Episode 1 (Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman by Dav Pilkey): With Donald (The Cute) Baxter moving across town, the Crime Fighting Crusaders are in need of a third member. Scott indicates that if nominated he would run, and if elected he would serve, but neither Trixie (The Germ) Truddfeldt nor Walter (The Volt) Cosmic tumble to that fact. Instead, when they see that Sargent Speckles is in town, they decide to call him and invite him for an interview to join the CFC. Doug, the mutant/receptionist for Sargent Speckles’s Secret Lair of Salvation, misinterprets "CFC" as Cooking For Superheroes Channel. Sargent S and Doug arrive the next day, thinking they’re going to do a cooking show, and are disappointed to discover otherwise. Sargent S turns down the job offer, and leaves. Scott thinks he still has a chance at the position, and enters wearing homemade superhero togs made from some gigantic underpants and an old bath towel. Trixie still doesn’t take the hint, and in desperation offers the job to Doug, even though his mutant power is a little vague – although the spider growing where his left had should be is impressive. When the spider (named Judy) eats a ladybug Walter had rescued, however, T & W have second thoughts about Doug joining the CFC, because his powers aren’t all that impressive. They might change their minds if they witnessed how Doug changes into the impressively-powerful SuperDoug when Trixie makes a weird noise, but only Scott saw it the first time it happened, and he’s not talking (get it?). So, T & W decide to invite Scott to officially join the team after all, and present him a chest-logo to complete his costume. They’re ready to fire Doug, but when Sargent Speckles returns to get Doug to return to his duties as the Secret Lair of Salvation, they decide they want him to stay. A fight ensues, in which Sargent S manages to give both Trixie and Walter wedgies. In the melee, Trixie makes that weird noise, and SuperDoug appears on cue. SD puts his super foot down, choosing the CFC over Sargent S. Undaunted, Sargent S offers Doug’s old position to Scott. Holy Moley! Will Scott leave his friends and take the job?!?!?
Episode 2 (Skippy Jon Jones by Judy Schachner): Trixie (The Germ) Truddfeldt travels to Sargent Speckles’ HQ to beg Scott the Parrot to return to the Crime Fighting Crusaders, but Scott complains that Trixie is a bad listener, and refuses. Broken-hearted, Trixie returns to the CFC HQ, wondering if she even wants to be The Germ anymore without her boyfriend Scott. She goes to her room and begins to dream (complete with dream dancers) ... Confronting herself in a mirror, Trix decides to forego her heroic guise, and instead become super villain Trixie John Jones. Her dream takes her to Mexico, where she meets Los Malos (Spanish for "The Bad"), a gang of rhythmic deed-doers, and their Chihuahua leader, Don Diablo. Trixie discovers that the gang isn’t evil, as she hoped, and that "Los Malos" is slang for "Los Marsh-mallows". Then the real villains arrive: El Spottito and his headman Birdito, who steal Los Malos’ party balloons. Still determined to be evil, Trixie John Jones seeks out Spottito and asks to join him. As a test, ES tells Trixie that she needs to steal the next batch of party balloons from Los Malos herself, and to make fun of Don Diablos’ cute teeny sweater. However, when she tries, Trixie realizes that she just can’t be that mean. However, she’s not always good, either. What to do? Why not wake up? Which she does, then hurries over to Sargent Speckles HQ to apologize to Scott and promises to listen more. She confronts SS about the stealing party balloons and mocking cute teeny sweaters thing, and SS pretends not to know what she’s talking about. As Trixie and Scott leave, however, SS pulls out a cute teeny sweater ...
Episode 3 (Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business by Barbara Park): Team Speckles (Sargent and Scott) and the Crime Fighting Crusaders (Trixie, Walter, and Doug) both respond to a distress call at the park. Trixie still suspects that SS is a villain in disguise, even though he rescues a treed cat, returns a missing purse, and even finds Trixie’s missing super-hero license. Back at CFC HQ, Trixie decides Doug needs special treatment, since he’s the baby-member of the team. She gives him Walter’s special fenced-in bed (kind of a crib, really), complete with an entertaining mobile Walter had built from small kitchen appliances. Walter resents all the attention Doug’s getting, so he decides to go visit Scott at Speckles HQ, since that would probably cheese Trixie off.
