Season Two of Monsters At Work wraps up this week with an intense set-up and finale that frankly, should have been around the whole season.
Descent Into Fear
Tylor has a particular pep in his step at home this morning, and that’s because it’s his first day at Fear Co. After the events of last week (or yesterday in the continuity of the series), he called Johnny after being (essentially) framed for the inside job of leaky canisters.
All in all though, Tylor’s mom just wants to make sure that he is taking the job at Fear Co. because he really wants it, not just because he feels like he needs to help support the family. He ensures her (and maybe himself) that this is exactly what he’s always wanted.
At Monsters, Inc., it’s Val’s first day as a jokester, and Mike is showing her the ropes. Where Tylor is meeting the Fear Co task with confidence and eagerness, Val is very nervous and hesitant.
Oddly, this confidence for Tylor immediately acts against him when he tosses the keys to his new company car to what he thinks is a valet, before Johnny informs him that Fear Co. has no valet, so his new car basically got stolen.
We get to see Tylor and Val’s first days mirror each other, as Tylor attempts to set the new high score for scares on the leaderboard, knocking the reigning champion, Joy, out of her place.
Meanwhile, Val is filling up tanks herself, making kids giggle and chuckle and garnering all the laugh power that she can. Just outside her door station, the MIFT team is there lending support before she finds Tylor’s badge in her workstation, but puts it in one of her inboxes instead of just throwing it away. They may be on the outs right now, but that’s still her B.F.F.
We are again reminded that there is still an ongoing canister crisis (and unsolved mystery) with the leaking canisters, and now we’re at a critical point. If Monsters, Inc. doesn’t make enough gigglewatts, all of Monstropolis could be in a blackout, and the power is now starting to flicker across the city.
At Fear Co, it’s lunch time and there is a very strict 15 minute allowance for lunch, and Rosie was back late from lunch and got fired, so Tylor better not be late. Curious that there was more than just being late for lunch as to Rosie’s departure (which also explains the open position that Tylor got to fill), Tylor heads up to Johnny’s office to talk with him about it.
His ever-loyal assistant Chet, however, explains that he will only have about 6 minutes of free time for a meeting in about three weeks. Tylor returns to the Scare Floor (just in time) and he and the rest of the staff realize that Joy has been working through lunch to keep her score up so that Tylor cannot beat her. She treats the rest of the staff terribly, and they all are rooting for Tylor to take over as top scarer, even making bets on him that he will succeed. After all, he is doing quite well – until the next door shows up.
At Monsters Inc, everyone is working overtime to get their gigglewatts, with Mike downing 36-hour energy drinks to help keep the power on. All seems to be going quite well…
Tylor walks through his door and recognizes the room – short version – it’s Ben’s room. You may recall Ben as the human child who early on in the season kind of sent Tylor on this whole journey, as his jokes were now falling flat and Ben said his routine has gotten old. There’s already a relationship there, and Tylor hasn’t seen Ben since that day, until now.
Ben thought Tylor was mad at him for the jokes, and Tylor tried to start talking a bit – maybe to warn him about what was about to happen, but also opts to leave. The rest of the Fear Co team though won’t let him back out through the door until the canister is full. This is what will have Tylor break Joy’s score!
Overwhelmed and in a bit of a daze, Tylor starts roaring and scaring Ben until he is in a fit of tears and afraid to even look at his former friend.
Decklan cheers him on and announces to the scare floor that Tylor “The Terrible” Tuskmon (as it appears on his prototype scarer card that Johnny gave him) is the top scarer on his first day.
In a bit of convenient timing, Johnny is holding a press conference regarding that new Scream Amplifier that will solve the power crises in the city.
The power is still flickering, since Monsters, Inc made up enough power but suddenly it too has all gone missing. Rest assured, Johnny is informing the city that all will be well, thanks to the new scream amplifier on Fear Co.’s power grid. AND, Tylor is being promoted to his vice president. He knew he’d be a great scarer, and breaking records on his first day proves it. The city launches into a full blackout, and Johnny insists everyone remain calm – laugh power clearly didn’t work but Fear Co.’s power will.
After the conference is over, Johnny and Tylor retreat – not to his office, but to his underground lair, where Johnny fills Tylor in on what is really going on. Monsters, Inc. was sabotaged this whole time. Johnny reveals a door that unleashes Monsters, Inc. canisters – thanks to a man on the inside: Randall Boggs.
Powerless
The reveal of Randall is quite surprising, but get ready for a bit of exposition: Ever since Monsters University, Randall and Johnny go way back. In fact, it was Johnny that saved Randall from the Swamp People (in the movie, remember!?). Randall had the missing key to the holding pen and would steal the laugh power canisters and bring them to Fear Co, draining them into their power reserve and then short circuiting the canisters so that they would read as full when they’ve been depleted.
All the other stuff, like the vandalizing and stealing of the Boo picture and Mike’s mitt was just to antagonize his old rivals, Mike & Sulley.
