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"The Haunted Lair"[2] is the eighty-eighth episode in the Sonic Boom television series. It first aired on 15 July 2017 in the United States and on 3 September 2017 in France.
Synopsis[]
Thinking his lair is haunted, Eggman sells it to Barker. Sonic and Tails must prove ghosts aren’t real.[3]
Appearances[]
Characters:
- Admiral Beaverton
- Child Monkey
- Cubot
- Badniks
- Bee Bot (cameo)
- Beetle Bot (multiple)
- Crab Bot (cameo)
- Mantis Bot (multiple)
- Motobug (multiple)
- Beaver Policeman
- Burnbot
- Decimator Bot
- Dr. Eggman
- Fastidious Beaver
- Fennec Male
- Gogobas (mentioned)
- Lady Goat
- Lady Walrus
- Mike the Ox
- Orbot
- Reindeer Girl
- Sheep Villager
- Stratford
- Stunt Bears
- T.W. Barker
- Team Sonic
- Walrus Male
- Warthog Male
- Wild Cat
- Wolfie
Races and species:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Misc.:
- Anti-allegiance Virus (mentioned)
- Eggman Industries (mentioned)
Plot[]
The episode begins in the middle of the night. Numerous villagers, including Team Sonic, have assembled in a line in front of T.W. Barker's Haunted Forest, which is being guarded by the Stunt Bears. Standing in front of the Haunted Forest's entrance is Barker, who is encouraging the visitors to check out his attraction (for a small fee). When it becomes Team Sonic turn to enter however, Dr. Eggman arrives, barging through the line of villagers to get up front, much to Sonic's annoyance. Team Sonic and Eggman then proceed to enter the Haunted Forest together. Inside the spookily-decorated forest, Sticks voices her low impression of the place. However, she runs away in fear when Tails finds a paper with a proposal for government-mandated healthcare written on it. Unimpressed by Sticks' courage, Eggman talks about how cheap the Haunted Forest is while pointing out is various props. However, when fake ghosts drop down from above, a phasmophobic Eggman quickly assumes they are real. Hearing the ghostly moans, Eggman leaves the forest, screaming like a girl. Team Sonic, however, finds Eggman's display hilarious.
The next day, Eggman is visiting the library with Orbot and Cubot to research exorcism, as he is sure ghosts are haunting him. While Eggman and his lackeys are reading, Sonic is watching them from a hiding spot. Once Tails arrives, Sonic pulls him into his hiding spot, where he tells Tails about Eggman's situation and suggests they mess with him. Tails ultimately agrees with this, and the two make it look like the library is haunted by making noises and dropping books without Eggman seeing them. However, upon seeing Eggman getting reduced to a quivering lump of fear, the duo starts to feel guilty, so Sonic decides to come clean and assures Eggman that ghosts are not real. When Eggman refuses to accept that fact however, Sonic and Tails take him to Barker's Haunted Forest in the daytime to prove it. There, they have Barker give them a tour of the forest, where he shows them his attraction's various props and sound effects used to simulate an eerie setting. At the end, Barker shows the ghosts that frightened Eggman as he screams like a girl from the beginning, which he demonstrates are white sheets hanging from ropes and rigged to drop down from above when a pressure pad is stepped on. The props scare Eggman at first, but he quickly realizes, much to his own frustration, that they are fake, which Barker shows by cutting their ropes. With Sonic's final assurance that ghosts are not real, Eggman is at rest (although a slight numbness briefly worries him).
Later in Eggman's lair at night, the doctor is sleeping soundly until he is awoken by ghostly moans. Getting up, he notices a ghost floating in front of him. Reminding himself in his panic that ghosts are not real, Eggman tries to prove it is a trick by cutting the ghost's rope. When he finds no rope however, Eggman losses his cool and gets scared out of his lair by the ghost. Eggman tells about this to Barker who claims he has heard of this before: an entrepreneur opens a haunted attraction on a Gogoba burial ground that provokes the spirit world, prompting ghouls to emerge into the surroundings. Recognizing Barker's explanation, Eggman blames him for his predicament. In response, Barker suggests to Eggman that he can sign his lair over to him to free himself from the ghosts. Eggman questions how that will prevent the ghosts from following him, so Barker has their sale include all the items inside the lair as well since "ghosts are powerless against red tape". Eggman thus promptly signs his contract with Barker.
Later at Sonic's Shack, Sonic is awoken from his afternoon nap by the sound of hammering outside. Checking up on it, he finds Eggman building a shack next to his. Eggman explains that since he has sold his haunted lair to Barker, he has decided to become Sonic's neighbor, much to Sonic's horror. In response, Sonic takes Eggman to his lair to investigate his ghosts. There, they find Barker advertising Eggman's lair as another haunted attraction - The Deadly Lair - to the villagers. Eggman thinks Barker has forgotten all about the spirits, but Sonic points out that Barker has conned him: he had made Eggman sign his lair over to him so he could have a better venue for his attraction. Forced to pay Barker a hundred bucks, Sonic takes a frightened Eggman into the redecorated lair. There, they encounter the ghost Eggman saw, and Sonic shows the scared Eggman that it is nothing but a digital projection reflected from a mirror into some smoke. Realizing Barker's deceit, Eggman confronts him, demanding his lair back. When Barker refuses to hand it over however, Eggman plans to sic his robots on him, only for Barker to reveal that they are now his property since they are a part of the lair's contents, which Eggman signed over him. Barker then has Decimator Bot and Burnbot take Eggman away. While Eggman gets dragged (and thrown) away by his own robots however, he rabbles, in his anger over the irony of his situation, to the villagers that Barker's attraction is a sham. As the villagers question Barker over the truth of Eggman's words, Barker accidentally gives away his scam, prompting the villagers to leave, much to Barker's desperation.
