Meanwhile, the Fraggle Five have planned a picnic and expedition. Boober has prepared a bowl of radish dip, but they need to get some provisions from the Gorgs' garden. Red, Mokey, and Boober greet Gobo and Wembley with some bad news: they can't get into the garden, because the Gorgs are out there, sitting right by the entrance. Gobo decides to go to the garden anyway and sneak past the Gorgs to pick a radish.
Pa and Ma are having a romantic day at Kissing Rock, the entrance to Fraggle Rock. Junior, who finds this sickening, interrupts to show them what he just found: a bottle of Boredom Juice, which will place anyone in a permanent state of boredom. Pa shoos him away, but he takes the Boredom Juice, leaving Junior with the antidote, which he puts in his shoe for safekeeping. When Gobo enters the garden, scaring Ma, she and Pa decide to use the juice to subdue the Fraggles by spraying them and boring them stiff. Gobo and the others overhear this plan, and Gobo decides to spy on the Gorgs while Wembley, Red, and Mokey remain in the tunnel to the garden in case he needs help. Boober goes to warn the rest of the Fraggles to stay away.
Pa has filled a spray can with Boredom Juice and tells Junior to spray Kissing Rock. Junior doesn't want the Fraggles to be bored stiff and says he won't do it, but Pa shows him how easy it is by doing it for him. He gives Junior the spray can and goes to join Ma, leaving Junior to finish the job. Wembley, Red, and Mokey, who are standing by the entrance to the Gorg's garden, get a whiff of the juice and are instantly bored stiff. Soon afterwards, Gobo and Junior both peer into the hole in Kissing Rock and see Wembley, Red, and Mokey bored stiff.
Meanwhile, Sprocket is begging Doc to take the trap away from the Fraggle hole. Doc says they could be harboring a nest of rats—a potential health hazard—and that he may have to fumigate the workshop. He goes to see his neighbor, Ned Shimmelfinney, and leaves Sprocket to guard the trap. As soon as Doc is gone, Sprocket manages to spring it.
Back in the tunnel, Gobo is trying to snap his friends out of their boredom by mentioning things that interest them, to no avail, and knows that the rest of the Fraggles will soon be sprayed. Then, remembering that he saw the antidote in Junior's shoe, he sneaks into the garden to get it.
Junior, meanwhile, is also aghast at what Pa has done to the Fraggles and can't bring himself to spray Kissing Rock. Since his parents aren't there, he decides to get rid of the juice by pouring it on a flower, which droops of boredom. He then sees Gobo and tries to talk to him. Gobo runs away but accidentally sniffs the flower the juice got poured onto and passes out, bored stiff as well. Against his parents' decision, Junior uses the antidote on Gobo.
Gobo comes to, and Junior confesses he cured him because he believed Pa was wrong to spray the Boredom Juice. Gobo reminds him that his friends have been bored stiff and need the cure, but Junior says that his parents would just try something else. The two make a deal: if Junior tells Gobo the antidote, Gobo will help Junior think of a way to convince his parents to give up trying to get rid of the Fraggles. The cure is to do a certain dance while wearing a bowl on your head and singing a song called "Whoops! Feelin' Better!"
Junior remarks that without Fraggles around, he would have no one to play with and die of boredom, which would sadden his parents. This gives Gobo an idea. He proposes that Junior fake dying from boredom, and then he'll cure him, showing Pa and Ma that their son needs Fraggles in order not to be bored. When his parents return, Junior puts on a good show of dying of boredom—but when he pretends to faint, he lands too near the flower, gets a whiff of the juice, and becomes bored stiff for real. Seeing this, Pa vows to get rid of the Fraggles once and for all.
