Pearl Forrester

Pearl Forrester
Played by	Mary Jo Pehl
Firstappearance	607 - Bloodlust
Latestappearance	1013 - Diabolik
Location	Deep 13, The Widowmaker, Castle Forrester
Charactertype	Regular

Pearl Forrester is the mother of Dr. Clayton Forrester on Mystery Science Theater 3000, and a mad scientist in her own right. Introduced in the Season 6 episode Bloodlust, she became a regular in Season 7 when Pearl took the place of TV's Frank after Frank Conniff departed from the cast.

Comedy Central Era

Dr. Forrester invited Pearl to visit him in Deep 13, hoping to impress her with his experiments on the Satellite of Love. When she arrived, she instead took a shine to TV's Frank, who she had already been corresponding with without her son's knowledge. The two of them took off together to have fun, leaving a frustrated and jealous Forrester behind.

Before Frank died in Samson vs. the Vampire Women, he had invited several guests to Thanksgiving dinner, including Pearl. When she arrived, she was disappointed at having traveled so far only for Frank to be gone. She decided to stay in Deep 13 to help Dr. F get his life back in order. She had also apparently met and befriended Crow somehow prior to moving in and helping with the experiment, although she knew him as Art.

Having his mother in his life proved to be very trying for Clayton as his mother ruled over him and his experiment with an iron fist, although he occasionally bested her. Among other incidents, Pearl dated a sleazy man named Sandy and oversaw turning Crow's infamous script, Earth vs. Soup, into a trailer.

Eventually, in the final Comedy Central episode, Laserblast, she helped Dr. Forrester pack up and move back in with her after his funding is cut. At the end of the episode, Clayton ages, dies, and is transformed into a 2001-esque space baby. Pearl delights in that she has another chance to raise Clayton right as the episode ends.

Sci-Fi Era

Pearl in Castle Forrester with her lackeys Brain Guy and Professor Bobo.

In Season 8, Mike Nelson and the Bots returned to the Satellite of Love, which had been drawn back to Earth, where it was now the year 2525. There, they discover Pearl Forrester, alive, well, and the "Lawgiver" to a group of sentient apes. She had vowed to start over right with Clayton, but had somehow never "gotten around to it", and he ended up turning out as warped and twisted as he had been before. She eventually smothered him with a pillow, but then, somehow blaming the SOL crew for his death, had herself cryogentically frozen so she could seek her revenge in the future. The apes thawed her out and helped her bring back the Satellite.

After ruling over her ape lackeys for only a few episodes, including the bumbling Professor Bobo, the future Earth ends up destroyed by a group of bomb-worshipping mutants. Pearl escapes in the Widowmaker, a VW van turned spaceship, with a stowaway Bobo. On another planet, she becomes the test subject of a group of omnipotent beings called the Observers, but escapes again after another world-destroying explosion, this time with Bobo and an Observer survivor who becomes known as Brain Guy. From there, she and her two new lackeys roamed to different worlds, including a planet where they start out camping and end up taking care of three omnipotent space children, and a trip into the Roman Times of Earth's past.

In Season 9, she makes her way to Earth in the present and Castle Forrester, the Forrester family's ancestral home. There, she continues her work as a mad scientist with Bobo and Brain Guy, continuing the experiments on the Satellite and terrorizing the local peasent population.

In the series finale, Diaolik, she accidently breaks the Satellite of Love and sends it spiraling down to Earth. Realizing the experiments are finally over, she leaves Castle Forrester to become the dictator of Qatar. Her first order of business: to put a "u" in the country's name.