"M-Mother...?!"
Moments pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.
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Season 1
Fiona Frightening Month
- The Boogieman's sudden appearance in "A Song of Ice and Fire" is quite unsettling. He hijacks the show and forces in his own segment; aside from the art, music, and a noise overlay, there's nothing else in this segment. No Crafty, no Nurse, and none of the other Fiona Frightening characters commentate over what's happening. Hell, not even the Boogieman himself contributes anything... that is, until after the piece is finished, when he delivers a menacing ultimatum to the viewers.
Season 2
Nintendo Month
- In "Aqua Marina" Crafty flashes back to his first night in the hospital after nearly drowning. He's left to his own devices as a storm suddenly overtakes the sun. The way the clouds overlap the sun almost makes it seem like there's an eye mid-blink up in the sky. When all is dark, there's a sudden crack of thunder; from outside comes a strange blue hand with an eye in its palm, leering at Crafty. Both of them stare at each other for several seconds before another crack of thunder. Suddenly, the person who that hand belongs to—the mysterious creature from past flashbacks—is standing in the room. As things fade to black and right before Crafty snaps back to reality, the creature speaks for the first time onscreen, her eerily tranquil voice topping off an unsettling encounter:Creature: Hello again... I was worried about you...
- At the very end of "Yugi Vs. Sakura," Nurse finds a package outside the castle. It is addressed to someone named Greta from her mother. Nurse is understandably confused, as, to her knowledge, there is no Greta in the castle... But she suddenly seizes up in fear, and what follows is a flashback and the introduction of the first major antagonist on the show. when she flashes back to a horrific memory.
- In her flashback, Nurse is lying down in a dark room, conscious and fully aware of a shadowy, bloodsoaked figure—who she addresses as her mother before the memory is shown onscreen—gleefully conducting surgery on her with some of the most uncanny animation ever shown on the show. The figure's shadowy arm rises out of Nurse's torso, proudly demonstrating three bloodied scalpels to her daughter. When Nurse hesitantly turns to look at her mother's face, only her mother's uncannily wide smile is visible within her silhouette. Then, a split second before the memory sequence ends, her mother opens her manic, piercing blue eyes to the sound of a metallic shriek. Everything in the scene comes together to make for an exceptionally disturbing preview for Nurse's mother, whose depravity is only explored further as she gradually forces her presence onto the show more often.
- The package contains the Millennium Ring, which houses the newly revived Zorc. He immediately possesses Nurse, giving her blank Mind-Control Eyes, and he cackles as he does so. The entire scene is conducted with some of the most unsettling music that the show has used so far, cementing the presence of its darker elements in the present going forward.
Yu-Gi-Oh Month
- "Best Yu-Gi-Oh Monsters" and "Black Magic Woman" both end in the same, disquieting way. The episodes play out as normal, but the lights suddenly go out just as they finish up. Crafty goes to investigate the cause of the outage, leaving Pepper and Messibelle alone... and face-to-face with the possessed Nurse in silhouette! The episodes end with the terrified screams of the co-hosts as they're sent to the Shadow Realm offscreen.
- Starting with "The Foreshadow Game" Part 3, the co-hosts are attacked by several Shaddoll monsters while trying to draw. Unlike other attacks, which are Played for Laughs, there's a surprising degree of tension surrounding the Shaddoll creatures, with everyone regarding them as the dangers that they are. The tension culminates in one final encounter with the creatures, which is thankfully cut short when Sasha drops into the Crewmates' prison.
- "The Foreshadow Game" Part 4
- The episode's stinger partially introduces the scientist from Nurse's flashback, in person but still silhouetted. There isn't too much revealed that gives her a concrete identity, but she's been fully aware of Nurse's whereabouts ever since finding out about Crafty's show. She has plans for not just Nurse, but her coworkers. The whole scene carries a sinister air that implies a darker tone for the next season.
- Introduced alongside the mysterious scientist is Screw. She appears to be another Frankenstein Monster like Nurse, and she is all but implied to be her sister. A key distinguishing feature of Screw is a large bolt impaled all the way through her skull, with no immediate signs that it can be removed. Screw's vacant expression makes the sight all the more disquieting.
