The Secret Decoder Ring

The Secret Decoder Ring
Series	The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
Season	4
Production code	421
Writer	Zena Wyss Mike Diederich
Broadcast information
Cartoon Network US Premiere	April 15, 2005
Paired with	Happy Huggy Stuffy Bears
Chronological information
Previous Happy Huggy Stuffy Bears	Next Wild Parts

The Secret Decoder Ring is the 21st episode from season 4 of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.

Synopsis

Billy tries to use a decorder ring that he finds in a cereal box in order to discover the secret of the universe. Grim tries to warn Billy and Mandy off of seeking out 'secret of the universe', suspecting the hand of a figure from his past. The weird thing is, Billy and Mandy are not the only ones trying to discover the 'secret of the universe'...

Plot

The episode starts with Mandy going to Billy’s house, where Grim is assisting him in eating numerous boxes of Blasto Bits cereal; 26 in total. His reason for his mass consumption is because of a cereal box prize: a decoder ring that will reveal a hidden message on the back of the box. Mandy helps herself to a bowl of Blasto Bits and finds the decoder ring herself. Billy begs and cries for the ring and Mandy gives it to him. Upon wearing the ring, Billy thinks he’s now invisible, rips off all of his clothes (the only “clothing” being a fig leaf) and begins messing with Grim. He then decides to use the decoder ring for its intended purpose: revealing the supposed "secret of the universe" hidden on the back of the box. The ring shoots out a red laser beam and begins deciphering the message, then gives out, to Grim’s amusement.

The ring then projects a holographic message from a woman addressing someone named Oki Wan Kadoke and frantically telling the trio that her planet is under attack, before being kidnapped by a hideous monster. After the hologram visuals fade, another one starts. The figure delivering the message this time is just a big pair of lips, who tells the three to go to the caves at the top of Gutterball Hill, which is inhabited by various animal ghosts. Once inside the cave, they must go down an abandoned mine shaft, and there, they will find the so-called secret of the universe in a bottomless abyss.

Grim takes a moment to think about the voice he just heard, and realizes he may know who it was that delivered the message. Just then, he, Billy and Mandy set off for Gutterball Hill, only to see that every kid in Endsville are all wearing decoder rings and got the same exact message to head for the hill. Irwin is riding his bike, which is then hijacked by Sperg. Moments later, Mindy shows up on a pink motor scooter and brags to the trio that she’ll be the first to find the secret and won’t tell anyone.

Instead of having to race the crowd to Gutterball Hill, Mandy demands that Grim uses his scythe to teleport them to the entrance of the cave. They go inside and reach the bottomless mine shaft pit that leads to where the secret is being kept. Grim nervously tells them they should leave the cave, making Mandy suspicious that he knows something they don’t. One of the ghosts, a Kiwi, begins poking Billy with its sharp beak, followed by dozens of cave ghosts flying into them, pushing them over the edge and down into the pit. Mindy arrives just in time to see them falling below. Soon after, the other Endsville kids arrive, only to be too scared to venture into the dark depths of the mine shaft.

As the three friends are falling, Grim tells them they should’ve just turned back, prompting Mandy to demand that he tell them what the deal with him is. He begins to tell the story of an old classmate who had a crush on him.

In a flashback sequence to Grim’s youth, the classmate in question, a green worm named Lubber, acts as a stage-5 clinger who follows him everywhere in school, even devouring any and all students at the school. When the principal gets word of this, Lubber is expelled and cursed to guard the secret of the universe forever, or until the curse was broken.

As they reach the bottom of the pit, Lubber emerges and swallows the three friends whole. She spits them out, only to see it was Grim she had eaten and is gleeful to see him again after so long. Lubber tells him that she’s planning to leave the cave, revealing that she sent out the secret message via the Blasto Bits cereal. Mandy then orders Lubber to cough up the secret she’s been guarding for the last thousand years. Lubber tells Mandy to gaze into her wormhole to see the secret. Before the secret can show itself, Mindy shows up to demand that she be the one who sees the secret first.