SS shows Walter the powers of his suit, where each dot gives him a different power, like super-relaxation and tall-building leaping. SS then demonstrates his mind-reading dot by channeling Scott’s thoughts, which are of missing Trixie and eating too much Bird Seed Ice Cream to compensate. SS admonishes Scott, speculating that Trixie may be a villain in disguise. When Walter mentions a new baby at the CFC HQ, Speckles insists they go check it out. Walter super-speeds there ahead of the others, and when he mentions that Scott is gaining a lot of weight from the Bird Seed Ice Cream, Trixie is convinced that it’s more evidence of SS’s villainy, so she and Doug dash off to rescue her paramour. Sargent S and Scott arrive at CFC HQ, and SS is appalled when he sees the cage (actually crib) where the baby is kept, and the dangerous death machine (kitchen-appliance mobile, natch) hanging above it. He’s convinced Trixie is evil. Scott is offended, and quits Team Speckles on the spot (get it?). Since the two heroes accuse each other of villainy, there’s only one way to settle the score: a Super Hero Off in the traditional three parts: singing, dancing, fashion show. SS nails the singing competition, but Trixie evens the score with her athletic dancing. Finally, in a competition to make the best outfit from garbage bags, Sargent Speckles looks to be the clear winner, but Trixie cheats by using her germ-powers to put everyone in a sneezing fit. Walter decides enough is enough, and starts to step in to get the two to see reason, but Doug advises him against it, and as he hesitates, Sargent Speckles runs off, with Trixie in murderous pursuit. To be continued.
Episode 4 (Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans): Trixie's still being a pill about the Sargent Speckles thing, Doug is a compulsive liar, Walter is just being Walker, and so two new super heroes - Kenny the Drawing Wonder Boy and Fairytale Girl - whisk them off (via magical storybook) to the Yellow Hat Reform School in France for some discipline. Trixie faces Magic Man, the school counselor, who teaches her – with the help of Mr. Danz (a dancing superhero robot) - empathy. Next, Walter meets Super Boy (not the really famous one, the fashion model one) and Delusions of Grandeur Man, and under the direction of Super Bonehead Man and with sustenance provided by The Pizza Delivery Guy, he learns to cooperate by photographing their fashion show. Finally, Doug meets up with Mind Man, who reads his mind and gets him to admit that he has lied about needing to hear a weird "ba-gawk" sound effect to turn into Super Doug. Doug begins to tell the truth, and is rewarded with treats provided by Pancake Boy. Doug explains he lied about his super-powers because he wanted to be treated normally. Enter Pigtail Girl, who explains it's what is different about a person (like her prehensile pigtails) that makes them interesting. Doug digs it. When the three Crime Fighting Crusaders get back together on the Mars campus of the school, they feel better about themselves and the team. They sit down to eat what they think is a graduation feast, but space-super hero Galactica appears and informs them they're eating food intended for hungry space aliens. Burger Boy to the rescue, with cheeseburgers for everyone! Back on Earth, the YHRS graduates meet up with Sargent Speckles. It takes awhile, but they all end up apologizing to him. SS starts acting all ego-y himself, so Kenny and Fairytale Girl roll up their sleeves and it's off to Yellow-Hat land for him.
Episode 5 (Batman by Bob Kane): Scott has rejoined the CFC, just in time for Walter (The Volt) Cosmic to be off to Gotham City as part of a superhero exchange program. And if Walter's in Gotham City, then the superhero he's exchanged for is ... that's right: Batman!
