Future Dib

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"Future Dib" is an episode of Invader Zim. Originally produced as episode 15B, Future Dib aired as episode 13B on March 22, 2002.

[edit] Plot

Dib and Gaz are eating breakfast and watching TV when it's announced that their father, Professor Membrane, will be making "the greatest announcement he's made since last week," later that day. A floating video monitor then flies over to the table and a recording of their father appears to remind the two to feed their puppy. As they both look down and search the floor, Gaz says, "Oh, yeah. We used to have a puppy."

Later, at 'skool,' an assembly has been called so the students can watch Professor Membrane make his announcement. Zim, Dib, and Gaz are all there, along with the rest of the schoolchildren. Professor Membrane then unveils his latest invention: a perpetual energy generator he calls PEG. Membrane goes on to explain how the device will either work and supply unlimited energy, or won't and a wave of doom will envelope the Earth instead. Zim, upon hearing the latter part, scribbles on a pad from his PAK as Dib watches. He then begins to laugh, getting louder and more maniacal by the moment. He suddenly stops when he remembers he's surrounded by Earth children. He then grabs one and yells, "I love Earth!" Another floating monitor then bursts through a wall in the auditorium and flies over to Dib and Gaz. A man appears on the screen and tells them they're going to be on television with Professor Membrane that night (after confirming they are his '"roommates"). The video monitor then departs, deliberately blasting a second hole in the wall to leave through. Zim, after watching the exchange, quickly runs off.

Back at the Membrane house, Dib goes up to his room (which he uses a hand scanner security system to safeguard) and finds a figure rustling under the covers of his bed. He pulls back the covers and finds a copy of himself there, except this duplicate is missing teeth, and covered in burn scarrs on his head. The duplicate Dib then explains that he's from the future and how he tried to stop Zim from sabotaging PEG, "but his incredible power was too much for me!" and he was somehow thrown into the past by the explosion. He asks for Dib's help to try to stop Zim again and Dib accepts, with the hope that the two of them can work together from then on. "Future" Dib then instructs Dib on how to get to Zim, giving him a 2-way video watch to stay in contact.

Dib runs off to the warehouse duplicate Dib told him to go to—tripping over garbage cans and scaring cats along the way. When he arrives at the warehouse, he hears Zim's laughter echoing. He climbs in a window and finds the warehouse empty. On his video watch, duplicate Dib starts laughing. The laughter blends with the laughter coming from the warehouse and it's clear they're both Zim. Four boxes suddenly pop open and Zim's robotic lawn gnomes jump out and quickly incapacitate Dib. They throw him into a metal cage hanging from a cable as an Irken floating video monitor flies out from behind a stack of boxes with Zim onscreen. He gloats and explains that duplicate Dib is a remote-controlled robot he's used to trick Dib into this trap. And that he can have robot Dib sabotage PEG while he's safe in his spaceship in orbit. Just as Zim says goodbye, Dib hears Gaz's voice coming from the watch. She's telling robot Dib to come on (and threatening him if he messes things up). Dib calls out to Gaz through the watch but the robot's hand covers it, making it impossible for Gaz to hear him.

In the cage, Dib pulls out his laptop and prepares a probe for launch. A small mechanical arm emerges from the computer and a tiny probe is shot out at the nearby Irken monitor. Dib then tries to hack into the Irken system and gain control of the robot. As luck would have it, the Irkens just happen to use the same operating system as he does (reminiscent of the film Independence Day). As he tries to gain control of the robot's key systems, Gaz and robot Dib approach the PEG complex. Zim's stilted impersonation begins to irk Gaz, who tells robot Dib he's acting weirder than usual and threatens him bodily if he doesn't behave. In response, robot Dib (Zim) cries out, "Look, aliens! and over there, Bigfeets!" and runs off. Prof. Membrane then shows up and, distressed that Dib isn't there, implores Gaz to find him and keep him out of trouble.

