Dethwater (episode)

"Dethwater" is the second episode of the first season of Metalocalypse. The episode aired on August 13, 2006 on Adult Swim.

Synopsis
Nathan decides that Dethklok will record their new album in the sea and the Tribunal attempts to infiltrate Dethklok by sending them a new music producer as a spy. The music producer ends up liking the metal music so much he switches sides.

Go Underwater
Nathan is unhappy with the mix of the band’s latest album. Pickles, along with the rest of the band, tries to reason with him before he deletes their work by showing him multiple broadcasts detailing the chaos wrought due to not releasing an album. Nathan does not budge, however, and deletes it before deciding that the best place to "re-re-re-record" the new album is "inside the ocean" in the "heaviest, deepest most brutal part: the Mariana Trench". Dethklok’s manager, Charles Offdensen, is able to gather the funds necessary for the re-recording on the condition that they have a producer supervise the recording of the album. Dick "Magic Ears" Knubbler is that producer. The Tribunal decide to use this opportunity to spy on Dethklok by exploiting Knubbler's criminal record. Onboard Dethklok’s modified nuclear submarine, the band is shown to be working hard for five months. While reviewing the album, Nathan finds the sound much "heavier", but notices Toki's guitar pickups are catching submarine sonar and whale noises. In response, Pickles suggests to isolate Toki who is then placed in a "liquid oxygen isolation submersion chamber". Toki is visibly worried, but is immersed successfully deeper into the ocean to re-record his chords without catching any other sounds.

The Submarine and the Producer
After a power outage, Pickles throws a bottle of alcohol onto the submarine's reactor, which accidentally brings the power back online, but also causes a nuclear waste leak. Knubbler finally arrives to listen to the band’s album and the band is hostile towards the idea of Knubbler checking their work, but show him “Murmaider”.

Toki, who is still in the oxygen chamber, is delusional and plays a song about his “underwater friends” who disperse as a large shadow encloses on Toki. Back on the sub, Knubbler is amazed by Dethklok's song and, believing the new album will rejuvenate his own career, decides to go back to the surface, "straight to the label". During this time, Toki apparently swam back to the sub and coughing up liquid as he tries to tell the band that the ocean is "not safe" and that "there's monsters". They ignore him, or perhaps do not understand him, and Knubbler leaves while laughing maniacally and bleeding out of his eyes.

In his report to the Tribunal, Knubbler defies General Crozier's request to find out "what they've been up to" since Knubbler is completely taken with the band's skill. As Knubbler praises Dethklok, his mini sub is attacked by a giant, mutated seahorse. In trying to escape the seahorse's wrath, Knubbler surfaces too quickly, causing the pressure in his sub to become unstable and his eyes to explode. In the end, Dethwater becomes an extremely successful album, showing on a magazine that it had gone "pentuple platinum".

Songs featured in this episode

 * Thunderhorse
 * Murmaider

Trivia

 * Corpse count: Toki Wartooth (headshot by a flaming arrow); William Murderface (decapitated); Pickles (kicked in the head); Skwisgaar Skwigelf (vertically bisected); 8 fans (jumped off a building) and one fan:shot himself. Total: 13
 * Whenever Toki sings a song of his own, it is not death metal style. in this episode, his "Underwater Friends" is reminiscent of Ringo Starr's "Octopus' Garden." This is in keeping with Toki's not contributing to the death metal music that Dethklok plays.
 * One of the fish that stares at Toki during "Underwater Friends" has the same brown Fu Manchu mustache as Toki does.
 * An instrumental version of "Thunderhorse" comes on when the mutated seahorse attacks Knubbler's escape pod; thunderseahorse.
 * This is the first episode in which Charles is introduced, but his name, Charles Foster Offdensen, is never actually said until the Season 1 finale.
 * In the closing credits, Dick Knubbler can be seen on the bottom of a magazine cover with new, bionic eyes.
 * The whales that are heard during Toki's recording make a prominent role in Season 4.