| “ | I'm here because I heard what happened to you guys, and I'm just glad you're okay. | ” |
Theresa “Terry” Cherry Perry, usually referred to simply as Perry and formerly known as Principal Perry, is a major anti-hero in Lab Rats. Once the principal of Mission Creek High School, she later becomes the Head of Security at the Davenport Bionic Academy. Perry is known for her harsh, often overbearing treatment of students, especially Adam, Bree, Chase, and Leo. She also once blackmailed Donald Davenport after discovering the Lab Rats’ bionic secret, though she lost that advantage once the secret became public. After her departure from Mission Creek High School, it is never revealed who took over as principal, as the school itself is no longer shown in Season 4.
She is portrayed by Maile Flanagan.
Biography
Perry was born under Centium City, which was confirmed in the Lab Rats: Elite Force episode Follow the Leader. She grew up in a rivalry with her identical twin sister and got made fun of as a kid at school. Her fellow students made fun of her name; "Isn't Terry a boys' name? (Chip Switch)." Perry has had several side jobs, including the "Jammer" on the North Pacific Roller Derby Championship Team, a prison guard (though she was also in prison once), and a "flag lady", seen in The Bionic 500. She lives with her eight cats and mother. She loves tormenting kids and is Irish. It is also mentioned that she was a street fighter in Bangkok (You Posted What?!?).
Personality
At first, Terry Perry takes obvious pleasure in tormenting the entire student body, revealing a cruel and sadistic streak. She especially enjoys targeting Leo, as well as Adam, Bree, and Chase, and is well known for giving people mocking nicknames. Despite her tough, intimidating attitude, Perry also has a surprisingly childish side. She trembles in fear when her mother shows up and pouts when Adam, Bree, and Chase reduce her role to simply standing guard. She also has an inflated opinion of her own attractiveness, describing herself as a “hot rod” calendar girl in The Bionic 500 and attempting to enter a beauty pageant in Spy Fly. When she is rejected, she confidently insists that her bikini says otherwise.
Perry’s personality has several layers. Beneath her sarcastic, mildly sadistic behavior, she occasionally shows a more human and even caring side. For a time, she delighted in blackmailing Donald Davenport, whom she mockingly called “Daddy Big Bucks,” threatening to reveal the secret of the “three bionic freaks”—later four, after Leo received bionics in You Posted What?!. Once their secret was exposed, however, she lost her leverage and was forced to align herself with them instead. She is also shown to be very flirtatious around her crushes, following them around and giving them nicknames just as she does with everyone else.
Although Perry often acts selfishly, she has still done good things for the Davenport family. In ’Twas the Mission Before Christmas, she cooks dinner for them after realizing she had ruined their holiday, though true to form, she still makes them pay for the meal. She is also willing to help the Lab Rats when the danger is serious enough, even if her motives are not always entirely selfless.
As the series progresses, Perry develops a genuine soft spot for the Lab Rats. She comes to see tormenting them as a strange form of bonding, and when they leave Mission Creek, she admits that she misses them because bothering them had become one of the most meaningful parts of her life. Without them, she even seems to lose interest in tormenting other students.
By Space Colony, Perry’s affection for the Lab Rats is much clearer. Even though she still entertains the occasional dark comment about them getting killed, her actions show how deeply she cares. When Adam, Bree, Chase, and Leo confront Krane and Gao while rescuing the space colonists, Perry has the chance to abandon them and escape in Davenport’s spaceship, but instead chooses to stay behind and wait for them. When she believes Adam has died, she is devastated and comforts Bree in her grief. Her relief and joy when she learns Adam is still alive show just how much the Lab Rats have come to mean to her.
Appearances
Season 1
- Crush, Chop and Burn (Voice Only)
- Commando App
- Smart and Smarter (Voice Only)
- Death Spiral Smackdown
- Chip Switch
- Mission Invisible
Season 2
- Spy Fly
- Missin' the Mission
- Bro Down
- Parallel Universe (Parallel Universe Counterpart Only)
- Spike's Got Talent
- Hole in One
- Trucked Out
- The Bionic 500
- Adam Up
- Llama Drama
- The Haunting of Mission Creek High
- Perry 2.0
- My Little Brother
- Twas The Mission Before Christmas
- Trent Gets Schooled
- No Going Back
Season 3
- Sink or Swim
- The Jet-Wing
- Mission: Mission Creek High
- Not So Smart Phone
- Principal From Another Planet
- Cyborg Shark Attack
- You Posted What?!?
- Alien Gladiators
- Brother Battle
- Spike Fright
- Face Off
- Rise of the Secret Soldiers
- Unauthorized Mission
Season 4
- Bionic Rebellion
- Under Siege
- Space Elevator
- Bob Zombie
- Human Eddy
- The Curse of the Screaming Skull
- Ultimate Tailgate Challenge
- Space Colony
- The Vanishing
Mentions
Season 2
Season 4
Abilities
- Skilled Wrestler: Terry Perry is a former Luchador (masked wrestler) and has shown to have retained some (or possibly all) of her skills. She easily proved to be more than a match for Spike, who is already skilled fighter (although more along the lines of a martial artist than a wrestler). She frequently keeps herself in shape, as shown in Space Elevator.