As the robot enters the generator core building, Dib progresses in his efforts to gain access to the robot's systems. Zim, however, notices and appears on the monitor again telling him to give up because his lockout programs will keep him out anyway. Dib rebukes him as he gets closer to accessing the robot's vocal circuits. Zim, furious that his lockout programs aren't working, calls for GIR to, "send in the monkey!" GIR appears and solemnly walks to a console. He grabs a microphone hanging from above, and screams, "monkey!" then solemnly walks away again. A smaller cage is then slammed into Dib's cage and a hatch opens where it hit to allow a small, mean-looking monkey (possibly a squirrel monkey) inside. Dib jumps up as the monkey walks over to him, with Dib's laptop separating them. When Dib reaches for the final key to gain access to the robot's vocal processors, the monkey quickly slaps his hand. He pulls back, rubbing his hand in pain but tries again a moment later, with the same result. This then goes on for quite some time, with the monkey slapping Dib's hand away just before he can reach the key (as GIR watches on another monitor while eating popcorn.)

As Professor Membrane is being introduced on stage, robot Dib enters the central core. He approaches the core but stops because Gaz has suddenly appeared and is calling for him to come along. He convinces Gaz to go without him, which she decides is okay since that means he'll be out of the way and unable to embarrass her. Just then, back in the cage, Dib tricks the monkey and gains control of the robot's voice, calling to Gaz for help. Gaz pauses and looks back (while Zim panics). Robot Dib then starts screaming wildly because back in the cage, the monkey is furious over being tricked and is attacking Dib mercilessly. As the robot continues screaming, Gaz approaches, intent on getting her crazy brother under control. Zim then has the robot jump onto a piece of moving machinery to make an elaborate escape (with Dib's voice screaming the whole time as the monkey continues its attack). The robot finally jumps to a platform on the other side of the core but finds Gaz already there. She grabs the robot, slams it against the wall, and puts it in a headlock as she berates Dib for being so annoying. Back in the cage, Dib has finally incapacitated the monkey and cries out to Gaz. Her headlock then starts to put too much pressure on the robot's head and one of its eyes bulges and finally pops out of its socket, disabling the robot completely.

On the stage above, Professor Membrane is still waiting for his children. The crowd begins to get impatient, however, and a man complains, throwing an ice cream cone onto the stage. Professor Membrane is also losing his patience, but more with the crowd it seems. When robot Dib's eyeball comes flying out from the machinery and lands on the stage right in the ice cream, Professor Membrane sees this as the last straw and decides to call off the whole thing. He flips a switch and the giant device is lowered back into the ground as the crowd cries, "awwww!" Notably, when the Professor decides to not give the world free energy, he says "No power for you!" in the style of the Soup Nazi from the sitcom Seinfeld.

Up on Zim's ship, GIR comforts him over the loss of his little robot boy and Zim yells, "noooooo!" He quickly recovers from the loss though, and the two head off to have some fun watching Dib being tortured by the monkey.

Gaz, upon discovering the boy she's been dealing with is actually a robot, decides to repair him (sort of) and use him as a slave. As robot Dib (with its eye still missing and a steel plate welded over its mouth) is serving her a drink in their living room, the floating monitor of their father flies by and commends Gaz for spending so much time with her brother.

[edit] Trivia

• Second appearance of Zim's crescent shaped space station from Bloaty's Pizza Hog.
• Througout the first half of the episode, if one listens to the manner in which "future Dib," speaks, one can tell that Zim is controlling it, as he speaks using many of Zim's verbal mannerisms (for example: lengthening the sound of one syllable and then speaking the rest of the sentence very quickly).
• It is revealed that Dib's family used to have a puppy, but it seems that Gaz's previous unawareness of their pet and the ominous flies in the scene, it is likely the animal is dead (though Membrane is unaware of this, as is the pre-recorded message reminding Gaz to feed it).
• Dib's line, "I hope the Irkens just happen to use the same operating system I have," is a reference to Independence Day, where the "super-advanced" aliens happened to have technology compatable with Macintosh System 7, the same as David Levinson's laptop.
• Originally, when PEG explodes in the Robo-Dib's retelling sequence, it was going to make a mushroom cloud.