The Caped Crusader appears in all his firm-jawed grim seriousness. While Trixie and Doug show the Dark Knight around their headquarters, an alarm sounds, revealing Guessman, who gives them only two guesses as to why he's there, then leaves, leaving Batman pretty unimpressed with the quality of the supervillains of Dendiggityopolis. However, when Scott turns up missing and they find a anonymous ransom note, he springs into action. Using his brilliant detective prowess (i.e. reading the "From The Desk Of" notation at the top of the note), Batman determines the kidnapper to be the Man-Cat. Before they head out to the Man-Cat's lair, Trixie and Doug don their own Bat costumes, and get all grim and deep-voiced and serious. Before Man-Cat can cough up a stink-bomb hairball, Batman interrupts him and subdues him just by being Batman. Scott's not in the Man-Cat lair, but there's a new clue: the magazine from which the ransom note letters were cut out, addressed to Flashback Kid. At the FK's hideout, the Kid gets the drop on Batman, and sends him back to a time when he lost his bat-blankie. But the CFCs remember the Flashback Kid's secret password, which releases Batman from his loop of anxiety. They can't find Scott at FK's hideout, either. Batman's detective powers come into play again, as he deduces since their first two guesses at the kidnapper's identity were wrong, then he guesses that the real villain must be Guessman. So they're off to Guessman's headquarters, where they find Scott bound at the wing-tips and a hot tub full of vegetable oil. Looks like Guessman is hoping for a finger-licking holiday. They capture Guessman, who protests that he's not evil at all. As proof, when Batman cuts Scott's bonds, out drops an eggplant, which Guessman had tied to the fumbling bird so he wouldn't drop it until it was ready for the fryer. The whole wild-parrot-chase plot is to get the CFC to come over for a surprise party, it turns out. Batman decides he better get back to Gotham City, because Walter's likely to be having a problem with the more grim and serious villains of his town. He wants to bring along one of the Crusaders to help him, and chooses Judy, Doug's left-hand spider-creature. To be continued.
Episode 6 (Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes): Trixie (The Germ) Truddfeldt and Walter (The Volt) Cosmic have been invited to Bawston to visit their old comrade Donald (The Cute) Baxter, who has been made President and Artistic Director of Genius Operations for the National Troupe of Collators. When they drop in on Donald at his office, they find him cleaning up from last night's party, which seems odd for the President and Artistic Director of Genius Operations to be doing. And when the I.T. Lady asks him to make some copies for her, and then Awkward Man asks him to shred some papers, and finally Cilla (The Adorable) Silver comes in and calls him her apprentice, Donald confesses he's not President and Artistic Director of Genius Operations, but only a flunky. Furthermore, he reveals that both of his thumbs are permanently broken, and his collating days are over. Cilla suggests that Donald should take a day off and show Walter around Bawston, and so - aided by an Aerosmith-themed map provided by Awkward Man - the duo depart for a grand adventure. Trixie stays behind to visit with Cilla, because she seems better than Donald in every way: she's actually a collating supervisor, and her super-power of adorableness is better than The Cute's mere cuteness. Donald returns from the tour, and immediately begins fighting with Cilla again, because he feels sorry for himself about his broken thumbs. Time for Jalilah the Mediator to step in who reminds Donald when he points a finger at someone, there are three pointing back at him, regardless of the condition of his thumb. Donald decides Jalilah is right, and he has to quit blaming others and take responsibility for his own destiny. And besides, his thumbs aren't really broken, he was just trying to get sympathy. Cue the music, Donald has learned a lesson, everyone is comfortable with everyone else (except Awkward Man, natch), blah blah blah next episode.
Episode 7 (Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card): Trixie (The Germ) Truddfeldt and Walter (The Volt) Cosmic have a new headquarters, which looks a lot like the set of a Eugene O'Neill-themed play, except for the high tech items like a video game console and a Robo-Maid.
