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Recap / Littlest Pet Shop 2012 S 1 E 4 Gailbreak

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Written by M.A. Larson (as Mitchell Larson)

Blythe finishes her shopping for the day with Zoe, anticipating meeting Gail, Zoe's sister. Walking by The Largest Ever Pet Shop reminds Zoe of how Gail was once trapped in there, so Zoe looks inside only to see that it's happened again. Zoe verifies Gail's identity by her unique collar, but when Blythe tries to devise a plan, a robot passes by to pick up a tabby cat and put him back in his cage. Blythe and Zoe step in anyway, Blythe wondering why Gail wound up here when she was supposed to be dropped off at The Littlest Pet Shop, but Blythe bumps into the Biskit Twins. She asks them for cooperation in getting Gail out, but they summon the robot, whom they call Monban. Monban promptly carries Blythe and Zoe out of the store (along with their shopping bags) and gives Blythe a two-week ban from the store.

Zoe is so distraught upon returning to The Littlest Pet Shop that she almost faints. Russell and Minka have already prepared a CD player with "Dance Like You Know You Can" for her to lift her out, but it only annoys Blythe. Blythe stops the song at the end of its second verse and stresses that they need to find a way to get Gail out instead of goofing around. Russell proposes using Pepper's skunk spray to expose the security lasers so Vinnie can dance his way around them and disable the system. Penny will drop in through the ceiling and incapacitate Monban 5000 with her silk ribbons while Sunil will hypnotize the Biskit Twins. Minka will pick the lock to the day camp with her tail, and Zoe will sing to break the plexiglas imprisoning the pets. All the while, Russell will coordinate the pets from the inside and Blythe from the outside through headsets. Everyone agrees to this plan—except Sunil, who has his doubts they can pull it off without a hitch.

Everyone arrives at The Largest Ever Pet Shop donning black winter hats and turtlenecks for the mission, but Blythe is only able to find one headset. Russell proceeds without them anyway, and Pepper and Vinnie dash into the store. Pepper starts spraying while Vinnie leaps further in, but he gets distracted by the odor and trips on his tail. Pepper realizes the lasers would only be up when the store is closed and runs back to Russell to inform him. Pepper heads back to Vinnie, whose eyes are hurting and can't move from his spot when Monban spots them and locks them up in Largest's day camp.

Russell gets word that Pepper and Vinnie have been captured, but he intends for everyone else to keep going as planned, as Zoe can still break the two of them out later. However, Minka gets too excited and dashes into the store, catching the attention of the Biskit Twins on their security system. (As it turns out, they did not spot Pepper and Vinnie because they were too busy texting each other.) They send Monban after Minka, and after a frantic chase, Monban captures Minka and tosses her into another empty cell.

Without the lock-picker, Russell resorts to completely re-thinking his plan, this time involving disabling the robot with high frequencies coming from one of the cash registers. Blythe realizes Russell is coming apart and charges into The Largest Ever Pet Shop herself. Monban soon finds her and pursues Blythe but eventually loses her. Meanwhile, Zoe hurries into the store by herself and reaches the day camp unchallenged but hits her head on the glass door. "Dance Like You Know You Can" starts playing over the radio, and while it wakes Zoe up, she causes a ruckus and bumps into Monban, who puts Zoe in the slammer and ejects Blythe from the store.

All of this activity took a toll on Monban's battery, and he shuts down. Whittany plugs Monban into the wall to recharge, and Penny takes this opportunity to try to incapacitate Monban. Penny, however, wraps herself up in her ribbons and instead runs to the day camp herself. Her ribbons then entangle a large pile of merchandise, which catches the Biskit Twins' attention. Whittany unplugs the now-recharged Monban, and Penny is easily caught due to her load slowing her down.

With only Russell and Sunil left, and Blythe having been caught twice, Russell is frustratedly out of ideas. Blythe comes up with one last plan though, which requires Sunil to go into the store, hypnotize the Biskit Twins, and put the headset on Monban's head. Initially, Sunil is scared to death, but Russell lets Blythe know that Sunil hates cobras. Blythe tells Sunil to imagine all the objects in the store as cobras, and it riles Sunil up so much that he charges into The Largest Ever Pet Shop and wrecks merchandise until the Biskit Twins see him. He effortlessly hypnotizes the Biskit Twins into a daze and tosses the headset from his head onto Monban's. When Blythe sees this, she mimics the twins' voice and commands Monban to release all of the pets. They all escape safely—except for Tiger.

Back at The Littlest Pet Shop, Zoe discovers they had just rescued the wrong dog, whose name is Tootsie and is male. Gail had been hanging out at the correct location shortly after the regulars had left for The Largest Ever Pet Shop, to which Zoe says that all cavalier King Charles spaniels look the same to her and that she's broken out the wrong dog from Largest before too.

