Speculation: What's The End Goal of Pearl's Story?

So…we’ve had a couple episodes dealing with this, but not much talk about it yet, so I figure it’s a good time to bring it up.

Two episodes in this season, we’ve had Pearl seemingly wanting to connect back with her family and the history, with Kinga as she put it “Cat in the Cradling” her, and Joel revealing that Clayton never really talked about her (at least when Joel was around).

So let’s ponder, where will this end up? In the pre-season promotional material, there was a mention about “Baby Mads”…maybe Pearl gets the ashes of her son and Frank back from Mearth to revive them for a third chance with her son? Or (and this is a speculation with, despite them being show fans, the possibility of wanting to save money) is this a plan to get Kinga and Max out of the picture by de-aging them and thus Pearl takes over again (I mean, it has just been her and Synthia for the commercial break bits).

Or, and this would be a wild out of left field thing and someone from behind the scenes can instantly shoot me down on this: what if we have a surprise return?

We already were surprised that J. Elvis took up the Tom Servo voice one last time (not as much with Dr. Erhardt appearing again, he was on the poster). But, what if Pearl is desperate enough for family connection again that she finds some way to bring back her son in adult form to re-take the experiment, even away from Kinga even if just for a short bit…meaning that a hidden Trace return is in the works (maybe even one last romp with Crow too). I mean, we don’t know everything about Year 3000 Joel…including why he’s up on a new SOL (though if we connect it to Mike’s interactions in 2525 and such, Joel really didn’t have anywhere to go since Mike blew Earth up.)

Just blue-skying a bit here since this storyline wasn’t really talked about much due to more focus on the movies.

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I was going to ask something along these lines, because Pearl’s story feels like it’s at once hanging in the foreground AND the background, as if it’s going to come roaring to the forefront with a vengeance at some point.

What got me was how Pearl remarked in Munchie that she was “feeling (her) own mortality lately.” That feels big, especially after that whole wanting to catch The Crawling Eye at the Gizmoplex with Kinga deal.

Pearl feels like quite a wildcard at this point, and I have no idea who/what is going to be affected by her machinations.

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There was something Joel said in a livestream that I interpreted as possibly meaning Emily is a replacement for Jonah, and perhaps this is his last season. Disclaimer: this is definitely something I gathered from the way it was worded, and the nature of livestream discussion is that it’s not scripted or rehearsed, so it’s just as likely that it was slightly sloppy word choice and would only be interpreted this way by someone with a degree in Linguistics who has only used it to over analyze what people say.

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Perhaps Pearl (sorta) redeemed herself?

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Hmmm… possibly so?

Either she’s redeemed herself (or has been working towards that end, or has gotten naturally less mad like Dr. Erhardt) or is going to double-down on madness in the future in a big way.

I honestly have no idea, and I can’t wait to see what’s lying ahead!

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It’s a long con. Or maybe…

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Erhardt is a unique point to bring up with the Mads. Sure, he only had one OFFICIAL season with being a Mad, but he does show that you can get toned down a bit on your Madness. Even Dr. Forrester proved that as he was still evil, but not as serious evil by the end of his run than he was at the start (compare Season 1 Dr. F to Season 6 Dr. F for an example of that).

Side thought about Pearl: maybe the thinking about mortality thing could be connected to why she doesn’t rule Qatar like it seemed she was gonna do at the end of the classic series run?

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Joel was on Earth in the years before Soultaker happened, though. I’m forced to conclude that multiverses are involved and Mike squelched a different Earth. Maybe Future Joel is just back in space to enjoy his retirement from the restaurant biz. :thinking:

You can sort of handwave him not recognizing Pearl now, despite Soultaker as well. He had other things on his mind that day. :wink:

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Bobo ran away from home and now she’s trying to use Kinga to fill that void in her life.

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Especially in light of how pointed Pearl’s questions to Joel were.

twoseconds

OH INDEED :smiley:

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Which DOES raise an interesting question. That being, what happened (in-story, I mean) to Bobo and Brain Guy after the last time we saw them?

A secondary interesting question: do Bobo and Brain Guy have something to do with what we’re seeing in Pearl these days?

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I just rewatched that one, and he doesn’t interact with Pearl at all. He arrives midway through the episode, and at the end talks to Frank a bit but then pops out just before Pearl and the others show up.

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Yeah, I just got the sense that Joel’s line of thinking near the end of Soultaker was:

-Oh, hey, guys, I got everything fixed!
-There’s Frank!
-OH CRAP, GOTTA GO, BECAUSE SOULTAKER FRANK

He doesn’t speak with Pearl or really acknowledge her, so, like @CLANG_Potroast says, we can handwave away how Joel isn’t too familiar with her.

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I sigh wistfully, imagining yet another multiverse where they all head down to the Tijuana Taxi Company after the credits for darts, gossip, and general revelry. Even though Frank doesn’t require food or drink anymore, and Joel just orders that danged Arnold Palmer.

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Well let’s see:
Dr. Forrester and TV’s Frank: Dead, ashes on Mearth
Professor Bobo and Brain Guy: Last we saw them was at the attempted wedding of Kinga and Jonah. Bobo I’m gonna assume was taken back to the zoo. Brain Guy is a harder nut to crack…he either went back to being the all knowing, all seeing thing he was doing, or just snuck back on Earth and is chilling watching old sci-fi.

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Maybe the Observer Hive Mind Manager guy played a role in that?

Hmmm… I dunno, but it feels like whatever happened to Pearl’s homies might be factoring into whatever’s going on here.

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The most obvious twist is that one day Mike won big-time at Keno, bought that building from the SciFi closer, and now he gets to live on the main floor… with Bobo and Brain Guy in his former basement digs. :wink:

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See, now we need to get Bill and Kevin back for them and Mary Jo to, in character, do a rap song together. Complete with late 80s/early 90s rap fashion.

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Hmmm… perhaps the whole supervillain thing lost its appeal to her? That, as B.B. King said, the thrill was gone in those respects for Pearl?

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Yes, but in “gonna reiterate everything that just literally happened in the movie” end credits rap format.

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