| The Seven Voyages of Cynthia | Gallery | Transcript |
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| Season 2 Episode 20a | |
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| The Seven Voyages of Cynthia | |
| Original Airdate | March 14, 1993 |
| VHS release | Angelica the Divine Volume 1 |
| DVD release | Season 2 Complete Series |
| Previous Episode | Let Them Eat Cake |
| Next Episode | My Friend Barney |
"The Seven Voyages of Cynthia" is the 42nd episode overall in Season 2 of Rugrats.
Characters Present[]
Synopsis[]
Inspired by Drew and Stu's boat, Tommy and Chuckie decide to sail a pretend boat of their own, with Angelica's doll Cynthia as the captain. When they accidentally lose the doll in the sewer, will Angelica ever get Cynthia back? - Description from Klasky Csupo
Plot[]
Stu and Drew are cleaning Drew's boat, and Chuckie tells Tommy he wishes they had a boat themselves. Tommy makes one himself out of a wooden garden stake and a "peas" label for the sail. He tells Chuckie that all they need now is a captain. Meanwhile, Angelica is getting her doll, Cynthia, ready to get "married". She still needs a husband, and Angelica looks through binoculars for one. She rejects Drew and Stu as "too old" and Tommy and Chuckie as "too young". She sees Spike and decides that "he'll do." Spike doesn't cooperate, however, and runs off during the "ceremony". Angelica tells him to "go away" if he doesn't want to play "wedding" and pushes him through a loose board in the fence. Tommy and Chuckie come across Cynthia lying on the ground (having been knocked down when Spike ran off). Tommy says they've found their captain. Chuckie is concerned about taking Angelica's doll, but Tommy says they only need Cynthia "for a little bit". Cynthia ends up on the "boat", and Tommy and Chuckie watch enthusiastically as she sails down the driveway on the water coming from the hose Stu and Drew are using to wash the real boat. However, Cynthia's boat keeps going, through the bars of the front gate, onto the street and down into the sewer.
Angelica returns to the scene of the wedding, and notices with a scream that Cynthia is gone. Her wailing alerts her dad and uncle, who both come running. Drew tells her to calm down, but Angelica cries that Cynthia is missing. Stu asks his niece if she looked everywhere, and she says yes; Cynthia isn't anywhere. At this moment, we cut to Cynthia being taken to the end of a pipe, and going down an embankment, where she gets separated from her boat and floats away, getting discolored in the process. Drew tells Angelica he can get her a new Cynthia doll. This puts Angelica into a state of minor shock. As Tommy and Chuckie come up to Angelica in an attempt to explain what happened to her doll, Angelica exclaims as a tear falls from her eye that Cynthia is her best friend, and she can't just get another one.
Cynthia goes through another pipe and ends up going down a waterfall and into the dirty waters of the sewage treatment plant.
Meanwhile, Spike is hanging around some trash cans. He goes into one which is lying on its side, just as the garbage truck arrives. Spike's trash can gets picked up and he is dumped into the back of the garbage truck along with the contents of the can. The truck pulls away with Spike in the back with all the garbage.
Angelica runs around the back yard, screaming for Cynthia. Tommy tells Chuckie they need to tell Angelica about what happened with the boat, but Chuckie is worried this will make her mad. Tommy says they made a mistake, and they have to own up to it. Chuckie reluctantly goes along with this.
Cynthia is again seen on her "voyage", getting dyed various colors from liquids pouring out of pipes.
Tommy and Chuckie approach Angelica, who is tossing things aside in her search for her doll. Tommy says he has something to tell her about Cynthia. Angelica asks him if he knows where Cynthia is and adds that if she finds out who took Cynthia, she'll "mash him and smash him into a million zillion blobs of applesauce!" After hearing this, Tommy decides not to tell Angelica for now.
Cynthia gets into a catfish's mouth, but the catfish burps her out without swallowing her. Cynthia floats under a bridge while the garbage truck carrying Spike drives over it.
