Murdering Outside The Box

"Murdering Outside The Box" is the twelfth episode of Metalocalypse. It aired on October 22, 2006 on Adult Swim.

Synopsis
Against the wishes of the Tribunal, Crozier sends an assassin to eliminate the threat that is Dethklok. The spy easily blends in during the annual employee performance review, but all attempts to kill the band fail.

Plot
The episode starts with Dethklok returning to Mordhaus after a shopping trip. Toki complains that he does not know what do with his purchases. Skwisgaar suggests that they throw everything away since they're all going to die anyway. Nathan bought expensive watches despite the fact that he hates wearing them -- he likes to smash them, and Pickles asks to join in. Murderface bought a diamond-encrusted, titanium-based codpiece shaped like a rhino horn and everyone compliments him. Toki adds that he also bought a codpiece, but in reality he's wearing a bright green, vibrating strap-on dildo. Pickles explains how he tried to buy the cinnamon bun franchise, but he was too drunk. Charles appears -- he's been looking for them all day. He wants the band to take part in the 'Employee Evaluation Conference Conference and Raffle' in order to discover which of their employees has been embezzling. Initially Dethklok finds the idea of embezzling cool until they find out the money is being stolen from them.

Infiltrating Mordhaus
In a Tribunal meeting Senator Stamptington explains that Dethklok has officially become the world's 12th largest economy, surpassing Belgium. He announces that all of Dethklok's employees will converge in Mordhaus for the Employee Evaluation Conference Conference and Raffle. General Crozier decides to take advantage of the conference by sending an assassin to infiltrate the ranks of Dethklok's hooded roadies. Crozier implies that, against the wishes of the Tribunal, he will have agent 216 attempt to assassinate Dethklok.

The scene cuts to Dethklok interviewing Gear 421. Pickles asks "How do you value your what you contribute of to and the work force? Uh, second part: At which do you most can't the least?", then asks Skwisgaar if he wrote the questions; the guitarist confirms. 421 responds confidently: "I am a highly skilled microphone cleaner, my masters, and what I most can't the least, would be do not a bad job, but always a good." Nathan then asks 421 if he's the embezzler, 421 denies it, and Nathan accepts the answer. Dethklok wants to conclude the interview, but Murderface continues, asking 421 personal questions about his family and congratulating him on his near-birthday. Dethklok comment that they are really good bosses while Skwisgaar makes a rather unfortunate comparison to running a plantation where, instead of slaves, they have friends.

The assassin gets closer
Agent 216 sneaks into Mordhaus and witnesses Gears burning the yard grass and making dragon shrubbery sculptures, as well as holding a branding ceremony and working in a workshop. Crozier contacts 216, ordering him to kill Dethklok. When and employee asks for his security clearance, Agent 216 murders him with a hammer then sneaks into a room which turns out to be the interview room. Dethklok greets him like a regular employee. Skwisgaar says "we cares about each and every ones of you, little tinies goofballs", prompting an argument with Toki over who is actually conducting the interview. Toki asks: "am you what are we is a Dethklok employee?" Agent 216 doesn't answer. Instead he pulls a gun under the table, preparing to shoot them just as a P.A. announcement interrupts. The voice prompts everyone to return to Performance Atrium for the Dethklok Employee Motivational Seminar and Raffle, which sends Murderface into a rage. He breaks the table in half then falls on the assassin disarming him. Before leaving, Murderface tells 216 to have a great day. 216 then tries to kill them in the hallway but slips on the blood of a Klokateer he killed earlier, missing the band and killing another Klokateer instead. Oblivious, Swisgaar says "look another Klokateer is sleepings in blood, too."

Dethklok discuss how they want to win the raffle. Nathan screams that he loves being motivated. At the Motivational Seminar the motivational guest speaker is hyping the employees, getting them excited about dying for Dethklok until he accidentally trips over the microphone cable, strangling himself dead. The mood dies down but rises again immediately by the appearance of the band mascot, Facebones. Facebones introduces an instructional video about being considerate to fellow employees; the video features Dethklok acting out various scenarios, reminding the Klokateers that death is an every day occurrence. The employees are rewarded with an exclusive first look at Briefcase Full of Guts just before the raffle. Next Charles announces the winner of the raffle: Gear 216.

A foiled attempt
Agent 216 tries enter the stage but is stopped by the midget Klokateer (the true Gear 216) who won the raffle and mistakenly thinks Agent 216 wants to steal his rightful prize; and they fight. The assassin fights his way onto the stage, but just before he can shoot Dethklok the midget Klokateer trips him. He falls face-first onto Murderface's diamond encrusted codpiece. Charles beings announcing the prize while they fight, but trails off saying "diamond encrusted codpiece" when he sees the manner of Agent 216's death. It's unclear whether the codpiece is the original prize or if the words just escape Charles as he witnessed the scene, but in the end Gear 216 gets the codpiece.

The band turns out to be embezzling from themselves, but they blame it on the assassin. Still considering the Agent to have been a Dethklok employee, they give him a Viking funeral. During the final credits, it is revealed that Crozier is watching the funeral from the Agent's wrist communication device. It is unclear whether the Tribunal is aware of Crozier's betrayal. Murderface calls dibs on the pension.

Songs featured in this episode
Briefcase Full of Guts

Guest Voices

 * King Diamond

Trivia

 * Corpse count: Klokateer 1 (bludgeoned by Agent 216); Klokateer 2 (shot by Agent 216); motivational speaker (hung by his own mic) and Agent 216 (impaled by Murderface's codpiece after being tripped by Klokateer 216).
 * The Klokateer who wins the raffle is number 216. Six to the power of three, 6x6x6, is 216.
 * One of the watches Pickles smashes is a Hamilton watch
 * The franchise Pickles was trying to buy probably refers to Cinnabon
 * In reality, Belgium is the 25th largest world economy by GPD, the 12th largest is Australia