With a new house comes new challenges, and for the CFC the main challenge comes from new neighbors Brad and Knucklehead, who immediately park themselves in front of the video games and adopt the slack-jawed trance we all recognize so well. While Walter tries to figure out how to work the Robo-Maid, Trixie gets a letter from her dad, the Gadgeteer, who congratulates both her and Walter for being nominated for Most Talented Hero. Well, that leads to an argument about who should win, and they challenge each other: Trixie will get rid of their nuisance guests before Walter can correct his amok-running Robo-Maid. Neither task goes well: the R-M only makes a bigger mess, and Brad get nauseous from bad snacks, which Trxie's healing power seems to make worse. Meanwhile, Scott is quietly raking his Zen Garden during his alone time, when first Trixie, then Walter come to confide in him that, although the award would be great, they'd rather make up with their best friend (each other, natch). So Scott gets those two crazy kids together and they make up. As they join forces to tackle their problems together, Brad and Knucklehead reveal themselves to be British scientists from the future (-uture, -uture, -uture), conducting an experiment involving manipulating the Robo-Maid with the video game controllers. They want T & W to join them and become British scientists themselves, but the two are too upset about there not really being a Most Talented Hero award. The scientists leave, taking their faulty R-M with them, and things are back to normal for Trixie and Walter, meaning they're arguing about who's a better best friend.
Episode 8 (A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare): Trixie (The Germ) Truddfeldt and Scott the Parrot are trying to settle down in their new Crime Fighting Crusaders headquarters for a Netflix Nite, but keep getting interrupted, first by Trixie's dad PJ (The Gadgeteer), then by Ichabod Von Crispinlocks, a master thespian/director in search of a venue. PJ has been fooling around with his chemistry set, and has developed two potions: Love and Mischief. He accidentally squirts himself with the Mischief, and under its influence sprays the Love potion all over a box of doughnut holes. First victim: Walter (The Volt) Cosmic, who falls in love with first thing he sees: the CFC mop. Next, Trixie imbibes just as Ichabod Von Crispinlocks passes by. So naturally she's ok with Ichabod bringing his prize actor, Schmaltzer (coincidentally, the identical cousin of Walter Cosmic), to stage a play. As Schmaltzer goes off to find his cousin, Ichabod eats a doughnut hole and becomes enraptured by his own hands. Then things get really confusing when the puckish PJ reappears to spray Scott with another potion, and the Scottish Parrot faints, only the rise again transformed to have a human head! To make matters worse, Walter feeds his mop a doughnut hole, and it falls in love with the freakish Scott. PJ reappears, and luckily sprays himself with an Antidote potion before he can cause more mischief. He realizes the trouble he's caused, and sets out to make it right by curing Trixie of her Ichabod-crush. A lot more doughnut-hole-eating and Antidote-spraying ensues, but finally all the potion-lovey-dovey is cured. However, the Antidote potion doesn't cure Scott's transformed head, so PJ takes the Parrot-with-a-human-head back to the lab. No good; instead of fixing Scott, PJ ends up with a parrot's head! Ichabod gets fed up and leaves, but not before suggesting that the whole episode was just a dream. I guess we'll have to wait until next episode to be sure.
Episode 9 (Too Many Toys by David Shannon): The new CFC Headquarters is a mess, and Trixie (the Germ) Truddfeldt's dad PJ (the Gadgeteer) Truddfeldt lays down the law: Walter (the Volt) Cosmic has to throw out some of his toys, and Trixie needs to get rid of some of her super-villain folders.
Just as they get started, Scott arrives and whisks Trixie off to a special Valentine weekend, leaving Walter to break the bad news to the villains she's decided to fire. First up: SalesLady, who instead of getting fired manages to sell Walter on the idea of making her their arch-nemesis. The next two go better: Vinnie Boombatts and the Mild Thang are let go, because they're really not all the villainous. Determined to get back in the list, the duo hide out in the CFCHQ disguised as a Troll Doll and a Train Engine until they figure out something evil to do. Enter the Gadgeteer, who scolds Walter for making little progress picking up the toys, and he's concerned that he can't use his new bring-a-toy-to-life ray gun until enough toys are cleared out so he knows what he's going to hit. When PJ leaves, Walter decides to use the ray gun to create a helper for his chore. He animates the most a-DOR-able teddy bear you ever saw, who has to run and hide as PJ comes back in. PJ leaves, and Walter decides to animate his favorite toy, JoJo the one-footed bad-smelling penguin, to send it to find the bear. The penguin proves uncooperative, though, being as obnoxious as it smells. Vinnie and Mild Thang try to get JoJo to get the ray gun for them, but the penguin steals it for itself, and runs off to create chaos. Walter cuts a deal with the two: help him capture JoJo and he'll reinstate them as villains. Deal. They manage to lure JoJo back with a crazy song, and turn it back into a stuffed toy. PJ returns with a box to help Walter pick up the toys, and Walter agrees to get rid of all his toys if he can have the box to play in. Deal. Everything’s back to normal – except for the living teddy bear still running around.
