ASTRID & LILLY SAVE THE WORLD – Season 1 Episode 7 – SPOILERS

Brutus (Olivier Renaud) tells Astrid and Lilly about this week’s monster: “Copiosus Liberi is its name and reproduction is its game. Specifically, making thousands of little mini-me’s. It’s a real big old narcissist.” He goes on to explain that it deposits eggs in the throats of its victims, and that if the connection to the egg is severed before hatching “everybody should be fine”. The monster deposits the egg during a kiss, and the implantee eventually throws up the unhatched ovum which remains attached to the host via an umbilical cord of sorts.

The Copiosus Liberi uses pheromones to attract its prey so Brutus provides the monster hunters with nose plugs to negate the effects, and also gives them something that resembles a (very large) condom with which to trap it. Since we also get to see Michelle instruct a class on the proper use of a condom, this monster seems to be a metaphor for people whose purpose in becoming parents is to replicate themselves in detail, often as many times as possible.

We also see Michelle (Megan Hutchings), who is directing the school play, instruct Candace (Julia Doyle) to (mis)interpret Juliet’s lines in Romeo and Juliet (Act II Scene II) to show that Juliet has been partying all night and is drunk out of her mind. Candace says: “I haven’t got time for this.” and leaves to set up the kissing booth at the fair. Michelle calls for the understudy, and is told that Val (Christina Orjalo) has gone to “emergency theatre camp” to prepare her “crocodile craft”. Eggs (Michael McCreary), the play’s Romeo, finds all this very amusing.

Astrid (Jana Morrison) and Lilly (Samantha Aucoin) repeat what the Kevaculous told them (in Episode 1.6) about the other monster in town, and Brutus is both puzzled and amused. “The Guardian,” he explains, “is a mega-powerful ancient human that came to my dimension over a thousand years ago from Earth and caused catastrophic death and destruction by trying to open all the portals at once.” Calling The Guardian “a story monster that parents tell their hatchlings to scare them into behaving.”, he assures Astrid and Lilly that he will get them proof that it doesn’t exist.

The Guardian (in fact) currently resides at Lady of the Lake Church. It has changed its physical form, and now looks (according to Christine) magnificent. “Transmogrification makes for a hungry Guardian,” it tells her, and asks if there’s anything to eat. (She offers it a sandwich, which might not be what it had in mind.) It also tells Christine (Geri Hall), that it has detected an alternate source of energy in the vicinity. Later in the episode, an eavesdropping Christine learns that Astrid and Lilly have an orb, and tells The Guardian about it.

GUARDIAN: “And these two little girls have an orb as well? Interesting. So that’s the alternate power tingle I was sensing. They must be monster hunters. How cute.”
CHRISTINE: “There’s nothing cute about them. [pauses] Do we need to worry?”
GUARDIAN: “About two little girls? Hardly. But, we might as well have some fun.”

Christine is involved in both church and school activities. When Principal Varshidi (Marvin Ishmael) points out that her lemonade stand at the school’s Spirit Fair seems to be promoting sexual abstinence instead of selling lemonade, she offers him a taste of her “golden shower”. (He declines.)

Shortly thereafter, Doug (Tate’s dad, played by Carlos Pinder) shows up and Christine suggests they should “exchange parenting tips” in the near future. Doug says that he’s available “right now”, and the encounter quickly develops into a vigorous exchange of bodily fluids behind the abstinence booth.

Lilly comes out to Astrid, but doesn’t tell her about being attracted to Candace, so Astrid continues to be clueless as to the object of Lilly’s affections (despite many clues) although she might be beginning to catch on toward the end of the episode. If The Guardian decides to “have some fun” with Astrid and Lilly because of the orb, it seems that Christine might discover her daughter’s budding relationship with Lilly, but then again she might be too distracted by her new boyfriend Doug to cause very much trouble.

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Miscellaneous Info

Alix Markman (who wrote “A-Borg” and the yet-to-be-aired “Doppelkopfel”) tweeted on 9 March: “Fun fact: there were so many bananas left over from this episode, our set dresser Fionnula made 37 loaves of banana bread. And that only used up HALF.” (The set dresser’s full name is Fionnuala McMahon, and she also worked on SyFy’s SURREALESTATE, and on the CBC mini-series CAUGHT.)

Christina Orjalo is Sam, a babysitter forced to deal with a collection of sinister dolls, in “Teatime” (Episode 4.4 of TWO SENTENCE HORROR STORIES).

Astrid & Lilly Episode Eight

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ASTRID & LILLY SAVE THE WORD can be streamed on TUBI.