Vinnie Dakota

**Vinnie Dakota** (regularly addressed as **Dakota**) is a recurring character who appears in the Disney Channel animated series, *Milo Murphy's Law*. He is a time traveler from the future who, alongside his partner, Balthazar Cavendish, was permanently banished into Milo's time.

## Background

Aside from the opening credits, he first appears in "The Doctor Zone Files" giving pistachios to Milo and Sara at the Doctor Zone Files movie premiere. He happens to be smarter than his partner Balthazar Cavendish, as shown when Balthazar tried to have Sara Murphy pronounce "pistachios" correctly, only for Vinnie to remind that she did that already. He is also aware of his surroundings, as when Balthazar told him not to talk to the customers, only for Vinnie to remind that he was just talking to Balthazar instead of the customers; he even pointed out that he had nothing to do with their pistachio stand blowing sky high after Balthazar accuses him of sabotaging it, as Balthazar accidentally spilled some ingredients that jammed the broiler in the first place. They disappeared after the stand blew up.

He and Cavendish made a cameo in "The Note" and "Party of Peril".

In "Smooth Opera-tor", the duo made an attempt to protect the pistachios at the Opera house by tying up the guy who usually works the concessions stand and leaving him under the stage. He compared the ascot Cavendish was wearing to a lobster bib before Milo came to buy some pistachios. Then they tried to convince him to get gummy bears instead but he wasn't interested. They were forced to comply but struggled to even dispense them. Vinnie managed to release it by accident with his foot and because of Murphy's Law, the other dispensers flooded the floor with pistachios ruining their mission.

In "Worked Day", Dakota was shown being fascinated by a lava lamp in the window of a pawn shop. Throughout the episode, he constantly tries to get Cavendish to agree on where to go for lunch while trying to complete their mission of transporting a pistachio truck to its designated warehouse. Upon seeing Cavendish drive them to a steak sandwich restaurant, he pointed out they were on the wrong B Street. While passing the hospital, their truck was pulled in due to the magnetic pull which stopped the device causing it. Dakota then decided on having hospital food, annoying Cavendish.

The duo were briefly seen in "The Wilder West", manning a pistachio cart in front of the outlet mall.

Dakota and Cavendish have a brief appearance in "Family Vacation" when Milo and the Brulee Family crashes into the building they are currently in. Cavendish blames the accident on Dakota, chalking it up to "that attitude".

In "Murphy's Lard", the duo is seen zapping into existence right by a pistachio stand and pretending to be pistachio stand inspectors sent from "corporate". They went on to question the teenager working at the pistachio stand, called Henry, about the stands capabilities to withstand a flaming pig attack. Cavendish spends the episode setting up a globe shaped defense mechanism around the stand while Dakota eats pistachios and practices different instruments, such as a harmonica, a theremid, and a clarinet. When they manage to successfully stop a flaming pig-shaped ride cart from crashing into the stand, Cavendish begins take down the safety precautions around the pistachios. Just as the duo is about to leave the flaming pig shaped cart is again flung towards the pistachio stand, this time crashing into it and destroying the pistachios within it; at Cavendish's request that Dakota "play him out" he takes up his clarinet and accompanies Henry on a banjo, playing while Cavendish walks away.

The duo is seen shortly in "Secrets and Pies" trying to stop pistachios from leaking out from a silo. When Veronica drives past them with Milo's pizza, the silo begins to leak even more and eventually bursts, causing a pistachio tsunami.

In "The Substitute" the pair are transporting a futuristic fertilizer to a pistachio sapling at Milo's school only for their Quantum Localizer to land them in a science class closet before running out of power. The fertilizer ends up mixing with another chemical to become a sentient blob, which grabs the pair and throws them out into the hallway.

In "Time Out" Dakota and Balthazar end up bothering Brick and Savannah, fellow time travel agents, where it mentioned he and Balthazar are both dressed in cloths "From the '70s" respectively. Dakota also claims that he joined the time travel agency to prevent the "Mississippi Purchase"; when Balthazar questions whether he means the Louisiana Purchase, Dakota responds "You're welcome!"

