Todd & the Book of Pure Evil - The Student Body

Leslie (Hilary Carroll) just wants a friend. Sitting at the lunchroom table, people purposely avoid her. When she goes to simply start a conversation with cheerleader, Wanda, she’s immediately rejected with scorn. When a kid in the school sits at her table, not with any real purpose but just because it was the nearest available, Leslie gets a bit too clingy with her desire for immediate friendship and he flees. So the Book of Pure Evil capitalizes on her desire for friendship and when her hand grips another, that person becomes her mind-controlled pal. The touch of the hand creates this symbiotic flesh that draws in all who come in contact with Leslie’s “connective bond”. Soon the halls are walked by Leslie and her “band” of happy-go-lucky newfound buds, with the likes of Jenny, Curtis, Hannah, and even Atticus “joining the fold”. Todd, meanwhile, is all contemplative and reflective on how dangerous he is towards everyone, considered to be the potential Pure Evil One. Even smoking a doobie with janitor, Jimmy, appears to be no longer an option due to protecting his safety. 

This episode, though not without its typical descent into madness from time to time, is more central plot driven than the usual “theme episodes” (video game high school, environment gone horribly wrong, daddy taking the skin disguises from students, a musical). Todd considers the liability of being picked as the Pure Evil One to bring the apocalypse to the earth and decides to separate from all those he cares for. While he walks about the school to think on things, Leslie’s friendship band continues to add to its symbiosis. Eventually Leslie tires of all the attention and “closeness” that her band contains, wanting some “alone time”. Todd runs up on them, contemplates the entire friendship mind control, and purports to them that none of them really know each other so how could they truly embrace in any meaningful way. And that very much causes a type of unfriendly virus that stirs up the outrage of all, with insults doled out and their considerable differences ruing the day. Leslie, unfortunately, is the center of the symbiosis so when her band want to depart, her body parts do so as well! 

The ending has the old geezers in red cloaks representing Satanism planning to rid themselves of Atticus (Atticus is their self-appointed leader with them not particularly fond of his treatment of them or skills at leadership, his true purpose to get the Book of Pure Evil and nothing more as far as they are concerned, planning to kill him afterward!) while Todd nearly is overtaken by the Book of Pure Evil’s influence, aided by Curtis and his mechanical arm’s ability to shoot out a metal hand that can grab away items if so choosing. The tug of war for the Book of Pure Evil between Todd and Atticus is often more cerebral (funny using “cerebral” in the same sentence as Todd, but I digress…) and strategic than physical. So this episode really features a lot of main central arc conduct. And his friends urging Todd to realize that without them he would endure great harm calls to mind the strength of their own real bond.

Introduced is the cataleptic father of Jenny, left for her to raise after her mother decides that his being handicapped is a burden to her! And the teachers in school (and students) aren't particularly willing for her to have his non-responsive presence in class. The gag involving using the father's body as a toy for their amusement by students near Jenny is repulsive but produces guilty laughs.