Dead End: Paranormal Park (TV Series)/Tear Jerker

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"Night night, Barney." Pugsley's first (and last) words in the series

WARNING! There are unmarked Spoilers ahead. Beware.

Tear Jerkers in Dead End: Paranormal Park (TV Series) include:

General

  • In general, the main quartet have hangups and backstories that make one want to hug them:
    • Barney is a trans boy whose parents have tried to make his transition easier, buying him a binder and letting him dye his hair. But he's worried they don't have his back because every time his mother's mother, Grammy-Gram comes to dinner and spews transphobic hate. The Guttmans get better about this in season two, saying they accept Barney and his boyfriend wholeheartedly.
    • Norma is confirmed to be autistic, and her father died. Swati, her mother, tries to connect with Norma, but can only do so through Norma's hyperfixations. Norma is a jerk to others at first, even Barney, and doesn't know how to connect with people. Her fear world is the real world as she puts it.
    • Courtney is an exiled demon, or so she thinks, who is trapped on Earth and not allowed to use the elevator. Her deal with Temeluchus backfires, and Pugsley can't get the cuffs off her. Then she finds out in season two that she is a fallen angel, and that if not for being on Earth, she would have been sentenced to pruning other people's destinies for eternity. You can't blame her for breaking down and rejecting this final fate.
    • Puglsey seems to be the best off coming to Phoenix Park. He gains magical powers and the ability to talk, which allow him to develop a personality and keep Barney from letting infatuation blind him. Season two, however, has him fear that without his powers, he cannot protect his friends.

Season One

  • "The Job"
    • Barney's mother forgot he had a job interview at Phoenix Park, and was inviting his transphobic Grammy Gram to dinner. She tries to justify that Grammy-Gram doesn't understand things. Barney snarks that makes two of them and leaves. To seal that his mother messed up, Pugsley barks at her before following his human.
    • Pugsley's Heroic Sacrifice that sets into motion the rest of the series. When the demons terrify him and Temeluchus immobilizes both Barney and Norma, preparing to possess Barney, Pugsley shakes away his tears, barks, and leaps in the air. All Barney can do is say his dog's name, as Pugsley gives him a teary doggy grin and gets possessed instead. For a terrifying moment, Barney thinks that the possession killed his dog.
    • Barney tries to reason with Temeluchus after finding him at the Camelot castle. He says he doesn't want to fight the demon king, but begs for his dog back. Temeluchus in response immobilizes him and starts to monologue.
  • "The Tunnel"
    • Barney and Pugsley get into a fight, where Pugsley calls out Barney for abandoning him on the monorail and isn't explaining clearly why he is helping the mascots. Then when Barney asks why Pugsley can't bethe way he used to be, Pugsley says he sounds exactly like Grammy-Gram.
  • "Trust Me"
    • It's revealed that Norma has social anxiety and sensory issues involving being touched. Her mother has to drive her to the beach directly, encouraging her that she already has some friends, but Norma's attempts to smile make a bad impression on Josh. She later has a meltdown following a trust game of Dr. Pretzel.
    • While some of people's phobias are hilarious, some are quite sad:
      • Courtney is trapped in a glass box, just out of reach of the dimension that she believes is her home, and she's futilely banging at it. When Barney, Norma and Pugsley show up to rescue her, she asks if they're mocking her. In response they give her a Group Hug and promise they're never going to leave her.
      • Barney is reliving the night his Grammy-Gram made remarks about his transitioning, causing him to run away. Norma sees this and later expresses sympathy that his grandmother is scary. Barney says it's not her that's the problem, but that his parents didn't stand up for him.
      • The climax has Norma offer herself up as a sacrifice to Harm-Many that if she feeds him her her fears, he lets everyone go. So she holds onto the skull, and we see that her fears are "the real world" in her words. Norma thinks that everyone is laughing at her and thinking that she's weird, including Barney. The Barney tries to reassure Norma that it's just a fear, and not real, but Norma starts crying as the anxieties build. they build up so much that she explodes Harm-Many. And as we see, facing her fears doesn't mean she's ready for hugs or volleyball.
  • "Night of the Living Kids"
    • It's Patrick's birthday, and he spends it at Phoenix Park. Yet his friends notice he's in a funk while checking his phone. Later, we find out that he was worried sick about Barney, and mad at him for running away. Barney can't explain the situation when rescuing Patrick from the Night Hag, but he sincerely apologizes for not texting his little brother on his birthday.
    • When the Night Hag gets Barney, brainwashing him, Patrick tries to snap him out of it by showing Mr. Max, the toy lion. Zombie Barney rips up Mr. Max with his teeth. Fortunately, the episode ends with Barney giving Patrick Mr. Max taped up like a medical patient.