As for that Scream Amplifier, well, that whole thing is fake. It’s a reserve that is storing all the power Fear Co. is stealing and generating on their own.
Tylor is quick to point out – Fear Co. is mixing scream power and laugh power. Remember what happened at the C.R.E.E.P. show? Yeah, that level of explosion is about to happen in Monstropolis as soon as they activate the faux-scream amplifier, and it can take out the whole city.
Monsters, Inc. has been shut down by the Monstropolis Energy Regulatory Commission (MERC) and the facility is being evacuated.
Fortunately, the MIFT team is still in their office trying to save Vendy (The vending machine), so when Tylor uses the door that Johnny and Randall use to get into Monsters, Inc., there are some folks still around. However, he has to convince them of the truth. Luckily, his MIFT family has his back, even Roger, after trying to convince everyone that he was the saboteur.
In fact, it was Roger that came up with the game-saving idea. If you thought Randall was the only plot device from the original film that will appear in this season finale – get ready. How do you separate Laugh Power from Scream Power – The SCREAM EXTRACTOR of course!
Devotees may recall this device as part of the whole reason that Monsters, Inc’s former CEO was taken down – but it was broken apart and stored in the lower levels of the facility with MIFT.
Thanks to that device, the door into Johnny’s lair, and disguises made from Cutter’s plethora of Fear Co. swag from the C.R.E.E.P. show, they are able to get in and start extracting the screams from the Scream Amplifier. However, once they get in and get everything working (pushing out all the suspicious actual Fear Co. staff), there is not enough time to get all the screams out of the tank before Johnny activates it at 9:00.
So, Tylor and Val adopt their code names (essentially rebuilding their broken friendship) and set out to distract Johnny just enough so they have the time to save the city.
At MERC, Roz shows up and informs Mike and Sulley that all their contracts for supplying the city with power are being signed over to Fear Co. In order to complete this and be able to leave, they have to sign each and every piece of paper there. If even one is missing, they can’t leave and Fear Co. will not take over the city’s power supply. In case the emphasis on that wasn’t clear enough, Roz also winks at Mike and Sulley as she was leaving. Again, if that was not clear, Mike and Sulley give us the full exposition – Roz seems to know something they don’t, and is suggesting to take as long as possible to sign these documents so the contracts aren’t signed over as if something were about to happen in the near future that would nullify this transaction.
At the scream amplifier, Randall has arrived and is thwarting the MIFT team efforts by unplugging their machinery and wreaking havoc. Fritz eventually has the idea to cover Randall in Drooler Cooler, thus making him sticky and visible. Deklan also returns and begins to fight with Duncan – and there can be only one! As the countdown to 9:00 winds down, the scream and laugh power are combusting and making the cavernous lair chambers quake and crumble. At the press conference where Johnny is about to turn the city back on with the fake-Scream amplifier, Tylor is now doing his best to stop him and revealing more of Johnny's true character for the cameras.
With the energy contained and rumbling, a lot of rocks are starting to break free, and Randall aims the power cord to the Scream Extractor right beneath the falling stones, breaking the plug and only leaving a number of wires that he is holding.
However, someone plugs Randalls tail into the outlet, completing the circuit and electrifying the villain. It was Johnny’s assistant Chet, who had previously been ridiculed by Randall.
With the screams fully extracted, the signal is sent to Val and her device that tells them it is okay for Tylor to turn on the power with Johnny, and they do. But as the city lights up and the cameras are now actively televising the situation, Tylor explains what really happened to audiences everywhere. When Johnny refutes it, challenging and telling him that his life is basically a joke and he belongs at Fear Co, Tylor says that he is embracing who he is as MERC shows up.
Roz and her team had a man on the inside as well – it was Chet. But there is still another problem. No matter what, the city still doesn’t believe in Laugh Power.
Fortunately, the press conference took place on Fear Co’s scare floor – and Ben’s door is still in Tylor’s station. But, there’s no way that Ben will laugh for Tylor at this point. So Val goes in with him. Together, they cheer up Ben and get him to laugh, and Carter is there with his camera poking through the door so the whole city can see.
The city is wowed by what they see and see how charming the process is, even selling Jill the TV Anchor on laugh power.
After a high-five that is seen by the city between Ben and Tylor, the city lights up brighter than it has been.
The next day on the news, we are treated to seeing Johnny’s arrest, and the revelation that Waternoose is his cell mate. As for Randall, he is at large as he got away, perhaps setting up a potential third season.
At Monsters Inc, Mike and Sulley have introduced Jokester cards – and have named Tylor and Val as the first official comedy duo of Monsters, Inc. They go into the rooms together, but Mike still insists that he and Sulley are Monsters, Inc.’s first duo. I agree with Mike.
This concludes the second season of Monsters at Work, which is now available on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW app. These two episodes and the rest of the season are set to debut on Disney+ on May 5th.
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