Lilo tries to use an experiment designed to morph someone into another person to win a skateboarding competition. However, the other person is none other than the American Dragon, Jake Long, who has come to Hawaii to investigate the rumors of "magical creatures" being sighted on the island.
Experiments who appeared or were mentioned in this episode:
- Morpholomew (X-316): This episode's Monster of the Week; a reddish goo creature experiment who has the ability to change other creatures into an exact duplicate of whomever they want to be (although the recipient's vocal chords remain the same), provided that he is given visual reference. Also likes fried chicken.
- Reuben (X-625): Appears in Gantu's ship but has no speaking lines.
Tropes featured in this episode include:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: At the beginning of the episode, the Velociraptor 1200 skateboard floating inside a levitating glass case is rendered as a 3D effect. Making this worse is that the render was pretty low-res, making it appear pixelated in close-up, especially in The Series's native HD resolution.
- Aesop Amnesia: Two-fold for Lilo; she has forgotten some basic skateboarding skills (especially how to stop) that she learned in "Kixx"—not that she was even as good as Keoni after learning said skills anyway—and the fact that you can't enter a competition you're not prepared for expecting to win, which she learned in "Sprout".note
- An Aesop: As stated by Trixie, you can't just buy someone's love and friendship. You have to earn it.
- Animation Bump: A small one for the American Dragon side; Jake's dragon form's mane and spikes flutter in the wind when he's airborne, which doesn't happen in his originating show.
- Badass in Distress: Gantu captures Jake in the latter's dragon form mistaking him for Experiment 316.
- Becoming the Costume: After capturing the title experiment, Lilo decides his "one true place" is at the local costume shop, where he uses his powers to physically transform people into whatever character they want to dress as.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Lilo cheats her way into the skateboarding competition twice—since she's too young to even enter the competition—by disguising herself as someone else who wasn't able to compete for whatever reason; first as a person who couldn't actually attend because he had gone away during the competition (Keoni Jameson), and then as someone who actually was competing but got kidnapped before his turn was up (Jake Long). She loses anyway due to her near-complete lack of any real skateboarding ability.
- Crossover: With American Dragon: Jake Long.
- Crossover Ship: In-Universe; Lao Shi goes out with Mrs. Hasagawa.
- December–December Romance: Old weredragon Lao Shi falls in love with elderly fruit seller Mrs. Hasagawa and goes on a date with her. Sadly for them, they both had to go their separate ways at the end as Lao Shi has to head back to New York with Jake and his friends and Fu Dog, while Hasagawa continues to live on Kauaʻi.
- Epic Fail: Lilo's near non-existent skateboarding skills. Disguised as Keoni, she lasts just long enough to get low scores from the judges. Disguised as Jake, she does so bad, she gets zeros across the board.
- Giver of Lame Names: For once, Lilo is called out for trying to give the episode's experiment a bland name, as she tries to call X-316 "Changer" but Trixie shoots her down for that. Spud gives X-316 the more inspired and creative name "Morpholomew", which the experiment expresses a better liking to.
- Idiot Ball: Lilo in this episode, as she enters a skateboarding competition when she has almost no skateboarding skills whatsoever. Additionally, Stitch briefly shows that he is a better skateboarder than Lilo when he goes after Morpholomew after the latter is activated, but neither Lilo nor Stitch ever get the idea to disguise Stitch as Keoni instead and enter him in the competition.
- Instant Expert: Averted; Lilo, who is a bad skateboarder, only does one brief practice session the night before the competition, which ended with her and the skateboard going into a table at Kiki's Coffee Hut. Despite Stitch trying to be gentle by non-verbally telling her that she did "so-so", she becomes convinced that she's already skilled enough to win. Come the competition, and she learns the hard way how way in over her head she is.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When he's about to be teleported from Gantu's ship to Hämsterviel's prison asteroid, Jake protests, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, back that up! Asteroids? Spaceships? The Am Drag show's about saving magical creatures; it's not sci-fi! I'm outta here!"
- Let's You and Him Fight: When he sees dragon-form Jake coming, Stitch attacks him. They scuffle before Lilo-as-Jake calls them off.
- Love Makes You Stupid: Lilo is so desperate to win Keoni's heart that she enters a competition that she had no chances of winning to try to win a skateboard for him.
- MacGuffin: The Velociraptor 1200 skateboard. Lilo wants to win it for Keoni, while Jake wants to win it while he's visiting Kauaʻi.
- Mistaken Identity: Gantu mistakes Jake after seeing him shapeshift into his dragon form for Experiment 316.
- Morphic Resonance: Although a person shapeshifted by Morpholomew looks exactly like whomever they're supposed to resemble, the recipient retains their original voice and the same skills and abilities (or lack thereof) that they normally have. The latter means for Lilo that changing yourself to become someone who's good at skateboarding does not mean that you'll instantly become a good skateboarder, too.
- No MacGuffin, No Winner: Neither Lilo nor Jake gets the Velociraptor 1200 skateboard, which is won by someone else who competed in the competition.
- Recycled Animation: Jake Long's "Dragon Up" transformation sequence in the episode is taken straight from his originating show.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Jake says the last three words of the trope after realizing and getting annoyed by the fact that he's dealing with aliens instead of magical creatures. He then breaks open the capsule he was captured in and breathes fire on Gantu before flying away from the giant alien's ship.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: A strange variant of this, when Lilo-as-Keoni is suddenly approached after her terrible skate run by an older girl named Sara who says that she's Keoni's girlfriend. Shocked about this supposed revelation, Lilo-as-Keoni exclaims, "Keoni Jameson does not have a girlfriend!" causing Sara to run off crying. When the real Keoni returns at the end of the episode, and Sara happily runs up to him claiming that he came back for her, he calmly tells her, "Sara, we've talked about this like a million times already; I only like you as a friend, and you have to stop telling people you're my girlfriend."
- Special Guest: Apart from the main American Dragon cast reprising their roles here, Miranda Cosgrove plays a girl named Sara who claims to be Keoni's girlfriend.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Morpholomew loves fried chicken. It becomes his payment for his services when he is hired for his "one true place".
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Jumba takes Lilo to the skate park to enter the competition, where he gives X-316 a drumstick and expresses "Evil Genius" pride when Lilo, after being rejected for being too young to enter, uses X-316 to change her appearance into Keoni. One screen wipe immediately afterward and Jumba disappears for the rest of the episode.
