Plankton's Pet

Plankton's Pet
General
Season №:	9
Episode №:	186b
Airdate:	January 19, 2013
U.S. premiere time (ET):	10:30 am
U.S. viewers (millions):	4.37
Running time:	11 minutes, 1 second
Sister episode(s):	"Safe Deposit Krabs"
Credits
Writer(s):	Marc Ceccarelli Luke Brookshier Mr. Lawrence
Supervising Producer(s):	Paul Tibbitt
Storyboard:	Marc Ceccarelli Luke Brookshier
Animation:	Alan Smart Tom Yasumi
Creative:	Vincent Waller
Chronology
Previous	"Safe Deposit Krabs"
Next	"Don't Look Now"

"Plankton's Pet" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season 9. In this episode, Plankton buys a pet to help cheer himself up.

Characters

• Sheldon J. Plankton
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Patrick Star
• Squidward Tentacles
• Eugene H. Krabs
• Spot (debut)
• Karen Plankton
• Harold
• Guard-Worm
• Elderly Snail (cameo)
• Sea Monkey (debut)
• Sea Urchin

Synopsis

It begins in the Krusty Krab where a man gets a krabby patty, but then a baby comes and takes the Krabby Patty. Everyone thought it was cute, thinking it was a real baby, but Mr. Krabs was able to see Plankton inside the baby. Mr. Krabs started beating him up, but because everybody still thought it was a real baby, they were all outraged. Then Mr. Krabs ripped off the head. Mr. Krabs put the head back on and launched him back to the Chum Bucket and Karen then took off the diaper and put it in the trash where Plankton walks out. Karen told him that he should get a pet and SpongeBob, who just happened to hear their conversation, decided to help him look for a pet. At the animal shelter, Plankton sees a guard worm, an old gross snail, and even Patrick. Plankton almost gets swallowed by a pet. Then an amoeba saves his life. Plankton chooses the amoeba and decides to call him Spot.

At the Chum Bucket Plankton teaches Spot some tricks like stay, sit, and roll over. Then he teaches him how to steal a Krabby Patty. Plankton wasn't finished talking when Spot left to the Krusty Krab unseen to get a Krabby Patty. When Spot comes back, Plankton is rapt, thinking he finally won but is then enraged when Spot eats the krabby patty in one bite. He punishes Spot by tying his leash to the mailbox. Seconds later, Plankton feels bad, but when he runs back outside he finds Spot's leash, with no amoeba to be seen. Plankton then goes out to find him, with SpongeBob's help. Soon they stumble upon the shelter, then go inside. It is very dark inside so SpongeBob tries to find the light switch. There are 2 switches, so Spongebob turns on both. One turns on the lights, and the other opened the pens. The guard worm, sea monkey, and sea urchin all chase SpongeBob and Plankton. When they lose the animals, Plankton realises Spot had been on his optical cornea (his eye) the whole time. The other pets then find Plankton and SpongeBob again so Spot tries to scare them off. The animals laugh at Spot because he's so small but then he grows about a hundred times bigger and easily scares the animals away. Plankton then decides he his going to keep Spot and was sorry he yelled at him.

Trivia

• This is the first episode that shows a character adopting a pet.
• Before this episode premiered, there was a marathon of pet episodes including Have You Seen This Snail, The Thing, Wormy, Dumped, Pet or Pests, and others.
• In the title card, you can see a picture of an amoeba, which implies the appearance of Spot in the episode.
• It is unknown how Patrick got in the Animal Shelter, although it might be because of his appearance in Grooming Gary when he is shown as SpongeBob's pet.
• This episode was paired with Gary in Love when it premiered.
• Running Gag: Fish going "Awww!" to Plankton.
• SpongeBob mentioned he got Gary from the animal shelter. This is true, because in Treats!, Gary showed SpongeBob a baby picture of him, and SpongeBob claims it was when he got him from the pound.
• It is unknown if Spot will be a permanent part of SpongeBob.
• Error: When SpongeBob flips the switch that opens the animal pens, the sea urchin was in the third pen. Then when Spot scares the animals back into their pens, the sea urchin goes into the second pen. It is possible that the animals were too scared of Spot so they got their cages mixed up.
• This episode makes the show the longest on Nickelodeon because even though it's the 186th in production order it aired as 184, beating out All That's 183 episode run.
• Plankton breaks the fourth wall in this episode by saying "Holy Plot Twist!" when Spot got the Krabby Patty.
• When Plankton takes Spot for a walk, he tires over walking a long distance in comparison to his height. Yet, when he ties Spot to the mailbox post, he does not tire from the walk to and from the mailbox post. In fact, he even makes both the trips in record time for his size.
• When Spot multiplies into a large organism, this is through a process of cellular division known as mitosis, where a cell makes a replication, or clone, of itself.

APM Music Identification

• Glory Road - Spot saves Plankton's life.
• Great Moments - When Plankton feels bad for Spot and decides to get him; Plankton finds Spot.
• SpongeBob Theme ending.