You can't just defeat those stinky beasts by telling them to leave.
SkunkedCricket plans to become a hero by releasing a herd of skunks into Big Coffee, but it goes downhill.
"Skunked" contains examples of:
- Artistic License – Biology: Regarding the skunks, the way they stink is irrational to how they stink in real life. Real skunks can only spray up to six times a day, with 15cc of stink at a time. They also don't unleash huge bursts of stink that can flood an entire café, because they can't expel their entire stink at once.
- Art Shift: Cricket's plan to the skunks is done in the style of children's doodles.
- Bottle Episode: Most of the episode takes place at Big Coffee.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: When Cricket realizes the skunks don't understand him, he decides to be a hero for real and charges in...and is instantly outmatched.
- Didn't Think This Through: Cricket didn't bother to train the skunks to listen to him before going over the plan, and by the time he realizes the skunks don't understand him, it's too late.
- Diving Save: Mark pulls this twice on Cricket when he almost gets run over by a car.
- Engineered Heroics: Attempted by Cricket when he releases skunks into Big Coffee, but it doesn't go as planned.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Note that the skunks do not look up at Cricket nor do they shake or touch Cricket's hand after he finishes going over the plan; they just keep eating the sandwich.
- Shamed by a Mob: Gloria and the customers discover Cricket's plan when it falls out of his back pocket, causing them to jeer him out of the restaurant.
- Slow "NO!": By Cricket when he jumps in front of Gloria to protect her from getting stinked.
- Smelly Skunk: The skunk herd Cricket unleashes. Unlike most fictional examples, they release a smelly liquid rather than a gas spray.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Cricket thought the skunks would follow his plan because he explained it to them, not considering whether skunks understood human speech or not, or if they would care to do what he said if they did.
- Taking the Bullet: When Gloria finds herself cornered by a skunk about to release stink at her, Cricket jumps in front of her and gets stinked himself.
It's not long before she goes Ax-Crazy.
Axin' SaxonWhile the boys go fishing, Nancy accidentally destroys Tilly's potato sack pal Saxon, but Tilly misdirects her wrath at Gramma.
"Axin' Saxon" contains examples of:
- Big "NO!": By Gramma when Tilly drops her sword into the water.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Nancy.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Tilly big time. The sight of Saxon destroyed makes her totally lose it.
- Counting to Three: Tilly forcefully counts to three as she prepares to drop Gramma's sword into the river.
- Dramatic Drop: Done twice by Tilly.
- In the first time, Tilly drops her cup when she sees Saxon torn to pieces, then picks it up and throws it harder to invoke Dramatic Shattering.
- Then, as she threatens to throw Gramma's sword off a bridge, Nancy confesses to being the one who broke Saxon, and the revelation causes Tilly to drop the sword anyway.
- Dramatic Wind: When Tilly is threatening to drop Gramma's sword off a bridge if she doesn't confess she destroyed Saxon, her hair is caught in a light breeze. It doesn't touch Gramma or Nancy, and it somehow stops when Tilly learns the truth.
- Fishing Episode: The B-plot has Bill taking Cricket and Remy fishing at the city canal. Cricket gets upset that he can't get a bite while newcomer Remy picks up fish after fish. The two plotlines intersect at the end when Cricket catches Gramma after she jump into the canal to find her sword.
- Iris Out: How the episode closes, with Saxon somehow winking before it finishes.
- Never Say "Die": Defied: Tilly's Thousand-Yard Stare-laden speech about Saxon's demise outright has her not only mention "death", but "murder" as well.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Certain things can't go in the washer; they risk getting torn to shreds.
- A Dramatic Drop doesn't necessarily mean Dramatic Shattering will follow, unless you invoke it deliberately.
- Roadside Wave: Tilly and Nancy get hit by mud splattered at them by a passing car. Nancy call this the "Splash Zone".
- Sure, Let's Go with That: Nancy accidentally destroys Saxon by putting him in the washing machine. When Tilly assumes Gramma did the deed (as Gramma had insulted Saxon earlier), Nancy goes along with that assumption, not wanting to lose her daughter's love, up until Tilly threatens to throw away Gramma's prized sword in retaliation.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Tilly adopts one when she sees Saxon destroyed. Her whole front side is even coated in shadow to match her mood.