Gobo starts to do the song and dance, but nothing happens. Remembering that the antidote calls for a bowl to be worn on the head, he runs back to the tunnel and dumps out Boober's radish dip. He puts the bowl on his head, runs back to the garden, and starts to do the song and dance again. Pa sees him and is about to spray him, when Junior wakes up. Gobo's friends, also cured, dance into the garden, joining in the song as the flower perks up. Pa and Ma are delighted at Junior's recovery and, seeing that the Fraggles have cured him, give up trying to subdue them. Junior happily returns to trying to thump them.
Back at the workshop, Doc sees the trap has been sprung and resets it, but Sprocket shows that he was the one springing it. Convinced by this that there is nothing dangerous in the Fraggle hole, Doc removes it.
This episode contains examples of:
- Big "NO!": Gobo and Junior, when they see Pa spraying Boredom Juice into the hole in Kissing Rock.
- Can't Believe I Said That:
- When Pa and Ma are crying over Junior...Pa: He may be a dimp, but he's all we got.
Gobo: [watching from hiding] He's all we got, too. [Beat] I can't believe I just said that. - After Gobo revives Junior...Ma: The dear little Fraggles saved our boy!
Pa: Mmm-hmm.
Ma: I can't believe I just said that.
- When Pa and Ma are crying over Junior...
- Carrying the Antidote: Inverted. Pa sprays all the Fraggles but Gobo with Boredom Juice. Junior, who didn't want them sprayed, has the antidote in his shoe. He then tells Gobo the antidote.
- Cartoon Bug-Sprayer: Pa uses a hand-pump canister bug sprayer to hit the Fraggles with Boredom Juice.
- Chekhov's Gun: Boober brings a bowl of radish dip for the picnic the Fraggles were planning. Wearing a bowl on one's head turns out to be part of the antidote to Boredom Juice.
- Continuity Nod:
- Ma is upset because the Fraggles are infesting Kissing Rock, first mentioned in the episode "The Garden Plot."
- Gobo, in an attempt to snap Red out of her boredom, proposes a game of Tug-o'-Tails, first mentioned in "A Cave of One's Own."
- Dance Party Ending: Subverted. At the end, Junior and the Fraggles are dancing... and then, when Red asks Junior why he saved them, he says he wants the Fraggles around so he'll have someone to thump. Cue the Fraggles making a run for the Rock.
- Eek, a Mouse!!: Ma screams when Gobo sneaks into the garden to pick a radish.
- Everybody Must Get Stoned: The effects of the Boredom Juice. Whoever gets a whiff of it will stiffen up, become glassy-eyed, and respond to anything with a monotone "Boooo-ring!"
- Exact Eavesdropping: Gobo, on his way back from the garden with a radish he's just picked, overhears Pa's plan to spray the Fraggles with Boredom Juice. Boober, Wembley, Red, and Mokey, waiting just inside the tunnel, overhear the plan as well.
- Fake Faint: Junior pretends to faint to convince his parents he's bored stiff. It becomes real when he lands too near the Boredom Juice-drenched flower and gets a whiff.
- Fantastic Racism: As always, Ma and Pa Gorg see the Fraggles as despicable pests, while the Fraggles view the Gorgs as Always Chaotic Evil beings who inherently hate their kind. Junior proves everyone wrong by showing that he does like the Fraggles, and Gobo returns the favor by remarking that it's possible for the two races to get along.
- Find the Cure!: Seeing his friends bored stiff, Gobo, remembering he saw Junior with the antidote, sneaks into the garden to get it.
- Friendly Enemy: Gobo and Junior conspire to get Ma and Pa to see that Junior likes having Fraggles around.
- Gentle Giant: Subverted. Junior doesn't want to spray Boredom Juice into the Rock and induce the Fraggles into a permanent state of boredom. Instead, he wants to thump them.
- Gone Horribly Right: Gobo's plan for Junior to pretend to die from boredom becomes real when he accidentally sniffs the Boredom Juice.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Red does this when Gobo, after overhearing Pa's plan, goes to the garden to check out the situation.Red: Wow, he's really brave!
Wembley: Yeah!
