When the Teen Titans' beach day is ruined by garbage in the ocean, they learn all about recycling and cleansing the Earth.
Plot[]
The Titans are enjoying a nice beach day on the island shores of Titans Tower, but there's a revolting problem—the ocean is filled with trash. Annoyed by the filth, Robin orders the team to begin "operation clean-up," and they quickly set out to rid the water of garbage. But after a good amount of cleaning, barely anything is accomplished. A bottle washes up next to Beast Boy that reads "PETE," and so the Titans start searching for the trash-producing "Pete." Eventually, they come upon two talking water bottles named Polly Ethylene and Tara Phthalate. They're actually magical plastic molecules (combining to form "PETE") that can be recycled into pretty much anything...
To further explain, Polly and Tara take the Titans to Jump City Recycling Plant, where a lot of reprocessing takes place. The team watches a conveyor belt turn contaminated plastic bottles into all sorts of new things, such as carpet, chairs, and bags. In addition, Polly and Tara also state that people can reuse plastic for their own projects. But sadly, only 9% of plastic ever gets recycled—most of it goes into the ocean, finding its way to the Great Garbage Patch. The vile warlord who rules the foul domain only allows trash on his island, but Cyborg notes that the rebooted Titans are often considered garbage anyway... They should fit in just fine.
A gigantic mound of trash awaits the Titans and their plastic friends as they navigate through the polluted ocean in a speedboat. The security system identifies them as true garbage, allowing them transit into the filthy island. Suddenly, the ground starts shaking, and from a huge pile of trash pops out Major A.B.S., a military action figure. Starfire wonders why the tiny warlord is living in all this garbage, and so he explains... Long ago, the toy soldier dreamed of being recycled into something great like a garden gnome, but was rejected because of his ABS plastic composition. Cast out into the ocean, Major A.B.S. now has a new dream: vengeance on the recycling industry with his massive garbage robot, the Contaminator!
Dead set on saving the small 9% of recycling, the team jumps into action. Polly and Tara change into various plastic products, which provide good weapons for the Titans. However, after getting hit with the Major's toxic waste, the two magic molecules can no longer transform. So instead of fighting him, the Titans show Major A.B.S. that he's actually a great recycler, having transformed his trash into a giant robot. Realization hits the toy, and he now sees that recycling is the way to go. Still, he's got all of his island's garbage to deal with...
With a bit of creativity, the Titans, Polly and Tara are able to repurpose all of the Great Garbage Patch's trash, turning it into useful (and even beautiful) scenery and tools. Raven presents Major A.B.S. with a recycled garden gnome outfit, which he instantly loves. It looks like the world is saved from garbage—but environmental problems and incoming meteors say differently...
Characters[]
He may be a toy, but Major A.B.S. isn't toying around...
The Titans (except Cyborg) don't actually wear their regular clothes at the beginning of this episode. Instead, they wear their swimsuits. The first time this happened was in the Season 3 episode, "Squash & Stretch".
This episode premiered on John DiMaggio’s 53rd birthday.
This episode premiered exactly four years after "Labor Day".
Coincidentally, both episodes feature the Titans in their swimwear.
Cyborg breaks the fourth wall when he says that he and the other Titans are considered garbage ever since the series came out, a reference to criticism by fans.
Original storyboard of the episode.
In the original storyboard, when the five Titans were searching for PETE, the fish which Starfire came across was suffocating due to being strangled by plastic, and she swam away. This fish was later changed into a clownfish that got devoured by a bigger fish in front of her. [1]
Also, Robin was not swept away by the waves in the storyboard, but rather lost balance and got knocked out.
According to a crew member, there is no indication about the exact relationship between Polly and Tara, but they can be considered as each other's friends.
Continuity[]
Raven is seen unhooded for the 135th time in the series.
Starfire is shown wearing the same snorkel from the end of "The Mug", minus the blue rubber flippers.
Music from "Pure Protein" is heard when the Titans are searching for "Pete".
Music first heard in "Laundry Day" can be heard when Polly and Tara introduce themselves.
References[]
The clownfish which Starfire finds (prior to it being eaten) during the Titans' search for "Pete" appears to resemble Nemo from the Disney-Pixar film Finding Nemo and its sequel Finding Dory.
A DC bottle cap! And a Batman logo, too!? How collectible!
When Polly and Tara morph into a plastic case with the Titans inside it, it's a reference to one of the Barbie toys.
Additionally, the package has the show's logo on it, thus breaking the fourth wall.
At the beginning of the episode, when Starfire finds bottle caps while swimming in the water, the current DC Comics logo can be seen on one of the caps she's holding. There's also a Batman logo bottle cap.
Errors[]
Robin seems to have forgotten what Recycling is, though he is one of the smartest besides Raven.
According to Eric J Pringle, when the Titans are visiting the plastic recycling factory with Polly and Tara, Cyborg has his mouth looped during the scene where Tara explains the machine that removes labels, stray metals and contaminated plastic.[2]
At the beginning of the episode, Starfire is shown wearing a snorkel. When she and the other Titans start "Operation Clean Up", her snorkel is gone. Then, when the Titans are searching for "Pete", Starfire is seen wearing her snorkel again as she's swimming underwater. In the shot where she yells "Pete!", her snorkel is gone again and doesn't reappear.
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