The Manicoid Teleportation Conundrum

Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 4
Written by	Tracey Stern
Directed by	Jeremiah Chechik
Original airdate	July 7, 2008
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "The Sino-Mexican Revelation" "The Flying Fish Zombification"
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Plot

When a group of peaceful aliens disguised as rich, plastic surgery addicts are targeted by a hunter, the Middleman and Wendy try to get to the bottom of things.

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Wendy is working on a painting of a gorilla with a gun and shows it off to Lacey. Lacey is less than thrilled but has to admit that Wendy is enthusiastic about her work. However, she also has to admit that Ben put their break-up on the Internet. Wendy brings up the video and isn't happy, and is even less happy when she finds out Ben advertised it with a bulk e-mailing.

The next morning, The Middleman contacts a depressed Wendy with a priority message to meet him at the rendezvous point. He neglects to mention what the rendezvous point is. She goes to get her computer as Lacey watches Dr. Gil, a self-help guru. Lacey is worried that Wendy is suppressing and will start watching Italian zombie movies, but Wendy is too busy trying to find the rendezvous point, until Lacey mentions there's a Rendezvous Point Diner. Wendy goes there to find him waiting for her, and he notes he'll be testing her on a wide range of subjects, particularly teamwork.

A woman with an oddly distorted face, Isabel Schon, is shopping when a beam of light shoots down out of the sky and teleports her to a desert location. She sees a figure she recognizes pointing a gun at her, and is shot down.

At Middleman HQ, Wendy is trying to reassure her mother that she's not worried about Ben, and The Middleman interrupts to inform her she needs to know everything there is to know about being a Middleman. He shows her The Middleman Dojo and The Middleman Changing Room, but is forced to admit he doesn't know who pays for it all. He then takes her to The Middleman Interrogation Room, where she gets to practice on a cute Interrodroid 3000 android. The Middleman monitors her when Ida reports that they have a red ball on the disappearance of a rich woman. Ida is less than thrilled with the idea of Wendy as a sidekick but they're interrupted when Wendy demolishes the Interrodroid. The Middleman suspects she's releasing her suppressed emotions.

The Middleman takes her on the case and they check out the disappearance site. A teleport beam shoots down and deposits Isabel corpse on the spot it vanished from. The Middleman quickly concludes a teleportation beam is responsible. Ida identifies the body and they go to talk to Isabel's family. Isabel's brother has the same extensive plastic surgery, as does her sister Doris. Doris mentions there was another attack but Isabel's brother quickly denies it and asks them to leave.

The Middleman and Wendy return to Middleman HQ where Ida has determined that there have been similar crimes in the last six months and several victims were missing their head. All of the victims shared the same plastic surgeon, Dr. Newleaf. Wendy assumes Newleaf is responsible, but they're interrupted when Noser and Lacey arrive at the reception area to pay Wendy a visit and help her through her expected breakdown. Lacey gives Wendy a Dr. Gil DVD and doesn't believe she's okay with the break-up. When Lacey wants to see Wendy's desk, The Middleman intervenes and pulls Wendy away on a fake emergency. He doesn't believe Newleaf is responsible and gets a rare gem out of the safe.

They go to Newleaf's Beauty Institute and The Middleman runs another test, giving her a Fish & Wildlife ID to use. They talk to Newleaf, who has the same plastic surgery. The Middleman shows Newleaf the gem and the doctor can't resist taking it… and eating it. Newleaf hits the intruder alert button and two security guards arrive and they start speaking in alien tongue as Newleaf gives them orders to detain the Earthlings. Wendy goes for her gun only to find The Middleman has turned it off. He then tries a more peaceful approach and Newleaf insists that Wendy leave. The Middleman explains that the aliens are Manicoids, who blend into upper-society where their normal appearance looks just like plastic surgery patients. Newleaf offers to talk to The Middleman once Wendy leaves.

Outside, Wendy calls Lacey and finds out more bad news: Ben has received a substantial contract to make a movie out of his video. Meanwhile, Newleaf refuses The Middleman's offer of help but The Middleman gives him a signal watch to contact him just in case. Heading back to HQ, Wendy is angry that The Middleman doesn't trust her but he warns that her psych profile says that she will have problems with the break-up. She insists the psych profile is wrong and tosses it out the window. Back at her sublet, Wendy finds Lacey watching Dr. Gil again advising one of his guests that crying is okay. Wendy insists on going up to her bedroom.

