A Lost Claus

A Lost Claus is episode 1 of season 2 of Alex Adventure. It is a Christmas special.

Summary
During Christmastime, Alex meets a child named Todd Sweeney — a spoiled brat who acts like a poor do-gooder. He kidnaps and programs Alex to do a whole year of villainy, wrecking all holidays... up until his plan to eliminate Christmas, his most hated holiday. If Alex can't find a way to stop this pint-size grinch, it's not going to be a Merry Christmas for anyone!

Plot
On Christmas Eve, a robotic Santa zips by hundreds of homes around the world, leaving presents for the children. The robot turns out to be Alex, who took over the role of Santa after the latter got into a mysterious accident that broke every bone in his body. Alex returns to the North Pole and he, along with Dr. Blackman, Brad, Cheese and Stevie, celebrate Christmas by having a day-long feast with Santa at his palace. Afterward, they decide to spend the day after at the Tremorton mall.

At the mall, Alex meets Todd Sweeney, a gloomy child in a suit, who is depressed about not getting what he wanted for Christmas. Believing he missed his house while helping Santa deliver toys, Alex tries to make it up by asking him what he wants for Christmas. Impressed with his transforming gadgets (which he used to help Cheese get past a crowd of people and to the toy store), Todd decides to “buy” him as a live robot action figure, which he agrees to, but only for one day. He soon discovers that Todd comes from an extremely wealthy family, but, as he says, "Money can't buy happiness."

At his mansion, Todd puts an antenna on Alex’s head, and he pretends to be his robot servant. He is surprised to see Todd’s many toys, originally believing he never gets anything for Christmas. Todd says he never gets what he wants, which isn't toys or love, but weapons, much to Alex's shock. He transforms the living room into an evil laboratory and zaps Alex with his remote, causing him to pass out. Sometime later, Alex reboots and awakens, strapped to a table. He frees himself, and fights past Todd's butlers and security doors, narrowly escaping the mansion.

On his way back home, Alex sees people preparing for Christmas despite it supposedly being the day after. To make things more strange, everyone cowers in fear when they see him, including Cheese. He is then attacked with snowballs by a group of teens led by Brad, and almost short-circuits. He makes it back home, where Blackman (who is working on a new HA-10 robot model) is shocked to see him. While initially trying to comfort Alex, Blackman subdues her son with a giant electromagnet and calls Skyway Patrol. Feeling betrayed, Alex escapes and flees to his room, but is attacked by a Skyway Patrol helicarrier. During the ariel attack, Alex is badly damaged and collapses to the ground. He continues fleeing from the Skyway Patrol, on foot, through the city. He eventually runs into Stevie, who doesn't react to him with fear or hostility, much to his delight. The two take shelter in the storm sewer, and Alex asks Stevie why everyone is acting so strangely. She reveals that he had been gone for almost a year since leaving with Todd, and only came back to destroy all the major holidays, such as New Years, Halloween and the Fourth of July, for everyone in town, which resulted in him being declared “Public Enemy #1”. Stevie, however, believed his actions were either a result of mind control or an evil twin (the former being correct). Alex then realizes that Todd had been controlling him all this time and sets out to clear his name.

He returns to Todd's mansion and confronts him over making him destroy the holidays. Todd explains that his parents went on a vacation to Bermuda many Christmases ago and soon retired, leaving him alone with his butlers, leading to his bitter attitude. He resolves that if he can't enjoy the holidays, then neither will anyone else on Earth. He now plans to ruin Christmas, “the fattest of all the holidays” (as he puts it), by destroying Santa for good. He then takes control of Alex once more and uses her to travel to the North Pole.

Meanwhile, Blackman, Brad and Cheese plan to go to the North Pole to stop Alex from destroying Christmas. Stevie tries to convince them he's innocent, but to no avail.

At the North Pole, Todd uses Alex's array of weapons to bypass the elf guards, eventually making it into the palace. A fight ensues between Santa and the mind-controlled Alex, with the latter triumphing. Todd then reveals himself to Santa as "the boy who destroyed Christmas" and that he was responsible for his injury last year. Before he can finish Santa, and ruin Christmas forever, Alex suddenly reverts back to his normal self and gives Todd a spanking. Susan, Brad and Cheese soon arrive, but are shocked to see no fighting. Alex reveals that Stevie disabled Todd's mind-controlling remote, and he only faked being controlled to get him to confess his misdeeds to Santa, restoring their faith in him. Unfortunately, all of Tremorton’s presents were destroyed in the fight.

In an attempt to fix the damages, Alex and the others decide to give the kids Todd's unwanted toys and presents, as well as show him the gift of giving rather than receiving presents. When Todd gives a toy to a happy kid, his gloominess literally cracks away and he becomes happy and joyful, reformed. His parents suddenly return, saying they had not retired but were tired and needed a longer vacation, and they wanted to bring back the perfect gift for him. However, Todd realizes and admits they are all he really wants, as Christmas is about family not presents, which they agree to.

As a token of gratitude for having never lost faith in him, Alex gives Stevie a mistletoe kiss on the cheek, which leaves him literally frozen with shock. The episode ends with everyone, including Todd, singing "We're Spending Christmas with Santa/Alex" (while Cheese frantically breaks the fourth wall, questioning who they're singing to, and how they managed to sing perfectly without practice).

Home media

 * Nick Picks Holiday
 * HiT Favourites: Winter Collection
 * Alex Adventure - Season Two