"The Kids Next Door never quit!"
Now loading recap for Operation: G.R.A.D.U.A.T.E.S.
- GargantuanRay'sAdvanceDecimatesUnpreparedAndTerrifiedEscapingSoldiers
The Code Module is recovered by Sector V in time for Tommy to graduate. However, the information inside of it is used by Father to turn every single operative into an animal, leaving Tommy the last one who's not transformed into an animal since he removed his DNA from the Code Module in order to save the KND.
Now Loading Tropes:
- Batman Gambit: Tommy quitting the KND, then making Father a KND operative. Father later bites him back hard in Operation I.T.
- Bittersweet Ending: Leaning on the Sweet side. Tommy destroys the Animalization Ray and saves the KND, but to do so he had to remove his booger from the Code Module to become immune to the ray, and is locked out as a failsafe, meaning he is no longer an operative. He really doesn't mind much since he's always been indirectly helping everyone else anyway.
- Breaking Old Trends: Tommy is the first KND operative to have a letter instead of a number for a codename.
- Continuity Nod: Numbuh 362 mentions that the KND Code Module was stolen by their enemies since Numbuh 86 was holding a slumber party as shown in Operation S.L.U.M.B.E.R.
- The Cowl: After quitting the KND, Tommy decides to make a new hero career for himself as "The Tommy".
- Darkest Hour: Every KND operative is turned into an animal. Well, almost every operative... because the only one left clocked out.
- A Day in the Limelight: Tommy, usually a side character, plays a big role in this episode.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Tommy happens upon the solution when he declares, "The Kids Next Door never quit!" Then he wonders, "Or do they...?"
- Exact Words: The Animalization Ray does exactly what it was made to do when it turns KND operatives into animals. That's it. They didn't say anything about it affecting those not in the KND.
- Forced Transformation: Anyone who gets hit with the Animalization Ray is shown to undergo a painful transformation and is rendered relatively harmless in their new animal forms. Although that doesn't stop Sector V from helping Tommy fend off Father.
- Foreshadowing:
- The KND secret agent that managed to temporarily disable Father's machine was introduced disguised as a dog.
- Later, when he's trying to warn the moonbase about Father's machine, he's temporarily cut off and a chicken's clucking can be heard.
- As Tommy is freeing multiples of KND operatives from their cells, Father holds him against the wall, but this gives Tommy a chance to pull out one of his boogers to add into the Code Module, and Father becomes a panther. The events of this episode later leads to Operation: I.T., where Father takes advantage of his operative status. Nice going, Tommy.
- The Delightful Children becoming animals, almost as if they were KND operatives. Or used to be.
- Tommy never getting a proper "numbuh" - because he never does become a KND agent after all.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Played With. Numbuh 362 ends up having the lower half of her body transformed into that of a monkey.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Tommy quits the KND near the end of the episode in order to save the rest of the KND including his own brother, by removing his DNA from the code module. As part of a failsafe, he cannot rejoin.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Father is perfectly fine with the Delightful Children being turned into sheep and doesn't care whether or not they can turn back into humans.Tommy: Man, you really are evil!
Father: Yes, I know. - Logical Weakness: Father's Animalization Ray transforms any KND operatives into animals. Tommy was the only one who discovered the Animalization Ray's weakness: its complete reliance on the Code Module for targets i.e only KND members. Thus, he made himself immune to the ray's effect by removing his DNA from the Module.
- Mindless Sheep: When the Delightful Children from Down the Lane fall victim to the Animalization Ray, they get turned into a flock of sheep, symbolizing how they follow Father's orders without protest and rarely, if ever, actually think for themselves.
- Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: Sector V getting the Code Module back from the Delightful Children. It was actually the objective of an online game on Cartoon Network's website, which had the same name as this episode. However, them getting the Code Module back was all part of Father's plan.
- Painful Transformation: Almost everyone who transformed screamed in pain until they literally couldn't anymore.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Despite working in an organization where half of their colleagues, along with their Soopreme Leaduh, are girls, Numbuh 44A suggests that he and Numbuh 44B "run away like little girls".
- Rule of Symbolism: The animal transformations:
- The animals that Numbuhs 3, 4, 5 turn into are references to their ethnic backgrounds. Numbuh 5 turns into a gazelle as she is African-American. Numbuh 4 turns into a koala as he is from Australia. Numbuh 3 turns into a crane, probably a red-crowned crane, and cranes are mostly found in East Asia, as she is Japanese-American. The crane also, perhaps accidentally, suits Numbuh 3's personality—cranes are known to be graceful, energetic, and commonly associated with beauty... and can also be surprisingly aggressive.
- Numbuh 2 turns into a hippopotamus because they are the heaviest land animals and he is overweight.
- Numbuh 1 turns into a seal because seals are bald and partly because he barks out his orders to his team (seals tend to bark to speak).
- Numbuh 86 turns into an Irish setter because she yells a lot. (And because she's a bitch, get it?)
- Numbuh 362 turns into a monkey because she has flexible fighting moves and is rather smart.
- DCFDTL turn into sheep because they stay together with the same way a flock of sheep does. They also follow adults' orders without protest.
- Father turns into a panther because he's a dark, sleek yet vicious predator.
- Shout-Out: The DCFDTL as sheep are based on the lead character on Sheep in the Big City. (Mo Willems, creator of that show, was also a writer for KND.)
- Story Arc: The ending to both Tommy's arc starting from Operation: E.N.D. and the Code Module arc starting from Operation: S.L.U.M.B.E.R.
- Transformation Conventions: The children of the world are transformed into animals and the end result follows National Stereotypes. Japanese KND Numbuh Three becomes a crane, fat Numbuh Two becomes a hippo, and Australian Numbuh Four becomes a koala. The best, though is the misanthropic Irish operative Numbuh 86 becoming a dog, at which a bystander comments, "Well, that figures". The Big Bad of the series, a shadowy man known as "Father", is hit with the animal transformation as well. He turns into a panther. Funnily enough, he still has the smoking pipe he always has sticking out of his mouth
- Wrong Assumption: Numbuh 1 initially deduces that Father's machine is an age-fier that can transform kids into adults - and not without reason, as several schemes of the Delightful Children have been about just that, such as the season one finale and F.O.U.N.T.A.I.N.'s plot to destroy the Fountain of Youth. He's apparently wrong when Father reveals that his machine doesn't do that.