Season Two

  • "The Ride of a Lifetime"
    • No matter what Pugsley does in the next loop, the ride goes wrong. Either Barney and Logs fight, Badyah has to turn Norma down, or a seagull messes with the controls. Courtney nearly dies in one, and causes the apocalypse with another.
    • Why Logs was bummed and checking his phone: Josh won an acting gig that Logs wanted: to play a high school bully. When Barney finds out, he cheers Logs up by saying that his boyfriend is more romance leading man.
    • Pugsley has to let the original loop play out. Seems to be fine, except Badyah turns down Norma by explaining that she's straight. Norma accepts it, but is visibly upset. All Pugsley can do is watch her in worry.
  • "My Super Sweet 1600"
    • Norma is still awkward around Badyah, trying to avoid her. Badyah becomes so desperate to fix things that she schemes to ship Norma with Zagan, aka the same demon that tried to invade the park and turned them all to stone, in the hopes that Zagan could be a healthy rebound. Even Zagan asks if Badyah has thought through the implications. While the demon and Norma find some common ground in how their friends do insensitive stuff while meaning well, and Zagan gives Norma her phone number, Norma knows she's not ready for that and Zagan isn't her type. She also quits the park so she can get some time to emotionally heal, much to Barborah's shock.
    • Zagan has been 16 for over a thousand years. Her friends think throwing a Sweet Sixteen is funny, but now it reminds her that she'll never grow older, or change. It's living reminder that she'll stay a teenager. Norma mentions she can relate, because her autism means her mother always treats her like a child.
    • Temeluchus has found another body, albeit possessing the person consensually. He and Pugsley mention while it's good they're not together, they miss things about the possession. Temeluchus says that belly rubs and scratches are the best. Pugsley admits that he misses the flying.
    • Pugsley's song, especially the Dark Reprise in the season finale. It asks how can he stay away from the people he loves if they're far away. Temeluchus also joins along, on tamborine.
    • When the Watcher breaks up the party, Az shouts for Barney to run and tries to protect his student. It doesn't go well.
  • "All Dolled Up"
    • Swati knows that Norma has quit Phoenix Park and can see that her daughter is depressed, having dinosaur ice cream for breakfast and acting sullen. Norma hasn't told her anything that has gone on, and thus Swati has planned a day of Pauline Phoenix self-care. In response, Norma says they can spend the day cleaning all this "junk" referring to said merchandise around the house. This sparks a fight between them, where Norma yells that her dad may have found this Pauline cup, but he's not here now. Swati nearly bursts into tears as a result as Norma goes to brood in her room.
    • Logs reveals to Norma that he's not out to his parents yet as a gay man. Asian parents are complicated, as he puts it.
    • What snaps Norma out of her funk: seeing Pauline attempting to possess her mother.
    • As they're holding off Pauline's doll army, Swati admits that yes she treats Norma like a child. She knows she's not perfect. But Norma also doesn't tell her anything, and her hyperfixations are the only ways they can bond. This causes Norma to have a Jerkass Realization as she finally admits the real reason she was being awful: she's bi, and her crush turned her down. Swati accepts her daughter wholeheartedly, and is saddened when she hears that Badyah didn't work out.
    • Pauline says the Khans making her a miniature Phoenix Park is the first nice thing someone's done for her in a long while. It hints that she was forced into the Hollywood business at a young age, which might explain her narcissism and desperation to stay young. While she "bans" mother and daughter from the cardboard option, Pauline has a guilty look when Norma says that she has been away long enough from her friends and it's not Badyah's fault they were incompatible. She stows away in Norma's backpack when the latter returns to the real park.
  • "The Other Side"
    • Just the premise: Barney dies. Again. And this time there is no Hox to make a copy of him.
    • Logs is so freaked out that Badyah sends him to get Norma's seance kit as a distraction. Unlike the others, who saw Barney die once already, it's pretty traumatizing for him. We find out why he left Norma and Swati to deal with Pauline; he was rushing back with the kit to rescue his boyfriend.