Episode 10 (Tintin: The Castafiore Emerald by Herge): Trixie's aunt Patrivia Truddfeldt – a famous opera singer – is coming for a visit, and neither Trixie nor her father PJ is all that happy about it, because she's something of a drama queen. Indeed, as soon as she makes her entrance, Patrivia starts in by trying to make time with Rechairman, a seafaring, chair-repairing super-hero with a tendency toward bombastic expletives. Then she starts going on about her missing diamonds, which attracts the attention of Tintin (pronounced Taun-Taun, sort of) the famous Belgian Paparazzo, who proceeds to take a lot of pictures and ask a lot of questions. Tintin is interested in interviewing everyone except PJ, which of course makes him the only one really interested in being interviewed. Suddenly, Patrivia exclaims that her diamonds are really missing this time, so Walter and Trixie don matching bowler-and-mustache detective outfits to investigate. The duo searches for clues. They suspect Rechairman, but he's been too busy being chased by Patrivia to be the thief. Tintin reports seeing Patrivia looking into her purse and laughing, implying that the diamonds were never stolen and she was just creating a scene to get attention, but when T&W find a Laffy Taffy inside the purse, they understand the laughing. With everyone assembled in the drawing-room to face scrutiny, PJ shows some slides of photos he's taken of himself to get Tintin's attention, and everyone sees in the background of the photos that the diamond thief is ... Tintin! The reporter-turned-thief tries to make his escape, but Walter uses his super-speed to block the door, and Trixie gives him a wicked cold to incapacitate him. All seems to end well, until Patrivia falls off the still-broken chair, wrenches her ankle, and dramatically proclaims to be incapacitated. Looks like PJ and Trixie will have a house guest, at least until the next episode.
Episode 11 (Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer): 11-year-old Artemis Flowl wants to be the youngest super-villain ever, and plots to capture the youngest fairy in the forest as step one of an obscure plan. Flowl is foiled, however, when first his butler's gouty leg and his own allergies prevent him from springing the trap on time, and then when Trixie (the Germ) Truddfeldt and Scott happen by and he must flee. Trixie doesn't believe in fairies, so she decides to take the young "child" home to help her out. A band of the young fairy's Fairie Fellows arrive looking for their comrade's kidnapper, whom they know is named Artemis Flowl, although they've never seen him. Walter (the Volt) Cosmic meets them, and tries to convince them to make him an honorary fairy (probably because he likes the sound of "honorary fairy"). Along comes Artemis Flowl, who convinces them that Trixie is him, and they all head for the CFC, each with their own agenda. Back there, Trixie is trying to convince the fairy she's not one, via shock therapy (telling her stuff like how snails breathe out of their feet, which really is kind of shocking). When the Fairie Fellows arrive, they find they can't enter the yard without Trixie's invitation, so then enlist the help of Silty Boogums, the rock-and-roll Troll, to help out. A general melee ensues. Trixie confronts the real Artemis Flowl and asks him why he's so intent on capturing the youngest fairy, and A.F. reveals he just wanted to borrow a wand to cure his butler's gouty leg. Easily done, it turns out. So he's not very evil, and now Trixie believes in fairies.