Back on the beach, Eggman worries that he lost his reputation as a villain after the villagers saw him getting thrown out of his lair, and decides to "call in the big guns." Back in the lair, Orbot and Cubot are taking turns smacking each other with a magazine while wearing an Eggman mask until Eggman contacts them remotely through a communicator in Cubot's head to have them retake the lair for him. At the same time, Barker is riding through the Village Center in the Eggmobile with the Badniks. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Sticks show up to stop Barker, who wants revenge at Sonic for how he ruined his business with his meddling. The team promptly engages the Badniks, but in a turn of events, they heroes find themselves beaten back by the Badniks. Sticks is confused about how this is possible, to which Tails explains that Barker is actually using strategies when using the Badniks, unlike Eggman. Despite this, Sonic tries to counterattack, but with no success.
At Eggman's lair, Orbot and Cubot have entered the HQ room where Barker's Stunt Bears are sleeping. As they head to the console however, Eggman's yelling through Cubot causes Stunt Bear No. 1 to grab Orbot in its sleep, leaving Cubot alone to install a computer virus into Eggman's systems. Back in Hedgehog Village, Team Sonic find themselves cornered. Out of nowhere however, the Badniks turn on Barker and shoot him out of the Eggmobile to land at Eggman's feet. Eggman explains to Barker that his robots have been infected with the Anti-allegiance Virus, meaning they will not stop attacking their master (Barker) until he is destroyed. In an ironic twist, Eggman suggests to Barker that he can save himself by giving his lair and its contents back to him, which would designate Eggman as their master again. Having no choice, Barker tears up their contract and runs away. Eggman then calls his Eggmobile to him and uses it to deactivate the Anti-allegiance Virus. With his robots back under his command, Eggman prepares to fight Team Sonic, which Sonic notes he is always ready for. The episode then ends as the two factions are about to clash.
Goofs[]
- In the beginning of the episodes, the villagers waiting in line to get into the Haunted Forest stand in a specific order. In the following scenes, that order has been mixed up.
Production[]
The episode's "haunted house" concept for the plot was pitched by one of the writers, who did not get the idea from anything specific.[4]
Title in other languages[]
| Language | Title | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| French | Le repaire hanté | The Haunted Lair |
| Italian | Il covo infestato | |
| Polish | Nawiedzona forteca | The haunted fort |
| Portuguese (Brazil) | Fantasmas não existem | Ghosts don't exist |
| Portuguese (Portugal) | O Covil Assombrado | The Haunted Lair |
| Spanish (Latin America) | La guarida embrujada |
Trivia[]
- Eight days before this episode aired on Boomerang, Bill Freiberger released the title card for this episode on Twitter as a teaser.[5]
- The title is based off of the Disney movie, The Haunted Mansion.
- T.W. Barker's exclamation at Eggman's lair that he is not hurting any whales with his business is a reference to the real-life complaints people have for SeaWorld.
- T.W. Barker's phrase "Automatons action!" when commandeering the Badniks is a synonym of Dr. Eggman's classic phrase "Minions attack".
- The battle theme music for Team Sonic and Dr. Eggman at the end of the episode sounds similar to the theme song for Marvel Studios.
- This is the only episode of season two without a cat screech.
References[]
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (29 October 2016). Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved on 29 October 2016. "Tailooey Fan: Jack Fletcher is still the dubbing director and Natalys Raut-Sieuzac is still the director in Season? / Bill Freiberger: Jack Fletcher is the voice director. Natalys Raut-Sieuzac is the director. / Tailooey Fan: In season two too? / Bill Freiberger: Yes, Jack Fletcher is the voice director and Natalys Raut-Sieuzac is the director in season 2 of #sonicboom."
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sonic Boom: The Haunted Lair. Zap2it.com. Retrieved on 25 June 2017.
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (13 July 2017). Retrieved on 13 July 2017. "Bill Freiberger: 239: Thinking his lair is haunted, Eggman sells it to Barker. Sonic and Tails must prove ghosts aren’t real."
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (17 July 2017). Retrieved on 18 July 2017. "Alexander Soerensen: Hello Mr. Freiberger. If you want, could you reveal if there are any existing concepts that influenced "The Haunted Lair"? / Bill Freiberger: One of the writers pitched a haunted house concept. The idea didn't come from anything specific."
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (6 July 2017). Retrieved on 7 July 2017. "Bill Freiberger: A #sonicboom preview for next Saturday: Ep. 239 "The Haunted Lair" written by Sandrine Joly."