Season 3
General
- At the end of "Crafty Direct! Season 3 Updates," the footage suddenly glitches out as a transmission from Nurse's mother forces itself into the video. Things take a sharply dark turn the moment she appears.
- Eerily, for a brief moment during the visual glitches, Nurse looks horrified. It's almost as though she senses her mother's presence and how it's drawing closer to her and her fellow Crewmates.
- When Nurse's mother finally appears on-screen, she quietly threatens that this next season will be "to die for!" What follows is an on-screen showcase of this spooky poster commemorating Season 3
, which encapsulates this mysterious scientist's developing presence on the show and the Crewmates' outlook on her. She dominates the composition in silhouette with a sinister smile, with a much more self-aware gaze than what was shown in the "Yugi vs. Sakura " flashback. In her left hand, she proudly shows off four syringes reflecting the then-current members of the Crafty Crew. Every single member looks horrified, particularly Pepper, who's plainly screaming.
- For the final query in the Spin-Off Special's Questionable Qloset segment, Crystelle is asked whether Disgustilda will ever be a credible threat for the Crafty Crew. As she gazes into the future for an answer, Crystelle is assaulted with visions of Disguistilda that reduce her to screaming in legitimate fear before she promptly falls unconscious. Some of the visions presented onscreen show the silhouette of an Infinian... But judging by their sheer size how many tentacles they have, that's not Sasha.
- "I Need a Hero Academia" Part 2:
- During a flashback sequence, Crafty recounts a time when he considered attempting suicide again at the same cliff where he met Sasha. Right before he commits to his decision, he hears someone desperately calling for help—it's Nurse, having run away from her home and fallen down into a nearby open grave. In one of the most chilling stills in the series, Crafty finds that she's not just conscious, she's fallen to pieces. Her dismembered body is covered in blood, mud, and severe electrical burns—the remnants of an energy boost that eventually put her in this state. Had Crafty not been around to help her, she would have either died or ended up right back in Mindstein's clutches.
- The episode closes out with a conversation between Mindstein and Screw, in which Mindstein finally outlines her motivations. She's sought out the Infinium relics to help her create an artificial deity, using her own child—Nurse—as the basis for this plan. Surprisingly, she has no ambitions for world domination; this entire plan is purely for the sake of scientific discovery. Her clear devotion to this goal is what makes it so unsettling; Mindstein seems distantly delighted when talking about how she prepared Nurse for the plan, and she's coldly determined to make sure that her daughter sees it through to the end. She merely sees Nurse and Screw as tools, and not once in this part of the special or any episode thereafter does she ever second-guess her choices.
- "I Need a Hero Academia" Part 4.2
- Mindstein's sword, which is basically a giant syringe, is enough to give anyone with a fear of needles a panic attack on its own.
- The moment she enters the scene, Screw shatters Crafty's and Class 1-A's confidence, and things go south fast. She interrupts Crafty just as he's approaching Mindstein by blasting through the floor, casually tossing aside a beaten Bakugo (established as the most powerful member of the team) like a dead fish. Then, at Mindstein's orders and with a twist to the screw in her head, Screw single-handedly mows down everyone else with brutal and precise efficiency. Todoroki buys the injured time to get away, and he actually manages to slow down Screw with his ice and fire powers... but only before she inevitably slams him into the floor. Midoriya, in a desperate Hail Mary pass, throws 100% of his power into a single punch right at Screw... which she effortlessly catches. While she admits that it actually hurt, it clearly wasn't enough to keep her from crushing his hand into a bloody pulp before she punches him across the room and into a wall.
- With almost everyone from Class 1-A down, only Crafty is left. Despite outright admitting that he doesn't know what he's doing, he declares he'll still try and save Nurse no matter what happens. What follows is a surprisingly stressful scene of Screw repeatedly slamming Crafty with everything she has, with him completely unable to defend himself. She ends up knocking out several teeth and smashing in his goggles, damaging his eyes so badly that they're bleeding out and have become solid black. All the while, the captive Nurse can only helplessly watch, screaming in very real anguish at the sight of her beloved friend being savagely beaten to death. Until Todoroki and Midoriya intervene, Screw shows absolutely no signs of stopping.[Crafty, now facing Screw and Mindstein all alone, is frozen in fear.]
Nurse: Crafty! Please!! I beg of you! Just leave me and RUN! You can't win this! Get out of here! Run already!!