Dakota appears again in "The Little Engine That Couldn't", where he and Balthazar are assigned to transport two boxes of pistachios using their new vehicle, a tandem bike. Balthazar looks on this as yet another case of being demeaned by his superiors, but is distracted when the bike and pistachios are crushed by a runaway antique fire engine carrying Milo Murphy. Determined to find out who Milo is working for — since he is unaware that Milo isn't working for anyone — he drags Dakota in pursuit of Milo. They briefly interact with Milo and witness him saving a number of cats sent flying by the engine, and Dakota catches one that resembles Balthazar. The cat also demonstrates the tendency to mock him, both before and after the pair are thrown from the engine into a nearby pond.

## Personality

Dakota tends to be very laid back and carefree, often enjoying simple pleasures and focusing on fun or incidental matters rather than the task at hand, which has a tendency to annoy Cavendish on some occasions. He is generally lazy when it comes to missions, letting Cavendish do most of the work while he goofs around. He becomes much more passionate about participating when they are not acting under direct orders from their boss.

Dakota loves food and tends to get excited anytime he can get his hands on it, often bringing it up as a topic of conversation in anticipation of their next meal. While outwardly Dakota appears relaxed and simple, he's very different when things get serious, often taking the lead and acting much more like an agent. When Milo accidentally travels to 2175 with him, Dakota immediately becomes very protective of his well-being, giving his companions instructions to keep them safe and throwing himself in front of them when he needs to.

He's shown himself to have little regard for rules and regulations and has stolen high tech time gadgets from Brick and Savannah for the sake of fun more than once, much to the frustration of both his partner and the higher class agents.

While he tends to be better than Cavendish when it comes to critical thinking and acting on his feet, Dakota is not very book smart, often asking Cavendish the meaning of more complicated words. This gets on his nerves at one point, and he calls the latter out for using big words on purpose and talking down on him. Dakota has a deep love for animals, and by extension, the Zoo. When the duo get sent on a mission there, Dakota shows overwhelming enthusiasm at being able to see 'actual live animals', and spends the rest of the day singing "the Zoo song" rather than focusing on the assignment. Entirely unlike his partner, Dakota has a vast knowledge on the subject of animals.

## Physical Appearance

Dakota is a relatively short man with an olive complexion, dark eyes, and curly brown hair with obvious sideburns. He has a rather square face with a prominent nose and thick eyebrows that are often hidden beneath his shades.

He dresses in a style from the 1970s made up of a red and yellow tracksuit with a pair of completely white sneakers. The jacket of his tracksuit is red while the sleeves are yellow, ending in orange cuffs. The collar of his jacket is a darker red than the rest of the outfit, and the jacket itself is zipped down halfway, revealing a white undershirt and a gold chain necklace.

Finally, Dakota wears a pair of orange and yellow shades with tinted lenses that go notably unremoved, even in costume or old age.

### Youth

When he was younger, Dakota had a thick brown afro. He wore a deep, burgundy jacket with darker colored collars and cuffs. The jacket had a gold button on each shoulder and wrist, and notable seams down the sleeves. Dakota wore a pair of olive green pants with three vertical yellow rectangles on the outside of either leg, tucked into a pair of knee-high black boots with grey soles.

### Old Age

In old age, Dakota's tracksuit has a more futuristic appearance, with an orange stripe that extends down from his left shoulder. The orange stripe on his pants is much thicker, and rounded at the top, while pale yellow straps extend over his white sneakers. His hair is grey and vastly receded, and he's developed wrinkles.

## Relationships

### Balthazar Cavendish

Cavendish is Dakota's partner in the Bureau of Time Travel. While he tends to respect Cavendish's dedication to the task at hand, Dakota doesn't take his strictness seriously and often takes to goofing off during their missions. He's gone out of his way to steal a number of time devices as a surprise for his companion and continued to push for fun even after Cavendish lectures him over how dangerous they are.

### Milo Murphy

Dakota was quick to become friends with Milo in spite of Cavendish's initial hostilities. He was the first to notice that Milo's presence seemed to coincide with the failure of their missions, but unlike Cavendish, did not jump to conclusions. Likewise, he continued to be friendly to Milo while his partner treated the boy as an enemy agent, and often rose doubt against the theory, reminding Cavendish that they had no evidence on the matter.

Dakota became protective of Milo while the three of them evaded the Pistachions, and the group later worked together to destroy King Pistachion. Afterward, Dakota gave Milo a clock from the timestream as a souvenir of their adventure. He's always happy to see Milo and greets him cheerfully whenever they cross paths.

