Tonight is the season premiere of The Vampires of Melancholia, and Lucy is eager to watch the show all alone with her bust of Edwin. Just as the show begins, Lori and Leni arrive, wanting to watch the show as well because a super hot actor named Blake Bradley is starring in the show as Edwin's great-great-great-great grandnephew, Tristan, and they're head over heels for him. While clearly enamored by Blake's mere appearance, Lori and Leni are disgusted at the fact the main characters, Edwin and Griselda, are so bleak looking, despite Lucy's statements that they're vampires, and that they're supposed to look like that. One hour later, when the episode ends, Lori and Leni are pleased to know that they have something fun to do every Friday, while Lucy is clearly displeased that she can no longer watch the show alone.
Next Friday, as Lori and Leni wash dishes, they are anticipating the next episode of Vampires of Melancholia tonight. Lucy, in an attempt to get the two to quit watching the show, attempts to drive them away with "pre-show rituals" that fans of the show do, ranging from having vampire-like makeup applied to their faces, hang upside down for prolonged periods of time, watch the show in coffins, and drink homemade blood. However, Lori and Leni manage to improvise these "rituals" and only fuel their interest in the show more, since the makeup can make them look prettier, them being upside down allows them to see under the sofa to look for lost possessions, make their coffins more relaxing with decorative pillows and the lid being used as a table, and Lori making beet smoothies, since it looks just like blood. After an hour of watching the show (which involves Tristan turning Edwin's castle into a gym), Lucy, no longer able to handle Lori and Leni watching the show alongside her, realizes that if she can get Tristan out of the show, Lori and Leni might stop watching.
At school, Lucy is holding a meeting with her fellow Morticians Club members, and they reveal that they stopped watching the show ever since Tristan was introduced. Lucy says that she has a plan on how to get Tristan out of the show. She has them go around town, and have as many people to sign a petition (while also getting candy, since people are mistaking them for trick-or-treaters), and send in protest letters to the studio by having their pet bats fly to the studio with their letters tied to them. On Friday, Lucy anticipates for the premiere to see if the studio heard her protest. When Lori and Leni arrive wearing team based shirts, the show begins. While eating dinner, Edwin suggests to Tristan that after they eat, they go for a walk near some slippery cliffs. As Edwin and Tristan walk along the cliffs, Tristan attempts to take a selfie, but falls to his death in the misty cliff. Lori and Leni are immediately horrified at what happened, quickly burst into tears, and leave while bawling their eyes out, while Lucy is happy that Tristan is officially gone from the show.
Next Friday, as Lucy eagerly watches her show in solitude, Edwin is revealed to miss Tristan, because even if he's a bit of a goofball, and tends to do things that Edwin doesn't like, he's still part of the family. Realizing that what she had done was wrong, Lucy attempts to find Lori and Leni so she can encourage them to watch the show again, but discovers that they're gone. While sadly heading downstairs, Lori and Leni arrive back from the store, and Lucy asks them if they would like to watch the show with her. Lori and Leni agree, and reveal that while Blake Bradley was one of the reasons why they got in the show, the other reason why they were watching the show was because they just wanted to spend time with Lucy.
As Lori, Leni, and Lucy watch the show, Edwin hears a knocking at his door. He goes to answer it, and discovers that it's Tristan, now a vampire, thanks to Griselda, who tagged alongside with him. While Lori and Leni are happy at the fact that Tristan is back, Lucy, realizing her protests didn't work, is happy that Tristan is back, so Lori and Leni can be happy once more.
This episode has a similar plot to "Spell It Out", another episode written by Karla Sakas Shropshire. In both cases Lucy finds her siblings' behavior annoying and instead of talking things out, tries other methods only to regret it when she believes she did something that had a negative impact on them and tries to make up for it.
This marks the first time where Lincoln is completely absent from an episode, with no mentions or cameo appearances.
Lincoln himself, however, appears in the title card.
This episode lampoons on the popular aspect of how fandoms/certain groups of people tend to get overexcited for certain forms of media (film, TV show, book, video game, etc.) because of one or more minuscule aspects that don't really matter.
A leaked image of the episode's script gives some details regarding the episode:
There's a deleted scene that involved the Morticians Club protesting by chanting "The bro must go!" while on the news.
According to Lucy, she hates it whenever someone uses the abbreviated name for Vampires of Melancholia. In this case, VoM.
Lori referred to her vampire fangs as "Halloween leftovers", referencing her vampire Halloween costume from "Tricked!".
The Morticians Club trying to get people to sign a petition and ending up getting Halloween candy is similar to the comic "Goth Perks" in "Live Life Loud!".
Lucy and Haiku even say the title of the comic aloud during the scene.
This episode reveals that Lucy has voodoo dolls of Lori and Leni.
When Leni throws the decorative pillows into the coffins, she mentions zhuzh. Zhuzh (also spelled as zhoozh or zhoosh) means to make more exciting, lively, or attractive.
This is the last episode storyboarded by Violaine Briat before her departure from Nickelodeon.
In the Hebrew dub, this is the first episode to be dubbed by Dubi Dub Studios.
In the Greek dub, in the line "[...] toasting every new episode with a refreshing glass of homemade blood", the word "blood" isn't mentioned. Instead, the translated line stops at "homemade".
It's debatable whether or not this is done because of intentionally censoring it for some reason, as the word "blood" remains intact in the next translated line, "They look just like blood, but now they're delicious[...]", ruining the purpose of the censoring.
The end credits at the end of the VoM episode reveal the names of the actors who play parts in the show.
References[]
Fandom Pains - The episode title is a pun on the term "phantom pain", which is a phenomenon where you feel pain on a specific part of your body, even though it's nonexistent.
Dracula - Lincoln's appearance on the title card resembles this iconic character in literature.
The Twilight Saga - The joke of Lori, Leni, and Lucy wearing team shirts is a reference to the Team Jacob and Team Edward shirts worn by fans of this film series.
Frankenstein - The credits for The Vampires of Melancholia list "The Monster" as being played by "?", the same way Boris Karloff was "credited" for his iconic portrayal as the monster in the opening credits of this 1931 horror film.
Game of Thrones - The episode satirizes the show's habit of killing off fan-favorite characters.
Also, the calendar claims that the month that this take place is April, but the leaves are orange, implying autumn, so this episode must be taking place during the fall, and not in the spring.
When Lori, Leni, and Lucy were hanging upside-down, Lori's earrings are missing.
When Lori returns to the bathroom with fake vampire teeth, she sticks a pair into Leni's mouth, but in the following shot, both Leni and Lucy have fake fangs.
When Lori says “Yay”, she has Leni's voice instead of hers.
When Tristan takes a selfie with Edwin, he smiles with his mouth closed, yet the selfie shows him with an open-mouthed smile.
When Lucy says every new episode must be toasted with a glass of home-made blood, Leni screams, "Ew!" However, the Closed Captions instead say, "No!"
Possible: While Lori and Leni are washing dishes, Leni doesn't actually use anything like a sponge or washcloth while cleaning a plate, and just uses her hands.
Possible: When Lori and Leni prepare for the new episode in which Tristan will be killed off, they bring the pitcher of Lucy's homemade blood they were previously disgusted by (unless they brought it just for Lucy).
Videos[]
LDH307A JackGriffo FandomPains Clip
The Loud House Original Halloween Short 'No End In Bite' Stitches 🧛 Nick