Robert Alvarez Genndy Tartakovsky Craig McCracken (Art Direction)
Decode of Honor is the first part of the 15th episode in season 2 of Dexter's Laboratory. It originally aired on October 22, 1997. In this episode, Dexter and Dee Dee's secret decoder rings hold the keys to joining the Action Hanks and Pony Puff fan clubs, but the clues do not seem right.
Dexter is woken up by his Action Hank alarm clock while Dee Dee gets woken up by her Pony Puff Princess alarm clock. They both go downstairs for breakfast and their Mom gives them their cereal. When eating their cereal, they find decoders rings inside of them. They both come along with notes that tell them that they've become official members of the fan clubs of what they love. All they need to do is decode all of the words and complete all the tasks. They argue over who will decode all of the words first. Dexter makes fun of Pony Puff Princess but instead of stooping down to Dexter's level, Dee Dee leaves the room and tells Dexter that his club is for big "I D K S C" Dexter decodes those letters and looks down at the word she said in shock and says that he's going to tell Mom. Dexter and Dee Dee go into their rooms and decode each other's words. After their done, their both confused with the results. They both leave their rooms and bump into each other in the hallway. They both ask each other if they can borrow stuff from each other's rooms and accept it and go into each other's rooms. In the next scene, Dexter is seen dressed as a ballerina and picking flowers because those are the tasks on his list. Dee Dee is seen dressed in a camouflage suit and hiding in the bushes. She jumps out and beats up Dexter because those are the tasks on her list. The next task on her list is to get a tattoo. She goes to the tattoo parlor and asks for a tattoo of a gingerbread man. Coincidentally, the next task on Dexter's list is to bake gingerbread cookies. Dexter and Dee Dee both go to their fan clubs to become official members. When Dexter arrives at his, Action Hank and the other tough guys laugh at him and they figure out that the reason why he did this was because he got his sister's list of tasks by mistake. Dexter realizes the mistake and laughs before Action Hank tells him his sister is in big trouble as a result. Indeed when Dee Dee arrives at her fan club, Pony Puff Princess is punishing her by lowering her into a boiling pit of cinnamon. Just then, Action Hank, the tough guys, and Dexter bust in and get into a fight with Pony Puff Princess and the other ponies. Then, Dee Dee shows Dexter her tattoo and and tauntingly asks him how he will be able to explain that to Mom and Dad and the episode ends.
The title of this episode is a pun on "Code of Honor", which is an established set of rules made by an organization that people must follow in order to stay on the team.
The cryptic word Dee-Dee tells Dexter describes Action Hank fans that he decodes is "IDKSC", an anagram of "dicks".
In the background as Dee Dee sat down in the tattoo parlor, one of the designs is a hand holding up its middle finger. However, the episode was later edited to crop out the image.
One of the members of Action Hank's club was a man with silver hair, who is laughing at Dexter's appearance when he first comes in. As Action Hank is based on Mr. T, best known for his role as Bosco Baracus from the A-Team, this man is a likely reference to Hannibal Smith, played by the late George Peppard.
