Bloomsday

**"Bloomsday"** is an episode of the animated television series *The Tick.*

## Synopsis

Tick, Arthur and American Maid are charged with protecting the 400-Year Bloom--a flower that blooms "the bad way" when not constantly exposed to music--from El Seed's evil clutches.

## Plot

Tick and Arthur are attending The City's annual flower show, and Arthur is suffering from hay fever whilst carrying a flower around. They happen upon American Maid, and she takes them to the exhibit of the 400-Year Bloom, an incredibly rare flower. Its guardian, Professor Akiko Ikebana, explains that if it is not constantly exposed to music (in this case, from a cassette player), it will bloom in "the bad way" (which supposedly nearly wiped out an entire dynasty). However, El Seed is watching, and sprouts some violent buzz saw flowers to help him capture the bloom. While Tick and American Maid are fighting the flowers, Arthur swaps his flower for the bloom. Ikebana is captured by El Seed, but the others get away in a taxi with the real bloom.

On their way back to Arthur's apartment, the cassette playing music for the bloom ends, and it starts to bloom in the "bad way." American Maid stops it in the nick of time by singing "America the Beautiful." Elsewhere, El Seed interrogates the captured Professor Ikebana, trying to find out where the real bloom went, though he deduces the bloom's real location on his own and dispatches the Bee Twins to retrieve it. Tick and American Maid simultaneously leave to find Ikebana, so the Bee Twins and a newly-birthed henchman named Rosebud have little difficulty taking the bloom from Arthur. El Seed's minions return to his hotel room with the bloom, but before he leaves to enact his plan he sprouts a huge flytrap to consume Ikebana. Tick and American Maid arrive in the nick of time, and save Ikebana.

When Ikebana tells them that El Seed has the bloom, they rush back to Arthur's apartment. The heroes reconvene, and set out in the hopes that they find El Seed and the bloom, while said flower has already begun to bloom in the bad way, and is growing to incredible stature. Arthur discovers, after a fourth wall-breaking public service announcement, that his hay fever grows stronger the closer they get to the bloom. When they find the bloom, it has already grown many storeys tall, and continues grow at a rapid pace. In the suburbs of The City The Human Bullet, hoping to help save the day, discovers that his son is at a friend's house and his wife is totally unwilling to help. His neighbor Chet steps in just in time, and fires him at the bloom.

American Maid makes her way to El Seed on the bloom's stalk only to be knocked off and plummet to what would be her doom, if not for the perfectly-timed Human Bullet flying by and catching her. Atop the bloom, and after doing battle with El Seed's henchmen, Tick wails opera to sooth the raging flora until El Seed shoots a seed down his throat, making Tick upchuck different plants. While Tick subdues El Seed, Arthur enthusiastically sings the bloom down to its natural size, saving the day. El Seed and co. are dragged off by the authorities, and Tick delivers the bloom to Ikebana, while Arthur continues to suffer from his hay fever.

## Characters

### Main Characters

* Tick
* Arthur
* American Maid

### Antagonists

* El Seed
	+ Bee Twins
	+ Rosebud (only appearance)

### Other Characters

* Human Bullet
* Human Bullet's wife
* Chet (only appearance)

## Locations

* The City
	+ Arthur's apartment building
	+ Arthur's apartment
	+ City Botanical Gardens
	+ Hotel la Fleur du Mal
	+ Convention center
* Human Bullet's house

## Notes

* The Tick: Mighty Blue Justice claims that after, catching American Maid, Human Bullet landed somewhere in the city of Deertown.
* **Ending Line**: "Well, it just goes to show Mother Nature has a load of tricks up her green sleeves, and tonight she... really put her foot down."