"Meet the Seer" is the twenty-fifth episode in Season Eight (and two hundred and fourth-second overall) of Regular Show. It first aired on January 14, 2017.
Synopsis[]
The guys need to talk to someone smart.
Plot[]
With Pops in critical condition after Anti-Pops nearly erased him from existence, the park crew decide to follow Earl's instructions that he gave before he gave his life to save Pops from his evil brother. The gang resumes their mission to deliver him to the Seer on Planet Nielsen. As they approach their destination, Skips notices some orbital debris being erased and says that he has a bad feeling about this. Upon landing, the park crew is greeted by robotic stream boxes, who welcome them to "Planet Streaming". Benson expresses confusion about this, and the stream boxes reply that Planet Nielsen is "obsolete". While asking the park crew for their credit card number, the stream boxes recognize the park crew as the Discmasters and move in to capture them.
Suddenly, Reel-to-Reel and another obsolete format appear and destroy the stream boxes. Delighted to see the Discmasters again, Reel-to-Reel introduces the park crew to Black and White, a sworn brother of the Format Wars. Black & White says that the park crew needs to get out of there, but Benson says that they need to get Pops to the Seer. Upon hearing this, Reel-to-Reel says that nobody sees the all-knowing Seer, but the Seer always sees them. Regardless, Black and White agrees to take the park crew to the Seer, but first, Pops needs medical attention. The obsolete formats lead the park crew to a secret elevator before Streaming's reinforcements can arrive.
In the underground tunnels beneath Planet Nielsen, Reel-to-Reel knocks on a door and whispers a password ("Be kind, rewind.") to the person inside. The door opens, revealing a sentient microwave who quickly notices the injured Pops and orders the park gang to get him inside. After he shoves junk off a medical table that Mordecai and Rigby lay Pops on, Microwave opens his door and feeds Pops some food to stabilize him. Rigby asks if he's a doctor, Microwave responds that he was and reveals that he was also a member of the resistance sworn to protect Pops before the Format Wars and Streaming's takeover of the planet. When Mordecai inquires of this, Reel-to-Reel shows the park gang a film of Planet Nielsen's history.
Planet Nielsen was a place where every universe could be watched and viewed like television series, with analysts cataloguing the audiences of each universe. Business was booming for Planet Nielsen until Streaming (who is revealed to be Internet upgraded to a new form) arrived and deemed their system obsolete. With Planet's Nielsen's workers jobless, Streaming banished them to the bowels of the planet, where the workers tried to preserve as many old formats as they could. When Rigby asks if the Seer could stop Streaming, Black and White replies that the Seer holds a vast amount of knowledge, but whether she has actual powers is a gray area (prompting Reel-to-Reel to respond that everything is a gray area to Black and White).
Suddenly, Streaming's minions launch an attack on the hideout, having realized the chosen one is here. Pops awakens and tells everyone to take him to the Seer. As the gang escapes, Microwave sacrifices himself by cooking a pizza pouch inside himself and charging at the stream boxes, taking out as many as he can in a large explosion. The gang reaches one of Planet Nielsen's offices, where workers are droning on at their stations. Mordecai and Rigby notice a pot of coffee and go to drink it, only to be stopped by two hooded figures who recognize Pops as the chosen one... and reveal themselves to be DVD and another format being just like him. DVD explains to the Discmasters that he's been upgraded to HD-DVD, and the other format being introduces herself as his sister, Blu-ray. The two sibling then start to bicker over which of them is better, but Reel-to-Reel breaks them up and urges the gang onward.
The group approaches a wall that Blu-ray unlocks with a USB stick. The wall retracts, revealing a seated figure who is watching different universes on screens. This figure, known as the Seer, has been expecting Pops and knows all of the park workers. She even tells Muscle Man a "my mom" joke when he doesn't believe her. The Seer informs the park workers that she has been observing them from the beginning and reviews their entire journey, claiming to know everything about them. She knows that they all work at the park, Mordecai and Rigby are the slacker duo, Benson's the grouchy manager, and Skips' immortal, including Mordecai's love life and the annual scary stories at Halloween. After recapping Muscle Man's wedding and Rigby's high school graduation, the Seer is curious as to what will happen next, but she says that everything must end eventually. By this, she means the universe will end with what everything has been leading up to: Pops' battle with Anti-Pops. Suddenly, HD-DVD and Blu-ray report that they can't hold off Streaming's forces much longer and need to get Pops off-planet.
