Helen and Martha are on the street, when they hear a Big "NO!" in Carolina's voice. Helen and Martha come to Carolina's house, and Martha is worried that Carolina is sick, but it turns out she just has no articles for her paper and her deadline is at nine PM. Martha offers to help, and Carolina promises her a burrito if she can get her a story before nine.
That night, Martha interviews John, Polly, and a mouse or rat at a restaurant, then tells Carolina, who types out and prints her paper. Unfortunately for Martha, Carolina has belatedly realized that she doesn't know how to make a burrito, so she needs to wait until Jorge makes one.
Mr. Parkington and the restaurant owner read the article, which is about the restaurant and involves someone not being invited to a party. Then, Martha and Skits run into the Boxwood siblings, who are arguing because apparently the newspaper mentioned that Ronald sometimes takes a toy named "Commander Manly" out of its box, and now other teens are mocking him for it. Then, Mr. Parkington and the restaurant owner angrily show up at Carolina's house, with Mr. Parkington revealing that it was his sister who wasn't invited, but only because the party was supposed to be a surprise. Then, the restaurant owner reveals that the animal in the restaurant is a mouse, his name is Chester, and he lives with twenty relatives, which he fears will be bad for business. Then, the men accuse Carolina of eavesdropping.
Martha and Skits walk up, and when the two men leave, Martha is sad because apparently they described the article as "gossip". Carolina decides that after apologizing to Mr. Parkington for ruining the surprise party, she will stop printing her paper. The dogs walk off, with Martha feeling guilty, but then she sees a fire engine. The dogs chase it, but Martha changes her mind and decides they should go to the zoo instead.
They do, and Jeffy reveals that he heard Pablum and Weaselgraft talking about stealing something. Martha is curious about what they wanted to steal, but doesn't want Jeffy to tell, since she considers that eavesdropping. Then, they visit the penguins, and one of them reveals it saw Weaselgraft and Pablum too, who mentioned getting rich off ransom. Skits, by now, wants to tell Carolina about this, but Martha doesn't want to as that would be gossiping. They visit Tiger Baby, and when she reveals what Weaselgraft and Pablum want to steal.
Skits convinces Martha that they need to tell Carolina since even if she doesn't want to print any more papers, it could stop a crime, so at night, they go home and ask Helen where Carolina is. Helen reveals that Carolina is at the party apologizing to Mr. Parkington's sister, so the dogs go there. Martha tells Carolina, but she's grumpy and not interested.
Then, upon Skits's idea, Martha lies that Brian Oceanzest is at town hall to get everyone to follow the dogs there. When they get there, Martha reveals what Weaselgraft and Pablum want to steal: the statue of General Wagstaff. The humans don't believe her and are about to go back to the party, but then the "statue" sneezes, revealing it to be Weaselgraft in disguise. So they have the thieves arrested, and the story ends up in the news.
This episode provides examples of
- 10-Minute Retirement: Martha says she’s done being a reporter after her leads got Carolina in trouble. When she gets some juicy information from the zoo animals though, she quickly ends her retirement.
- Big "NO!": The episode's first line of dialogue is an offscreen Carolina yelling, "NO!"
- Call-Back: The Carolina Town Cryer from "T.D. Gets the Scoop" plays an important role in this episode.
- Continuity Nod: Martha brings up "the story about the dinosaur bone", from "T.D. Gets the Scoop".
- Delicious Distraction: Thinking about the burrito Carolina promised her causes Martha to make a Freudian Slip.
- Dramatic Irony: Mr. Parkington and the restaurant owner are waving their arms angrily, but Martha thinks they're excited because they're out of earshot.
- Edible Theme Naming: Discussed when Martha, as part of a Freudian slip, says her name is Burrito.
- Flashback: We see a short scene of what the animals saw the previous day, when Weaselgraft and Pablum talked about stealing something.
- Food as Bribe: Carolina offers Martha a burrito if she can get her a story before nine o'clock.
- Freudian Slip: Martha accidentally calls herself Burrito when distracted anticipating one.
- Hint Dropping: Trying to resist the urge to gossip, Martha asks the animals at the zoo very pointed questions to try to find out what Weaselgraft and Pablum are up to.
- Ignoring by Singing: When Carolina doesn't want to hear Martha's story about the thievery, she sticks her fingers in her ears and says, "La la la la la, I'm not listening!"
- Intrepid Reporter: Martha takes on this role to help Carolina come up with some articles for her newspaper before the deadline.
- Mistakes Are Not the End of the World: Downplayed. Skits refers to Martha's telling Carolina the sensitive information as "little mistakes" when convincing her to tell Carolina about the crime, as part of telling her that it's no reason not to tell. However, it wasn't really Martha's mistake, so much as that of the animals who gave her the info in the first place.
- Mocking Sing-Song: Two teens chant to the tune of "Ring Around the Rosie," "Ronald and Commander Manly, friends forever!" when skipping past the Boxwood house (Commander Manly is apparently some sort of toy).
- My God, What Have I Done?: Even though it was John, Polly, and Chester who gave her the information, Martha still feels bad about offending Mr. Parkington, Ronald, and the restaurant owner, and feels she's a bad reporter.
- Nobody Here but Us Statues: Weaselgraft poses as the statue he and Pablum are stealing.
- Or My Name Isn't...: Parodied. Martha says, while distracted anticipating a burrito, that she'll find Carolina a story or her name isn't Burrito.
- Pun: When Martha meets up with Mr. Parkington and the restaurant owner, she asks them if they want autographs, then says, "Or in my case, paw-tographs."
- The Scapegoat: Downplayed. Mr. Parkington blames Martha for gossiping — while it was partly her fault, it wasn't all her fault — John, Polly, and Chester gave her the information.
- Shaking the Rump: Martha excitedly shakes her butt when waiting for her burrito.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Martha cannot only speak to all the animals in the neighborhood, but all the zoo animals as well.
- Spit Take:
- The restaurant owner spits out his beverage when he reads the newspaper.
- Carolina does this as well when Martha crashes a party and startles her.
- Surprise Party: John notices that Mr. Parkington didn't invite his sister to a party, so he tells Martha about this, who tells Carolina, who puts it in her article. Unfortunately, however, this was only because it was meant to be a surprise party.
- Tabloid Melodrama: All of the leads Martha gets for Carolina end up being secrets that people don’t want getting out, including that Ronald still plays with action figures and that Mr. Parkington is planning a surprise party for his sister.
- Unmanly Secret: Of the "childish secret" variety — Ronald Boxwood is embarrassed to admit that he keeps a toy named "Commander Manly", which he sometimes takes out of its box, and he gets angry when it's made public (though that's at least partly because two other teens tease him about it).
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: John, Polly, and Chester didn't realise that the information they knew was secret, so they told it to Martha, who told Carolina, who published it in her newspaper, sowing discord through Wagstaff City.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Skits is revealed to be afraid of snakes when he's nervous about the snake exhibit.
