Recap / Codename Kids Next Door S 3 E 4 Operation FOUNTAIN

Now loading recap for Operation F.O.U.N.T.A.I.N.:

Figure
Out
Unusual
Nerd's
Tantalizing
And
Impossible
Necessity

The DCFDTL kidnap the team's classmate, a nerdy, spit-talking girl named Leaky-Leona and force her to lead them to the dark underbellies of the school. Alerted by Numbuh 5, the team follows them, and find themselves in an ancient school, laden with deadly booby traps. Avoiding them all, the team finds Leaky-Leona, strangely aged to an old woman, who leads them to the mythical Fountain of Youth. The KND are amazed at the prospect of remaining ten-years old forever.

Date of Mission: July 9, 2004

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• Armor-Piercing Response: Throughout most of the mission, Numbuh 4 complains about why Sector V is even bothering to save "Leaky Leona" from the Delightful Children, when she's never done anything for them in the past, let alone the fact that they barely know her. Numbuh 5 snaps back at him she already made the mistake of not saving a kid who was captured by the Delightful Children, and it resulted in them doing something to him that she's never forgiven them, or herself, for. Numbuh 4 asks sarcastically what the Delightful Children could've possibly done that was so awful. That's when Numbuh 1, in dead seriousness, drops the below-mentioned Wham Line that gives Numbuh 4 his Jerkass Realization.
• The Bad Guy Wins: The Delightful Children successfully destroy the fountain in the end. However, it's later revealed, at the end, that Leona has a spare. This one takes the form of an old school drinking fountain.
• Bait-and-Switch: When Sector V is being called to the bathroom, Numbuh 4 is shown having dug a hole to escape his desk, at first making it seem as if he's also answering the call. It's then revealed that he had actually dug it some time ago to escape the school, and angrily crawls back down it once summoned.
• Booby Trap: The heroes face deadly obstacles in each room of the cave on their way to find Leona. It's unknown how Leona can get past these traps every time she has to use the fountain, or how the DCFDTL dealt with them.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: This is one of the few times someone other than Numbuh 1 says the Pre-Asskicking One-Liner "Kids Next Door: Battle Stations" ^note Numbuh 5 says it in this episode.
• Brainy Baby: Sector V after being regressed into babies.
• Call-Back:
  • Leona previously made cameos in "Operation Z.O.O" and "Operation D.A.T.E".
  • This is the second time Lenny's face is shown since "Operation U.N.D.E.R.C.O.V.E.R".
• The Cameo: Lunk of the Six-Gum Gang briefly appears in the beginning of the episode as a delightful.
• Chained to a Rock: Sector V finds Leona tied to a pole by the Delightful Children who left her to die after she has led them to the fountain.
• Continuity Nod: The statue over the Fountain entrance depicts a bust of Madam Margaret's robot disguise from "Operation F.U.T.U.R.E."
• Continuity Snarl: When the Delightful Children fall into the fountain, they are still their delightfulized selves even as infants. However, in the movie Operation Z.E.R.O, it is revealed that they used to be the missing Sector Z and were delightfulized by Father. Although it could be possible that the Fountain of Youth simply has no effects on the permanent delightfulization the Delightful Children went through.
• Creepy Babies: The DCFDTL after being hit by the fountain and regressed into infancy.
• Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: When the team is walking past what appears to be an empty cafeteria complete with food inside the temple underneath the school, Numbuh 5 warns her friends not to touch anything since it might be a trap. Unfortunately, her warning is distorted through a twisted game of "whisper down the alley".
  Numbuh 5: Nobody touches anything.
  Numbuh 1: Numbuh 5 said "Don't touch anything".
  Numbuh 4: Numbuh 1 said "Don't punch a thing".
  Numbuh 3: Numbuh 4 says "Try the onion rings".
  Numbuh 2: Don't have to ask me twice.
  Numbuh 3: (screams)
  Numbuh 2: What? I was gonna share... (notices that taking food off the table triggered a Drowning Pit trap)
• Easily Forgiven: Sector V still saved Leona in the end even after she tried to kill them with the fountain's water and don't hold any grudge against her.
• Fountain of Youth: The subject of this episode.
• G-Rated Drug: The Fountain of Youth became this to Leona as a result of having been using it for so long.
  Leona: I kept my secret for so long, I forgotten how to trust someone.
• He Knows Too Much: Leona tries to kill Sector V because they know about the fountain.
• Here We Go Again!: The episode ends with Leona seeing a dirty water fountain in the school and emerges as a child again.
• Immortality Seeker: Leona has been using the fountain to stay a kid for years, and she's not about to stop using it now.
• Irony: Leona is ugly both as a child and as an adult. Numbuh 3 initially thought she was pretty until she actually saw her in person.
• Jerkass Realization: Numbuh 4 when finding out why Numbuh 5 was so adamant in trying to save Leona to make up for her failure in saving a kid from the DCFDTL. This leads to him saving the team by defeating the boulder-throwing statues through dodgeball.
• Meaningful Echo: Numbuh 4 initially refused to save Leona because they barely know her, but Numbuh 5 reminds him that they are the Kids Next Door and their job is to save kids. Later in the episode, Numbuh 5 tries to leave Leona to her fate because of how she backstabbed them, but Numbuh 4 reminds her of what she told him earlier about how they came to save Leona. This is enough to make Numbuh 5 stay.
