 | |
| Series | Sonic Boom (TV series, 2014–2017) |
| Season | Season 2, episode 8 (S02E08) |
| Episode no. | 60 of 104 |
| US premiere | 31 December 2016 · Boomerang |
| France | 8 April 2017 · Minuit, l’heure du crime |
| Written by | Paul Shriver |
| Storyboard | Patrick Schwerdtle |
| Directed by | Natalys Raut-Sieuzac |
| US viewers | 0.12 million (Nielsen, premiere) |
| Previous | I Can Sea Sonic’s Fear from Here (S02E07) |
| Next | Multi-Tails (S02E09) |
In the Midnight Hour is episode 8 of Season 2 of Sonic Boom, the CGI comedy series made by Technicolor Animation Productions with Sega of America. It premiered in the United States on 31 December 2016 on Boomerang.
Synopsis
For once, Sticks’ paranoia is spot on. Painting by moonlight, she spots Dreamcaster, a hooded robot, lurking at the village TV station, and the next night she catches him on air, crooning the village to sleep while insisting this is definitely not hypnosis. Tackling him only wrecks Comedy Chimp’s studio, and her friends blame lack of sleep.
Soon she’s under arrest, with Sonic himself snapping on the handcuffs. Alone in a cell, Sticks starts doubting her own worldview, until she sees the whole village shuffling past her window in a trance, Team Sonic included. The mastermind is Eggman, whose entranced workforce is building a Super Slumber Satellite to beam Dreamcaster’s signal around the world.
Sticks is immune for the simplest of reasons: she doesn’t own a TV. She lures a hypnotised Knuckles into punching through her cell wall, barely resists Dreamcaster’s attempt to put her under, and comes back with five tinfoil hats. One hat per teammate later, Sticks smashes Dreamcaster and the others bring down the satellite. Her friends’ excuse for doubting her? The robot made them say it. Do they think she’s crazy? The pause is suspiciously long.
Trivia
- Sticks warns that television is a mind-control plot, then tells the audience she does not mean them and they should keep watching, a much-quoted fourth-wall moment.
- On DVD in the US: NCircle’s Season Two, Volume One (May 2021), The Complete Season 2 (2021) and The Complete Series Blu-ray (2022).
- French title: Minuit, l’heure du crime. The episode aired in France on 8 April 2017.
- About 0.12 million US viewers watched the premiere broadcast (Nielsen figures as listed by Wikipedia).
Watch the Episode
NCircle Entertainment, the show’s US home-video label, has not uploaded this episode on its own to YouTube at the time of writing, though its official channel carries two-episode compilations and Season 2 marathons. Season 2 is on DVD from NCircle (The Complete Season 2, 2021) and has been on Hulu and Netflix; see the series page for details.
Part of our Sonic Boom Season 2 guide. See the series page for the cast, the redesigns, the games and the comics.
Sources: air dates, writers and storyboard artists from Luke’s original Sonic Scene episode list, cross-checked with Wikipedia, Sonic Retro (Wayback copy) and Sonic Wiki Zone; synopsis written for Sonic Scene from the episode summaries on those sites; title card and screenshots via Sonic Wiki Zone, copied to our media library.