- Peak Human Durability: She easily shrugged off all of Spike's hits, even when being slammed into a wall. She also shrugged off Krane's electric attack, though this could be partly because she has metal parts in her left side and skull. Despite this, she can still suffer concussions.
- Tranquilizer Immunity: Perry is mostly immune to neuromuscular-blocking drugs, such that it takes three tranquilizer dart guns to take her down.
- Tactical Thinking: In the episode, Unauthorized Mission, she is shown to be a very wise thinker and very cunning. She's able to pass all of Donald Davenport's security without them noticing. She is able to outsmart Donald and became the Head of Security after convincing Donald that he needs a Head of Security and that she's qualified for it. As a former principal and prison guard, it is possible that she is very intelligent in many other ways.
- Detective Skills: In the episode, Bionic Rebellion, she is shown to be an expert at investigation as she was able to figure out the Sebastian stole explosives from the vault. Perry was also able to predict Sebastian's next move, due to being an ex-criminal herself.
- Peak Human Strength: Perry has the strength of a Dutch Belted Ox, the grip of a Kodiak Bear, and the kick of a Kangaroo. With this, Perry is strong enough to pry open the hydro-loop door, which was made of Titanium, and the elevator doors at Mission Creek High. Apparently, when she dropped a dumbbell on her toe, she shook the entire academy. She also somehow managed to overpower Spike, despite him being stronger than Adam.
- Acute Scent: Perry has the nasal cavity of a bomb-sniffing dog, due to a nose job.
Weaknesses
- Douglas Davenport: In You Posted What?!?, when she was around Douglas, she got red cheeks forsaking her abilities of being skilled wrestler and not being focused.
- Mother: In My Little Brother, it's shown that she fears her mother. This is proven when she said, "Sorry, mother. I didn't mean to raise my voice" in a very shy and scared tone.
- Anger: Her greatest weakness is her anger, which will cause her to lose sight of her defense.
- Compulsive Lying: Perry is a compulsive liar, having a tendency to make up things whenever asked. It was her compulsive lying that that caused her to get fired.
Names of Cats
- Mr. Whiskers (formerly the "vice principal" of Mission Creek High) (formerly the "vice-dictator" of Perryland)
- Jingles
- Scratch
- Thumper
- Boom-Boom
- Dingle
- Widget
Trivia
- She has a long list of abnormal jobs.
- Depending on the plot, Perry can be an ally, an antagonist, or neutral towards the Davenports. For example, she was an antagonist in No Going Back and Bob Zombie, but an ally in You Posted What?!? and Space Colony.
- In Commando App, she states that she has five cats, and in Twas the Mission Before Christmas, she brought six cats to the Davenport Household, but in Sink or Swim she said that she has eight cats. However, it is possible that she gotten more throughout the series.
- She has retired as principal twice.
- Her last retirement was permanent, because she now works at the Davenport Bionic Academy.
- It takes three tranquilizer shots to subdue her.
- She was the first antagonist of the series.
- In Season 3, she became an ally to the main cast, but kept her antagonistic nature.
- She has a crush on Joey Logano. (The Bionic 500).
- Her cat, Mr. Whiskers, appeared at the end of Trucked Out.
- She is a former prison guard. (Missin' the Mission, The Bionic 500).
- As principal, she had a lucky pant suit. (Mission Invisible).
- She has a niece, Kerry Perry, who was chaperoned by Bree and Chase. (Adam Up).
- In the 90's, she used to clean the chimneys, and "learned the hard way not to wear a skirt." (Adam Up).
- Her full name is Theresa Cherry Perry (first revealed in Chip Switch. Clarified in Bob Zombie).
- She said that she has been bullied before, which is why she is mean to others. (Chip Switch).
- Because of being bullied before, she wanted to become a principal in order to stop bullying, however, she is obviously doing the opposite thing, which she is aware of. (Chip Switch) However, she stopped bullying other students because things weren't the same without the Lab Rats.
- She is shown to be cheap. (Perry 2.0).
- It is revealed in many episodes that besides being a principal, she has a bunch of side jobs, such as Flag-lady and calendar girl.
- In No Going Back, she finds out about Adam, Bree, and Chase's bionics.
- She is also the first non Dooley/Davenport to know about the sibling's bionic secret, besides Dr. Evans and possibly Dr. Ryan.
- Perry threatened to tell the authorities about the Davenport kids' bionic secret. Ironically, she ends up protecting them from the Feds when their secret was revealed.
- She sees Adam as smart and Chase as dumb.
- She likes to run after rainbows. (Bro Down).
- She has been to jail.
- She obeys her mother, even though she doesn't like to obey others.
- She collects bulldog calendars.
- She has a crush on Douglas. (You Posted What?!?).
- She admits she cares a bit about Leo. (You Posted What?!?).
- Perry was once a Street Fighter in Bangkok.
- She was electrocuted by Krane in You Posted What?!? along with Douglas.
- She has an overgrown bunion that gives her the balance of a low-lying gorilla. (Bro Down).
