Time Squad/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

 * The main page for Time Squad notes that the ending line of "Ex Marks the Spot"--the famous "Tonight, you're sleeping on the sofa!"--seems incongruous because "no prior episode [save for "Old Timers' Squad"] established that Buck and Larry shared a bed." I wrote on the discussion page that Larry must have intended to share a bed with Tuddrussel that night, but eventually decided against it since he was angry at him for (unintentionally) toying with his emotions. But then I remembered the episode's beginning, in which Larry was unusually happy and even smiling constantly while he did chores for Tuddrussel's benefit. Otto's suspicious inquiries implied that Larry had been acting in this fashion for a while, and the reply, "Oh, you'll understand when you're older," indicated that Larry was attempting to hide something from Otto. Now, Otto bore witness to Lewis and Clark's domestic troubles; he was already well aware that gay couples existed. He wouldn't need to be "shielded" from something as innocuous as a same-sex relationship, especially since he'd already seen one. Larry must have been concealing something more than love. And after that, I remembered "Larry Upgrade", in which Tuddrussel complained about Larry not following his exact orders. So I realized that Larry had started obeying the mandates of his original programming, as opposed to being defiant and sarcastic, because he wanted to get something out of it. Larry was giving Tuddrussel what he wanted, so Tuddrussel was giving Larry what he wanted. Hence, the line at the episode's end. --Dioschorium
 * The episode involving Sigmund Freud did seem a little out of character for him to go around hypnotising people until you realise that Freud did study and practice hypnotism early in his career. -- Lady Nomad
 * What exactly does Tuddrussell get out of his relationship with Larry, when it seems like he spends the majority of his time being irritated at him and ordering him around? In multiple episodes, Tuddrussell is shown to have a borderline orgasmic reaction to guns and gun-like gadgets (which was passed to Larry when he handled one of Tuddrussell's guns in "Hate and Let Hate"), even ogling pictures of them as if they were Playboy centerfolds (cf. "Kubla Khan't"). His relationship with Larry makes so much sense once you realize that he's basically shown to have a machine fetish. Larry, of course, having an equally apparent preference for humans, it's only natural (er...) that they'd find each other desirable.
 * That would explain why Tuddrussell always tells Larry to "act like a robot." It's not because Tuddrussell is embarrassed over Larry not acting manly (though it can be taken as such); it's to indulge in a hidden fetish. However, it doesn't really explain why he was horrified and disgusted to the point of vomiting in "Day of the Larrys" when he encountered all the Larry clones (including the shirtless cowboy clone who rather blatantly flirted with him).

