Monkey and the Bandit

**Monkey and the Bandit** is the 12th episode of the first season of Dreamzzz.

## Synopsis

*With Albert captured by the Night Hunter and Z-Blob detained by Agent Strick, it's time for a dual rescue in the Waking World and the Dream World!*

**Netflix**: *Agent Strick has Z-Blob... and the Night Hunter has Albert! The Dream Chasers gear up for a rescue mission in the Dream World and the Waking World.*

**Extended**: *With Albert, the logical side of Mr. Oz, imprisoned by the Night Hunter, Mr. Oz is not in the right frame of mind to stop Agent Strick when she captures Z-Blob and places tracking devices on the kids. Mateo and his friends must rescue their teammates, but when Strick threatens to turn them back into normal dreamers, do they dare take the risk?*

## Plot

The Dream Chasers arrive at the observatory, where they see Mr. Oz, who, without Albert, has became delirious, and has started to do painting and making paella. As Mateo was about to question him about the lock on the door in the Grim Realm that was preventing them from leaving the their Landing, Celia Strick and two agents arrive, the former saying she is responsible. She then confines Z-Blob, whom she had been searching for before placing a bracelet on Mateo when he tried to stop her. The agents then do the same to the others and Strick tells them they're trackers. She then tells Mateo she had been speaking to students at his school, who have been seeing Z-Blob in their dreams. She then plans on revoking their Dream Crafting if they continue their charade before shutting down Brooklyn's branch of the Night Bureau and has them thrown out. Despite the threats, Zoey, feeling responsible, plans to rescue Albert, with the others reminding her of their fellow students being held by the Night Hunter before they plan to rescue them while Mateo stays behind to keep an eye on Strick, but not to rescue Z-Blob. Meeting up at the Landing in the Dream World, Zoey tells the Dream Chasers to stick to her plan while Cooper works on removing their trackers.

At the observatory, Mateo, defying his orders, finds Strick about to examine Z-Blob, but doesn't hear him due to wearing earphones before Mateo persuades Mr. Oz, feigning that he'll help him with learning to juggle.

In the Grim Realm, the Dream Chasers come across some Grimkeepers trying to grab Dallas, who was too high for them to reach. Intending to get back at him for the tackle during the Sheep Week soccer match, Zoey tells the others to wait for the opportunity before a Grimspawn grabs Dallas and throws him into a Grimkeeper, and they use it as an opporotunity for Zian to follow them to Albert and the kids with the others close behind.

Back at the observatory, Mr. Oz manages to switch Z-Blob with Albert's bobblehead figure before Strick discovers Mateo with him, but they quickly escape, locking the two inside the room.

Continuing their plan to follow to Grimkeeper with Dallas inside, the Dream Chasers spot it meeting up with several more with trapped students, including Albert, inside them before the Nightmare Shark Ship arrives. As Zoey tries to rescue him, the Grimspawn grab the other kids and Dallas. and bring them onto the ship while several Grimspawns hold Zian down before Logan rescues them, and they're forced to watch Albert being taken on the ship before it takes off. Soon, Mateo arrives with Z-Blob, in drone mode, leading to Zoey reprimanding him for not following with the plan, which the others state was a complete bust, just as Cooper figured out how to remove the trackers. As they prepare to make their way to go after the ship, Zoey stays behind, annoyed her plan wasn't followed before they take off.

The Dream Chasers reach the ship, only for a Grimspawn to shoot them down, but managed to hold onto the tail with Z-Blob in rope mode before entering through some starboard side windows. After getting disguised as a Grimspawn, Izzie makes her way to the deck, where she sees the captured students before discreetly swiping the keys. Meanwhile, the Night Hunter scolds the Grimspawns for seemingly shooting down the Dream Chasers as the Nightmare King needed Z-Blob for his plan to enter the Waking World before looking at the eye on the Nightmare King's staff to look through the eye planted on Logan's cap and discovers they're below. As she started to free the kids, Izzie learns about the others being below and warns them as they come out. As they rescue the kids, Cooper wonders how they're gonna get them off before Mateo tells them he has it covered while Izzie rescues Albert. Before they could move, Izzie discovers a tooth in a jar before remembering Mr. Sharkyjaw has a pocket for Izzie to put in a baby tooth that she would lose for the Tooth Fairy. The tooth in particular is her last one, which wasn't collected, because she had lost her mother that same day, and believes the tooth is the link combing Mr. Sharkyjaw to the ship. This unfortunately gets both Izzie and Albert caught before they're brought to the others, only for Zoey to arrive and save them. Mateo then revealed that he knew Zoey would change her mind before she and Zian take some kids. He also expected Mr. Oz and Strick, who were able to get out of the observatory, to arrive in the Spacebus when he kept the trackers on hand. Seeing the kids, Strick was now convinced about the Nightmare King before having Mr. Oz fire the grapple, bringing him along, to secure the bus to the ship. Upon landing on the deck, Mr. Oz, touched by Albert, regains his lost personality. Mateo has the remaining kids use the trackers to zipline towards the bus before they join them, just as the Night Hunter cuts the rope, knocking Strick off, but is saved by Z-Blob, whom was Dream Crafted into a net before they make their getaway.

The following morning, the Dream Chasers sit by the bleachers at school as Izzie talks to Zoey about how jazz players improvise, which inspired Mateo to improvise himself. Strick then arrives, apologizing about not listening to them about their beliefs on the Nightmare King and reinstates their branch, even deputizing Z-Blob by giving him her badge, which had been covered by his slime when he saved her before telling Mateo that he is responsible for Z-Blob to not be spotted by others.

## Appearances

### Characters

#### Cast

* Albert - Clay St. Thomas
* Celia Strick - Belinda Metz
* Cooper - Mike Taylor
* Dallas - Jesse Moss
* Grimspawns - Maryke Hendrikse
* Izzie - Larissa Dias
* Jayden - Zion Simpson
* Logan - Vincent Tong
* Mateo - Marcos Cardenas
* Mr. Oz - Brian Drummond
* Night Hunter - Alessandro Juliani
* Zoey - Sarah Jeffery

### Locations

* Waking World
	+ Brooklyn
		- Night Bureau
		- Francis B. Wooley Middle School
* Dream World

## Trivia

* The title of the episode is similar to the 1977 movie *Smokey and the Bandit*.
* This episode was accidentally released on June 10th on PlutoTV despite the official release date being in August.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.primevideo.com/detail/LEGO-DreamZzz/0UB7SPFQ0Q0JST1G8I61F5B8W1/ref=atv\_nb\_lcl\_en\_US?ie=UTF8&language=en\_US
2. ↑ https://www.ruutu.fi/ohjelmat/lego-dreamzzz