http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/BatmanBeyondS2E13TerrysFriendDatesARobot
Terry's nerdy friend Howard Groote is planning to throw a party at his house while his parents are away, but has trouble attracting guests due to his low status on the High School
Popularity Food Chain. One afternoon, when Howard joins Terry on an errand to pick up a synthoid robot at a factory for Bruce, he meets a shady factory employee who has been secretly designing and selling custom-made "
pleasure synthoids" on the black market. Excited at the opportunity, he quickly purchases one for himself. With his new attractive girlfriend "
Cynthia" by his side, Howard's popularity at school quickly skyrockets. Unfortunately, he soon learns that the factory worker programmed Cynthia to be a little
too attached to him.
Tropes:
- Actually a Doombot: The Synthoid dealer uses a Synthoid of himself to try to distract Batman. It doesn't work.
- Angst Nuke: Literally — Cynthia's response to Howard putting her in the friend-zone is to self-destruct in a colossal explosion.
- Asshole Victim: Nelson gets several lockers pushed onto him (he survives) by Cynthia after she hears him planning to "put Howard in his place" for daring to have a hot girlfriend. She even lampshades it afterwards:
Cynthia: Nelson didn't seem like a very nice guy to begin with.
- Author Avatar: Howard is reportedly based on young Paul Dini, so this might also count as Self-Deprecation.
- Berserk Button:
- Cynthia has a literal one that gets pushed any time she sees someone trying to get between her and Howard.
- Another one when Howard decides he wants to date other girls. She does not take it well.
- And what literally sets Cynthia off to the point of LITERAL self-destruction: when Howard tries to tell her "We can still be friends..."
- Bittersweet Ending: Played for laughs. Howard is going to be pretty popular after the party (even when Cynthia exploded from being friend-zoned). However, his parents (who came home early from their vacation because the price tag for Cynthia completely bottomed out their credit) are not happy with finding their house in smithereens and will surely ground him. They even accuse him of playing with dynamite.
- Continuity Nod: A Golem can be seen in the background at the synthoid factory.
- Danger Room Cold Open: The episode opens with Terry training against robotic versions of Classic Batman villains (Two-Face, Riddler, and Killer Croc).
- Decoy Getaway: The illegal synthoid builder attempts this, sending a duplicate of himself to attack Batman while he runs away. It doesn't work.
- Didn't Think This Through: Howard's suggestion to an already murderous Cynthia that they could still be friends. Even Terry facepalms.
Howard: Wrong thing to say?
Terry: Is it ever the right thing?!
- Also, when Howard requested that Cynthia be programmed to be totally devoted to him, he should have realized that once other girls became interested in him, she wouldn’t be willing to just step aside when he decided to dump her.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Nelson makes a pass at Cynthia and then mocks Howard after seeing that she is dating him. In response, Cynthia pushes a row of lockers onto him, nearly killing him in the process. Then again, he was overheard planning to "put Howard in his place" for daring to have a hot girlfriend by Cynthia, so this might be an extreme example of a Violently Protective Girlfriend.
- End of an Era: Behind-the-scenes example. This was the final episode of Batman Beyond (and the entire DCAU) to be animated and shot on traditional cels and film. Beginning with the very next episode, Beyond switched over to digital coloring for the remainder of its run (as does the DCAU).
- Everyone Has Standards: Cynthia may have a point about how Nelson wasn't a nice person to begin with (see Jerkass Has a Point), but Max and Dana find her statement about how he deserved to be nearly crushed by a domino of lockers quite inhumane and cold. Case in point:
- Exact Words: When Terry asks Cynthia how long she's known Howard, she replies "All my life." This is actually true: She was programmed specifically to be a girlfriend for Howard.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The episode's title.
- Face Palm: Terry/Batman stuffs his face into his hand when Howard gives Cynthia the Let's Just Be Friends talk.
- Fiery Redhead: Cynthia, who is a redheaded synthoid who is wildly jealous and protective.
- Gone Horribly Right: Cynthia's dysfunctional behavior ultimately arises out of being programmed in accordance with Howard's request that she be "totally devoted" to him.
- Humiliation Conga: What happens to Howard in the final act. His robot girlfriend tries to kill him, his ploy gets exposed in front of the entire school, his house gets blown up, and to top it off, his parents show up from their vacation, cut short just in time to see the aftermath. On the bright side, the event does appear to have given him a legendary status in school and it did end up boosting his popularity.
- Jerkass: Howard is a goofball, but he definitely is not a nice guy: he is obsessed with becoming part of the "in"-crowd (
which might be part of the reason why he wasn’t part of that crowd) and the main reason he purchased Cynthia was so make the cool kids jealous and be invited to be their friends. When he seems to have made it, he stops caring about Cynthia and when she wrecks half of his house by going on a rampage and makes clear she's acting on her programming to love him, he does the "we can still be friends" speech without thinking that was a very bad idea even without putting into account her "gets so ticked off she explosively overloads" reaction. - Jerkass Has a Point: Cynthia isn't exactly stretching the truth when she points out that Nelson kind of deserved to have lockers pushed onto him (especially when he was going to "put Howard in his place").