Dr. Newleaf is leaving his office when a teleportation beam strikes him and beams him away. The Middleman calls Wendy to the scene but en route she realizes that The Middleman gave Newleaf her watch, and it has a tracking device. The Middleman assure her that the watch has a signal for a reason, and he'll always have her back. They follow the signal to KBTTF TV Broadcast Studio, which has the broadcast equipment necessary to send a teleport signal anywhere in the world. the find a secret room containing hunting trophies, including alien heads. Dr. Gill arrives and cheerfully admits that he hunts Manicoids for sport and has teleported Dr. Newleaf to his private hunting ground. Dr. Gil explains that his father opened fire on a UFO, but was crushed when it fell to earth. Dr. Gil salvaged its teleportation device and now hunts aliens for revenge. Dr. Gil opens fire and escapes through the teleporter, but Wendy leaps through after him before a stray shot destroys the controls.

Dr. Gil opens fire on Wendy, who stumbles across Dr. Newleaf. She refuses to back down, draws her gun, and goes after Dr. Gil. However, the gun is still in shutdown mode because of The Middleman. She complains about her week and Dr. Gil offers some impromptu counseling. He assures her he won't leave her like her father and boyfriends… and is then blasted to dust by a Manicoid UFO. The Middleman emerges along with Newleaf's security team and Wendy admits that she knew that he'd always be there for her and all she had to do was stall until he tracked her by the watch.

Wendy returns home and makes up with Lacey, and they settle in to watch Italian zombie movies. However, they're interrupted by a newscast announcing that Dr. Gil was trampled by a herd of runaway rhinos.

Characters and Locations

• Characters first introduced in this episode:
  • Dr. Gill
  • Dr. Roland Newleaf
• Locations first seen in this episode:
  • Newleaf Institute for Natural Beauty
  • Dr. Gill's Private Hunting Reserve

Pop Culture References

The General Pop Culture Reference is Back to the Future series.

Back to the Future References

• One of the first scenes involves Wendy being woken up by a call from the Middleman, mirroring a similar call from Dr. Brown that wakes Marty on the night he goes back in time.
• The Rendezvous Point is located at Lyon Estates. Lyon Estates is a subdivision where Marty and Jennifer live in the future.
• Wendy discovers that the bomb is located at Twin Pines Mall. This is the mall that Doc Brown first performed his time travel experiment.
• Ida gives the address of one of the victims as being on Eastwood Ravine drive. After going back in time to 1885, Marty inadvertently changes events such that Shonash Ravine is renamed Eastwood Ravine instead of Clayton Ravine.
• The station where Dr. Gill works at has a call sign of KBTTF. Television station call signs typically begin with a K when they are west of the Mississippi River, and BTTF is the commonly used acronym for Back To The Future.
• Several aliases are used which are all references to Back to the Future characters, including Doctor Emmett Brown, Buford Tannen, Clara Clayton, and Agent Strictland.

General References

• Dr. Gill is a parody of Dr. Phil McGraw.
• Wendy: "Where in Carmen Sandiego is Kamchatka?" Reference to the video games and television shows Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
• Wendy: "Yippie-ki-aye @#$%$@#!" Reference to John McClane's catchphrase from the Die Hard movies.

Common MiddleMan Jokes

Noser Knows

The Oasis song "Wonderwall"

• Noser: Yo, Wendy Watson.
• Wendy: Hey, Noser.
• Noser: What was today?
• Wendy: Today was going to be the day.
• Noser: What kind of day?
• Wendy: I think they were going to throw it back to me.
• Noser: And did they?
• Wendy: Boy, did they ever.

Trivia

• Parts of this episode were filmed at Vasquez Rocks, Los Angeles County, California.
• This episode featured the return of the song "Palomino", the Middleman's theme song, from the first episode. It is played as the Middleman saves Wendy from Dr. Gill.

Music

• "Precious Metals" by The Russian Futurist
• "Strain My Heart" by Scientific
• "Pieces of You" by Arm's Way

Quotes

Ida: (as Wendy is training with Interrodroid 3000) She plant weed on the suspect yet?

Ida: You ask me, one less rich wench in the world might not be so tragic.

The Middleman: That "rich wench" as you call her probably has a family who loves her!

Ida: So did Charlie Manson.

Wendy: So did I ace it, or did I ace it?

The Middleman: There's acing it, and there's what you did. Like shooting a cow with a Howitzer.

Wendy: I would never shoot a cow.