I Only Have Surprise for You (Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends)

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"I Only Have Surprise for You"
SURPRISE!!!! This episode sucks!
Series: Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
Part of Season: 4
Episode Number: 6
Air Date: July 27, 2006
Writer: Tim McKeon
Director: Robert Alvarez and Eric Pringle
Previous episode: Infernal Slumber
Next episode: Bus the Two of Us


"I Only Have Surprise for You" is the 6th episode of the fourth season of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and is overall the 47th episode of the series.

Summary

Mac suspects that Bloo, along with the rest of the house, is planning him a surprise party. Mac, however, wants no part of it, since Bloo's surprise parties always humiliate him in some way, and he is determined to foil Bloo's plans by any means necessary.

Why It's a Terrible Surprise

  1. It's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends' answer to Middle Engine, due to the fact that both episodes involve a character getting tormented by someone for no reason, and the person responsible for the torture gets off with no punishment at all. Plus, they share the same bad morals (see WIATS #14).
  2. Bloo is completely at his absolute worst in this episode, as he constantly keeps tormenting and humiliating his best-friend, creator, and owner Mac through every fake birthday surprise party (even when Mac tells him to stop doing it every year), such as bringing Mac's entire classroom to see him naked in the shower (and not only that, but to make matters worse, Mac's bare bottom was PHYSICALLY SEEN for crying out loud), and then have the entire Foster's Home (except Eduardo) to go against Mac and take advantage of him and making him miserable by tricking him into destroying a birthday party for an "imaginary boy" when he thought it was his, then make Mac humiliate himself by dressing up and act like a clown to make up for the "imaginary boy" and the residents, and then reveal the real plan with Bloo being behind the whole set-up and reminds Mac that he'll always be one step ahead of him. This makes Bloo extremely out-of-character, especially the fact that he, along with the rest of Foster's residents, was doing something that Mac's older brother Terrence would do, and the episode pretty much ret-conned Bloo's "pre-flanderized" personality from the pilot movie ("House of Bloos"), making it seem like he was always as much of a jerk as, if not more so than he had become later in the series. While Bloo has been a selfish unlikable jerk to Mac and other characters throughout most of the series (mainly in the later seasons), this episode is regarded by many as his worst appearance and where his flanderization is cranked up to eleven.
    • The retconning of Bloo’s pre-flanderization through the flashbacks of him being a jerk to Mac at Mac apartment and in front of his mom shows that the writers refused to listen to the criticism fans had over Bloo’s flanderization, character derailment, and overall terrible behavior through many past episodes. This episode serves to mock fans for making these criticisms towards Bloo’s behavior.
  3. With the exception of Eduardo (even though he was still somewhat of a jerk to Mac), everyone, every single resident of the house, including Mac's only great friends Frankie, Goo, Wilt, and Coco, are completely out-of-character, stupid, and horribly unlikable and unsympathetic to Mac as for reasons unknown, they (despite that they are normally intolerable of Bloo's troublesome behavior) somehow blatantly agreed into helping Bloo humiliate Mac through a birthday surprise party (even after Mac said how much he hates it) and taking advantage of him and make him miserable by tricking and lying to him that the party in the library he ruined and destroyed he thought it was his was for a "four-year old imaginary child" named "Artie" "created by" Goo, then made Mac feel guilty, sad, and emotionally hurt by being mad at him and shame, insult, and yell at him for ruining "Artie's birthday", then make Mac reluctantly humiliate himself by dressing up and acting like a clown to make this up to them and "Artie", and then finally reveal the real plan with "Artie" revealing to be Madame Foster in disguise. They even enjoyed the party and Mac's humiliation and misery, laughing and mocking him without any care and sympathy for him.
  4. Mr. Herriman was completely horrible and unlikable as after Mac tells him to make sure Bloo doesn't throw him a surprise party and embarrassed him, he agrees to do so, but then he, along with all the house residents (except Eduardo), sides with Bloo and turned against Mac to humiliate himself through a surprise party.
  5. Even Mac's mother was out-of-character as she is shown in the flashbacks taking part in Mac's humiliating surprise parties, laughing and enjoying her son's humiliation and torment, and doesn't seem to mind the surprise parties Bloo throws in for him.
  6. The infamous ending where Bloo, with a sadistic grin, says to an upset and humiliated Mac, "One. Step. Ahead."
  7. Its an extremely harsh Mac torture episode, even more so than Foster's Goes to Europe (Coincidentally, it’s done by the same writer): Mac has suffered large amounts of torment and cruelty, gets treated terribly, and nobody, not even his only great friends (even Wilt), has any care, respect, and sympathy for him, as he has been tormented and humiliated through every birthday surprise parties by Bloo and because of this, gets anxious and paranoid about one. After suspecting Bloo and the others that they're gonna throw a surprise party for him and hearing rumors about it, Mac in his Rambo-like outfit went crazy and berserk as he tries to stop Bloo and the other residents from throwing the party for him by sabotaging and destroying the birthday party in the library, only to be told by the house residents that the party he ruined and destroyed was for "4-year-old Artie" and making "Artie" run away crying. This made the entire residents of Foster's Home be all mad at him, HATES him, and shame and yell at him for this as they angrily walks away and leaves Mac saddened, emotionally hurt, and guilty. So Mac decides to make this up for them and "Artie" and after he and Bloo cleaned up and re-did the party, Bloo forces him to dress and act like a clown to cheer "Artie" up and so Mac reluctantly does as Maco the Clown and once again gets ridiculed and embarrassed, only to be revealed that "Artie" was Madame Foster in disguise, the party was for Mac, and that the entire Foster's Home, including five of Mac's only great friends (except Eduardo), was in on him as a rule set up by Bloo to drive Mac insane and make him think he ruined someone's birthday party and Mac himself is left to suffer deliberate humiliation at yet another surprise party that doesn't even celebrate his birthday. After everything, he did to help the place out, and all the kindness he has given to the friends here, he got rewarded with this? How mean-spirited can this get!?!  
  8. Frankie, Wilt, and the rest of the entire Foster's Home NEVER apologize to Mac for betraying, lying, humiliating him, and being so mean to him.
    • This is especially out-of-character for Wilt as opposed to the fact that he is not only a very nice, caring, and kind character usually, but he also says "Sorry!" a lot constantly and the fact that he hates lying.
  9. The design on "Artie" is horrifying, weirdly nightmarish, and very forgettable.
  10. This episode tries way too hard to make Mac unlikable as he heavily ruins "Artie's" party and look like he deserved being tormented for it, while the real reason was that he thought it was his party and was trying to avoid getting embarrassed and ridiculed through another surprise party by Bloo and the others, only to be tricked, lied, and humiliated this whole time as it’s revealed in the end that "Artie" was Madame Foster and the party was his, and instead, it makes everyone else unlikable while Mac in the only likable character in this episode.
  11. It's like the writers hated Mac and wanted everyone to know.
  12. No one, not even Bloo, gets out of the Karma Houdini party for what they did to Mac.
    • Additionally, even Terrence in the flashbacks never gets punished for taking part in humiliating Mac through the surprise parties.
  13. Mac never gets mad at not only Bloo, but all the other residents of Foster's mansion for being mean and cruel to him, lying, setting him up, backstabbing, and humiliating him, and yet he still comes to Foster's and hangs with Bloo after this episode.
  14. This episode sends 2 bad morals to children, one moral states that you can get away for something you do and you will not be punished, as shown with Bloo, Terrence, and Mac's mother, and the 2nd moral shows it's okay for people to humiliate you on your birthday, as shown with Bloo and the rest of Foster's residents, which is seriously messed up.
  15. Plot hole: It is never explained how Bloo managed to convince the entire Foster residence to help him humiliate Mac when some of the residents show distaste towards several of Bloo’s actions. How did Bloo manage to convince people like Mr. Herriman, Frankie, Madame Foster, and Wilt to help him?
    • The plot twist that “Artie” was Madame Foster in disguise comes completely out of nowhere as the episode never makes any foreshadowing of this prior to the big reveal.

