Written & storyboarded by Dashawn Mahone & Najja Porter
While searching a once unreachable part of the Creek, Craig gets stranded with his longtime rival, Wildernessa!
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Ornithology: Wildernessa thought she could call over birds to help them by doing a mating dance to attract them. But she failed to realize that they're in the middle of winter, where most birds migrate south.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Wildernessa thought Craig was a dinosaur that thawed from the Ice Age (due to his dinosaur slippers), though this could be a cover for stalking him.
- Bottle Episode: The entire episode takes place at the Deserted Playhouse Island, where Craig, Wildernessa, and Cheesesticks are stranded. There's also only two actors in the entire episode.
- Call-Back:
- In Wildernessa's debut episode, as she describes the dangers of the creek, her imaginary depiction of Craig is exaggeratedly handsome despite disliking him. The reason for it is because of her crush on Craig as her Crush Filter makes her see him exaggeratedly handsome again.
- Back in "The End Was Here", the Stump Trio found a love letter from a boy named "Sammy Ballou" who tried to send it to a girl he liked named "Sarah" before he joined the Capture the Flag game that tore the creek apart. In the letter, he mentions their fort, and it's revealed that the playhouse Craig and Wildernessa found is their fort.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Wildernessa has trouble trying to tell Craig how she feels about him, so she tells him through a bird-like mating dance, which just confuses him.
- Crush Filter: Wildernessa when Craig helps her put on his gloves.
- Danger — Thin Ice: At the beginning of the episode, the ice is strong enough for Craig, Wildernessa and Cheesesticks to walk across, though Craig still mentions that they need to be careful. Unfortunately, when Cheesesticks leaps on the ice, it causes it to crack apart, leaving the three stranded on the island.
- A Day in the Limelight: Wildernessa gets a big focus in the episode, thanks to Kelsey and J.P. being absent, where we learn why she prefers animals over humans and why she's always talking down to Craig.
- Double-Meaning Title: The title refers to two things: Cheesesticks breaking the thin ice while getting off the island, and Craig learning about Wildernessa's past.
- Even the Dog Is Ashamed: After Craig tells off Wildernessa for treating him poorly, Cheesesticks actually sides with Craig and gets her to tell Craig how she feels about him.
- Freudian Excuse: Wildernessa's dislike of people is explained during her rant, as she mentions the time some kids played a prank on her and got sent to the principal's office after she tried to maul them in retaliation.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: However, when Wildernessa continues being insufferable towards Craig, he shuts her up by explaining that while he does sympathize with her love for animals, it still doesn't give her the right to look down on other humans since she is one too.
- Gaia's Vengeance: Wildernessa's theory as to what happened to the kids who played on the island.
- Given Name Reveal: Wildernessa reveals that her name is Vanessa during her rant to Craig on why she prefers animals to humans.
- Honor Before Reason: Wildernessa's love for nature and animals prevents her and Craig from getting off the island. When Craig considers building a raft to get off the island by using the wood from a tree, Wildernessa wants Craig to use deadwood, which results in Craig building a flimsy raft that could hold one person if they're lucky. When Wildernessa wants Cheesesticks to go first on the raft, Craig tries to point out a major problem of having a big, heavy dog going on the raft first, but she refuses to listen and Cheesesticks ends up breaking it.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: When Craig is trying to think of a way to get off the island:Wildernessa: Why don't you just build something, since you're always building stuff?
Craig: And just how do you know I'm always building stuff?
Wildernessa: (beat) What?! E-everyone knows you build stuff! Sheesh. Clearly, you don't know anything about yourself. - I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: After getting stranded on the island, Craig thinks that Wildernessa knows how to survive on an island, but she tells him "I know about animals, not survival tactics".
- Jerkass Realization: After Craig calls her out for the way she's been treating him, her bird mating dance confession to him, and working together with him so they can get off the island, Wildernessa finally apologizes to Craig for always tearing him down and gives him her dog whistle.
