Running with Scissors

"Running with Scissors" is the thirty-first episode of the second season of Star vs. the Forces of Evil.^[1]

It premiered on February 9, 2017.^[2]

Synopsis[]

When Marco abuses the Dimensional scissors, the Scissors Enforcer, Hekapoo gives Marco an ultimatum.^[2]

Plot[]

The episode begins with the laser puppies waking up Marco so he can take them for a walk. Unfortunately, the weather outside is overcast with heavy rainfall and flooding. Marco asks Star, who is using a tennis ball for spell-targeting practice, if he can borrow her dimensional scissors, and he uses them to take the puppies for a walk in the park through a dimensional portal. Realizing the dimensional scissors' potential uses, Marco starts using them for everything – including getting snacks from the refrigerator, getting drive-thru takeout, and going to the beach – all from the comfort of his bed.

However, after abusing the scissors too much, the next portal that Marco opens is different from the rest, and someone pulls him into another dimension and seizes the scissors. In the new dimension, Marco encounters Hekapoo, the Scissors Enforcer and one of the members of the Magic High Commission. Hekapoo asks Marco where he got the scissors from, and he says he borrowed them from Princess Star Butterfly. Hekapoo doesn't believe him since she's the forger of all dimensional scissors and Star's scissors originally belonged to her. Wanting to return Star's scissors to her, Marco wishes to rightfully earn them from Hekapoo, so she gives him a challenge: she'll give him the scissors if he can blow out the flame floating above her head.

Marco's attempts at blowing out Hekapoo's flame prove difficult at first due to her quick speed. He tries to outsmart her, but she sends him to another dimension and over the edge of a cliff. Just before he falls, he succeeds in outwitting Hekapoo and blowing out her flame. Unfortunately, this Hekapoo is a fake, and Marco finds himself facing hundreds of Hekapoo duplicates. The real Hekapoo opens multiple dimensional portals, and she and her duplicates scatter into many different dimensions. She tells Marco that it could take him years to find her and offers him a way back home, but Marco is determined to get the scissors back no matter how long it takes.

Meanwhile, Star continues doing target practice when a man walking his dog comes in, having entered through one of the many dimensional portals that Marco left open in his bedroom. After retrieving the laser puppies, Star discovers Hekapoo's portal and calls Pony Head. Pony Head reveals that she stole the dimensional scissors she gave to Star from Hekapoo without earning them, and she tells Star that if Hekapoo took Marco, he's probably dead by now. Regardless, Star heads through the portal to save him.

Back in Hekapoo's dimension, sixteen years have passed, and Marco—now grown up and hardened from years of fighting and surviving in the wild—has tracked down Hekapoo and her remaining duplicates to her scissors forge. After defeating two duplicates standing watch outside the forge, Marco confronts Hekapoo, having blown out the flames of all her duplicates. He blows out her flame without resistance, and Hekapoo commends Marco for his resolve. For finally completing his challenge, Hekapoo gives Marco his own pair of dimensional scissors. Suddenly, Star bursts inside and commands Hekapoo to release Marco. Marco reunites with Star, and after a brief moment of infatuation with Marco's new look, Star reveals that while he has spent sixteen years in this dimension, only eight minutes have passed on Earth.

Since Marco has not missed anything, Star tells him to use his new scissors to take them home, but Marco has grown too comfortable in his new life as a warrior to leave it behind. However, when Star reminds him of his friends and family, he has a change of heart and says goodbye to Hekapoo. Upon returning to Earth, Marco's body is reverted to that of a teenager, meaning he and Star can still go on adventures together. As Star leaves to make some nachos, Marco tries to adjust settling back into his old life; having been away for sixteen chronological years, he has forgotten his laptop's sign-in password. The laser puppies come up to him again, and Marco decides to take them for a walk.

Characters[]

Major characters[]

• Marco Diaz
• Hekapoo

Minor characters[]

• Star Butterfly
• Pony Head
• Laser puppies
• Nachos the dragon-cycle
• Lydia (cameo)
• Willoughby (cameo)
• Rafael Diaz (cameo)
• Angie Diaz (indirectly mentioned)

Production notes[]

Songs[]

• Marco's Good Time Theme
• Blow Out This Flame / Mad Marco / Marco's New Life / Marco's Old Life

Title in other languages[]

Language	Title	Translation
Dutch	Rennen Met De Schaar	Running with the Scissors
French	L'Extraordinaire Voyage de Marco	Marco's Extraordinary Journey
German	Marco und die Dimensionsschere	Marco and the Dimensional Scissors
Hebrew	לרוץ עם מספריים	Running with Scissors
Hungarian	Ollómámor	Scissors Run
Italian	Giocare col Fuoco	Playing with Fire
Japanese	ハサミを求めて	Looking for Scissors
Korean	가위 찾아 16년	16 Years in Search of Scissors
Polish	Bieg z Nożyczkami	Running with Scissors
Portuguese (Brazil)	Correndo com uma Tesoura	Running with Scissors
Portuguese (Portugal)	Correr Atrás das Tesouras	Running After the Scissors
Russian	Бег с ножницами	Running with Scissors
Spanish	Tras las Tijeras Perdidas	Beyond the Lost Scissors

Transcript

View the episode transcript here.

Gallery

Click here to view the gallery.

