Kim reaches a turning point in her life: she's no longer gaga over Josh Mankey. Ron believes that she'd be crushed over this, but Kim is taking it reasonably well. The teens' latest mission leads them to the lab of Dr. Bortel (from "The Twin Factor"). Drakken and Shego are there to lift the Electron Magneto Accelerator, which will increase the power of any device. So much goes wrong, however: the villains get away with the device, Kim and Shego get experimental chips stuck to them and Ron accidentally takes the controls for the chips instead of the Kimmunicator. But those 'Moodulators', as they are called, can enhance such emotions as anger, sadness, joy and love.
There were points where this felt more like a concession to the shippers than an actual episode. Also, it should not have taken that long for Ron and Drakken to figure out exactly what was wrong with the women in their lives. Even so, this episode has considerable charms. I really enjoyed the gamut-running voice work of the female leads. Ron's 'psychiatric' session was a highlight, and the punchline is a gut-buster. A particular element that I found amusing was how Dr. Bortel desired to sell the Moodulators in an online auction. Scientists - go figure. The scene with Ron and Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Possible was also funny, if a bit unnerving.
Another thing I liked was the episode's mid-section, with Kim (under the influence of romance) chasing Ron around Middleton High. These scenes play like a demented Pepe Le Pew cartoon. In fact, I kinda wish that Adam Berry had tried to mimic Carl Stalling's 'hopping' music. Oh, well; the 'doo-wah' song (with the composer on vocals) works well enough.
This leads to an exciting finale at the Middleton Days festival, where (wouldn't you know?) the moodulators get stuck on 'anger'. There's also a hard-to-misinterpret final gag involving fireworks in the sky.
"Emotion Sickness" has much to offer for shippers and regular viewers alike.
**.5/****
P.S. I was quite intrigued to find that Tara had a thing for Ron. Ever since "Sink or Swim", I'd had my suspicions.
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