Squidward is proud of having just finished his wax sculpture of himself and declares he has "conquered all artistic medium". But then, he is annoyed by SpongeBob and Patrick's unknown game Bubble chess. Squidward then tells them both to play frisbee. While he goes to take a bath, SpongeBob and Patrick throw a shell with which they are playing frisbee into Squidward's house, and it hits the sculpture. SpongeBob and Patrick think they've injured Squidward, and after several humorous attempts to "resuscitate" him, they believe that Squidward is dead.
Squidward, fresh from his pampered bath, dramatically emerges in a rush of steam from the warm bathroom, wearing talcum powder and a white bathrobe and towel. SpongeBob and Patrick believe they are seeing Squidward's ghost and, hoping to avoid any hauntings or punishments, place themselves as Squidward's willing servants. Squidward gleefully takes advantage of the situation, having them serve and pamper him, do chores, and simply entertain him.
Eventually, SpongeBob and Patrick, while entering a "messy" room, come across a comic book inspired by the story of the Flying Dutchman (who haunted the seas because his body was used as a window
display in a clothing store), and decide that since Squidward is a vengeful spirit, SpongeBob and Patrick think they need to have Squidward to be put to rest. SpongeBob and Patrick try with a shoe box casket. Squidward refused to go in. Thus, SpongeBob and Patrick try to give him a proper burial as well as a funeral. Squidward eventually admits his charade, but SpongeBob and Patrick believe that Squidward is simply in denial about his death. SpongeBob blows a giant bubble that engulfs Squidward and sends him floating up to "the great beyond". Tada!~
Trivia
This episode marks the first appearance of the Flying Dutchman, although he is seen only in pictures and does not physically appear. His first live appearance was in the Halloween episode "Scaredy Pants".
The Title Card is the same as "Rock Bottom" and "Graveyard Shift", although all three have different colors and the one for Graveyard Shift is this one upside down.
Squidward complaining it is "too hot" or "too wet", they stumble onto an aquatic version of the painting La Troupe de Mlle. Eglantine. Squidward quips that it is "Too loose, Lautrec", a pun on the name of the painting's artist, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, with an accompanying rimshot.
When Squidward asks, "What are you invertebrates doing?" SpongeBob and Patrick seem to have made up a nonsensical game having to do with (presumably among other things) chess boards, bubbles and rocks. SpongeBob and Patrick say, "We don't know". This may be a reference to Calvinball, a game played in the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes.
When Squidward gives SpongeBob a piece of tissue paper and asks that he plays a song with it, SpongeBob refuses, saying he cannot. However, in the episode "The Paper", SpongeBob is shown to be able to replicate the notes of a clarinet perfectly with a gum wrapper. It is possible that SpongeBob was too afraid of Squidward's "ghost" to bring proper music to the paper when he actually attempted to play a song with it or because it was a piece of tissue instead of a candy wrapper.
Fifteenth time SpongeBob cries.
When Squidward was in the bubble at the end of the episode, the cry he made sounded very similar to the cry he made while he was in the full body cast in "Jellyfishing."
