The two latest episodes of Monsters at Work build the pressure for Tylor to figure out what exactly he is doing with his life, while Val gets a great opportunity to enhance her own.
It’s Coming From Inside The House
Val arrives early at Monsters, Inc. and tests the jokester simulator. She seems to be doing well when Mike walks by with Sulley discussing the fact that more canisters are leaking when they see her inside. They even remark how well she is doing, especially since she caused quite the bit of nightmare fuel when the simulator’s robot head starts laughing so hard it shorts out, and flies off the robot body – while still laughing.
The simulator doors open and she discovers that Mike and Sulley had been watching the whole time before she quickly apologizes and runs away.
After the intro, we see that Duncan is still investigating the leaking cans, and he has the lead they Tylor could be the one doing it. After all, he found the Fear Co cup with his name on it in a recent episode. A Stoop Sale, similar to a garage sale, will be the perfect place for him to do a little digging as it is hosted by the Tuskmon family. Tylor’s Mom is setting up for the sale, when we discover that she has put up Tylor’s Scare Card collection for sale. A Passerby who showed up hours early for the sale has her sights set on the Scare Card collection, and is ready to offer several dollars for it.
Tylor catches this and declares that the card collection is not for sale, conveniently as the M.I.F.T. team shows up to help and also check out the wares. Duncan remains at a distance, trying to gather more clues, but is quickly noticed by the rest of the team and call him out.
Tylor’s Mom asks Val (who showed up late given the simulator incident) to help Tylor go through his things to find what to sell. It’s at this point that we know where this is going as Tylor will be reminded (as will the audience) how much Tylor wanted to be a Scarer. While going through the belongings, fans of the franchise will also notice a figure of a two-headed character from Monsters University. So enjoy!
While this is going on, Roger Rogers has expressed an interest in seeing Tuskmon Hardware, so Tylor’s dad takes him over there, where Duncan is still investigating.
Meanwhile, this whole time Tylor’s Grandma has been trying to get the phone to work. After all, her retirement home might be trying to call to invite her back. And if they haven’t, she wants to call them to find out why she hasn’t been invited back. Duncan sees the opportunity to talk to Tylor’s grandma by fixing her phone, and might have caught some feels in the process. Strange. But that’s Duncan, I guess.
They get the phone to work, and a scene erupts on the street below as she starts screaming that Tylor’s dad has been lying – she can’t go back to the retirement home just because she got kicked out, it’s because they can’t afford to keep her there.
The news affects everyone, even the shoppers at the Stoop Sale, but especially Tylor, who was teased with a large salary and a company car when Johnny offered him the Scare Floor job at Fear Co.
Accepting his earlier choice to stay at Monsters, Inc., he tries to put his scaring past behind him symbolically, and decides to sell his Scare Card collection to help out the family.
The same shopper is still on scene, and given the circumstances, raises her price from $3.00 to $3.16. Collectively knowing this is substantially less than what they are worth, the M.I.F.T. team comes in and starts driving up the price by bidding on the Scare Cards. Eventually, the shopper cracks and offers $1,000 for the collection.
Later at dinner, Val is over and tells a fun joke while Tylor’s dad finds it quite humorous and says that maybe she should think about being a jokester too.
Clearly, she already is.
Field of Screams
Tylor is very clearly having a nightmare that starts with him on the Laugh Floor, going through a door that recaps pretty much everything we’ve seen thus far this season. The Tuskmons aren’t financially secure, he has turned down the job at Fear Co. with Johnny and is afraid he won’t take him back, he made a pinky promise to stay working with Val, Ben saying he’s not a very good jokester. You know, all the big points.
Regardless, it’s time for the company softball game against Fear Co that Sulley organized without Mike’s permission. We find this out as Sulley and Mike have called Val to their office to offer her a job as a jokester. She is ecstatic, but as soon as they say they’ll find Tylor a new assistant, she figures she’d better talk to him first before she accepts the offer.
Tylor tells Val about the dream he had, and they are both skirting the topic that despite being BFFs, they are clearly not where they want to be professionally. This happens on the way to the game, where Roz (remember?!) is serving as the umpire.
As Tylor gets ready to bat with the help of his bat, Dr. Theresa Swingwell, Val decides that this is the best time to start laying the groundwork for sharing with Tylor that she got the job offer. However, she poses it as a dream, to help connect more with Tylor’s situation.
Tylor, as usual, is more focused on himself, and is practicing his swing so it’s just right, allowing him to only get a single, so he can stop at first base – which happens to be the position Johnny is playing, that way they can talk for a minute. He gets to the plate and hits the ball exactly like he wanted.
Johnny is focused on the game, but the small talk is still awkward. That’s when Tylor’s nightmare is reinforced, Johnny reminds Tylor that he made his choice about the job, and now the position is filled by Skylar. Who is Skylar? Tylor will find out when he gets to second base.
There’s hope for the Monsters, Inc. team to win the game for the first time in 40 years, because Fritz, who has never played the game, is surprisingly good. Too bad someone told him to run home, because he took that a bit too literally.
Val keeps getting to Tylor and shares that she wants to be a jokester, but Tylor is getting more agitated thinking about his relationship with Johnny, Skylar taking his job, and everything else. He takes out his frustration on Val, telling her she can’t, she has to go through classes and training, she’ll never be able to do it.
Cue the classic Baseball/Softball montage trope where we see the outs, the hits, and the trash talk against a song. What fun!
At this point, the game is nearly tied, and Tylor crushes a ball across the field. He is running the bases and excitedly gets to third, where his cheering leads him to accidentally knocking out Skylar. In the name of it being a friendly game, Sulley allows Fear Co. to pick a sub.
While they are trying to figure out everything going on, Val erupts and tells Tylor that she already has been offered the Jokester position. Tylor, angry, feels betrayed and that this is something she has been training for behind his back. That’s when Johnny asks Tylor to sub and play on his team. He accepts THIS position with ease.
The only hope for Monsters, Inc. to have a chance is the next batter, Val. And Johnny knows that she can’t hit, so he asks Tylor to sub as pitcher. How symbolic?
Tylor pitches and Val crushes the ball which takes a fast and fiery aim at Tylor – which in his head, becomes her screaming about the Pinky Promise again. Though the edit implies it hit him, we fade back in and discover that Tylor has caught the ball, leading her to be out and leading to the loss for Monsters, Inc. Tylor has won the game for Fear Co.
Hoping that this means Johnny will rethink having him on his team (at Fear Co), Johnny reinforces that Tylor has made his choice, this was only for the game.
That means that Tylor now has to board the bus back to Monsters, Inc, under the glaring eyes of Mike, Sulley, the M.I.F.T. team, and everyone else. Even Val.
These episodes of Monsters at Work are now available on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW app. They’ll also arrive on Disney+ on May 5th.