- She eats 3 whole chickens a day. (Sink or Swim).
- She takes care of her mother and her cats. (Chip Switch).
- She thinks if she dies, her mother will eat her cats, or her cats will eat her mother. (Chip Switch).
- She didn't want the world knowing about the bionic siblings so she could still blackmail Donald Davenport. However, it became useless after their secret was revealed, which instead, led her to find ways to profit from their new fame.
- She gets all her Christmas presents at the morgue. (Perry 2.0).
- She always wanted a "super cute" twin sister. However, she does have a twin sister she hasn't seen in 11 years. (Perry 2.0).
- She has a trading card because she had played hockey in Croatia. (Face Off).
- She appears in more episodes than any other recurring characters.
- She owns a jackal, which is illegal. It lives in her office to protect her "stuffs."
- She owns a bionic workshop. (You Posted What?!?, Rise of the Secret Soldiers).
- She has anger management issues.
- She is taking an anger management class for it. (Bro Down).
- She doesn't like people who behave. (Bro Down).
- She gets her pant suits from a hunting catalog. (Bro Down).
- Perry used to hate the Lab Rats, but overtime, her relationship with them developed into a frenemy type. In fact, she loves having them around, because she feels the antagonism they share is what bonds them.
- According to Leo, she thinks mold is a vegetable. (Parallel Universe).
- She quit her job as the Principal of Mission Creek High so she could go to the Bionic Academy because she missed annoying the kids and she couldn't hate the new kids as much as she hate the Lab Rats.
- According to her in Chip Switch, when she says her name, it looks like she is asking for ice cream.
- She owns a Slaughterhouse. (Sink or Swim).
- She brought Sebastian, Lexi, and Tank to be picked up by the government in Bionic Rebellion.
- She calls her Grandmother 'Grandma Flatnose'. (Under Siege).
- She convinced Kerry that Douglas is obsessed with her.
- She hates the smell of burning cookies.
- She used to work for N.A.S.A. (North American Sumo Association).
- In Under Siege, she stated she once ran onto the football field during the Bears game.
- Leo thought she was a mascot.
- She hibernates during the winter. (Under Siege)
- She thinks her niece, Kerry Perry, is a sweet and innocent girl, even though she isn't when Terry is not around.
- She has a good singing voice. (Bob Zombie)
- She took over the island and named it Perryland in the episode Bob Zombie and brought in military soldiers.
- Leo states that Mission Creek High is much better now that she is retired. (Lab Rats: On The Edge).
- She went to college for twelve years. (Ultimate Tailgate Challenge).
- She hates Tasha, because Tasha went to the Pioneers at Mission Creek University for college, Mission Creek Tech's (the Vikings) rival school. (Ultimate Tailgate Challenge).
- She pretended to be a boy to play football in college. (Ultimate Tailgate Challenge).
- Perry sometimes considers the Dooley/Davenports and her as family.
- She has had a crush on two guest stars who portrayed themselves: Joey Logano and Willie McGinest.
- Her favorite of the bionic trio is Adam. The fact that she grieved his supposed death shows she was sincere about it. (Space Colony).
- She knows how to fly a spaceship. (Space Colony).
- She used to be an astronaut.
- She has been absent for 5 out of 11 one hour specials (Crush, Chop and Burn, Bionic Showdown, Lab Rats vs. Mighty Med, Bionic Action Hero and Lab Rats: On The Edge).
- As a running gag, Perry always ends up where the Davenports are.
- She wallpapered her kitchen with parking tickets. (Trent Gets Schooled).
- She was born and grew up under Centium City as stated in (Follow the Leader).
- She has three bladders as stated in (Follow the Leader).
Quotes
| “ | No, I was in prison. | ” |
— Perry to Tasha in Sink or Swim
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| “ | Go home, maggots. It's 3:30 and I want to chain up. | ” |
— Perry
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They form a living blanket around mama.—Terry Perry, to Donald Davenport, Tasha Davenport, Leo Dooley, Twas the Mission Before Christmas
| “ | Sorry, mother. I didn't mean to raise my voice. | ” |
— Perry in My Little Brother
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| “ | There is nothing I love more than tormenting kids! | ” |
— Perry
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| “ | "The average Perry can live for a hundred years and I'm one of the healthy ones!" | ” |
— Perry in ???
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| “ | What's up, Clooney?! | ” |
— Perry to Leo in Rise of the Secret Soldiers
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| “ | No, that was from a different stolen meal! | ” |
— Perry in Bionic Rebellion
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| “ | In Perry Land, Perry does whatever Perry wants. | ” |
— Perry in Bob Zombie
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| “ | I don't care about rashes, I've rarely gone without one. | ” |
— Perry in The Curse of the Screaming Skull
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| “ | Adam: we lost chase in space. Perry: SCORE! Bree: no, this is serious we don't know how to fly this thing and if we don't try we will lose him forever. Perry: SCORE! | ” |
— Perry to the Lab Rats in Space Colony
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Gallery
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| For the full image gallery of Terry Perry see Terry Perry/Gallery. |
References
- ↑ Bob Zombie
La Rosa Bonita (unknown)