- Just Whistle: After Wildernessa's apology to Craig, she gives him her dog whistle so he can call Cheesesticks, with her riding him, if he's ever alone or in danger.
- Laugh of Love: After Wildernessa pulls Craig into her dance, the two gradually start laughing as they spin around.
- Like an Old Married Couple: How Craig and Wildernessa were bickering in this episode.
- Locked in a Room: An island variation. Craig and Wildernessa are able to get to the island because of the frozen lake. When Cheesesticks jumps on the ice, his weight accidentally breaks the ice, and it ends up stranding all of them on the island.
- Mating Dance: Wildernessa tries invoking this, hoping that some birds would come to help after responding to her "romantic overtures". She later uses this same dance to try and tell Craig how she feels.
- Oblivious to Love: Craig towards Wildernessa, which is somewhat justified as she expresses it in an animal-like way with her birdlike mating dance.
- Offering a Hand: While using her mating dance to tell him how she feels, Wildernessa offers her hand to Craig before pulling him in to join her.
- Puppy Love: The ones who previously played in the playhouse were two kids who were in love.
- Rage Breaking Point: Craig has been tolerant of Wildernessa talking down to him, but he finally loses his patience with her. When he tries to offer his mittens to her due to her hands being cold, she gets embarrassed when he holds her hand to put the mitten on it and rejects it and does her typical "You don't know anything about..." comment to him. He gets fed up with her and tells her off...
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivering one of these to Wildernessa while calling out how much of a hypocrite she is.Craig: I know, I don't know anything. Well, you're right, 'cause I don't understand you at all. I mean, you act like you're better than everyone, but you're human too. When that tuba goes off, you go home, to your house, and your room, with your cell phone, and your bed, and, and... and your ''other bed'', 'cause I don't know, maybe you got two beds. But I'll tell you what I do know, there's two things that are phony: you and baloney! I'm out! (walks to the door) You know, maybe you do care about animals, but that doesn't mean you have to tear down the people around you. (exits the playhouse, leaving Wildernessa speechless)
- The Reveal: The playhouse that Craig and Wildernessa discover is the fort of Sammy Ballou and Sarah, who played in the creek during the Capture the Flag game that tore the creek apart. The evidences includes Sammy mentioning their fort in his love letter to Sarah, an old calendar from the 80's being found inside their fort, one of the drawings inside has a picture of a boy and a girl holding hands with Sammy's name on it, and the Sweetie Graffiti on the stump inside has the initials "S+S".
- Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue...: Inscribed on the spool Craig finds; he comments that he always thought violets were purple. Later, he and Wildernessa find the second spool, which contains the rest of the poem: "You can make a bridge when you have 2."
- Shipper on Deck: Cheesesticks wanted his master to tell Craig how she feels about him.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Due to the strong possibility of Kelsey and J.P. ruining the moment with their antics, they were excluded from this episode.
- Stalker with a Crush: Implied when Wildernessa tells Craig to build something to get them off the island since he's always building things. He questions how she would know that, considering they rarely see each other, and she hasn't seen some of the stuff he's built. She hesitates for a moment and then claims everyone in the creek knows that. It's further backed up when Cheesesticks is able to sneak up on Craig without him noticing.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Cheesesticks is able to sneak up on Craig twice despite his size, which Craig lampshades.
- Two-Keyed Lock: When he lands on the island, Craig notes a large spool with a crank on the shore and wonders what it's for. Towards the end of the episode, he and Wildernessa discover another and realize that it required two people to turn it. Doing so reveals a sunken bridge which the previous kids used to enter the island. The bridge had since worn away except for one plank, and Craig and Wildernessa ride Cheesesticks as he leaps across on the one remaining plank.
- Written-In Absence: Kelsey and J.P. are absent because Craig states Kelsey is coat shopping and J.P. is hanging out with his mom. This allows Craig and Wildernessa to finally settle the hostility between them without Kelsey's admiration of Wildernessa and J.P.'s random antics distracting them.