Episode 12 (The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss): Walter (The Volt) Cosmic wants Trixie (The Germ) Truffeldt to rehearse for his upcoming talent show contest, wherein he plans to juggle, ventriloquate, and perform a song-n-dance with her. Trixie's ok with it, until Scott The Parrot and his new friend Suessanna show up sporting new perms and implying that anyone with their normal, unpermed hair are by definition uncool. So Trixie decides to blow off her unpermed friend Walter and get one for herself ASAP. Enter Alberto Sneepy Boohoondrick Von Sal, some magical monkey dude, who offers to give Trixie a perm in exchange for one of Walter's juggling balls. Deal, quoth the Trix. As soon as she's got a helmet of undentable golden hair, she's off to join Scott and Suessanna in Coolsville, only to find the two now wearing dickies, which is the new emblem of cool. So when Walter shows up with his new Hasselhoffesque perm wanting to rehearse, Trixie again takes a pass because she needs to find a dickie, which ASBVS is pleased to provide, in exchange for Walter's ventriloquist dummy. Of course, by the time Trixie finds the cool duo to show them her dickie, they're sporting new lightning-bolt emblems, and Trixie's out of style again. Enter Walter, permed and dickied and – by golly! – he's already got a lightning-bolt emblem! But he doesn't care about being cool, which makes Suessanna jealous, so she decides arbitrarily that Walter is still unhip, and anyone who hangs with him is so so out. Talent show time, and Walter is failing because 1) he's only got 2 balls to juggle, 2) he doesn't have a dummy to manipulate, and Trixie's dad PJ is a poor substitute, and 3) he's got no one to song-n-dance with. Trixie decides to heck with artificial cool, and joins Walter on stage for song-n-dance time, thus saving the show! Suessanna realizes the error of her ways, and although it's going to take a couple weeks for all the lacquered hair to wash out, everything's cool again. Cool in a good way, not the phony pretense way.
Episode 13 (The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese): Trixie (The Germ) Truffeldt, Walter (The Volt) Cosmic, and Scott (who is sticking with his perm from last episode) are enjoying a day of fishing with their mentor,
Max (The Zoom) Turbo. Trixie just can't seem to unwind from super-heroism, and convinces Walter that a young girl wearing a "Ping"-logo shirt who happens by needs rescuing, despite evidence to the contrary. The girl – named Lorraine – humors them, until they start arguing about the best way to find her lost "Ping" team (Shouting/Walter, Posters/Trixie), then she gets bored and wanders away. While they search for her, T&W encounter a trio of suspiciously-cheerful girls also outfitted with "Ping"-logo shirts, which turns out to stand for People In Nice Garments. The girls are filling a boat with trash, musical instruments, and a boatload (get it?) of DVDs. Trixie deduces they're cleaning up the shore and collecting stuff to give to the less fortunate. T&W continue their search for Lorraine, and soon find her. Lorraine protests when they try to take her back to the Ping-team, but T&W aren't listening very well. Turns out Lorraine was right: they're not cleaning the river, they're dumping the trash, instruments, and DVDs, for somewhat complicated reasons that can be summarized as faulty assumptions. With the help of Lorraine, the Crime Fighting Crusaders convince the other Pingers of the error of their ways, and together they roll up their sleeves and start to clean up the mess. Good for them.
Episode 14 (The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin): The Truddfeldt family (PJ, JoJo, and Trixie) and Walter have been invited to an exclusive gathering at Sunset Towers. Not all that exclusive, it turns out, because also invited are the arch-villains Show Queen, Grouchy Caveman, Presh Prince of Peer Pressure, and the Flashback Kid. At the Towers, they are greeted by Kevin Peterson, aka the Master of Disguise, who explains that the gathering is in memory of Rosemary, who enjoyed reading the adventures of the eight of them, and asked that they help her live on by participating in a treasure hunt, the winner of whom will receive the fruits of her life's work. The group divides into 3 teams (Jojo/Trixie/Flashback, Show Queen/Walter/Caveman, and PJ/Presh Prince), and each is given a clue and a floor of the Sunset Towers to search. All the teams make kind of a mess of the adventure, but eventually – when they finally get around to reading the clues – all return to the lobby with their treasures: a hat, a packet of seeds, and a sockfull of dirt. What the ..? Well, Kevin Peterson, aka the Master of Disguise, explains, Rosemary was a plant, and by using the hat as a compost-able flower pot for the dirt and seeds, she can live again. Time to present the fruits of Rosemary’s life work, which Kevin reveals to be a lovely loaf of baked bread (rosemary, natch), which Kevin baked from Rosemary for his birthday. I'm sure there's a big circle-of-life lesson in there, appropriate for the last episode of the season.
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