Upon staring into the wormhole, Mindy reads the message aloud: “I was only kidding.” She questions the stupidity of this so-called secret, but is pushed into the hole by an unseen force. This in turn breaks Lubber’s thousand-year curse and relinquishes ownership of the secret of the universe onto Mindy. Lubber flies up to the surface laughing, prompting the Endsville kids to run for their lives out of the cave. Grim, Billy and Mandy follow behind. The episode ends with Mindy screaming from the bottom of the cave for someone to let her out.

Quotes

• Lubber (happily): Grim? Oh, i thought i tasted something familiar!
• Grim: No Lubber... heheh.
• Lubber: Oh Grim my sweetie BABY! Where have you been for the last thousand years!
• (Lubber starts kissing Grim)
• Lubber: I KNEW YOU WOULDN'T FORGET ME, i'm getting out of here. I am making a break for it! We will be together AT LAST!!
• Grim: But you can't leave here Lubber! You're under a curse.
• Lubber: I don't care about the stupid secret anymore, i wanna see a big world AND party with some-strangers! That's why I sent out Secret Decoder Rings to all the kids at Endsville, i have a secret plan to break the curse.
• Mandy: Allright, cut the gap fish-bait and cough up the secret of the universe.
• Lubber (laughs): Sure! I'll show you the secret, if you are worthy... you all can look deep inside my worm hole to read the secret message.
• (Lubber starts laughing while Mandy guesses the secret message in her worm hole until Mindy shows up and stops them)
• Mindy: Hold it right there, loser! If anybody's going to see the secret of the universe, it's going to BE ME. After all, i'm much prettier and much more popular.
• (Mindy procceds to cut in front of Grim, Billy and Mandy and she looks down at the worm hole but the secret says "I was only kidding")
• Mindy: "I was only kidding"? What kind of stupid secret is that?!
• (Mindy gets pushed down the worm hole with gravity)
• Mindy: Yaaaaaahh!!
• (The gravity in the worm hole picks up Mindy and makes her as the guardian, which lead to freeing Lubber from the curse)
• Mindy: Who pushed me? Somebody pushed me! Hey what's going on?! Let me out of here you losers!!
• Lubber (cheering): IT WORKED! The curse has been lifted! (singing) I'M FR-EE! (clears her throat) It is clearly stated about the curse, that upon the secret design by a human, the curse will be lifted and said human (Mindy) should take your place as the guardian of the secret, FOREVER.
• (Lubber gives Mindy the info on a paper about the curse)
• Lubber (to Mindy): Here's a copy of the curse that I printed for you, okay? Too-da-loo.
• (Lubber proceeds onward and leaves Mindy in the worm hole)
• Mindy (angry): What?! Where you're going? Come back here you worm!! YOU'RE BIRD FOOD WHEN MY DADDY FINDS OUT!
• Lubber (to Grim): Grim, we are SO OVER because I am out of here. So long suckers!
• (Lubber starts laughing and comes on top of the abandoned mine)
• Boy (screaming): EVERYBODY! Out of the cave, NOW!!!!
• (The kids start screaming and runs out of the cave until Lubber pops up)
• Lubber: Hey wait! Don't go, let's PAR-TY!
• (Lubber, Grim, Billy and Mandy all leaves the cave except for Mindy stuck in the worm hole as the guardian of the secret)
• Mindy (shouting): Don't leave me here! I'm warning you!! YOU'RE ALL LOSERS!!

Credits

• Story by: Zena Wyss, Mike Diederich
• Storyboard by: Mike Diederich
• Art direction: Rae McCarson
• Directed by: Robert Alvarez, Shaun Cashman, Randy Myers

Trivia

• A hidden message can be seen within the frames in the episode. It's possibly an editing error.
• During the first decoder ring hologram projection, a woman in a white dress and her hair styled in Hopi can be heard delivering a message to someone named Oki-Wan Kadoke. This is a homage to Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, in which Princess Leia delivers a message to Obi-Wan Kenobi about the Empire via a holographic projection from R2-D2.
• There was gonna be a deleted scene in the ending credits of Mindy demanding for someone to help her out of the abandoned mine after Grim, Billy, Mandy, Lubber and everyone else left her but it got scrapped because it might be too frightening for younger viewers, and it only ended up with a deleted scene for Happy Huggy Stuffy Bears.

The hidden message

Gallery

The image gallery for The Secret Decoder Ring may be viewed here.