This episode contains examples of (YMMV entries go here):

  • All for Nothing: It turns out that Gail was at the Littlest Pet Shop the entire time, rendering the entire operation for naught.
  • All There in the Script: The tabby cat who keeps saying "no one ever makes it" is named Tiger, in the credits.
  • Artistic License – Engineering: Monban's battery charges unrealistically quickly from 0%; in mere minutes. In real life, batteries take hours to charge from 0-100%.
  • Bizarrchitecture: After Blythe enters The Largest Ever Pet Shop and walks past the Biskit Twins on her first trip, she continues walking—and not only runs into them again, she's now suddenly headed back out the exit having walked in a straight line.
  • Berserk Button: Sunil is scared of going into Largest Ever Pet Shop until Blythe tells him to imagine cobras. Then he is ready to fight.
  • Brief Accent Imitation: Blythe is able to impersonate the Biskets fluently when getting Monban to free the pets.
  • Buffy Speak: "Voice Recognizer Thingy."
  • Chekhov's Gun: The headset. Subverted with "Dance Like You Know You Can," which only gets Zoe in trouble.
  • Continuity Nod: Mary Frances's owner witnesses Sunil going ballistic, whom we previously saw in "Bad Hair Day."
  • Dutch Angle: Used in most of the shots involving Monban capturing someone.
  • Dwindling Party: Blythe takes the whole Littlest Pet Shop gang to the Largest Ever Pet Shop. By the time Act 3 begins, only Russell and Sunil remain free, and Blythe has become double-banned.
  • Epic Tracking Shot: There is a massive zoom in Act 1 from the front of The Largest Ever Pet Shop to the back where Gail is being held.
  • Face Palm: After hearing from Pepper that there are no lasers because the store is still open.
  • Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Somehow, it happens between Monban and The Biskit Twins in Act 3. However, it could be interpreted as...
  • Flat "What": Uttered by Monban, with the Biskit Twins continuing it into "What just, like, happened?"
  • Forgotten Phlebotinum: Sunil's hypnosis hasn't been used since this episode.
  • Great Escape: Although planned out from the outside—there is no known way to stage a breakout from inside The Largest Ever Pet Shop's day camp, at least not for another two seasons.
  • Glass-Shattering Sound: Russell expects Zoe to be able to break plexiglas with her singing.
  • Gratuitous French: Zoe describes Gail as full of joie de vivre.
  • Hypnotic Eyes: Sunil uses these to hypnotize the Biskets.
  • Identical Stranger: Tootsie is this to Gail, he looks almost exactly like her except he has different ears and a different collar.
  • Laser Hallway: Russell expects the entire Largest Ever Pet Shop to be this—during store hours. Pepper realizes security would not be up midday after she actually executes her part of Russell's plan.
  • Musicalus Interruptus: Blythe rapidly loses patience when Zoe lapses into a musical sequence in Act 1 and stops it before she goes full swing. In Act 2, the same song starts playing on the radio, and Zoe's singing along gets her caught by Monban at the end of its third verse. The song finally reaches its completion on the last scene of the episode.
  • Nobody Here but Us Statues: Zoe tries to hide from Monban as he's chasing Blythe by posing in front of a bag of dog food, featuring an image of a dog that looks exactly like Zoe.
  • Noodle Incident: According to Gail, this is apparently far from the first time Zoe has mistaken another dog for her.
  • Oh, Crap!: Vinnie and Pepper when "Dance Like You Know You Can" starts playing on The Largest Ever Pet Shop's radio, as it means Zoe will start singing and dancing, drawing attention to herself.
  • One-Word Title
  • Plot Tailored to the Party: Russell's plan involves the talents of all of the other pets.
  • Prison Episode: Becomes more and more like one as the pets get caught and imprisoned.
  • Properly Paranoid: Sunil is the only one who doubts anyone can get Gail out as easily as Russell anticipates. He is absolutely right. He does, however, prove crucial when their situation hits rock bottom.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "I. HATE. COBRAS."
  • Puppy-Dog Eyes: This time, Blythe tries it on Sunil to hypnotize the Biskit Twins and put the headset on Monban.
  • Reflective Eyes: While Blythe is convincing Sunil to go inside and hypnotize the Biskits despite his fear, his face reflects into her eyes.
  • Resistance Is Futile: Monban utters, "Resistance is useless" in Act 2.
  • Rhetorical Question Blunder
    Whittany: Well, guess who just got double-banned, Brit.
    Brittany: Uh…Blythe?
  • Sanity Slippage: Russell becomes more unhinged as his plan continues to go wrong at every turn.
  • Schizo Tech: Monban certainly seems out of place with the 21st-century setting the rest of the show has.
  • Scooby-Dooby Doors: This happens through several aisles as Monban chases Minka around The Largest Ever Pet Shop.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: The dog they rescued is actually a male dog that looks like Gail, Tootsie, and the real Gail was waiting at the pet shop the whole time.
  • Shout-Out: Zoe hypocritically denying that she's dramatic when returning to The Littlest Pet Shop plays out similarly to Rarity's behavior in Act 2 of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Lesson Zero." In addition, Sunil boasting about his bravery before panicking over a leaf falling onto him looks much like Fluttershy's behavior at the end of "Dragonshy."
    • The octopus plushes Zoe knocks over during her dance in The Largest Ever Pet Shop greatly resemble Octi, Bubbles's favorite toy from The Powerpuff Girls.
  • Telescoping Robot: Obligatory for Monban 5000, a security droid.
  • Title Drop: Russell calls his plan "Operation: Gailbreak!"
  • Took a Level in Badass: Sunil gets consumed by rage if he thinks about cobras and becomes fearless.
  • Uncatty Resemblance: When Zoe growls at the Biskit Twins, we see Blythe growling in the exact same way.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Whittany never raises her voice when she spots Minka running loose, whom she calls a "crazed monkey."
  • You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: When Blythe finds out that the Biskits have a robot in The Largest Ever Pet Shop.
  • Your Tomcat Is Pregnant: Tootsie is male.

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