As the group make their escape, HD-DVD and Blu-ray transform into their Guardian forms and battle Streaming's minions. Eileen notices that the Seer is calm and asks her why she isn't freaking out over the end of the universe. The Seer simply replies that it is their universe that's ending, not hers, and she laments that she won't be able to watch it anymore. Personally, she wishes Eileen had a bigger role. HD-DVD and Blu-ray clear the path to the Park Dome when the group is suddenly blocked by Streaming. He attempts to destroy HD-DVD and Blu-ray, but Reel-to-Reel sacrifices himself and takes the blast full-force, killing him. Enraged at the death of the original format, Black and White attacks Streaming only to be killed himself. Moments before his death, however, Black and White damages Streaming and causes an error that makes him buffer, allowing the park workers time to escape.
Before the group can leave, the Seer tells Pops to travel to "where it all began": his home planet of Lolliland where he do battle against Anti-Pops. He has done so before and he will do so again. Ever the peaceful and kind-hearted being as the embodiment of pure good, Pops pleads for another option. The Seer thinks about this and says "Sometimes, doing something different makes all the difference." As Streaming begins to recover, the Seer tells Pops to "make it a jolly good show". The Park Dome takes off and leaves Planet Nielsen while HD-DVD and Blu-ray stay behind with the Seer to fight Streaming. As the group escape, Planet Nielsen explodes from behind them. Eileen enters the coordinates for Lolliland and an image of it appears onscreen. Upon seeing the world, Pops recognizes it: it's the same planet he's been fascinated with all his life. His favorite planet.
Characters[]
- Pops
- Mordecai
- Rigby
- Benson
- Skips
- Muscle Man
- Hi Five Ghost
- Eileen
- The Seer
- Microwave
- Reel-to-Reel
- Black and White
- HD DVD
- Blu-ray
- Streaming
- Stream Box Bots
- Nielsen Workers
Video[]
Trivia[]
- Joel McHale didn't reprise his voice as the new version of DVD (as HD-DVD), in this episode HD-DVD is being voiced by Trevor DeVall instead.
- The Seer breaks the fourth wall talking about events of the past, and showing the scenes on the security cameras. That is maybe an old fans review about the show through the years. With this being one of the last episodes, this could be the show's way addressing its eventual end.
- This is the second time the show has addressed this, the first time being in "Operation: Hear No Evil."
- Reel-to-Reel dies in this episode.
- With this all the Guardians of Obsolete Formats are now all dead.
- Pops' favorite planet is the place where he will fight Anti-Pops and is revealed to be named Lolliland.
- Lolliland is also revealed to be Pops' home planet.
- DVD is revealed to have a sister named Blu-ray, who is also Archie's daughter.
- This also Reunites 3 cast Members (Yvette Nicole Brown, Gillian Jacobs, & Keith David) of Community (2009-2015).
Episode Connections[]
- When the Seer has been watching the guys since the beginning, she puts up the scenes from "The Power", "Caffeinated Concert Tickets", "Mordecai and the Rigbys", "Steak Me Amadeus", "Merry Christmas Mordecai", "Yes Dude Yes", "Play Date", "Terror Tales of the Park", "Terror Tales of the Park III", "Rigby's Graduation Day Special", "The End of Muscle Man", "Dumped at the Altar", and "Welcome to Space" on the security cameras.
- Internet returns from "Format Wars II" and is revealed to have become Streaming.
- DVD also returns from "Format Wars II" and now goes by HD-DVD.
- This is the second appearance of Lolliland since its debut in "Pops' Favorite Planet."
- This is the third part of the "Format Wars" trilogy, though what occurs in the final episode of season 8 still counts as a part of it due to Streaming being involved in the final battle against Anti-Pops, where he serves as an ally to the latter.
Pop Culture References[]
- This episode featured three cast members of the show Community as Gillian Jacobs and Yvette Nicole Brown were main cast members of the series and Keith David was the main cast member for the final season in Community other cast members of Community have guest starred previously as Joel McHale voiced DVD and Donald Glover voiced Alpha-Dog.
- The Seer might reference to The Architect from The Matrix Reloaded.
- HD DVD and Blu-Ray's quarreling is a reference to the HD Optical Disc Format War where HD DVD and Blu-Ray competed against each other to become the de facto standard video format. In which Blu-Ray won in early 2008 and HD DVD ceased production shortly after.
- At the beginning of the episode Skips says "I've got a bad feeling about this" which is a famous quote from Star Wars, in which the voice actor of Skips, Mark Hamill is famous for portraying Luke Skywalker.
- The name of "Planet Nielsen" is likely a reference to Nielsen Media Research, a US organization that measures viewing habits for television programs, much like how the analysts of Planet Nielsen catalogued the audiences of each universe.
Production Notes[]
- The episode was made available on The Cartoon Network app on December 19, 2016.
Goofs[]
- Keith David is credited as David Keith, the name of another actor whose names commonly get confused.