Dethdad

"Dethdad" is the fifteenth episode of the second season of Metalocalypse, thirty-fifth overall. It aired on July 13, 2008 on Adult Swim.

Synopsis
Toki gets the news that his father is dying of cancer and he struggles with the idea of visiting him and making peace with him. Since his parents were very abusive towards him as a child, Toki does not relish visiting them. Toki eventually decides to forgive his father.

Plot
The members of Dethklok are on an outing, watching with amusement and pleasure as Nathan practices shooting several guitars and basses with a firearm. Then Pickles throws a cherry bomb (a small firecracker shaped like a cherry) at Toki and Murderface and it explodes on Toki, causing the beer Murderface is drinking to go up his nose. Nathan warns Pickles never to give Murderface any firecrackers when he wants to hold them when said person shows up, asking for some firecrackers. While Skwisgaar watches, Pickles tells him the firecrackers are in the grass and Murderface goes out to look for them. However he doesn't know that Nathan has the firecrackers, which he uses by continuously lighting and sneaking one into the seat of Murderface's pants, to their amusement when the firecrackers explode in that area; when Murderface is suspecting Nathan has been holding the firecrackers Nathan and Pickles insist that he should find the firecrackers in the grass. While Nathan throws more firecrackers at Murderface, Toki gets a call from his mother and receives the shocking news that his father is dying from cancer.

Paternal worries
Back at Mordhaus, Skwisgaar is in his bedroom practicing his guitar-playing while a catatonic Toki is with him, and tries talking to him when he finds that Toki has been replying by staring at him. Annoyed, Skwisgaar attempts to hold a stable conversation by speaking in Toki's voice while moving his mouth to talk, only to have Toki point out that he never knew his own father. Angry, Skwisgaar yells at him to get out of his bedroom. In the dining room Skwisgaar explains to Offdensen and his other bandmates Toki's recent strange behavior, while Nathan is eating some kind of dip with his index finger. Offdensen tells them to be supportive because Toki is going through an emotional crisis, but the others suspect that Toki is going to go berserk and possibly murder them or commit suicide. Suddenly Toki appears, scaring his bandmates, and announces that he is leaving for Norway to see his dying father. The others feign sympathy and wish him luck for his trip. Toki asks if they are coming with him to see his father, but is told by Pickles that they are busy working on a new album and sadly walks away. Offdensen tells the rest of Dethklok that since they said they're working on an album they'd better do it, and orders them into doing it nonstop until Nathan tells his remaining bandmates that they should all go with Toki, and tells Murderface to watch his mouth when Pickles throws a firecracker in his face. Offdensen agrees to let them go but warns them to not get crazy on the trip.

God of Love and Death
Meanwhile, the Tribunal has received news that Toki's father is dying, and makes a comment that everyone and everything Toki becomes friends with will die, being referred to as a "messenger of death". They are warned that Toki has been suppressing his true feelings about his birth parents and they could very well die if those feelings are unleashed. On the Dethcopter (a huge helipcopter inspired by death metal), while watching Murderface play bowling Nathan comments that going to Norway is fun since the place is where death metal was first created, then awkwardly talks to Toki about his dying father but finds that he has lasped into catatonia again. Murderface tells his bandmates that his own father killed his mother before committing suicide in front of him when he was a baby and that tragedy affected him, and Pickles mockingly asks how it had affected him when he was just a baby. Murderface, annoyed, says that he became a man as soon his parents died. Nathan tells him he's still a baby currently but he says he's a "baby with a man's heart", calling himself a warrior. Pickles comments about his own father, calling him a weirdo, while Nathan says that he gets along with his father and they drink and go hunting together, and if his father died he'll feel "fucked up". The conversations do not help Toki at all as he's still catatonic. Then Nathan orders everyone to shut up when he sees Toki's state before making Murderface hold a firecracker, which explodes and hurts the hand he plays bass with. Pickles says "Whoa-oh. There goes the band..." when this happens.