Red: Or else really dumb. - Improbable Antidote: The antidote for Boredom Juice is to do a certain dance while wearing a bowl on your head and singing "Whoops! Feelin' Better!"
- Irony: Mokey suggests simply talking to the Gorgs, but Gobo says that won't work. His talking to Junior, though, is what turns out to be the answer, as Junior doesn't want the Fraggles bored.
- Magic Antidote: The antidote cures Junior immediately and works just as instantaneously on Gobo's friends and the flower.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The Fraggles, when they overhear Pa and Ma planning to spray them with Boredom Juice.
- Never My Fault: Ma blames Pa for wanting to use the Boredom Juice on the Fraggles, even though she was all for the idea when he came up with it.
- Noodle Incident: Doc builds a trap for the Fraggle hole in the workshop, apparently based on a trap he and Sprocket had built to catch a rabid ocelot that had escaped from the zoo.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Gobo, when he realizes Junior is right behind him.
- Sprocket, when Doc says he plans to fumigate whatever the trap catches.
- Only Sane Man: Gobo is the only Fraggle in the tunnel who is unaffected by the Boredom Juice, as he was in the garden when Pa sprayed the others.
- The Paralyzer: Pa, boring Gobo's friends stiff.
- Perfumigation: Uncle Matt's postcard is about the time he got sprayed with a "foul-smelling liquid" by an employee in the fragrance section of a department store.Uncle Matt: From the smell, I knew the stuff had to be lethal.
- The Power of Rock: The antidote to Boredom Juice is a catchy song called "Whoops! Feelin' Better!"
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Boober does not want to stick around when he hears about the Boredom Juice. Gobo has him warn everyone to stay away from the tunnel to the Gorgs' garden.Boober: I'd really love to help you, but I think I hear my kettle boiling. Okay?
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: Junior is revolted by Pa and Ma's song: "The Ways I Love You."Pa: [singing] Eyeballs and earlobes and muscles like bread rolls,
With a heart that's as big as a zoo.
Those-ose-ose are the ways I love you.
Ma: You do?
Pa: Aww, I do, sweetie. [singing] Those are the ways I love you.
Junior: Uh, can't you talk mushy somewhere else? - Talking Your Way Out: Discussed. On hearing that the Gorgs plan to spray the Fraggles with Boredom Juice, Mokey suggests simply talking to them. Gobo talks her out of this idea.Mokey: I think that big brown-haired one kind of likes us. [She starts up the tunnel.]
Gobo: [pulling her back] Mokey...!
Mokey: What, what, what, what?
Gobo: Gorgs do NOT like Fraggles!
Red: No!
Gobo: We've got to get out there and stop 'em! - Tempting Fate: While running from Junior, Gobo yells, "You'll never get me, Gorg!" and then "It'll take more than Boredom Juice to get rid of Fraggles!" Immediately afterward, he accidentally sniffs the juice-drenched flower and is bored stiff.
- That Poor Plant: Technically, the flower doesn't die when Junior pours the Boredom Juice on it—but, like the Fraggles, it does get bored stiff. Thankfully, the antidote revives all of them.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Junior discovers the bottle of Boredom Juice and eagerly shows it to his parents, never imagining that Pa would use it for attempted extermination of the Fraggles.
- Wham Episode: A mild one—it's the first time that the Fraggles and Gorgs truly work together and help one another, hinting that their antagonistic relationship is beginning to thaw. This becomes a recurring theme throughout the rest of the series, with Junior Gorg eventually declaring complete, permanent cooperation and coexistence with the Fraggles.
- What You Are in the Dark: Pa sprays Kissing Rock with Boredom Juice, then tells Junior to keep on spraying until he's sure every Fraggle has been bored stiff. While Ma and Pa are having some alone time together, Junior has to choose between doing as he's told or disobeying and risking his parents' anger. He chooses to dispose of the Boredom Juice, revive Gobo, and help him cure the other Fraggles.