Angelica asks Tommy and Chuckie "So, you didn't see (Cynthia) at all?" Chuckie replies that they did see her, but not for a long time. Tommy adds that they can help Angelica look for Cynthia. He suggests that Cynthia might be by the bushes, but instead of going to look herself, Angelica tells the boys to "start looking." At the bushes, Chuckie asks Tommy why they're there, since they know the doll won't be found there. Tommy again suggests they tell Angelica the truth, but Chuckie is afraid of becoming applesauce. Angelica appears behind them and sees that Cynthia's not there; she laments that her doll is "gone forever!" Angelica walks up to where her dad and uncle are washing the boat and grabs a cloth from a bucket. She puts it over her head like a mourning cap. She picks some flowers from the garden and spreads them around the last place she saw Cynthia, saying "Cynthia, we barely knew ye." Chuckie doesn't understand what Angelica's doing and tells Tommy that he thinks she has "gone off her rocket". Tommy seems to agree. Angelica decides to hold a funeral for her doll. She gives Tommy and Chuckie a flower each, telling them to stand where they are and look sad. Angelica starts the "service", saying that they are gathered to remember Cynthia, their "bestest friend in the world." She adds that no one knows where Cynthia has gone exactly, or whether she has her springtime fashion line or matching accessories, but it can at least be known that she has gone to a better place.
That particular place, it turns out, is the city dump/scenic overlook, where Cynthia falls out of a pipe and floats along in the water, along with tin cans and other refuse. This is timed with the arrival of the garbage truck, which dumps out its contents, including Spike. He sniffs the air and finds some enticing rotting food in the water. Right beside the food is Cynthia. Spike pauses and remembers that Cynthia belongs to Angelica. He then remembers Angelica getting mad at him and pushing him away. He decides to leave the doll and begins to walk away. Just then, however, he pictures Tommy being friendly to him and happy, and he decides to bring Cynthia back after all.
At the funeral, Angelica is reminiscing about the time she got Cynthia for her third birthday. She was an extra special present, and Angelica knew then that her life would never be the same. Chuckie starts to cry, and Tommy joins in. As the two wails, Angelica angrily tells them "Not yet", saying she hasn't finished. Chuckie and Tommy both tearfully admit that they're the ones who lost Cynthia, and how they only wanted her for a short time to be the captain of their boat. They explain how the water went so fast and Cynthia ended up going into the road and down a hole. They both shout that they're sorry, and they grab onto Angelica's dress, sobbing. An irate Angelica pushes them down and, as they back up towards the fence, she closes in on them, angrily exclaiming to the "rotten little babies" that they're the ones who lost her doll.
Just in the nick of time, Spike comes running in through the loose fence board, with Cynthia in his mouth. Angelica is ecstatic to see her doll is "alive", and Tommy and Chuckie are both relieved they didn't have to face Angelica's wrath. Angelica calls Spike a "wonderful, beautiful dog" and attempts to hug him, but he runs off. Angelica then notices how dirty and smelly Cynthia is and asks her where she's been. Tommy and Chuckie hug Spike, but he is taken away by Stu to receive a bath. Angelica is concerned about the "dog germs" on Cynthia and gives the doll a dip in her hot tub. She sadly tells Cynthia she "won't be able to do a thing with her hair." The episode ends as Stu washes Spike with the hose and argues with Drew, who told him he missed a spot.
Trivia[]
- This was the final episode written by Craig Bartlett, and the only episode he wrote for the second season. He would later go on to create Hey Arnold! for Nickelodeon.
- The title of the episode makes a reference to the 1958 movie The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, starring Kerwin Mathews.
- This episode served as a level in the video game Rugrats: Search for Reptar.
- Drew's boat, the Kingfisher 9000, was won in the Little Miss Lovely beauty pageant, as seen in the season one episode "Beauty Contest".
- Nickelodeon thought that kids wouldn't get the part where Angelica says the line: "Cynthia, we hardly knew ye", but it stayed in the script.
- Nickelodeon didn't want the episode to be paired with "Down the Drain" because both episodes had Cynthia going into a sewer system.
- Originally, there was a line where Angelica said, "Sick little monkeys!" but Nickelodeon ordered that line be cut because it was too much like another Nickelodeon show, Ren & Stimpy.
- When Angelica is combing Cynthia's hair and telling her how she looks better with a permanent, the word "Beautiful" on the "Beautiful Cynthia" sign is missing the "I".
- First appearance of Hubert, though he wouldn't be "named" until "Feeding Hubert".
- The dialogue heard during Spike's flashbacks from his point of view were recorded by having the voice actors (Cheryl Chase and E.G. Daily) speak gibberish and then slowing the recording down.
- Morals:
- Always ask permission first before you borrow someone's toys.
- Keep your personal belongings away from younger kids, especially babies.
