"RoboCop vs. Commander Cash" is the thirteenth episode of RoboCop: The Series.
The episode guest stars Roddy Piper and is inspired by the 1988 film They Live, starring Piper.
Plot[]
Commander Cash Super Flakes breakfast cereal is the latest successful product from OCP and each box comes with a pair of "Ultra Specs" which allow the wearer to read a secret message printed on the back of the box. Two children acting as the Chairman's grandchildren – Children's Marketing and Entertainment Vice President Simon Atwater's idea to help the Chairman and OCP's image – confirm to him that they love Super Flakes.
RoboCop chases a stolen delivery truck (carrying Commander Cash products) to a sports arena. He approaches the truck and finds that the perpetrators are all eight-year-old children.
At the precinct, Charlie Lippencott performs maintenance on RoboCop as Detective Lisa Madigan enters, ranting about having to process the children and speak to their parents for the past four hours. RoboCop and Charlie suggest that she go home and relax, but she says she has to take Gadget to the Omni Mall to see Commander Cash while Sergeant Parks is out of town. Gadget shows off the Bag o' Guts she got with her Major Market doll.
Waving at onlookers from a small train at the Omni Mall, the Chairman and Atwater discuss franchising the mall's small amusement park. RoboCop arrives for crowd control, telling the children to obey their parents and the law. Atwater's assistant Brittany retrieves RoboCop for the Chairman. The Chairman and Atwater ask RoboCop to pose for photographs with Commander Cash, but he refuses, as he is on duty. Meanwhile, someone sneaks into Barry Lehman's dressing room, where he is getting ready to portray Commander Cash. The intruder ties him up and dons the suit himself.
The Chairman declares the mall open and the man dressed as Commander Cash makes his appearance. Atwater is immediately suspicious, as he does not enter properly. Commander Cash introduces himself to RoboCop before he weaves through the children to climb up onstage, announcing to the crowd that everything in the store is free. The children, fully obedient to Commander Cash, raid the nearby toy store. The Chairman and Atwater try to stop the children, but are powerless. Commander Cash tells Atwater that he is an enemy to all children and throws him over to RoboCop, commanding him to arrest Atwater for a violation of "cartoon law." RoboCop instead approaches Commander Cash to arrest him for inciting a riot. However, his lie detector indicates that Commander Cash is telling the truth when he claims to be a superhero. Cash bids the children farewell and flies through a skylight with a jetpack.
At the precinct, Madigan scolds Gadget, who doesn't seem to listen, instead focused upon eating her Super Flakes while watching a Commander Cash commercial advertising a Nitey-Nite Pal. RoboCop scans a law database for "cartoon law," but does not find it. Charlie reminds him of cartoons, which show that superheroes always win. Madigan shows him the hidden message on a box of Super Flakes: "OBEY COMMANDER CASH."
Madigan goes to the OCP towers to confront Atwater about the secret messages printed on Super Flakes boxes and contained within commercials for Commander Cash products. She suggests withdrawing the ads and cereal, but Atwater blames parents for the mass misbehavior of children, refusing to pull the ads. After this meeting, Madigan has lunch with Brittany, learning that Atwater is actually a chemist who, before working Children's Marketing and Entertainment, he made psychopharmaceuticals for the Tactical War Division of Security Concepts.
Commander Cash shows up at a toy store, telling the children to take whatever they want. Just like at the mall, pandemonium ensues and Cash shows off an Eliminator 3000 with lethal capabilities, entrusting it to a child. RoboCop arrives as the storekeeper shoots Commander Cash, who survives the shotgun blast, thanks to an OCP Lead Stopper. RoboCop approaches Cash to arrest him, but he tells the children to stop RoboCop. They crowd the cyborg as Commander Cash runs away. However, he manages to shoot a tagger onto Cash.
Madigan stops Gadget from eating Super Flakes and consults Charlie for help. Madigan explains Atwater's background to Charlie and her suspicion that Atwater placed a psychopharmaceutical in Super Flakes. Charlie fails to detect any such thing in the flakes, so she has him test the box.
RoboCop tracks Commander Cash to a warehouse, where he steps into a trap, stringing him up by his foot. He frees himself, but loses sight of Cash. He searches amid various items strewn about the warehouse, using his thermographic vision to spot him behind a huge stack of bags of cement. Cash pushes the pile on him, trapping him. He places a device on RoboCop's data spike, which shows him an animation identifying himself as a former OCP Mili-Tech Concepts audiovisual research scientist named Tex Jones. Jones invented Commander Cash and a phase pulsing projector to show secret messages to operatives, only visible through special glasses. The animation shows that Simon Atwater stole an undetectable (unless mixed with "a common phosphorus-calcium-based household chemical") psychohypnotic capable of convincing anyone to do anything. Atwater tries to take Jones' inventions from him, but when Jones refuses, Atwater bombs his laboratory. Jones survived and had a long recovery, deciding to become his superhero, Commander Cash. When the animation finishes, RoboCop finds that Cash is gone.
Charlie fails to find any suspicious ingredient in the box of Super Flakes. RoboCop joins them, telling them the nature of the psychohypnotic and that it is activated by milk.
Jones confronts Atwater, angered when Atwater admits to controlling the childrens' minds, anticipating controlling them when they are adults in the workforce. Atwater sets off an explosive Commander Cash doll, injuring Jones. RoboCop arrives to arrest Atwater, who uses a device to launch shock devices into RoboCop, disabling him as Atwater escapes. Jones crawls over to RoboCop, pulling the shock devices from RoboCop's chest. RoboCop validates Jones' belief that he is a hero.
Madigan arrives to arrest Atwater, who then holds Brittany at gunpoint. RoboCop arrives with Jones, who orders Brittany to stop Atwater. She escapes his hold and Atwater tries to run, but is stopped by RoboCop and Jones. Madigan arrests Atwater and the crowd applauds the heroes, both of whom show their respect towards each other.
Cast[]
- Richard Eden as RoboCop
- Yvette Nipar as Lisa Madigan
- Blu Mankuma as Stanley Parks (credit only)
- Andrea Roth as Diana Powers (credit only)
- David Gardner as Chairman
- Sarah Campbell as Gadget
- Roddy Piper as Tex Jones
- Barry Flatman as Simon Atwater
- Lisa Howard as Brittany
- Ed Sahely as Charlie Lippencott
- Dan Duran as Bo Harlan
- Erica Ehm as Rocky Crenshaw
- Catherine Swing as Martina Marx
- Matt Cooke as Barry Lehman
- Keith Knight as Store Manager
- Jordan Hughes as Young Jimmy Murphy