Pangea has an ash day (the dinosaurs equivalent of a snow day), allowing the kids to stay home from school and Earl to stay home from work, but Fran still makes them do stuff around the house. She makes Earl pay the heating bills that have to be paid, makes Charlene help her make a dessert, using a special plastic dome to keep the heat in, and makes Robbie work on his science project. When coming up with ideas, he thinks about the volcanoes, the heating bills that nobody wants to pay, and the dome that keeps heat in, and comes up with a way to power electricity from the domes and into homes for free. Robbie wins the science fair, and Mr. Pullman tells him that he thinks the idea could work for real, and the government wants to research the idea and pay Robbie for the idea. B.P. Richfield has a meeting with his boss, Mr. Ashland, who tells him what trouble this science project could do for business, as if dinosaurs can get free energy, WESAYSO will lose profits. The company runs television ads to discredit Robbie, and then Mr. Richfield invites the family to dinner so the company can buy Robbie's idea. Robbie knows that the only reason they want to buy the idea is so it can't be used, and would rather give it to society for free than profit from WESAYSO. Earl, however, wants Robbie to sell so that the family will be rich, but after Richfield insults Robbie, Earl stands up for Robbie, mentioning that he doesn't care if he can afford the dome and the volcano. Richfield then learns that the company can just buy the land around and under the volcano, preventing Robbie's idea from becoming a reality.
Includes examples of
- All for Nothing: Robbie thinks his whole experience was this after WESAYSO purchases the volcano and clearly won't allow free energy. Earl assures Robbie that it was not all for nothing, as it taught him something: He thought the company only wanted to make his life miserable, now he knows they want to make everybody's life miserable.
- Bait-and-Switch: When trying to come up with an idea for a science project, Robbie accidentally dips his chocolate bar into the peanut butter. Unlike in the Reese's commercials that it references, Robbie decides that he can't eat it.
- Brick Joke: At the science fair, Robbie mentions another student built a lamp that you operate by clapping. After Robbie wins, he and Spike share a high-five- and then the lights go off.
- Check, Please!: Earl says this after Richfield leaves the restaurant upon realizing that if the company buys the volcano that they can deny allowing the dome to be put there.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Mr. Richfield, as usual, and his boss Mr. Ashland, who doesn't want Robbie's science project to ruin their business.
- Disproportionate Retribution: In one of WESAYSO's ads to make Robbie look bad to the public, a reporter turns a random dinosaur on the street against Robbie by mentioning that he failed science and never showers after gym. He also makes the claim that Robbie supports letting killers out of prison, but that's the last claim he makes, after she had already been turned against him.
- Downer Ending: Richfield figures out that he can buy the volcano and not allow Robbie's idea to actually happen, without having to pay them. Earl also learns for the first time that WESAYSO does not just want to ruin his life - they want to ruin everybody's.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When Mr. Richfield scoffs of the idea of eating Robbie, Mr. Ashland assures that the company has a policy of not eating their enemies - that's what they have lawyers for.
- It is revealed Richfield is horrified upon learning that Mr. Ashland would subject any sycophant employee to be killed and have his/her head mounted them up on his office wall, as Mr. Ashland despises sycophants in general. Richfield even gulps in fear upon seeing the heads of the dead sycophant employees, knowing that he too will suffer the same fate if he continues sucking up for Ashland.
- Played with regarding Mr. Richfield's feelings of the situation. At one point, it looks like he thinks it's wrong to make Robbie look bad just to help the company, but then remarks that he's happy to do the job.
- Evil Lawyer Joke: According to Mr. Ashland, the executives of WESAYSO do not eat their enemies- They have lawyers to do it for them.
- Karma Houdini: Mr. Richfield and Mr. Ashland get away with ensuring that Robbie's energy source is never made available to the public.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When Earl finally agrees that it would be bad for Mr. Richfield to buy the idea, he accidentally gives Richfield the idea to just buy the volcano.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Robbie refuses to sell his idea to WESAYSO, knowing that they only want to buy it to keep dinosaurs from getting free energy, and would rather the citizens have the idea for free than sell to the company.
- Technicolor Science: Blink and you'll miss it, but one of the science fair projects is a set of multicolored flasks labeled "red", "blue", "purple" and so on.