[Crafty grits his teeth...]
Crafty: You say run...
[Crafty clenches his fist.]
Crafty: But... I refuse.
Nurse: .... Crafty.... You idiot....
Mindstein: First thing I've agreed with you on in your entire life, Greta. How exactly do you plan to win, Doctor? My creation, Screw, was designed and built to be superior to Greta in every way that matters. She's stronger, faster, and unbreakable obedient to my every command.
Crafty: Honestly? I have no idea... But that's never stopped me before! I'll save Nurse! Because she's my her—HURGH!!
[Screw decks Crafty hard, sending him sailing away and exploding upon impact with the nearest wall.]
Nurse: CRAFTY!!!
[Thankfully, Crafty's still alive, but now he's beaten, bloodied, and coughing a ton.]
Screw: I don't know how you keep surviving my attacks, but I'm going to find out how many it takes before you eventually stop breathing.
[Screw starts beating Crafty to hell and back, with him far too incapacitated to defend himself. Mindstein watches on with sadistic glee; Nurse sobs even harder. The shot of Nurse in anguish is occasionally interrupted by the image of Screw landing yet another punch on Crafty.]
Nurse: Please... stop this! STOP IT!! Let him go! PLEASE! - Mindstein has her own style of cruelty and madness altogether; she restrains Screw from outright pummeling Crafty into a pulp, just so she can analyze his durability for herself, via dissection.
- Once things start to go south for her, Mindstein's rage slowly builds into a murderous crescendo, where she decides to outright kill Nurse, her own child, for her defiance.
- Crafty's utter obliviousness at the source of his durability is enough to bewilder Mindstein...but she's quick to realize that he's saved her the trouble of crafting a replica, now that she can rip the Infinium Heart out of his chest. It's only thanks to Messibelle and the others that Crafty can avoid being carved open like a holiday ham.
- It seems like all is well once Crafty punches out Mindstein and claims victory...but then her face melts off, revealing a robot that projects a hologram of the real Mindstein, safe in her lair. After patronizingly congratulating them, she warns our heroes that all they've managed to do was let her learn more about what she's up against, and promises to fill their days and nights with dread of her return. At her message's end, the robot self-destructs, leaving only the sound of her cackling behind to haunt the heroes.
- The post-credits scene transitions over to Mindstein's lair, where Screw returns from her loss earlier in the episode to grovel at Mindstein's feet. There are some notable details about the scene, particularly Screw's physical condition and her surprisingly emotional behavior.
- Screw stumbles into Mindstein's office, battered, bruised, bleeding, and even flayed, leaving portions of her body's disturbing inner workings exposed. They look simultaneously organic and metallic; whatever happened for Screw to get to this point was clearly Mindstein's doing. It speaks to how effective Nurse's Infinium Heart is; to place her youngest daughter on near-equal footing with her eldest, Mindstein had to replace most of Screw's body with far more machinery.
- Screw's behavior around Mindstein in this scene is far more human than she has ever acted in the present. She looks and sounds close to tears as she readies herself for Mindstein's punishment—presumably, one like the kinds Mindstein is shown using in the Cartoon Month flashbacks—hinting that they're as routine for Screw as they were for Nurse. Thankfully, Screw is spared; Mindstein is more elated by the inspiration she gained from watching Class 1-A and Crafty's fight from afar, even offering Screw some upgrades to help her surpass Nurse. This bears the implication that Mindstein plays upon Screw's envy of Nurse—the one who Mindstein has favored at Screw's expense for most of her life—to secure her loyalty...Mindstein: After all, you don't want to be overshadowed by your big sister now, right?
Screw: [coldly] No, master. Absolutely not.
Season 4
Season 4 Premiere Month
- Crystelle tries discussing something important with Crafty in "We're Back! A Crafty Story," but Crafty is too caught up in the moment to acknowledge her concerns. It's about the visions she received during the Spin-Off Special, and what she says implies even more ominous things about Disgustilda. Topping off the scene is the horrific music that gradually overtakes the pleasant song in the background:Crafty: I wonder if she has any interesting updates for us!
Crystelle: Yes, Doctor, I do. Ahem... I've been trying to find answers to the visions I saw while me and the girls were in that dungeon. But, for some reason, something has been distorting my perception of whatever it is I'm seeing... Whatever it is, it seems to be well beyond my power. I don't know what I can do...