Fridge Horror

 * Time Squad: "Hate and Let Hate" from season two has a pretty heavy one: Just how long did Larry and Tuddrussel not notice that Otto -- an eight-year-old boy whom the two have treated like a son -- was left on the island? It could be safely assumed that maybe Otto was left for a few hours (minutes in the viewer's eyes) -- until Tuddrussel (who trapped himself on Larry's side of the satellite) moaned that he hadn't a decent meal in days. What's worse is that Larry, possibly the only other character on the satellite who's an Only Sane Man (when he's not being a Camp Gay Deadpan Snarker) and possesses some semblance of common sense, didn't notice that Otto was missing, not even when he accidentally shot at the picture of Tuddrussel, himself, and Otto in Tuddrussel's phaser room.
 * The Tuddrussel, Otto, and Larry interactions are a good bit more disturbing if you consider that they are very much like a family unit, with Larry and Tuddrussel as the parents who hate each other and are so close to divorcing and Otto as the child who keeps them together. Throughout the series we see that the two allow him to go into outer space unsupervised to play while they fight, bicker over their methods of raising him, and take him into dangerous situations. That "Hate and Let Hate" episode could easily be seen as a kid being severely neglected because the parents are too wrapped up in a fight.
 * What's more is the fact that the nun who ran Otto's previous home at the orphanage literally used her wards for cheap child labor, like working in a coal mine and cleaning windows on the Empire State Building?! (with one of the kids falling to his doom as seen in "Orphan Substitute") This took place in the United States in the 21st century where somebody at one point should have called the authorities or at least denied her to use her kids that way. She even had a whip ready to eagerly use on them in one episode and threatened to starve them all if one of them dropped a piece of government cheese as they carried it back to the bus. This was while in Washington D.C. mind you, where security is everywhere and is sure as heck likely to have seen her, but probably didn't even bother with her.
 * Speaking of the orphanage, on "Orphan Substitute," Otto's scrapbook of his life at the orphanage has a picture of said orphanage with the words, "My first home" and an arrow pointing to the photo (keep in mind that Otto is eight years old, even though "Love at First Flight" began with Otto celebrating his ninth birthday). Has Otto been at that orphanage all his life, and if so, what kind of abuse did Sister Thornly put him through? And what happened to Otto's parents? Did they really die and leave him an orphan, or did they abandon him or give him up for adoption when Otto was too young to remember what his parents look like (notice how he never talks about them)?
 * I think the pictures in Otto's scrap book speaks for itself on what Sister Thornley put him though, take a look at this picture from Orphan Substitute, you see that Otto has some marks on his back. Let's try to imagine where those came from, shall we? With Sister Thornley in the background with what appears to be a whip it's probably not hard to figure it out. This part from the episode goes by so quickly that you don't catch it right away. Now a few cartoons that have been made in the past have protrayed this type of sadistic punishment, ( the Dexters Laboratory tv movie Ego Trip comes to mind.) But the thing is, that example does not leave one to their imagination. In Otto's case, it's a jarringly subtle nod to how messed up his life really was. So putting these images together along with the above mentioned moment where she uses a whip to threaten the kids, notice at the end of that same episode while trying to find Otto, she was carrying a ruler. Now, if Tuddrussel and Larry didn't show up right then before she got to him, would she have used that on him?
 * So thinking about how in Time Squad people get taken out of their own time periods, Tuddrussel and Larry have a problem with taking people out of their times for different reasons; Otto because they needed him (and Otto couldn't handle living in the orphanage), Dr. Freud was sent to 1776 to tell the Americans the British were coming because Paul Revere had a crippling fear of horses, Tuddrussell sneaked Ivan the Terrible back on the satellite as a pet, and "Repeat Offender" revealed that Tuddrussell installed a prison for historical figures who don't want to pursue their destinies (like Ghandi and Blackbeard). But how much can time handle? On "Napoleon The Conquered," Larry explained how the unraveling of time affects everything ("If the dodo bird was never made extinct, it would have evolved to become a huge monster and one day crush a young Henry Ford, traumatizing him from ever inventing the Ford Motel T, so we would never have solar powered cars in the future.") Ok in that logic, what if someone was to be taken out of existence? Because in a way, that's what they're doing when they take people out of their time, like Otto. What if he was supposed to do something important when he grew up? Or what if he was supposed to have kids himself and along down the line someone does something important, but that destiny was interfered when he was taken in by the Time Squad unit. And just taking anybody could be potentially hazardous in that sense, just think, if you’re directly related to someone famous, you and your whole family line from that one point could have never happened to begin with.
 * That kind of draws on another puzzling thought when you think about it, like why they have to travel in time to make sure history stays accurate in the first place. Sure, if there weren't that, there wouldn't be a show, but it still makes one wonder if the very discovery of time travel and trying to fix what would be considered negative events caused a whiplash effect, and vast deviants from their actual selves. Time Squad might have been made to right the wrongs of the first time travelers.
 * My guess is that time works in a kind of ripple effect in this universe, when a timeline change occurs it doesnt happen immediatly, and will only become permanent if not corrected within a certain amount of time. Thus, a person can be removed from their place in history temporarily, like Freud for the Paul Revere standin, and the fact that Mahatma Ghandi and Blackbeard are locked up on the satellite for repeat offenses. Its also possible that people like Otto who remains in the future are meant to be there, because otherwise, the historicall inaccuracy alarm would notice their absence.