- Karma Houdini: Despite illegally ordering a Sex Bot that committed several acts of attempted murder, not to mention blew up his parents' house, he does not go to jail (as he appears as a Hill High student in several subsequent episodes) and receives no on-screen punishment aside from a tongue-lashing from his mom and dad when they find their house in ruin.
- Let's Just Be Friends: Howard says this to Cynthia during her climactic fight in an attempt to calm her down. While Batman just makes a Facepalm, Cynthia does NOT take it well.
- Made of Explodium: After reaching her Rage Breaking Point, Cynthia explodes and ends up taking the entire house with her.
- Magical Girlfriend: Plays with this idea. Howard purchases an illegal human-like synthoid robot which looks like a beautiful woman, whom he names "Cynthia" and has programmed to be "totally into me." Problem is, she's scarily possessive and has superhuman strength. She nearly kills a couple of people who bully Howard and Batman has to step in. When Howard decides they should see other people, she explodes.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: When Chelsea begins to show interest in Howard, Cynthia becomes insanely jealous and attempts to kill her by pushing the high school building's logo onto her. Luckily, Terry intervenes in time to stop her.
- Out-of-Character Moment: While Chelsea and Blade are usually Those Two Girls who are attractive and friends with Dana, Chelsea is generally nicer compared to Blade, who is willing to manipulate Willie Wyatt to make Nelson jealous and completely disregards the safety and well-being of her Eggbaby, making Terry do the hardwork and expects an A+ despite doing essentially nothing, this episode reverses their characters completely. Once Howard gets a "girlfriend", both start being nice to him, but while Blade just appears to be a supportive friend to Howard, Chelsea outright starts flirting with him despite him having a girlfriend (granted she was a robot, but Chelsea didn’t know that) and makes it clear that she is only interested in him now because he has a girlfriend. Although Blade might be more supportive to Howard only because having a girlfriend should prevent him from trying to hit on Blade.
- Power Perversion Potential: Howard flat-out buys a Sex Bot (and somehow managed to screw that up).
- Rage Breaking Point: What happens to Cynthia at the end after Howard tries to break up with her. Her reaction is literally explosive.
- Robotic Spouse: Cynthia to Howard.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: As Terry explains to Max in this episode, building robots like this is illegal, and through Cynthia, it becomes obvious why. The builder actually told Howard that it wasn't legal, but did it because he was paid enough to "skin a coyote".
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Howard's parents arrive and begin to yell at him for destroying the house, Max does the only sensible thing: step away from Howard. Dana and Terry quickly follow her.
- Shockingly Expensive Bill: We discover exactly how much the synthoids cost when Howard's parents (who, from what we see of the Grootes' home, were pretty okay from a financial point of view) arrive right after Cynthia explodes and yell Howard's ear off because he completely bottomed out their bank account with his purchase, forcing them to cut their vacation short.
Mr. Groote: [Scolding Howard] What in blazes did you buy with it? Dynamite? Dynamite to blow up the house with?
- Shout-Out: Max borrows a catchphrase from another Max, and she delivers the "I hope I wasn't out of line," routine every bit as well as Don Adams.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Howard specifically designs Cynthia as such.
- Spurned into Suicide: Howard's Let's Just Be Friends line ends up leading to Cynthia exploding.
- Sue Donym: How Cynthia gets her name, someone asks Howard for it and he almost stumbles out the word "Synthoid" but switches it mid word landing on "Syn-thia".
- Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Cynthia is incredibly strong, and can overpower Batman despite being built to be a girlfriend. Oddly, the other synthoids in this episode are rather easily taken care of by Batman.
- Tempting Fate: Looking at the flaming wreck that used to be his house, Howard asks how things could get any worse. Cue his parents suddenly driving up.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Batman's reaction to Howard saying Let's Just Be Friends.
- Unfulfilled Purpose Misery: Cynthia is literally programmed to love Howard, but he uses her as a status symbol, then suggests they just be friends.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Howard orders a sentient robotic girlfriend from a roboticist. He specifies that he wants her to love him unconditionally and be 100% (aka fanatically) devoted to him. He enjoys the popularity having an attractive girlfriend brings him, and begins hitting on other girls right in front of her. This obviously makes her jealous and she becomes possessive of him to the point of attacking people who either threaten him or her claim on him. When he calls her out on this, she pleads with him saying he is the only reason she lives and that she was only doing exactly what he had her programmed to do. He proceeds to break up with her anyway, giving an insincere Let's Just Be Friends. She is so angry and heartbroken she is Driven to Suicide. The show treats this ending as humorous and the main characters share a laugh. But since Howard was being yelled at by his parents at the time, the laughter seems to be more at his expense than at Cynthia’s.
- Wild Teen Party: Howard's party at his house is a classic example of this trope, complete with his parents arriving right on cue just after he accidentally blows the house up.
- Woman Scorned: Howard calling things off with Cynthia sends her on a rampage and Batman was completely unable to take her down despite him easily disposing of the other synthoids earlier on.
- Yandere: Cynthia tries to kill anyone she thinks is showing interest in Howard. Granted, she is literally programmed to be "100% loyal" to him, so she can see any other girl as a threat.
