An experiment who can make people and objects disappear accidentally turns Stitch invisible.
Stitch puts on a magic show for the ʻohana and generally does a poor job, almost sawing Pleakley in half before he bails out. Somehow, the two have managed to get an act for Mertle's half-birthday coming up soon. Lilo is concerned that the act will be embarrassing in front of her friends, so she asks Jumba to help improve Stitch's act. Luckily, he has just the thing — Experiment 604, able to turn things invisible at will.note
Lilo activates 604 and puts a leash on it. 604, rather easily-scared, immediately turns invisible and tries to run away. However, Lilo manages to calm him down and explain the plan for Stitch's magic show. Meanwhile, Reuben finds an experiment pod of his own and brings it back to show Gantu. Discovering that the pod is X-611, an "ultimate superweapon", he calls Hämsterviel and takes credit for the capture. Reuben, outraged to have his thunder stolen, warns Gantu that taking credit for someone else's work is bad karma. Gantu ignores him and leaves to capture the newly-activated 604.
At Mertle's half-birthday, Stitch is nervous to perform his magic act, but Lilo tells him that certain magic words will allow him to make things disappear. Stitch performs a show while 604 secretly makes things disappear and reappear behind the scenes. Mertle, suspicious of the act, finds 604 and takes a picture of it with the flash on. 604 panics and accidentally turns Stitch invisible (along with Mertle's house). Just then, Gantu storms the party, causing 604 to run away. Stitch picks up Gantu and chucks him into a wall and the duo make their getaway. Lilo admits that it was 604 turning things invisible and asks Stitch for help finding him again. They are unsuccessful and return home.
Pleakley reveals that a big shot Hollywood producer heard of the magic act, and offered him a contract for Stitch to make a lighthouse disappear. Mertle tells Lilo that she has a picture of 604 and she knows Stitch is a fraud, more than happy to let Stitch embarrass himself on live TV. Lilo makes a plan to find 604 before the show. Lilo fashions an Invisible Man-style trench coat and sunglasses for Stitch so she can see him properly. Meanwhile, Gantu is tracking 604 with infrared goggles, allowing him to see the experiment while it is invisible. Just as he is about to capture it, his phone rings and 604 runs away. Reuben scolds him over the phone about bad karma, and that until he tells Hämsterviel that Reuben is the one that caught the superweapon experiment, he'll have rotten luck. Gantu chases 604 only to repeatedly hit his head on a variety of invisible trees, boulders, etc.
Lilo hears Gantu while searching for 604, and Stitch runs off after him. In the process, his trench coat and sunglasses fall off, making him completely invisible again. Stitch and 604 knock into each other at high speed and are both knocked out, Lilo feels around the ground for Stitch, picks him up, and hides in the bushes, while Gantu finds 604 laying on the ground with his infrared goggles. Wait, no, that's not right — a switch-up happened! Lilo actually picked up 604 when hiding in the bushes, while Gantu found Stitch laying on the ground.
Lilo and "Stitch" go home, and Lilo tells Jumba that Gantu captured "604". However, the switch-up quickly becomes apparent when 604 turns himself invisible again. Pleakley, who has been preparing for the Hollywood contract all day, panics when he realizes the Stitch, the main talent for the act, is nowhere to be found. He yells at 604 which spooks him into running off again. Pleakley leaves to stall the camera crew at the lighthouse, while Lilo and Jumba set off to find both experiments before it's time for the show. Jumba brings along infrared goggles, and a paint gun that can be sprayed on either experiment to make them look visible.note
On Gantu's ship, "604" (actually Stitch) is wreaking havoc and destroying everything. Gantu and Reuben are unable to contain him as he is still invisible. Gantu fires wildly with his laser blaster, but it does nothing more than damage his own ship. Stitch escapes and rendezvous with Lilo and Jumba, the latter spraying Stitch with the pink paint gun so he turns visible again.note
While Lilo, Stitch, and Jumba track down 604, Pleakley is starting to run out of options to keep the audience mollified at the lighthouse, his attempts becoming more desperate as he begins to play the accordion and make terrible balloon animals. Cornered, he gives up on waiting for Stitch and tries to make the lighthouse disappear himself. In an incredible stroke of luck, Stitch manages to capture 604 just in time for it to make the lighthouse disappear as Pleakley says the magic words. Gantu storms to the lighthouse and demands Stitch for the containment pod containing 604, and Stitch admits defeat, handing the containment pod over. Of course, the pod is completely empty, as 604 reappears next to Lilo moments after Gantu leaves.
