Starfire acquires a space parasite, which she insists on treating like a pet. The parasite succeeds in winning over all of the Titans but Robin, who alone sees the parasite as the threat that it is.
Plot[]
The episode starts off with Starfire picking food for her Tamaranian holiday, Feast Day. She gets stung by one of the creatures, causing her to grow a
Try it.
parasite on her stomach. Later, she announces to the Titans that she will be celebrating her holiday, and invited the rest of the Titans for it. All agree reluctantly, except Robin, who's willing to try it out at first. However, once seeing the food, Cyborg and Beast Boy made up a excuse to not come, and Raven left immediately after seeing one of the mouth-worms. Robin however, decides to eat one of the mouth worms, but fails and runs away after biting it on the tail and causing it to scream
She names her Parry.
with mouth-eyes. Starfire is saddened that her friends were terrified of her food.
Later, Starfire is in her room talking to Silkie trying to get him to eat a mouth worm, but he then ran away in fear as well. She then goes to sleep, but gets interrupted by her parasite on her stomach saying that it would love to be a part of Feast Day. The next day, Starfire is cooking the frog legs, but the Titans come in and are shocked when they see the parasite and how big it had become. Starfire then explains to them that the parasite was harmless, and its name, "Parry", however the Titans are still scared of Parry. Robin goes crazy and says that they will end of
A giant monster.
fighting a giant spider at the end of the universe if she continues having Parry. Still being disgusted, Starfire claims that Parry called Robin rude, causing Cyborg to tell her Parry can't talk. Starfire proclaimed to Cyborg that they communicate by "brain waves". The Titans tell her that it is not normal for her to do that, causing Starfire to leave in sadness, as says she is called not normal by them.
Later Robin is seen with Silkie gathering research on how Parry is not friendly, and can't communicate with Starfire. Robin comes to the conclusion that Starfire made up a personality for Parry to cope with being not normal and can't really talk at all and that Parry will turn into a giant spider that the Titans will end up having to fight on a different side of the galaxy. He then tries to tell the Titans about his research, but it turns out the rest of them befriended Parry, who was telling a story through Starfire. Parry asks Starfire if the rest of the Titans would join them for Feast Day. Starfire tells them that they declined her invitation, but they quickly decide that they will come because of Parry. Robin will also join but follows Starfire and Parry around to see if he can prove his theory. The Titans are later seen celebrating Feast Day, only for Robin to complain on how he knows Parry isn't what he seems. To prove parasites are bad, he puts various Earth parasites on his face and swallowing on, which caused them to start sucking at his body. Upset, Starfire cries at Robin saying that Parry was the only thing that made her feel normal before leaving. This caused the other Titans to get mad at Robin for ruining the event while he continues to suffer from the earth parasites.
Later, in Starfire's sleep, he tries to remove Parry off of Starfire, but ends up going inside the parasite when he grabs it. This caused Robin to be face-to-face with Parry's himself, who tells Robin that he was a jerk. This causes Robin to say that he needs to do a better job at understanding Parry, but the parasite then shows him that he needs to understand Starfire more. As a compliment, he made Robin a cape for his brain. Having now become friends with Parry, Robin leaves the parasite. After he comes back and apologizes to Starfire as well as admitting that her traditions may be strange and that he's not the normal one sometimes (Well, more than sometimes), Parry tells Starfire that he has to leave. All the Titans immediately goes up to the roof of their Tower and watches as Parry goes off into space. However and unfortunately, he instead transforms into a giant spider-like monster and takes them to the other side of the universe, causing Robin to boast on how he was correct all along. The episode ends with Parry smashing the Teen Titans, just as Robin has predicted.
This is the first of many times that a Titans inane ramblings about something eventually end up validated.
Another name for this episode is "The Parasite Date".[1]
The episode was also originally going to air on Tuesday, June 25th, 2013.
This episode is similar to the original Teen Titans episode, Transformation. In the episode, Starfire basically goes through Tamaranian puberty, which starts with a giant bump on her forehead that's vaguely similar to Parry on her hip. The Titans ends up fighting the same giant spider in Transformation as they do in Parasite.
Starfire is not seen wearing her pajamas while she is asleep in this episode.
Innuendo: When Raven calls Robin a "Creepy guy in the bushes with a camera", Robin thinks Raven is referring to him as a pervert.
Continuity[]
The creature Starfire picks berries from and gets stung by is the same creature Starfire has in her room (only much smaller) in "Driver's Ed."
The Riddler Question Mark is used more often later in the series.
When Robin is obsessed with keeping an eye on Parry whom he thinks might be evil on Starfire's 2nd Feast Day, a versus image between Robin and Parry is shown. This references the staring contest scene to determine the Titan who would wash the others clothes in "Laundry Day."
Music from "Laundry Day" is heard when Robin shows the Titans his collection of parasites
References[]
An edited version of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" plays at the beginning of the episode when the underwater organism evolves quickly.
In the scene where the other Titans are laughing at Parry, Robin has the Riddler as a question mark.
The micro-organism, at the beginning of the episode, is seen evolving into a fish, then to an amphibian-like creature. This is a reference to how we think evolution started million of years ago.
Errors[]
Starfire says that Feast Day would take place during the night, but she celebrates it during the day.
Running Gags[]
Robin trying to prove to the others that Starfire's parasite Parry is in fact a bad parasite.