### Zack Underwood and Melissa Chase

While he doesn't know Milo's best friends as well as he does Milo, Dakota is on friendly terms with them. Initially, he'd met them when they confronted him at a middle school dance, unaware of their theory that he was a vampire hunter. Eventually, Milo formally introduced the group, and they went on to save the world together.

### Mr. Block

Mr. Block was Dakota's boss when he worked for the Bureau of Time Travel. While Mr. Block treated him with open contempt, Dakota tended to act as though they were on good terms and treated him in a friendly manner. Dakota was excited to find out more after finding out Mr. Block had gone to see a movie but got only a predictably harsh response when he asked. He didn't believe Block when the Pistachion invasion started, and instead assumed he was pulling a prank, likening it to other times Block had pranked them in the past.

After saving the world and failing to convince Mr. Block that they'd done so, Dakota came to resent the way Mr. Block treats them. While aware of the fact that Mr. Block has no memory of the Pistachion dominated timeline they'd prevented, he feels it's unfair that they don't get more credit for their effort.

### Brick and Savannah

Brick and Savannah were fellow agents in the Bureau of Time Travel. Dakota took their rude treatment in stride, largely ignoring it in favor of being friendly to them. While the first class time travelers constantly treat him badly, he doesn't seem to dislike them in return and has even asked for favors on a number of occasions. After asking nicely to borrow their limo and receiving a rude rejection in return, Dakota didn't hesitate to steal it when the opportunity arose.

Dakota had stolen from Brick and Savannah on a number of occasions, both on purpose and on accident. While they seemed to know it was him taking their stuff, he always got away with it.

After having been demoted because of Brick and Savannah for destroying pistachios, Dakota, alongside Cavendish, had taken to doing all he could to ensure that the first class agent's pistachio-based missions ended in failure. He understands their skill as agents, knowing full well that there was no way they'd fail a mission without intervention.

### Heinz Doofenshmirtz

Dakota was excited to meet the great Professor Time, referring to him as 'a legend' during the elevator ride to his home. In spite of this, he acts much more casual towards Doofenshmirtz then Cavendish did. This continues as they go on their adventure, with Dakota questioning him for talking to Diogee and later excusing his slowness, instead blaming life in the sixties for having a slower pace.

When Cavendish begins shouting at Doofenshmirtz for being a disappointment, Dakota agrees with his impression, claiming Doofenshmirtz' voice was very annoying. Later, Dakota tries to stop Doofenshmirtz from being reckless while giving his speech, only for Cavendish to hold him back, claiming he was having a moment.

After having his memory erased by Cavendish, Dakota is approached by Doofenshmirtz while eating at Skate Ashbury. He shares his troubles at the latter's request, and goes on to listen to Doofenshmirtz' own issues before sharing his food. After this they then decide to work together to find Cavendish.

When working together Dakota is forced to be more responsible and keep an eye on Doof to make sure he isn't messing around when they should be acting serious.

## Trivia

* He is voiced by Dan Povenmire, one of the show's creators.
* The voice of Vinnie Dakota is similar to the voice of Hobo Dan in the Phineas and Ferb episode, *What A Croc!*whom Dan Povenmire also voiced.
* His mother's maiden name is Drowssap.
* Dakota can play the harmonica, the clarinet, and the theremin.
* Like his partner, Dakota is scarcely referred to by his first name.
* He served as the inspiration for the Doctor Zone character Time Ape.
* Dakota doesn't like fish sandwiches.
* It was revealed that the reason parking meters exist is because of him leaving time vehicles all over time when he goes back to save Cavendish.
* Dakota was the last character to be seen physically in Season 2.

* Starting from "Perchance to Sleepwalk", Dakota has been relieved of their pistachio duties and demoted to cleaning Renaissance-era toilets.
* Early reruns of the show's first episodes - "Going the Extra Milo"/"The Undergrounders" and "Rooting for the Enemy"/"Sunny Side Up" - had cameos by Cavendish and Dakota, inserted into them that did not appear in the original broadcasts (perhaps implying that the duo had time-traveled into those episodes).
* Starting from "Abducting Murphy's Law" Balthazar quits P.I.G. and leaves Vinnie behind to be a hero.