During a stressful trip to the mall, Robin finds peace in a massage chair.
Plot[]
As the garage door slides open, Cyborg sits at the wheel of the T-Car, a steely look of conviction is his eye. Another day, another mission... to the fancy mall. The Titans take off from the Titans Tower, chanting as they head towards the shopping center. But as usual, Robin is far from excited. Malls stress him out (what doesn't?), even if it's got a whole lot of fancy stuff like the team says. His point is proven when they arrive at the parking lot, but still have to wait and HOUR to find a spot.
After wrecking a granny's car (and the granny, too), the Titans finally park and enter the Dr. Manhattan Mall. It's a very nice building, with numerous shops and elegant scenery. Robin orders the Titans to hurry up and get done what they need done, but he's instantly roped into the miniature mall train with Cyborg and Beast Boy. The basic circular track drives him insane, so he grapple guns outta there... only to be forced to ride a tremendously slow elevator with Raven. Robin smashes out in a rage, but of course, he gets caught up with Starfire and her horrendous free sampling of makeup. She assaults him with the beauty products, but Robin ends up looking anything but beautiful. An allergic reaction to the makeup sends him into panic, and he darts across the mall, stress level to the max.
But to his surprise, Robin comes upon a shop with a sign simply advertising "relax." He cautiously enters, expecting to find a trap of tensity, but instead finds an amazingly refreshing massage chair. The recliner put him in a trance-like state, one filled with astonishing hallucinations and pure bliss—until the five minute demo ends. Robin had never experienced such relaxation, and now it was over. The Titans are ready to leave the mall, so they yank a tearful Robin away.
THE NEXT MORNING...
Robin rouses the Titans from sleep for a very important announcement: after contemplating yesterday's experience, he's decided to buy the his very own massage chair. Specifically the Eternity TX-9, complete with premium leather and S-track rollers, definitely a top-of-the-market chair. Without further ado, Robin sits in the chair and is instantly intoxicated by its comfort. Noticing that Robin is now essentially brain-dead, the Titans take advantage of his credit card and start partying to the max. However, when they unplug Robin's chair to play their new arcade machine, a diabolical purple light emits from the recliner and the hero's eyes. The two are now joined as one, and it calls itself "Chair" in a robotic Robin voice. Apparently, Robin's amount of stress was powerful enough to awaken the sentient massage chair. And now that it's free, Chair can finally free his other chair bros for the "Great Relaxing."
Using super-speed, Chair blasts off to Jump City, where it awakens the rest of the massage chairs at the mall. The Titans arrive to help Robin, but they start to run after the chairs attack them. It's no use, though; once the magical chairs enslave the heroes, they go around the city, converting everyone to their ultimate tranquility and freedom from stress... after the Great Relaxing is complete, Jump City actually seems to be doing quite well in this placid state. But unfortunately, extreme relaxation means people are too relaxed to even get food and water. 7 months later, the entire population is reduced to skeletons floating around in massage chairs. The chairs, seeing that their hosts have relaxed to the fullest, dump the decomposed Titans onto the Tower roof and leave.
This episode reveals that Robin is allergic to makeup.
While many episodes end with (at least one of) the Titans meeting their demise, this episode is notable for depicting global extinction, making this the darkest ending to date. (Click here for more of the Titans' deaths.)
Apparently, after the Titans all become hypnotized by the chairs, their consciousnesses get trapped in the chairs, leaving their voices inside the chairs, while their bodies can no longer talk.
Continuity[]
Raven is seen unhooded for the 123rd time in the series.
Robin’s face suffers from the allergy to the makeup, with allergies being one of his weaknesses that was covered in Kryptonite.
Starfire’s poor experience on applying makeup from "Croissant" is shown again when she applies the makeup samples on herself and Robin, and then applies eight cucumber slices on face.
This is the second time where all of the Titans are hypnotized. The first time is in "A Farce".
Everyone's eyes after becoming hypnotized are the same as Robin and the Jump City residents' after being hypnotized by Slade's "Robin: The Movie" screens in Teen Titans Go! to the Movies.