Trivia[]

• Zosia Mamet, known for her roles in Mad Men, United States of Tara, Girls, and Parenthood, guest-stars as Hekapoo.
• Adam McArthur, who provides the voice for Marco Diaz, tweeted about "Running with Scissors" on January 9, 2017, calling it "one of my favorite eps I've ever recorded".^[3]
  • Though McArthur voices Marco, he was not immediately cast as adult Marco; he was required to audition.^[4]
• According to Hekapoo, time progresses differently in her dimension than it does on Earth. Eight minutes on Earth is equal to sixteen years in the other dimension. This means that for every second that passes on Earth, roughly twelve days pass in Hekapoo's dimension.
  • If 16 years and 8 minutes are exact, then the time coefficient between the 2 dimensions is 1,051,200.
• The second #MarcoLIVE reveals that after Marco came back to Earth, his memory of the sixteen years in Hekapoo's dimension are slowly becoming like a hazy dream or an old childhood memory.^[5]

Revelations and continuity[]

• When Marco first challenges Hekapoo, he states he's a red belt in karate.
• In this episode, Marco receives his own pair of dimensional scissors, while Star's scissors are taken away by Hekapoo.
• The license plate on Marco's dragon-cycle reads "667". In "Blood Moon Ball", Tom states that the titular event happens once every 667 years.
• Pony Head reveals that the dimensional scissors she gave Star in "Party With a Pony" originally belonged to Hekapoo before she stole them from the Bounce Lounge's bathroom.
• Marco forgetting his password on his computer is similar to how he forgot his locker combination in his dream in "Red Belt".
  • His laptop sign-in icon is a picture of a unicorn wearing a helmet in space, a reference to the "Space Unicorn" ringtone on his phone.

Allusions[]

• When Hekapoo opens the multiple portals for her clones to flee into, music similar to that used in the Portal video games begins to play.^{[citation needed]}
• Marco's trial to blow out Hekapoo's flame parallels one of Hercules' twelve labors. Hercules was tasked with stealing the golden girdle of Hippolyta, and the two fought to a stalemate. Out of respect for his abilities, Hippolyta willingly gave him her girdle.

Errors[]

• Before Hekapoo pulls Marco into her dimension, he is barefooted. In the very next scene, after Hekapoo pulls Marco into her dimension, he is wearing sneakers.
• At the beginning of Marco's chase after Hekapoo, the dimensional scissors in Hekapoo's hand briefly look like the scissors she makes for Marco near the end of the episode.
• When the man walking his dog appears in Star's bedroom, Star is seen wearing earmuffs/headphones. When she gets up to cast Rainbow Diaper Blast, the earmuffs/headphones disappear from her head.
• Pony Head's star pupils are missing when she talks to Star through her mirror phone.

References[]

v • e • d Star vs. the Forces of Evil Episodes

Season 1 Star Comes to Earth • Party With a Pony • Match Maker • School Spirit • Monster Arm • The Other Exchange Student • Cheer Up, Star • Quest Buy • Diaz Family Vacation • Brittney's Party • Mewberty • Pixtopia • Lobster Claws • Sleep Spells • Blood Moon Ball • Fortune Cookies • Freeze Day • Royal Pain • St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses • Mewnipendance Day • The Banagic Incident • Interdimensional Field Trip • Marco Grows a Beard • Storm the Castle Season 2 My New Wand! • Ludo in the Wild • Mr. Candle Cares • Red Belt • Star on Wheels • Fetch • Star vs. Echo Creek • Wand to Wand • Starstruck • Camping Trip • Starsitting • On the Job • Goblin Dogs • By the Book • Game of Flags • Girls' Day Out • Sleepover • Gift of the Card • Friendenemies • Is Mystery • Hungry Larry • Spider With a Top Hat • Into the Wand • Pizza Thing • Page Turner • Naysaya • Bon Bon the Birthday Clown • Raid the Cave • Trickstar • Baby • Running with Scissors • Mathmagic • The Bounce Lounge • Crystal Clear • The Hard Way • Heinous • All Belts are Off • Collateral Damage • Just Friends • Face the Music • Starcrushed Season 3 Star vs. the Forces of Evil: The Battle for Mewni Return to Mewni • Moon the Undaunted • Book Be Gone • Marco and the King • Puddle Defender • King Ludo • Toffee • Scent of a Hoodie • Rest in Pudding • Club Snubbed • Stranger Danger • Demoncism • Sophomore Slump • Lint Catcher • Trial by Squire • Princess Turdina • Starfari • Sweet Dreams • Lava Lake Beach • Death Peck • Ponymonium • Night Life • Deep Dive • Monster Bash • Stump Day • Holiday Spellcial • The Bogbeast of Boggabah • Total Eclipsa the Moon • Butterfly Trap • Ludo, Where Art Thou? • Is Another Mystery • Marco Jr. • Skooled! • Booth Buddies • Bam Ui Pati! • Tough Love • Divide • Conquer Season 4 Butterfly Follies • Escape from the Pie Folk • Moon Remembers • Swim Suit • Ransomgram • Lake House Fever • Yada Yada Berries • Down by the River • The Ponyhead Show! • Surviving the Spiderbites • Out of Business • Kelly's World • Curse of the Blood Moon • Princess Quasar Caterpillar and the Magic Bell • Ghost of Butterfly Castle • Cornball! • Meteora's Lesson • The Knight Shift • Queen-Napped • Junkin' Janna • A Spell with No Name • A Boy and His DC-700XE • The Monster and the Queen • Cornonation • Doop-Doop • Britta's Tacos • Beach Day • Gone Baby Gone • Sad Teen Hotline • Jannanigans • Mama Star • Ready, Aim, Fire • The Right Way • Here to Help • Pizza Party • The Tavern at the End of the Multiverse • Cleaved Unaired Episodes Star and the Forces of Evil (pilot)