"Kill 'Em with Kindness" is the twenty-fourth episode in Season 8 (and two hundred and fourth-first overall) of Regular Show. It aired on January 14, 2017.
Synopsis[]
Pops still does not want to fight. Instead he'd rather make friends.
Plot[]
In the dome park, Earl is excited about Pops finished his training and he dared everyone to try to hurt Pops but he used his new powers exceptionally against their attacks, then Earl gives everyone a presentation of their next objective, which is to go to Planet Neilsen and seek the seer, who will tell them where the final battle shall take place. Even though Pops is ready to fight his brother, he doesn't want to, because of his good will and nature. Everyone tries to convince him that Anti-Pops won't stop at anything to destroy the universe, but he still wants to confront him peacefully.
Later, Pops telepathically talks to Anti-Pops, in an attempt to get to know him better and become friends, but Anti-Pops takes this chance to fool Pops into meeting each other in a secret location so he can kill him before their epic battle. Anti-Pops invites him to an arcade planet, and Pops tells everyone of his plan to become friends with his brother, but everyone is suspicious and warns Pops that Anti-Pops might be setting a trap for him. Even with all the warnings, Pops is secretly baking a cake for Anti-Pops, while Mordecai and Rigby spy on him baking. Rigby tells him that even he wants to make amends, Anti-Pops is like a video game boss that cannot be reasoned with, but they will support him whatever happens.
The next morning, Pops leaves to see Anti-Pops and become friends with him. Once they meet, Anti-Pops asks him to meet in a room with broken consoles. There Pops offers him his cake to make him feel better, but Anti-Pops spatters the cake and shows his true colors, and claims that he hates the universe and everyone in it. Pops then attempts to hug Anti-Pops but he knock him out. Pops tries to escape, but Anti-Pops blocks the exit and almost crushes him. Then he tells Anti-Pops that they don't have to fight, but Anti-Pops responds that he wants to, so he proves it by vaporizing a console, but Pops fixes another console to try to convince him that together they can make the universe better. Anti-Pops sees that Pops still doesn't get his nefarious motives and vaporizes the room with Pops in it in an attempt to kill him. This convinces Pops that his brother is an unreasonable maniac and everyone were right about destroying him, Pops is about to punch him, but gets overwhelmed. As Anti-Pops is about to go for the final blow, Pops gets rescued the last minute and Skips drags Pops out of the arcade before Anti-Pops vaporize it, Earl sacrifices himself to buy them some time. The remaining party blasts away to Planet Neilsen.
Characters[]
- Pops
- Earl
- Mordecai
- Rigby
- Benson
- Skips
- Muscle Man
- Hi Five Ghost
- Eileen
- Anti-Pops
- Seer (mentioned)
Trivia[]
- Pops has fully mastered his powers.
- It is revealed that Pops has no desire to fight Anti-Pops.
- Anti-Pops wipes out Earl, after he sacrifices himself to save Pops.
Episode Connections[]
- When at the Public Arcade, the games Broken Bonez from "High Score," Clap Like This from "Just Set Up the Chairs," and Destroyer of Worlds 2 are seen.
Pop Culture References[]
- When Rigby mentions beating bad guys stepping on their heads or punching them in the gut, he might be referring to stepping on goombas from Mario Bros. and punching King Hippo from Punch-Out, also mentioning every enemy they fought and directly or indirectly killed.
- The title of this episode is a direct reference to the idiom of the same name as well as a loose reference to the 2016 song of the same name by American singer Selena Gomez from her 2015 sophomore album Revival.
- One scene in this episode is reminiscent of Steven Universe.
Productions Notes[]
- This is the first Regular Show episode to air in 2017.
- It was made available on The Cartoon Network app on October 15, 2016.