And the moral of today's story is: if you feel your kids need behavioral medicine, be sure you consult an accredited doctor first.
Hop Pop is constantly bothered by the kids' unruly behavior, until he receives a strange potion that he is told will make them behave. It seems to work...but things start taking a weird turn.
This episode has examples of:
- Calling the Old Man Out: The kids tell off Hop Pop for rubbing the elixir on them without their consent, after they're saved.
- Creepy Child: Anne, Sprig and Polly become disturbingly monotone and obedient from the first dose of the potion.
- Easily Forgiven: Even though they're mad at him at first, the kids admit they were behaving badly. Also, Hop Pop did sacrifice his boat to save them.
- Eating the Enemy: Hop Pop rids the frogs of the fungus by feeding them to Bessie.
- The End... Or Is It?: A bug is now affected by the last remains of the potion.
- Foreshadowing: Bessie tries to eat the potion after Hop Pop gets it. Perhaps this clues Hop Pop on how to defeat the zombifying mushrooms, as he has Bessie eat them all.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: After all the time he's spent on his model boat, Hop Pop destroys it by throwing it to break the lock on Bessie's stable door so she can save the others, telling the boat sorry before he does.
- Guilt-Free Extermination War: Lampshaded. After Gary infected almost everyone in Wartwood and made it clear he intended to go on to infect everyone in Amphibia, he tries to talk Hop Pop out of letting Bessy kill off all of him by saying that his death will mean the permanent end of an entire species. After a brief pause, Hop Pop says he can live with that.
- Jaw Drop: Hop Pop has this reaction when the kids break his ship a second time.
- Jerkass Ball: Anne, Sprig and Polly grab it during this episode by messing around and damaging Hop Pop's boat several times. They can only offer an apology before resuming their shenanigans, several times.
- Last of His Kind: As Bessie is about to eat him, Apothecary Gary begs him that he's the last of his species, and if he's eaten they will disappear from the planet. Hop Pop's response: "I can live with that."
- Mind-Control Eyes: When the mind-controlling potion first works its effects on the kids, they simply have gigantic pupils. When they later turn into mushroom people, their eyes start glowing pink.
- My Eyes Are Up Here: Said by Apothecary Gary — or rather, the mushroom controlling him, as Hop Pop was still looking at Gary's face, since it was the one with eyes.
- Only a Model: The episode opens on a shot of what looks like a majestic sailing ship, the Green Lady. Camera pulls back to reveal it was actually a model ship being worked on by Hop Pop.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title plays on Stephen King's Children of the Corn.
- Puppeteer Parasite: An intelligent fungus takes control of the townspeople through its spores.
- Sequel Hook: The last scene shows Jeremy the beetle devouring the remains of the spore potion and becoming affected by it.
- Shadow Discretion Shot: Of Bessie devouring the mushroom off Apothecary Gary's head.
- Shout-Out:
- The plot has the feels of The Stepford Wives at first, but quickly evolves into Matango territory.
- Polly does a famous pose from Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978).
- Shown Their Work: The zombie mushrooms are a cartoonized combination of some real life fungus behaviors, like Cordyceps, which famously mind-controls insects, and BD a fungus which has killed off many entire frog species but some can live with in a reduced capacity.
- Speak in Unison: The kids speak as one when they're first infected by Apothegary Gary's spores.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Anne, Sprig and Polly understandably have this reaction to Hop Pop for putting them in danger.
