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| "The Inanimate Syndrome" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Season | 1 |
| Episode | 8 |
| Episode in Total | 8 |
| Air Date | December 6, 1997 |
| Production Code | 08 |
| Directed By | Michael Goguen |
| Written By | Thomas Pugsley |
| [Source] | |
"The Inanimate Syndrome" is the eighth episode of Season One. It originally aired on December 6, 1997. It was written by Thomas Pugsley, Greg Klein and directed by Michael Goguen.
Synopsis[]
An Inanimate, a shapeshifter capable of disguising itself as inanimate objects, escapes from prison to Earth. But the MIB get some help from Eileen, an intergalactic cop that stirs up some old feelings for Kay.
Plot[]
The episode begins at the fair where Kay and Jay are riding the Tunnel of Love per the usual alien hunting protocols. The boat in front of them has a couple about to kiss, but the boyfriend turns into an alien right before his girlfriend’s eyes. Behind them, Kay blasts the alien and says to Jay that Tresfins (the alien the boyfriend turned into) are heart eaters, not heartbreakers.
At a landing site, the security guard there watches a monster movie, and while doing so, the power goes out unexpectedly due to an unknown spacecraft crash landing on the tarmac. He scours the area to find where the source came from, but it’s not there. The spacecraft reveals to be an alien who takes the form of various objects called Inanimates. The alien disguises itself as the chair the security guard was sitting on as the power restores. Discovering the real chair was relocated, the fake chair controlled by the Inanimate captures and frightens the guard out of his wits.
At headquarters, Kay and Jay head to Zed’s office after the landing site investigation and alert him about the alien. An agent named Aileen is aware of Inanimates and Zed recruits her for future investigations of the shapeshifting creature. Jay and Kay say their hellos to their new partner who also bears alien powers like tentacles emerging from her hands, to which Jay is surprised about. That, and she and Kay have seen each other before. Zed assigns Aileen with Kay for the investigation while Jay is partnered with Agent U for a different assignment.
Jay and U’s assignment takes them to a classroom where the latter plays the role of Oxy the centipede and teaches aliens how to live on earth, much to Jay’s dismay. On their side of the mission, Aileen tells Kay about her former partner whom she lost on her home planet, and hopes to find a new partner. U and Jay, under the latter’s leadership, are following the other pair on the Inanimate hunt which takes them away from their original assignment Zed had given the two. Kay and Aileen’s first stop is the newspaper stand where Frank resides and she asks the dog about the Inanimate. She tries to get him to speak, but a duplicate dog collar (Inanimate disguise) prevents Frank from giving out any details about the creature. The faux collar is freed, giving Frank to talk again, but the alien takes off the disguise and runs off into the open.
The agents go after the Inanimate disguised as a bicycle into a store, but not before Kay announces that a “sewer leak” is going on, thus evacuating the place for the quartet to do a full sweep to find the shapeshifter. Jay goes after a moving mannequin, but it’s another Inanimate disguise. The mannequin’s head controlled by spider legs crawls into a vent, which Jay follows after. While on the search for the disembodied head, the Inanimate disguises itself again as the air ducts crushing Jay in the process. One blast of his Noisy Cricket sends him flying out of the vent and back onto the store floor. The sentient air vent goes after the agents, and as Aileen tries to blast it away, it punctures her suit and skin twice. Kay joins her in defeating the Inanimate and the creature leaves. The agents leave as well, but a fallen pair of sunglasses sits on the floor… immobile.
Back at headquarters, U scolds Jay for his behavior and driving them away from their assignment. As Jay leaves and his sunglasses become another Inanimate disguise, Kay meets up with Aileen at the interrogation room who brings her a skinsuit of her human image and a glass of orange juice, which she uses to heal the wound above her ankle. On the other side, Jay and Elle watch the conversation where the agents first share the skin defects they experienced and Aileen shows a bit more of her alien persona, all leading up to her full alien form (human-like, but with blue skin and a white leotard). Elle says to Jay that he’s jealous about Kay, and the slick hopes he doesn’t lose his partner like Aileen did.
U then types down the information on a missile in their launch bay, the Kinani 6000, but it’s another Inanimate disguise who knocks the agent unconscious. Kay continues the search-through of the missile which is a dormant object that can be powerful enough to annihilate a single planet (a la the Death Star). A guard tries to get U to get a voice print before gaining access, but it’s not U at all, but the Inanimate, who takes down the guard with the agent’s centipede costume. Aileen invites Jay to drive the LTD, despite him not being able to, for this investigation purpose only. While in the driver’s seat of the car, the Inanimate takes full control of it and takes it and Jay down to the launch bay. Aileen and Kay go after the faux car in the real LTD and Jay uses a spark plug to injure the creature before anything else happens, thus also escaping without a scratch.
The real car parks at an abandoned ice cream parlor where the most powerful MIB weapon is stored. As the three head into the launch bay, Jay and Aileen are partnered up this time while Kay works alone on this assignment. Kay approaches the missile and notices two exit doors behind him. That second exit door being another Inanimate disguise who captures Kay who is caught inside the mechanism of a duplicate missile. He informs the two about a plan to disarm the missile, including a control panel feet above the rocket and a special passcode to disarm it. The passcode: 27345. Jay learns that the Inanimate displays letters and numbers backwards so he presses the buttons to the passcode in reverse order, which succeeds. The Inanimate takes off the missile disguise and continues its roam, but not before the agents corner it and exterminate it.
At another launch bay, Jay thinks that Kay and Aileen will be patrolling together, but the human agent has more cases he and Jay have to take care of. The alien agent says her goodbyes to the duo and her ship takes off into space. Kay puts on his sunglasses to shield his eyes from the fuel fumes that could also affect one’s brain as Aileen’s spacecraft leaves his and Jay’s field of vision.
Watch[]
Men in black the series S1E08 The Inanimate Syndrome