Helen feeds the dogs, then Jake comes in. Martha shares her soup with him, then he tries to say her name, but he pronounces it "Mah-tha", prompting her to explain the importance of not leaving out letters. Then, Martha flashes back to a few weeks after she learned to talk, and that's when most of the episode takes place.
Martha was very excited at being able to talk, but was unaware of a situation at the soup factory: the soup factory employed 26 "alphabeticians" to make each letter for the soup (Al made "A"s, Barney made "B"s, etc.), and the factory's founder, Granny Elsie, promised that every can of soup would contain the entire alphabet. However, Granny Elsie had recently been replaced with another old woman, Granny Flo, who believes that promising the whole alphabet in every can is spoiling children. So (both for this reason and to make money), she fires half of the alphabeticians (namely the ones who make the letters "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "L", "M", "N", "R", "S", "T", "Y", and "Z").
Thus, when Martha eats the soup, she fails to be able to pronounce said letters. Helen thinks Martha has laryngitis and suggests resting her voice, but it doesn't work. Then, when Grandma Lucille comes over, Martha tries to say, "Hello, Grandma Lucille, how's it going?", but instead says, "H o g! u i ho i goi g?", which sounds like "you hog", offending Grandma Lucille, and when she tries to say she wants a burger, it comes out as "u g", which sounds like "ugh", making the Lorraines think she's sick.
She tries giving up dog food to only eat soup, thinking that then she'd get more letters and thus more vocabulary, but it obviously doesn't work. Thus, she goes for a sad walk until night time, when she sees a lit house. She smells food coming from the house, so she pants at the window. The homeowner lets her in and gives her alphabet soup, then he laments that it's his last can of "real" alphabet soup and it hasn't been the same since Granny subtracted half the letters. Martha says, "What did you say!?", then becomes excited that she can talk properly again. She asks what he means, and he explains.
She asks where Granny is, he points her toward the factory, and she goes there and berates Granny Flo for breaking the "every letter in every can" promise. Granny Flo, not seeing Martha and thus thinking it's the ghost of Granny Elsie speaking, rehires her employees.
Back in the present, Martha concludes her speech on the importance of letters, and Mariella comes in, mistakenly thinking that she was trying to use the soup to teach Jake words.
This episode provides examples of
- Accidental Misnaming:
- Due to his young age, Jake calls Martha "Mah-tha".
- Among the letters subtracted from the soup are "L" and "C", so when Martha tries to greet Grandma Lucille, she pronounces her name as "ui" (pronounced "you").
- Adaptation Deviation: X was one of the alphabeticians laid off in the original book. In the cartoon, C is laid off instead.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": Each "alphabetician" wears a letter on their uniform.
- Evil Laugh: Granny Flo chuckles evilly after firing half her employees.
- Faint in Shock: An old woman passes out upon realising Martha can talk.
- Greed: Downplayed. While part of the reason Granny Flo fired half her staff is because she believes including the entire alphabet is spoiling children, she's also just greedy and doesn't want to have to pay as many employees.
- Happy Dance:
- Granny Flo dances with joy after firing half her employees.
- Martha jumps around the room happily whilst singing the alphabet to celebrate having regained her ability to talk properly.
- Imagine Spot: Martha briefly imagines not being able to talk anymore.
- Lost Voice Plot: Downplayed. Due to half of the alphabet being subtracted from the soup, Martha finds herself unable to pronounce certain letters.
- Mistaken for Undead: Due to not seeing Martha, Granny Flo thinks that the painting of Granny Elsie is haunted by her ghost and that's who is talking.
- Nursery Rhyme: Martha sings the alphabet to celebrate having regained her vocabulary.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Martha points out that not barking at the pigeons is odd for her, so not doing so signifies a seriously bad mood.
- Pesky Pigeons: Martha refers to the pigeons in the park as "the stinkin' pigeons".
- Pun: Martha says that talking really "opened doors", and then the scene cuts to her being asked to have the door opened.
- Scratchy-Voiced Senior: Both of the "grannies" speak with a hoarse voice.
- Tropey, Come Home: Martha leaves the house out of sadness before meeting Al.
- When I Was Your Age...: Granny Flo complains about the "every letter in every can" policy by saying that when she was a girl, they couldn't afford the whole alphabet.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Most of the episode takes place a few weeks after Martha learned to talk.
- You Can Talk?:
- Exaggerated. When Martha calls an old lady "easy on the eyes", she's not just surprised; she passes out.
- Al is a bit agog when he discovers Martha can talk, and when she asks him if it's good that she can talk again, he says, "Uh, I didn't know you could talk in the first place!".