    • The ghosts reveal why they want Barney to move on: they've been stuck with their unfinished business for too long and need him to open a portal to the afterlife. Pauline at least manages to help Chester find his light, albeit refusing to go with him.
    • Fingers reveals that he orchestrated Barney's death so as to coerce Pugsley to join the angels. Pugsley doesn't have a choice, but he transfers his magic to his fez before giving it to Barney.
  • "Going Up"
    • Danny tells a captive Courtney that they aren't demons. He shows her an orientation video revealing what they really are: fallen angels, those with broken halos. When something damages their helos, they're consigned to trim the tree of fate for eternity. Courtney gives a Big No as it registers that her whole identity of being a trash demon was a lie.
    • While locked up together, Az explains to Barney that the demonic royal family aren't actually royalty. They were a Family of Choice who made up their lineage to spite the angels. In essence, they're powerless.
    • Barney sees through Pugsley's magic that his dog is getting tortured. He becomes determined to bust out by any means necessary.
    • When they're wrestling, Barney knocks off the Watcher's helmet. It clatters to the ground. He then looks in its face. It's a future version of Pugsley.
  • "The Watcher's Test"
  • Fingers reveals that the angels have groomed Pugsley to be their champion the Watcher who will wipe out the demons, and the Stable Time Loop starts when the Watcher kills Barney in front of Pugsley. He says he has orders to make sure this future happens.
    • The fact that Pauline's ghost is horrified by what the angels are doing to the demons. She uses telekinesis to save them and Norma, albeit snarking that she should have let Norma fall when Norma says saving her life doesn't redeem Pauline after her heinous actions.
    • Barney realizes that Pugsley would never hurt him. So he tries to go to the past to stop Fingers from brainwashing his dog, with the Watcher in hot pursuit. He snaps the Watcher out of it by showing him the day that his family surprised him with Pugsley as a puppy, and the Watcher has a Heel Realization when the brainwashing snaps about who he was trying to kill.
    • There is a Hope Spot when Logs and Badyah help evacuate the prisoners from the angel plane, and Norma tells the demons to scatter after the humans, Courtney and Pugsley return to Dead End. Fingers then bangs through the elevator, immobilizes everyone in Dead End, and forcibly brainwashes Pugsley with the helmet. Pugsley is fighting the whole time, but ultimately the Watcher has to save him.
    • Pugsley's death. Fingers tries to slaughter everyone, saying that Pugsley and the Watcher cannot avoid their fate as the duo blocks lethal laser blows aimed at the humans and Courtney, saying he will wipe out their "silly, little friends". Then they exchange a look, realizing what this means. Both future and present Pugsley make a decision, with the Watcher saying quietly, "Sorry, Barney, this is going to hurt," and allow the beams to hit them. Barney doesn't free himself in time to stop them, and Mass "Oh Crap" ensues, with Badyah looking teary-eyed. Both dogs collapse, with the Watcher fading from existence, as Barney gives a couple of Big Nos in succession. He begs his dog Please Don't Leave Me, but Pugsley is fine with this. He says that Barney reminded him he could choose how to use his powers, and he chose to use them to protect his friends. "Night night, Barney," he says before passing away.
      • Know how upset everyone is? Even Courtney is crying, probably feeling guilty that it was because of her that Pugsley got his powers.
    • Fingers's death, in an Alas, Poor Villain mode. He apologizes to "Pael" after his master cuts him off, before withering into a brown hand.
    • Barney has to take a leave of absence from the park and move out of Dead End, which he considered home, temporarily. He goes with Logs, implied to move in with him and is still holding Pugsley's fez.
    • Norma is so upset by this turn of events that she goes to Temeluchus and Zagan, saying she wants to help them fight the angels. "They hurt us," she says, and she's not wrong since Temeluchus came to truly like Pugsley and the humans. It's likely Temeluchus wants to declare war.


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