Redeeming Qualities

  1. At least Eduardo was the only house resident (and one of Mac's great friends) who didn't take part in setting Mac up to humiliate him through a surprise party and backstabbing him as he was merely told to come in through via an invitation and only did what the invitation told him to do, though one could say he was still somewhat a jerk to Mac.
  2. Mac is still a likable character. His plan of spoiling Bloo's birthday party plan is very funny. For example, Mac stomps on the birthday cake, while laughing manically.
  3. The running gag involving the Imaginary Clown Friend freaking out over Foster’s being home for “crazy people” is pretty passable.
    • As a matter of fact, the Imaginary Clown Friend has one of the funniest lines in the series: What's wrong with you people?! This isn't Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, it's Foster's Home for Crazy People!
  4. Mac does get another birthday episode in The Bloo Superdude and the Great Creator of Everything's Awesome Ceremony of Fun That He's Not Invited To where everyone at Foster’s does the kind of thing that seems like what they would do for Mac on his birthday.

Reception

This episode has been very controversial and received mixed-to-extremely negative reviews by critics and fans alike, many of those negative reviews have considered it one of the worst episodes in the entire Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends series (on par with episodes like "Imposter's Home for Um... Make 'Em Up Pals" and even "Everyone Knows It's Bendy") due to Bloo being very unlikable, the Foster Residents unfairly treating Mac and very cruel ending of the episode was Mac gets unfairly humiliated.

Because of the overwhelming negative reception by fans and critics alike, "I Only Have Surprise for You" was soon declared non-canon to the rest of the Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends series, with the negative actions of Bloo and the rest of the Fosters, as well as Mac's treatment never chronologically happen.

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