Pleakley is basking in the audience's cheers after performing his magic trick, but Lilo reveals that the true star of the show all along was 604 (now "Houdini"). The Hollywood producer decides to turn him into a star, making his one true place on television. Meanwhile, Gantu has sent Hämsterviel the empty containment pod, resulting in one of the worst dressing downs of Gantu's life. It also turns out that the experiment he sent earlier was not a superweapon, but a useless chocolate monster.note It looks like the bad karma Reuben was talking about caught up to him after all.
Experiments who appeared or were mentioned in this episode:
- Fudgy (X-054): A goo creature made of living chocolate who engulfs his victims in his sticky chocolaty sweetness, as he is shown doing so to Hämsterviel at the end. His pod, which was mislabeled as that of Experiment 119 (Invertro), was falsely believed to be that of X-611's at first.
- Yin (X-501): Appears at Stitch's terrible magic show seen at the beginning.
- Yang (X-502): Attends Stitch's terrible magic show seen at the beginning.
- Cannonball (X-520): Attends Stitch's terrible magic show seen at the beginning.
- Kixx (X-601): His Kickboxing with Kixx program can be seen on Gantu's screen when an invisible Stitch causes mayhem in Gantu's ship, cutting off the satellite TV.
- Houdini (X-604): This episode's Monster of the Week; a whitish-tan and pink rabbit-like experiment with big black eyes who can turn anything invisible. He was designed to turn armies and weapons invisible, but he's so skittish that he instead turns himself invisible and runs away from the battlefield, and was thus considered a failure.
- El Fin (X-611): Designed to be the ultimate superweapon, Reuben finds what he and Gantu initially believed to be their pod. We don't see the experiment, but its computer image appears on the Experiment Pod Container's screen.
- Splodyhead (X-619): Attends Stitch's terrible magic show seen at the beginning.
- Reuben (X-625): Finds an experiment pod, but Gantu steals the credit and gets bad karma for it.
Tropes featured in this episode include:
- An Aesop: Don't take credit for what someone else does.
- Blinding Camera Flash: Camera flashes stun Houdini to the point his powers become uncontrollable, blinking so many times he turns a large amount of objects invisible in seconds.
- Call-Back: Mertle is having a half-birthday because she already had a birthday in "Holio".
- Foil: Lilo and Gantu each learn the importance of giving credit to those who deserve it. Lilo starts out wanting to use Houdini to make it look like Stitch really is a good magician, but she comes to realize Houdini deserves the credit. Meanwhile, Gantu takes credit for 625 finding the pod for Experiment 611, only for karma to come bite him in the butt when Hämsterviel gets mad at him for giving him Experiment 119.
- Forgot About His Powers: If Gantu could see 604 using infrared goggles, why wasn't Stitch using his infrared vision?
- Gone Horribly Right: Lilo wanted to use Houdini's ability to help make Stitch look like a great magician. On one hand, she convinces Mertle's aunt that Stitch is very talented. On the other hand, the plan didn't exactly go off without a hitch; Houdini accidentally turns Stitch invisible and runs off before he can reverse it.
- Karma Houdini: Mertle pretty much receives no comeuppance for her actions that led to Stitch becoming invisible or the chaos that followed afterwards.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Invoked. 625 is incensed that Gantu would wrongfully take credit for finding the pod for a powerful experiment (611) when 625 was the one who found it, and makes a point that it's bad karma. In the end, Gantu gets an earful from Hämsterviel when it turns out he was reading the pod upside-down and instead sent Experiment 119 (created to cover its victim in his chocolate gooey sweetness). Needless to say, 625 gloats that Gantu's bad karma rewarded him justly.Gantu (threateningly): If you say one word!...625: Karma! Karma, karma, karma!
- Saw a Woman in Half: Stitch attempts this with Pleakley during his magic show. With a chainsaw. Luckily, Pleakley bails out at the last moment.
- Stolen Credit Backfire: This happens to Gantu after he steals the credit for finding an experiment pod 625 found.
