"Ploot" is the forty-eighth episode Lilo & Stitch: The Series. It first aired on April 22 (Earth Day), 2005.
Lilo and Stitch clean up Pudge's grotto for Earth Day, and an experiment that ingests trash gets activated. However, they find out that Experiment 505 is actually designed to turn that trash into toxic sludge and spread pollution. Even worse, Stitch gets sick after eating a lot of trash, getting a rare space virus, so it's up to Lilo to capture the experiment herself.
Experiments who appeared or were mentioned in this episode:
- Slick (X-020): Lilo tries to get him to help fight Ploot, but he declines and sells her an umbrella instead... which ends up coming in handy for her.
- Babyfier (X-151): One of the second trio of experiments who Lilo enlists to help fight back against Ploot.
- Finder (X-158): One of the second trio of experiments who Lilo enlists to help fight back against Ploot.
- Sparky (X-221): Lilo tries to get him to help fight Ploot, but for some reason, an unseen man inside Kilauea Lighthouse complains about the beacon going out (in the middle of daytime), forcing Sparky to stay inside.
- Drowsy (X-360): One of the second trio of experiments who Lilo enlists to help fight back against Ploot.
- Ploot (X-505): This episode's Monster of the Week; a teal gastropod-like experiment with a small green pouch on his stomach, green crab-like claws, and two spinning sweeper brushes for feet. He is designed to ingest trash and pollution, growing exponentially larger as he collects more, then metabolizes the waste material into toxic sludge he releases in order to cause environmental disasters.
- Richter (X-513): One of the first three experiments who Lilo to help fight back against Ploot.
- Deforestator (X-515): One of the first three experiments who Lilo enlists to help fight back against Ploot. Ploot is also misnumbered with Deforestator's number in this episode.
- Kixx (X-601): One of the first three experiments who Lilo enlists to help fight back against Ploot.
- Sinker (X-602): Lilo tries to get him to help fight Ploot, but he's too busy at the Japanese restaurant to help.
Tropes featured in this episode include:
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: After ingesting enough trash, Ploot grows into a giant monster who fires sludge from his pincers and emits smoke from his antennae that have been mutated into smokestacks.
- Closest Thing We Got: After Kixx, Richter, and Deforestator are defeated and run off, Lilo forms a second experiment squad consisting of Drowsy, Babyfier, and Finder. Ploot curb-stomps them; Finder's ability is absolutely useless seen all he can do is find things (and it's not hard to find a giant monster anyway), Ploot shot down Babyfier before X-151 could even reach him, and Ploot quickly covered Drowsy in gunk, preventing the sleep-inducing experiment to bleat and causing him to cough to get the gunk out.
- Earth Day Episode: This episode first aired and is set on Earth Day and features a Green Aesop about pollution.
- Extreme Omnivore: Deconstructed with Stitch for once. He cleans up the grotto by eating trash. The result? He gets sick and can't fight experiments until his illness is relieved.
- Green Aesop: The episode revolves around pollution.
- Growling Gut: Stitch gets a stomach ache after ingesting so much trash, foreshadowing his illness.
- Make My Monster Grow: Ploot once he ingested enough trash.
- Purple Is Powerful: The first three experiments Lilo gets to fight Ploot all happen to be strong, purple-bodied experiments. Subverted in that they're not strong enough to defeat the giant Ploot.
- The Worf Effect: The giant Ploot is so strong that he easily defeats three strong experiments whose abilities work well in combat.
- Worf Had the Flu: Stitch contracts a rare alien disease that mutates his body from eating too much trash, forcing him to be sidelined while Jumba finds a cure. He eventually gets cured in time to help out Lilo.
