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"Now You See Him..." is the eighth episode of the fourth season of Static Shock. It originally aired March 16, 2004.

Plot[]

At the Dakota Mall, Daisy is looking at a necklace she wants to buy but says she doesn't have enough money to. She sees a boy staring at her in a mirror. As soon as she turns around, the boy disappears. While Daisy continues to browse around, all of a sudden, someone moving extremely fast runs through the mall, stealing things. Static and Gear show up, but fail to catch the speedster. Later, at the Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude, Virgil tells Richie that his sister scored two free tickets to the upcoming B2K concert. He also tells him because Daisy is the biggest fan of B2K, he's going to invite Daisy to accompany him to the concert. Richie recorded the fight they had earlier with the fast person, and he explains to Virgil that somehow the mysterious man is using super speed. Back at the mall, Virgil and Daisy are greeted by Eddie Felson, a boy they met at a science camp a couple summers earlier (and the same one Daisy had been seeing behind her reflections). He tries to ask Daisy out on a date, but Virgil chimes in, reminding Daisy that they have the B2K concert to go to. An angered Eddie immediately walks away.

The same super-speeding thief from before steals the necklace Daisy wanted. Static and Gear arrive but fail to catch him. Static overrides the alarm system in the mall, which causes all the shops to go on lockdown, so that they can trap this person inside. The mysterious criminal confronts Static and Gear, revealing himself to them and presenting himself as Speedwarp. He explains he can maneuver himself through super speed. While Gear tries to capture him using one of his Zap-Caps, Speedwarp causes everything around him to slow down to a standstill. He then turns the tables on him, causing the cap to entrap Gear instead. He does the same to Static by grabbing his flying disk in hyper time. He later grabs Static and uses his speed to send him into the same standstill, which he dubs Hypertime. While in it, he takes off the helmet of the frozen Gear and, learning that he is Richie, deduces Static to be Virgil Hawkins. Warning him to get out of his way, lest his secret will be exposed, Speedwarp eventually escapes without a trace.

At home, Eddie gets a call from Dr. McDonald on his answering machine. He tells Eddie that he has him on video, stealing the time gauntlet which grants him his super speed. Dr. McDonald wants Eddie to turn himself in and return the device before he gets into any more trouble. Eddie dresses up as Speedwarp and runs over to Dr. McDonald's office. He tries finding the tape but has no luck although he does see on the Doctor's calendar that he's now on his private plane leaving for an appointment. Speedwarp uses the hyper time, and he boards the plane the doctor's on. He grabs the tape which has him stealing the time manipulator, ties up the pilot with tape and finally sabotages the plane by unscrewing one of the turbines. Static and Gear find the plane in mid-air out of control, losing its parts like crazy. They manage to land the plane safely, and the doctor explains to them that Eddie was his intern, but eventually decided to steal, rather than work for him anymore. In the meantime, the police have Eddie's house surrounded, and he enters hypertime to escape. He does not mind that the stolen goods are confiscated, as there's only one thing that matters for him to take: Daisy.

Gear constructs a time belt for Static, telling him that he can only use it once on Speedwarp, which will make him go into hypertime too. He also tells him to make sure that Speedwarp doesn't touch it, because if he does, something really bad could happen (as the hypertimes would cross). He then takes the belt and goes to the B2K concert with Daisy, telling Gear that he's sure Speedwarp will find them instead of them having to look for him.

At the B2K concert, Speedwarp shows up and puts everything, once again, into hyper time. Everyone except Daisy is frozen. Speedwarp takes off his mask, and lets Daisy know that she was the only one nice to him at science camp. That was why he stole the necklace earlier for her and tried to impress her. Daisy freaks out and starts to flee out into the frozen city — with Eddie accosting her at every corner.

Having been unfrozen after Speedwarp left the concert hall, Virgil notices Daisy is gone and heads off as Static to find her, putting himself into hypertime using the belt Gear made. However, unable to match Speedwarp's speed, nothing Static does works. Speedwarp then notices the belt on Static's waist and tries taking it from him, over Static's warnings. The two hypertimes collide as Speedwarp's time regulator short circuits, and he is permanently stuck in time — slower than everything else, that is.

Back at the concert, Daisy returns to Virgil. They go back to enjoying the rest of the show together.

Background information[]

Home video releases[]

Production inconsistencies[]

  • When Speedwarp sabotages the plane, its position changes. He was able to get on the wing with the movable stairway, but when he takes the plane out of hypertime, the plane was already airborne and at least 10 feet higher than the stairs.

Trivia[]

Static, Gear, and B2K

"Now You See Him... promotional piece.

  • As with other episodes featuring guest appearances, this one received a unique piece of promotional art.
  • Speedwarp's costume is red, a color traditionally associated with the speedsters of the DC Universe. Even the shape of his cowl resembles that of the Flash.
  • Speedwarp is the only villain who Static and Gear faced who is not a bang baby or is involved with Alva Industries or any ally like She-Bang.
  • Speedwarp is likely named after Paul Newman's character "Fast Eddie Felson" in the 1961 film "The Hustler".
  • The song that plays at B2K's concert, "Pretty Young Thing", is from their 2002 album Pandemonium!.

Cast[]

Actor Role
Phil LaMarr Static/Virgil Hawkins
Jason Marsden Gear/Richie Foley
Crystal Scales Daisy Watkins
James Arnold Taylor Speedwarp/Eddie Felson
Arena announcer (uncredited)
Alan Young Dr. McDonald
Paula Tiso Counter Girl
Richard Tatum Omar Harmozi

Uncredited appearances[]

Quotes[]

Eddie: Yeah, I'm on spring break from college. I graduated high school early ’cause, you know, I'm a genius.
Virgil: We know, man — we were there.

Gear: (after landing the sabotaged airplane) How did I do?
Static: Isn't that your dad's car?
Gear: (gasps)
Static: (chuckles) Gotcha.

Dr. McDonald: It's a time manipulator. They've been working on it for years.
Static: And your intern ran off with it?
Dr. McDonald: Yes — Eddie Felson.
Static: (along with Gear, as they look at each other in surprise) Weird Eddie?

Gear: He's gone completely out of sync with our time. He's trapped in his own warp.
Static: What do we do?
Gear: I don't think there's anything we can do except call the cops.
Static: Well, they won't have to hurry. By the time he gets to the end of the block, it'll be Christmas.

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