Epic spoiler below for people who haven't played Season Two yet. Like, super large. So don't click it.
In all honesty I am a little hazy on the details since I have yet to play through the final shipped versions of 204 or 205... but my understanding is that
Hell was taken over (as in hostile corporate takeover) by
the Soda Poppers
to use its powers to exact their revenge on Sam & Max for screwing up and/or forgetting their birthday, among other reasons.
Most of the details are told through 204 and most notably through the dialog tree you can have with the Poppers in 205 when they're delivering their PowerPoint-style presentation.
To further expand on Jake's synopsis, my hypothesis is as follows:
The Soda Poppers planned to corporatise Hell (and then take it over) using the Shambling Corporate Presence. But they accidentally sent it to Santa instead of Satan. Apparently Lower Manitoba borders with North Dakota, so the access was pretty easy.
Once the SCP had made things more efficient in Hell, the Soda Poppers were rewarded by Satan with demonic powers (?) and they eventually pushed him down the corporate ladder so they could be on top.
Part of the corporatising of hell was due to the efficient delivery of souls via Jurgen and the Mariachis. Of course, the Mariachis were only doing this to pay off their debt on the time travelling spaceship. In order to crush the souls, they needed the Moai heads - which they picked up when the volcano erupted on Easter Island. This happened because Mr Spatula was sent back from hell to make it happen...
Yep it's all rather complex, but that's just the beauty of everything
Soda Poppers become pure evil, send Shambling Corp Pres to Satan in an attempt to raise efficiency of Hell, but mess up and have SCP sent to Santa instead
SCP possesses one of the elves
201:
Possessed elf sends Maimtron to S&M as "Christmas gift"
Spatula becomes pure evil; killed by Maimtron
Poppers turn up inexplicably in the North Pole
S&M save Christmas; SCP possesses Santa; Poppers box the possessed Santa and send him to Hell
Between 201 and 202:
Hell's efficiency campaign; Hell outsources soul-retrieval (Jurgen) and soul-delivery (Mariachis)
202:
Spectre of Spatula arrives at Easter Island to stage a volcano eruption (in order to summon Mariachis? or simply to destroy S&M?)
Bosco's paranoia about THEM mounts as a result of Max's prank
Mariachis retrieve Moai heads for their soul-crushing operation
203:
S&M defeat Jurgen; his soul picked up by the Mariachis
Bosco summons THEM and was abducted to their Headquarters
204:
Bosco rescue op; THEM revealed as time-travelling Mariachis and their role in the story clarified.
Bosco dies as he comes face to face with THEM; his soul sent to Hell. S&M follow
205:
S&M visit Hell; fates of Santa, Jurgen, Old Stinky et al revealed
S&M liberate the souls of their friends
Soda Poppers revealed as the arch villain of the season; fire Satan and take over Hell
Poppers annihilated by S&M; Satan regains his place in Hell.
And all the season one tie ins. Ex: Poppers killing Brady circa 101, going on reality television 202, involving themselves in the intelligent design movement (maybe 203), and into politics 204 in order to up the world's hate towards them thusly increasing their power.
he got his hair back before being killed. so either he was killed before being arrested and sam & max shaved the wrong guy, or he was relreased from prison quite fast and somehow acquired elf tears to make his heir grow fast and was killed afterwards..
I felt that Brady's demine happened mroe around hte time of 104... jsut my personal feelings... also, since he didn't technically break the law, I suspect he wasnt' heald long (especially since he was a former TV star)
Brady would have had to have been killed between 101 and 102, because involvement in reality television (in 102) was the first of the Soda Poppers' post-murder acts of evil. Since, as Ashton said, Brady could have gotten out of jail quickly with his celebrity status - no matter how minor - the one or two months between 101 and 102 were probably enough time for Max to shave Brady, for Brady to get out of Jail, for Brady to aquire elf tears and regrow his 'fro, and for the Soda Poppers to murder Brady.
The last sticking point seems to be the newspaper article in 102. My explanation for this is simple - that was an old issue from shortly after 101, and whoever changes that box's papers was more than a bit lax at the time of 101/102. God bless the fallibility of our fellow man.
Man, I can't wait to get involved in the nerdy explanation of SBCG4AP's continuity errors.
The last sticking point seems to be the newspaper article in 102. My explanation for this is simple - that was an old issue from shortly after 101, and whoever changes that box's papers was more than a bit lax at the time of 101/102. God bless the fallibility of our fellow man.
The Alien Love Triangle Times seemed to get there ridiculously quickly, though.
The Alien Love Triangle Times seemed to get there ridiculously quickly, though.
It's an independent newspaper. The ALTT box is possibly stocked by a different guy. Or maybe the same guy does both boxes and he got whipped into shape by way of being screamed at by his boss by 103. Or maybe Sybil just paid him to be extra-punctual with his stocking of the ALTT box.
Comments
In all honesty I am a little hazy on the details since I have yet to play through the final shipped versions of 204 or 205... but my understanding is that
Yep it's all rather complex, but that's just the beauty of everything
Before 201:
201:
Between 201 and 202:
202:
203:
204:
205:
Man, I can't wait to get involved in the nerdy explanation of SBCG4AP's continuity errors.
It's an independent newspaper. The ALTT box is possibly stocked by a different guy. Or maybe the same guy does both boxes and he got whipped into shape by way of being screamed at by his boss by 103. Or maybe Sybil just paid him to be extra-punctual with his stocking of the ALTT box.