the spectres remind him of how he’d treated her courtesy of a mix tape they put together themselves.

Seeing his actions that night replay before him, Mordecai admits he hadn’t been all that nice to their mom. But he argues that of all people his past selves should understand since they’re the ones stuck in those embarrassing moments when she put them on tape. In a rather touching scene, the Peter Pan version of himself explains that they’re not stuck like this because of Mordy Moments, they’re stuck like this in his own head. With help from his younger selves, Mordecai recalls all the times his mom was there to make him feel better after those moments had passed. With each memory one of his past selves was freed; the slip slide version from his entanglement, the marching band version from the saxophone stuck in his mouth and the Peter Pan version from the harness rope. Present Mordecai begins to regret acting like a jerk to his mom just because he wanted his girlfriend to think he was cool. The slip slide spectre advises him that CJ does think he’s cool, but “girls don’t dig guys who are jerks to their moms”. Freed from his chair, present Mordecai thanks his past selves for their help and they vanish into thin air. Moments later both Mordy Moments and the Maxin’ and Relaxin’ tape materializes before him.

Mordecai emerges from the basement just as his mom walks by with the CJ jelly. With a concerned look she asks him if he found Mordy Moments. Mordecai holds it up and she brightens, telling him that everyone’s waiting in the living room. She pauses though and offers that they don’t have to watch the tape if he doesn’t want to. Nervously, she asks if the tape was embarrassing for him and if she embarrassed him. Mordecai assures her that she doesn’t and apologizes for acting like a jerk earlier that night. His mom responds by saying that her “little boy” could never be a jerk. The two reconcile and walk back together.

In the living room CJ's impressed by the special dessert, stating it was like looking into a jelly mirror, this prompts Mordecai’s mom to declare she’s a keeper. Meanwhile, Mordecai puts in the tape and gives a light hearted introduction, much to the delight of his small audience. He joins them next to CJ, who happily tells him this was way cooler than listening to a mix tape. As the video starts, Mordecai's past selves, who'd been secretly watching over the scene, disappear for the last time. From outside the house, Mordecai could be heard laughing with his parents and CJ at the home video.

Characters

 * Mordecai
 * Mordecai's Parents
 * CJ

Minor Characters

 * Rigby
 * Water Slide Mordecai
 * Peter Pan Mordecai
 * Band Mordecai
 * Uncle Steve (flashback)
 * Aunt Maxine (flashback)
 * Daphne Gonzales (flashback)
 * Molly Sherman (mentioned)
 * Bernice Chan (mentioned)
 * Sasha Diaz (mentioned)
 * RGB2 (appears on calendar)
 * Fist Pump (appears on poster)

Trivia

 * Mordecai's parents in this episode are voiced by Katey Sagal and Ed Begley, Jr.; they were previously voiced by Jennifer Hale and Alastair Duncan in "The Thanksgiving Special."
 * The song "Whoomp! (There It Is)" by Tag Team can be heard at the beginning of the episode.
 * There was a scene cut from the episode when Mordecai's mom said she'll make her prized meatloaf, Mordecai points out that she stole the recipe from someone named Mrs. Winkelmann. This causes Mordecai's mom to brandish a knife at Mordecai and tells him "I didn't steal anything from that witch!!".

Gallery


The gallery for "Maxin' and Relaxin'" can be found here.