• My Greatest Failure: It’s implied that this is how Numbuh 5 feels about failing to save Numbuh 1 when the Delightful Children made him permanently bald.
• Never Grew Up: Leona is capable of staying a child forever thanks to the Fountain of Youth.
  Leona: I've been a kid for longer than most people have been alive.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Delightful Children accidentally saved Sector V. Leona has regressed them into babies and was just about to finish them off, but then the Delightful Children emerge out in their fighting robot and attack Leona distracting her at the last second.
• No Immortal Inertia: This happens to Leona if she goes too long without exposure to the fountain.
• Noodle Incident:
  • It is never explained what Lunk did that made the Delightful Children delightfulize him.
  • Even after The Reveal, it’s never elaborated just how the Delightful Children made Numbuh 1 permanently bald or what happened that prevented Numbuh 5 from rescuing him.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Leona when she is captured by the Delightful Children.
  • The Delightful Children when they fall into the fountain.
  • Sector V throughout the obstacles they face inside the cave and again when Leona shoots them with a water gun loaded with the fountain's water.
• Really 700 Years Old: Leona explains that she really is a three-hundred year-old woman who once discovered the Fountain of Youth and has been using it to stay a child forever.
  Leona: 300 years ago, I stumbled upon this ancient school and found this fountain. By drinking its sparkling waters, I discovered that I could remain a kid forever. But sadly, the fountain's effects are temporary so I could never travel much farther than the school above. So, I relived the fourth grade moving from homeroom to homeroom all over again to hide my eternal ten-year-oldness. But it's been worth it to not have to grow up.
• Refuse to Rescue the Disliked: Subverted. Numbuh 5 briefly considered leaving Leona to fall into the chasm as payback for her backstabbing nature, but Numbuh 4 convinces her that they should still save Leona.
• The Reveal: It is revealed that the Delightful Children made Numbuh 1 bald.
• Snap Back: Although Lunk was delightfulized in this episode, he somehow got un-delightfulized and returned to the Six-Gum Gang by his next appearance.^note Although it's possible that the delightfulization may have been temporary
• Speech Impediment: Leona cannot articulate properly since she never got her braces off, and likely never will since she refuses to let herself grow up.
• Swirlie: When Leona refuses to tell the Delightful Children where the fountain is, they have Lunk shove her into a toilet which they name "Mr. Swirlie". They then ask her if she wants to visit "Mr. Swirlie's Downtown Office" (by which they mean an even filthier toilet) and this is enough to make Leona spill. It becomes a Brick Joke when the Delightful Children fall into the fountain after Sector V defeat them in a showdown, and Leona calls it "Mr. Swirlie's Corporate Office".
• This Is Unforgivable!: Numbuh 5 said she will never forgive the Delightful Children for making Numbuh 1 bald.
• Too Dumb to Live: Numbuh 2 in the Don't Touch It, You Idiot! above.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Leona instantly tries to kill Sector V even after everything they went through to save her from the Delightful Children.
• Villain Has a Point: The Delightful Children want to destroy the Fountain of Youth, believing that if news of it spread children everywhere would want to use it be young forever. Their overall goal may be far from noble, but they may have something. The fountain's effect is temporary, and Leona has used it so much that her childhood became something of an addictive drug that she can't shake. Even if it was not, the idea of eternal youth has downsides that they don't seem to consider.
• Villainous Rescue: Sector V are only saved from being de-aged to non-existence by Leona when the Delightful Children intervene and attack her.
• Wait Here: The Delightful Children From Down The Lane tell the delightfuled Lunk to stay in the bathroom to guard the entrance to the cave, which he failed to do.
• Wham Line:
  Numbuh 4: Oh come on! [Leona]'s never done anything for us! We barely even know her! What do we gotta help her for?!
  Numbuh 5: Because, the last time Numbuh 5 DIDN'T help someone kidnapped by The Delightful Children, they did something she can't ever forgive!
  Numbuh 4: What? What did they do that was so bad?!
  Numbuh 1: ...They made me bald.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After Lunk was distracted by Leona's bracelets which she dropped when the DCFDTL kidnapped her, Numbuh 5 who was hiding in one of the bathroom stalls slams the door behind him, knocking him out. He wasn't seen again for the rest of the episode.
• What the Hell, Hero?: While Numbuh 5 had every right to be furious from Leona's betrayal, Numbuh 4 told her that they shouldn't leave her to die.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Neither Sector V nor the Delightful Children are interested in the Fountain of Youth the way Leona is. Sector V only want to save Leona and the Delightful Children want to destroy it regarding immortality as a disgrace to every adult's wish that children should grow up.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Leona decides that after Sector V led her to the Fountain of Youth, she must erase them (which would mean killing them) before they can expose the location to anyone else.