While they're moving some boxes in preparation for a coming typhoon, the Skipper accidentally hits Gilligan in the mouth, which causes his teeth to knock together in a way that somehow turns the first mate into a living radio.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Inspirational Insult: Gilligan calls the Skipper fat to get him to hit him and knock his teeth back into radio formation, knowing he's having trouble working up the nerve to punch his "little buddy."
- Laser-Guided Karma: The Castaways decide one and two at a time that if the others have to brave the elements alone, so will they. Before they can retrieve supplies from the cave, a rockslide buries the entrance.
- Men Are the Expendable Gender: When it's discovered that the cave is too small for all of them and the supplies, the men (and only the men) draw straws to decide who stays outside.
- More Expendable Than You: Gilligan breaks his straw in half so that he'll be the one to stay outside. When the Skipper finds out and asks him to explain, Gilligan responds (in mime) that the other castaways need the Skipper's leadership and the Professor's smarts, and that Mr. Howell is married, leaving him as the best choice to brave the elements and risk being killed. The Skipper chokes up and declares he's staying outside with him.
- Percussive Maintenance: After Gilligan knocks his teeth out of radio formation and breaks the radio in one accident, he decides he needs to get hit in the mouth again so the Castaways can track the incoming typhoon. He initially asks the Skipper to do it. However, the Skipper can't bring himself to hit his "little buddy" on purpose, even for extremely good cause, so Gilligan tries to make a machine to deliver the punch.
- Power Incontinence: If Gilligan's mouth is open, the radio sounds will come out, whether he wants them to or not. He can only stop them by keeping his mouth closed or turning his head very far to one side.
- Together in Death: Naturally, it doesn't happen, but the possibility of the Castaways outside the cave dying together definitely comes up. Mrs. Howell is the most explicit about it. When she appears, Mr. Howell asks what she's doing outside, saying that there's a typhoon coming and she's likely to be killed.Mrs. Howell: You mean we will.
