History Recap / KimPossibleS1E21LowBudget

While helping to save manatees in Florida from a pair of rowdy hicks, Kim gets her pants destroyed by an alligator, and is forced to buy replacements at Smarty Mart, a large chain store that she hates but Ron loves. Once she buys the new pants, she heads back to Middleton to buy a pair from Club Banana (which, aside from the logo and being more expensive, are pretty much identical to the ones she bought at Smarty Mart), when an odd accented villain, calling himself Frugal Lucre, demands a dollar from every person on Earth or he'll destroy the Internet, then shuts down all electrical devices in the area, including the Kimmunicator.

Resolving to stop Lucre (and get Club Banana back online) Kim is able to get Wade, once his computer recovers, to analyze the video. Hearing an odd noise in the background, Wade isolates it and learns it's a Smarty Mart announcement, meaning Lucre is an employee of the store. Heading to the nearest Smarty Mart, Kim gains access to the manager's office and downloads a list of personnel, identifying Lucre as Francis Lerman. Heading to Philadelphia, Kim & Ron arrive at Lucre's house, but are captured and strung up in a net in his basement lair over a kiddie pool of snapping turtles.

Easily escaping the cheap trap, the heroes head to Smarty Mart to stop Lucre from activating his Internet destroying virus via [[ItMakesSenseInContext the UPC code of an expired can of Vienna sausages]]. While Ron searches for the can, Kim chases down Lucre, stopping him by putting an anti-theft tag on his employee vest, causing him to be stopped by the greeter. With the Internet saved, Kim receives a Smarty Mart circular as thanks and learns the store and its cheap prices aren't so bad...sort of.

* BrandNamesAreBetter: Kim prefers Club Banana and disdains Smarty Mart, even when the clothing they sell are practically identical. She is somewhat more open-minded on the subject at the end of the episode, but hasn't entirely discarded her old viewpoint:

* EmbarrassingFirstName: As Ron put it "Francis? No wonder the dude's twisted."

* EyeScream: When caught in the personnel manager's office, Kim pretends she was looking for a lost contact lens, resulting in her pretending to put it in, poking her open eye in the process (complete with tear).

* MidBattleTeaBreak: the first confrontation with Frugal Lucre is stalled by his mother coming down to serve drinks and offer snacks, since she thinks Team Possible are her son's friends visiting. None of them dissuade this misconception, though Lucre gets annoyed at the interruption.
* NearVillainVictory: The customer who Ron got the expired can of sausages from was just about to pay at the register, which would've destroyed the internet as per Lucre's plan when the can was scanned. And Lucre himself did manage to outrun Kim, and he would've gotten away if she hadn't pinned an anti-theft tag to his vest that caused the store doors to slam shut in his face when he tried to escape.

* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Despite his frugality, Lucre did manage to briefly shut down the Internet and also kept Kim at bay as well.
* OnlySaneMan: Ron is this in the episode, telling Kim that high-end fashion shouldn't be such a big deal to her. Probably best exemplified when they think the Kimmunicator is low on power and Kim ''still'' goes to buy new pants first before new batteries.

-->'''Kim:''' Cough up the sausages, Lucre!
-->'''Ron:''' Ew! Rephrase please.

* OffModel: When Kim is in her casual clothes in this episode, her skin is almost sunburn pink. When she switches to her mission outfit, her skin is back to its normal color.