Crafty: I guess we'll never know!
Crystelle: Please come back soon, Crafty. This is a matter that I really need to talk to you about. - "Player Select" ends with a teaser for Mindstein's latest plan: a robotic duplicate of Crafty. It's introduced in silhouette, and it appears to be even skinnier than its basis. What makes his appearance so unnerving is the tense background music accompanying it. The music is laced with the robot's screaming, and as the robot opens his scarlet eyes, he lets out one final, distorted yell of pain.
Sonic Month
- Metal Crafty's first act upon infiltrating the castle is to impersonate Crafty in "Over the Moonsault." His impression is perfect, to the point where the opinions he gives are just what the Doctor himself might say in that situation. And it's not until Pepper rushes out of the room and finds the real doctor making his way to the kitchen that the imposter's presence becomes apparent. By the time she and Crafty return to the kitchen, the imposter is suddenly hiding. When they leave, Metal declares that he's copied Pepper's DNA. He repeats the process again with Messi and Stylene in their spin-off episodes for the month, copying their slime girl and arcane shapeshifter DNA in doing so.
- "Original Episode; Do Not Steal" ends with Junkrat having finished his latest meal: all the unwanted Sonic OCs that Crafty dumped into his storage. Suddenly, Metal approaches Junkrat from behind and shreds him apart. Mercifully, only a bloodstain on the storage room's walls is shown... But come "Gotta Sell Fast," a blood-soaked Metal introduces himself to Crafty and Nurse by tossing Junkrat's severed head in their direction, splattering it against a nearby wall. He even turns one particularly cheesy line from Sonic Adventure 2 into something genuinely chilling.Metal Crafty: I found you... faker.
- "Let's. Get. Metal..."
- To motivate her creation, Mindstein subjected Metal Crafty to constant Dr. Crafty reruns until he grows to hate Crafty. On the one hand, it's a rather humorous idea that's perfectly on-brand with the show's weird sense of humor. But on the other hand, there's something legitimately unsettling behind Metal's earnestly wrathful recounting of it all. Whereas Mindstein, his creator, prefers toying with her opponents instead of outright killing them, Metal Crafty is out for the Crafty Crew's blood right out of the gate.Metal: What I want is simple: I want the Doctor to suffer as much as he has made me suffer.
Crafty: Me?! What did I do to you?!
Metal: You have no idea what you've done to me. And that's exactly why I must end you. You and this show! I've beared witness to every episode, every poorly timed joke, every dated reference, every frustrating plotline ad nauseum, in an endless loop from the very moment I opened my eyes. Every frame is burned into my memory banks, and the only way I can make it stop is to eliminate you, Crafty. And when I take that heart, those memories will die with you. Today. - On Crafty's request over the phone, Crystelle tries using her future sight to get a feel for how much time Crafty and Nurse have before Metal breaks through the lab's security door. To her shock, she can't see Metal at all, implying that either Metal obtained her DNA offscreen, thus gaining a means to negate her abilities, or Mindstein built a way to circumvent them into Metal. Neither is a pleasant thought, especially since Crystelle has been struggling with her powers for a while at this point.
- Just moments before defeating Metal with the combined power of their Infinium Hearts, Crafty and Nurse suddenly vanish, popping up in a dark, mysterious void and rushing toward a gaping black hole. Inside, they see something staring back at them with four eyes, pulling itself out with multiple segmented hands, and muttering something about "the end..." Crystelle is able to pull them out of the void with her rings just in time, but the entity reaches through and grabs her instead, absconding with her spirit and leaving behind Crystelle's lifeless crystal ball head. No one knows just what that thing was, but all Crafty knows is that they can't do that again.
- To motivate her creation, Mindstein subjected Metal Crafty to constant Dr. Crafty reruns until he grows to hate Crafty. On the one hand, it's a rather humorous idea that's perfectly on-brand with the show's weird sense of humor. But on the other hand, there's something legitimately unsettling behind Metal's earnestly wrathful recounting of it all. Whereas Mindstein, his creator, prefers toying with her opponents instead of outright killing them, Metal Crafty is out for the Crafty Crew's blood right out of the gate.