At Lillehammer, Norway, Nathan and the others drive on his motorcycle and they have been driving for hours not knowing where Toki's father lives. Toki says that his father lives at "the edge of town" but says that meeting his father is complicated. When the others complain, Toki suggests going to the town first to go shopping and they all go. Upon arriving Nathan asks Toki where the black metal people are because there aren't any in the area, and Toki spots a kid wearing black clothes. Pickles comments the kid looks like Booberry from a cereal commercial, and Murderface calls him a Norwegian booberry. Pickles asks Toki where the women are, but Toki insists that there are still more places to explore. After looking around, Toki shows them "the first black metal record shop" that started the metal culture, but Nathan points out the first shop is a fish place. Toki shows the second one, but Pickles points out the second is a shop with skiing equipment. The third one is actually the first black metal records shop, which the band members visit and Toki introduces them to the store clerk, who is an old friend of his. Nathan wonders if he sells Dethklok records, but the clerk says that Dethklok's music is "too digital". Pickles says that they're going to leave but Toki insists on listening to the demo metal music tapes blaring on the loudspeaker. After that the band visits a restaurant with pink wallpaper, where Toki insists on trying the crumb cakes served there. Nathan calls the restaurant "brutal" when Murderface reads from a Norwegian information magazine that Noway has the lowest murder rates in the world. Nathan disgustedly calls Norway lame because its murder rates are lower than even Canada's, and says Danbury, Connecticut is more brutal. Pickles says that Tomahawk, Wisconsin is more brutal because the people there have crystal meth drugs. Nathan tells everyone to leave the Norwegain town so they can see Toki's father die.

One last request
The Dethklok members arrive at Toki's parents' house, but unfortunately Toki is very reluctant to visit his father. Nathan tells him to go inside because the whole band have been standing outside for three hours and the weather is really cold. Toki experiences several flashbacks in where he remembers being abused by his father as a young child, including being made to do heavy labor, whipped, chained, and witnessing his parents having sex, causing him to run away. Nathan blames this on Murderface and Pickles throws a firecracker at him, which explodes in his face. Meanwhile, Toki has run away to a forest, where he has a moment of realization through singing: He must say goodbye to his father, no matter what he did. On this decision, he allows himself to be found by his bandmates and is taken back to his father's house, but visits him alone when Murderface thinks his father's cancer is contagious and Nathan tells him that they're not going to deal with his father. Toki finds that his father wishes to visit the cottage in where he was born,and tells Nathan to drive him to the place as fast as he could since his father doesn't have much time. He is taken to the place of his father's cottage and discovers that it's on top of a tall mountain, but when the other bandmates refuse to go with him, Toki goes through the trek alone. Unfortunately ,once he arrives at the cottage, he steps on a frozen step and slips, dropping his father's body and it slides down the mountain and into the ice. Toki is traumatized from watching his father die as he is unable to save him from drowning. Meanwhile, Murderface, who somehow has gotten his hands on a firecracker, throws a cherry bomb at the base of the mountain, causing the cottage on top to get crushed by the precipice above it.

Trivia

 * Toki speaks Norwegian with his mother on the cell phone during the pre-intro scene: «Hellos? – Mor? Ja... kreft? Han er nesten død? Han hoster opp blod? Okay, ha det bra!» (cited by ear) Translated into English, he says: "Hellos? – Mother? Yes... cancer? He's almost dead? He coughs up blood? Okay, goodbye/see you!" This complies with the statement he gives his bandmates after the call.
 * The names of all three shops Dethklok is pointing out in Lillehammer allude to death. "Død Fisken Lager" and "Ski Og Dø" translate to "Dead fish stock" and "Ski and die", while "Drep Du Selv" (lit. "Kill you self") presumably is a grammatically incorrect phrasing of "Kill yourself" (nor. "Drep deg selv").
 * The Drep Du Selv-Black Metal record store is likely to mock Euronymous' record shop Helvete, which was a haunt of Black Metal fans when the subculture evolved in Norway in the early 1990s.
 * The home of Aslaug and Anja Wartooth bears a striking resemblance to the Fantoft Stave Church in Bergen, Norway. This church was burned down by Varg Vikernes and was the first in a string of church burnings by the early Norwegian Black Metal scene.
 * The Norwegian friends and family of Toki Wartooth in general bear strong resemblance to people from Varg Vikernes' life. Runke Snogge resembles metal musician Euronymous and is confrontational with Toki in a similar manner. Toki's religious fundamentalist parents also seem a cartoonish exaggeration of Varg's strict Christian father Lars Kristian Vikernes.