Okay, I'm writing this after only having watched 56a, and I can say one thing: prepare for a highly unpopular opinion.
56a - Born Again Krabs[]
Premiered on October 4, 2003.
Written by Paul Tibbitt, Kent Osborne and Merriwether Williams.
Highlight: Harold Flowers.
Mr. Krabs encounters the Flying Dutchman.
How can I describe this episode? Genius. That's how I'd describe it. Seriously, it's up there with Doing Time and Clams. This episode's plot is amazing and it also has a lot of great jokes. I don't really get why the plot is considered weak or the episode meh, because I really disagree with that.
First of all, this one is a Mr. Krabs episode, and because he's one of my favorite characters, you could already say I'll probably like this episode, but the plot also helps to that, because it is about Mr. Krabs having to be generous, making this one an episode where the protagonist becomes the opposite of its usual character. It's not really the most unique concept, as it's very regularly used during the series, but I think the fact that Krabs is forced to do it, instead of just magically becoming generous because of the Flying Dutchman, makes the plot more interesting. But the episode has much stronger humor than it has plot, and one of the first jokes in the episode comes from the plot itself, and it's the fact that Mr. Krabs refuses to get rid of a Krabby Patty that is probably older than him, which also leads to him trying to tame the Krabby Patty as if it was a dog. There's also a small variation on the Mr. Krabs ambulance joke, where it appears that Mr. Krabs is taken in an ambulance after taking a bite of the Krabby Patty, but it's actually delayed, adding a small twit to the joke. These are the first jokes of the episode, which are still not the best, but after that, comes probably one of my favorite scenes of the series and one of the most underrated jokes: the Harold Flowers joke. See, this joke is genius. Basically the Flying Dutchman, a millenary ghost that has probably taken the souls of thousands, falls for such a ridiculous name as Harold Flowers, so he goes to ask the nurse, and this part often overlooked, but it's actually a subtly hilarious joke. Basically, a huge flying ghost asks the nurse where Harold Krabs is, and the nurse just answers like huge flying ghosts come everyday. It's either that or that he comes everyday to take someone's soul, meaning that he's a VIP customer or something. Finally, he comes back and says "So, Krabs! You thought you could fool the Flying Dutchman!", which is hilariously ironic because he actually fooled him, and with a fake name like Harold Flowers. Anyways, the fact that Davy Jones' locket is full of socks and that makes Mr. Krabs cry like a baby is kind of fun, and there's quite a few more good jokes the next four minutes, but I'm not gonna talk about them because it's mostly the plot.
The next interesting part of the episode comes in the last minutes, where Mr. Krabs realizes he's not dreaming, and his expression and tone of voice when he says he is are kind of fun honestly. It reminds me of Clams, because he really sounds like he's out of his mind. In this scene, he actually sells SB's soul for 62 cents. It's portrayed in a really funny way because apparently Krabs could sell SB's soul for money, which is not something that impressive. I mean, I could understand he'd do it for a couple of millions, but it's so fun that TFD only had 62 cents and Krabs still decides to accept it. Shortly after, the conflict gets resolved in a kind of fun way by having SB be SB, annoying TFD, who sets him free.
Seriously, this episode is so underrated. It has a lot of good comedy and it's so unfairly overlooked. The plot is also not bad at all. I really like this episode overall, and I consider it one of the masterpieces of S3, for combining a great story with a lot of great jokes, just like these episodes usually do.
Rating: Good
56b - I Had an Accident[]
Premiered on October 4, 2003.
Written by C.H. Greenblatt, Kaz and Merriwether Williams.
Highlight: The ending.
SpongeBob breaks his butt while sand-sledding.
Well, this episode is kind of overrated. Don't get me wrong, it's still good and all, but I don't think it is anywhere near its sister or most of the best episodes I've reviewed so far.
Let's see, the basic premise is that SB isn't willing to go outside his house because he broke his butt. Before that part of the plot comes though, there's a bit of comedy on the different dangers that never existed until SB broke his butt, because when he did, suddenly everyone is dangerous to SB, like two guys playing football that are kicking each other's butt, or a random seven-mile kicking machine. Like, LOL, that part is so random it's funny. Like, SB would never break his butt by accident, but now suddenly there's guys everywhere willing to kick his butt (which makes me think this is the second butt-kicking-related episode this season). Once the plot starts, there's still a lot of humor, mostly coming for Patrick, like the "Never, never, never" part or the crazy talk, or him laughing too much for no reason, but I do have a bit of a problem with the plot structure. You see, the scene where they try talking to SB to get him out is kind of too long, and the next three minutes of the episode are literally just them making fun things to make SB go outside. There's some fun things here and there, like the "Still two ice creams" or washing an old person, or Patrick's new best friend, or "And that's when I punch him, right?", and yeah, that's a lot of jokes, but as I said, the problem is not the comedy. The problem is mainly with the structure of the episode, that takes too much time on this and it really feels like a little bit of filler. It's still considerably entertaining though, but it could be better.
After the middle of the episode, comes the ending, and that's obviously the strongest part of the episode. When this episode premiered, I could've not tell (because I wasn't even born), but now, looking at his post-sequel work, I'm pretty sure it was Kaz who came up with that ending. And the ending itself is genius, because it's a wonderful way to fix a writing problem, because I bet this ending came when they got to the point where the gorilla was hitting Sandy and Patrick (and I bet the gorilla was also Kaz's idea), and they said "Well, now how the hell do we end this crap?", and Kaz used his genius writer mind to make SB ask "What's a gorilla doing underwater?", so the gorilla says "Well... it's funny you should ask... Hmm... Uhhh... GEORGE THEY'RE ONTO US!", so he rides a zebra and runs to the horizon, while the image cuts to a footage of a random 80s family that doesn't understand what the hell they're seeing. Like what? This ending is probably the best ending to any entertainment media ever. Seriously, they couldn't come up with an ending, so how did they solve that problem? They didn't. They did the first random crap they could think of.
This episode doesn't have the best structure, but it has a lot of comedy to make up for it, so in that sense, I'd say it feels more like S2, but it's definitely one of those good S2 episodes.
Rating: Good