Original air date: 11/11/2019
13 years after the original series, we are greeted by a new friend, Josh, Joe and Steve's younger cousin, who tells us that we are in time for snack time. Josh announces that he and Blue are ready for snack time, which Blue disagrees with. When Josh doesn't know what to do he decides to use his Handy-Dandy Notebook (which is half Smartphone) to call his cousins. Steve, who is now a Private Detective, and Joe, the new owner of the Present Store talk to Blue and come to a mutual conclusion: Play Blue's Clues!
In a heartwarming moment, Steve asks the viewer to help his cousin, who is as airheaded they were, and who in the heat of the moment forgot that he didn't know how to play Blue's Clues. Steve and Joe with the help of the viewer quickly teach Josh how to play Blue's clues, which takes him a while to understand, but when he finally does, Steve and Joe are so proud that they break the barriers of reality to give each other an emotional hug.
The first clue is a cup that he finds on a table in the hallway of the house between the living room and kitchen. In the kitchen we are introduced to the now older Paprika and Cinnamon, and then Josh helps Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper to organize the things that Blue accidentally dropped.
The second clue appears when Blue causes another “accident” by knocking over a cup full of straws, the clue is a straw that had apparently been animated by touching Blue's pawprint, the second clue is a Paper Straw.
Josh doesn't have much time to think as the mailtime is announced. This time it's different, as Mailbox hasn't brought any letter just being there to announce that Josh has received an email, which he comments hasn't happened before.
After a cheerful email where the kids wish him good luck, Josh watches Blue skidooing across the living room board to the farm, where he helps some baby chicks and then finds his third clue when searching for Blue: A cow.
He returns to the living room somewhat stunned by the new experience. Josh then wonders what Blue wants to do with a Cup, a straw and a cow and comes to the conclusion that Blue wants to put a cow in a glass and try to pull it through a straw, which Blue and the viewer point out as being wrong, Josh then comes to the conclusion that Blue wants to have a cup of milk, and drink it with a paper straw, figuring out his first Blue's Clues game.
When snack time is finally ready, Tickety announces to everyone that the time has come and several of our old friends once again. Josh then calls his cousins who strangely had already come to the same conclusion as Josh. In another heartwarming moment we see Steve and Joe teaching Josh how to sing their version of “The So Long Song” then singing his own version. After he says thank you, the door closes and we say goodbye to our friend Blue and her new caregiver for the first time in a long time.
Tropes:
- The Blank: While Sidetable makes an appearance, she is in her "inanimate" mode and does not appear alongside the other characters when Tickety announces snack time.
- Brainless Beauty: Josh is quite charming during his introduction, with bells ringing when he smiles, but is not very intelligent, even forgetting that he doesn't actually know how to play Blue's Clues.
- Color Motif: Steve here is associated with the color green, Josh with blue, but Joe is strangely associated with the color purple, even though in the original series his theme color was orange.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- While he is already very vibrant you may notice that Josh's voice is audibly deeper than in future episodes, with the higher tone only appearing when he gets excited. His hair is also noticeably messy, while future episodes would establish that he is very conscious about his hair.
- Blue and the other characters here were animated in a low framerate, giving off the appearance of stop motion. This was dropped starting with "ABC's With Blue", where their animation is much more fluid.
- Fleeting Demographic Rule: This episode is basically a modern version of the episodes "Snack Time" and the special "Joe's Scrapbook" from the original series, where we are introduced to Steve and Joe for the first time.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Magenta here is seen without glasses, even though she received them in the original series. Although it's possible she just didn't need them for a while which sometimes happens in real life.
- I Always Wanted to Say That: Before singing the "Mailtime" song for the first time, Josh comments "I can't believe I get to sing this song!"
- Internal Homage: This episode is a homage to the first episode of the original series "Snack Time", it even thanks the team that worked on the original episode in the credits. For example, Josh's first Skidoo is into a farm, where there are some rather familiar shots
from that episode. - Man Hug: Steve and Joe hug emotionally when Josh finally understands the Blue's Clues game.
- Musical Nod: When Josh calls Steve and Joe on his phone, their ringtones play a few notes from their opening themes.
- Mythology Gag: Here Steve is revealed to have opened the Blue Prints Detective Agency. Blue Prints was the name of the original 1995 pilot of the original series.
- Not Allowed to Grow Up:
- Averted with Paprika and Cinnamon, Paprika here is a teenager while Cinnamon is an older child and now is wearing a snapback shaker cap to reflect that he's gotten a bit older.
- Played Straight with every other non-human member of the main cast. None of them appear to have aged a single day since the original series.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Steve teleports to the Present Store to hug Joe after seeing Josh sing the song "To Play Blue's Clues"
- Private Detective: Steve is now the founder of the Blue Prints Detective Agency and even dresses up like one.
- Remember the New Guy?: Even though Josh is a new character (and doesn't know how to play Blue's clues) everyone in the house seems to be used to him and he already seems familiar to the viewer.
- Revisiting the Roots: Downplayed. There were a few things that were brought back from the early seasons of the original series.
- "We Just Figured Out Blue's Clues" song returns from the first 4 seasons of the original series after its absence from the last 2 seasons of that series.
- "The So Long Song" returns from the first 5 seasons of the original series after its absence from the final season of that series.
- The full version of "To Play Blue's Clues" returns from the first 5 seasons of the original series.
- Standing up in the striped background before singing "To Play Blue's Clues" returns from the first 2 seasons of the original series.
- Guessing wrong answers to the Blue's Clues game returns from the first 2 seasons of the original series.
- Talking clues are gone (which appeared in late-Season 5 and 6 in the original series), which means the clues are seen drawn with a crayon, and the host is shown thinking about the clues after finding the first clue, then the second clue, and during thinking time.
- Time Skip: 13 years after the original series ended, Steve has graduated college and now runs a detective agency, and Joe works at the Present Store. Paprika and Cinnamon have visibly aged and Josh is Blue's current caregiver.
- Wham Line: When Josh doesn't know what Blue wants with her snack:Josh: Maybe, I should call my cousins!
- Wham Shot: When Josh shows off his notebook/phone he shows two icons... of Steve and Joe.
