"So that's how you wanna play this, huh? Well I can play tough, too."
How to Interrogate a UnicornAirdates: December 9, 2014 note , December 11, 2014 note , March 7, 2015 note
When characters escape from their books in the library, Olive and Otto must figure out how and why it's happening and put a stop to it.
Tropes:
- All Girls Like Ponies: Olive immediately calls dibs on interrogating the unicorn.
- Bait-and-Switch: The end of the episode has Oscar asking Ms. O to read them a story. She agrees and opens up her book, and Olive and Otto begin to get comfortable...only for her to do a Book Snap and send them all back to work.
- Blatant Lies: Upon Olive, Otto and Oscar exiting their respective interrogation rooms, Olive remarks that her interrogation was "way easier than I thought!"
- Call-Back: The Second to Last Unicorn, the book that Ms. O had on her coffee table in "The Trouble With Centigurps", makes a reappearance in this episode, as the unicorn from that book is one of the escaped characters.
- Continuity Nod: A rainbow inside of a bucket, as well as a unicorn, were two of the many oddities seen in the very first episode.
- Oscar also goes to the Mathroom again.
- Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud: Does the tornado that Oscar inadvertently created suck up books and other debris? Yep. Does it suck him, Olive and Otto into it despite them being in incredibly close proximity? Nope, it just knocks them down to the ground. Doesn't suck up any other humans, either.
- Electric Torture: Played with. The helmet that both W.W. Williams and Oscar wear — which is used to lessen the activity level of one's imagination — causes them to experience small harmless electric shocks. For Williams, she appears unsettled by the shocks and experiences them even after the helmet is removed. For Oscar, however, the shocks are more of an Electric Instant Gratification for him, and he wears the helmet even when he doesn't have to.
- Foreshadowing: When Olive, Otto and Oscar head to the Mathroom and have her create a chart with the characters, Oscar remarks that he feels like he knows them from somewhere. As it turns out, he does — he brought them to life, albeit accidentally.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Another 43 is seen on a folder
that Ms. O is examining just as Olive and Otto enter her office. - Goo Goo Getup: Oscar isn't dressed up as a baby; however, he is roaming around the bullpen in a Scientist-oriented baby jumper, of all things.
- I Always Wanted to Say That: A variant occurs when Olive takes Oscar in as an interrogator for the robot.Olive: Can we lock you in a tiny room with a robot?Oscar: I've been waiting my whole life for someone to ask me that question!
- Imagination-Based Superpower: Oscar has the ability to imagine various beings and other objects he reads about and have them come into existence — from unicorns, to robots, to mummies. It's stated that he has an "overactive imagination". This proves to be a near-fatal experience for him, Olive and Otto when he accidentally summons a tornado — which occurs in the beginning of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the book he was reading.
- Last-Second Word Swap: During the charting scene, Olive and Oscar both reveal that the unicorn and robot's favorite food, respectively, is carrots. Otto looks down at his clipboard and begins to say what sounds like "carrots", but it turns out that the answer is "caramel corn."
- Laugh Track: In-universe — every time the Cold Open client speaks, a laugh track plays. Olive resorts to giving him noise-blocking headphones as a solution. The entire scene is treated as something one would find in a Sitcom, even having fitting BGM.
- Never Trust a Title: Despite the title being "How to Interrogate a Unicorn", Olive's interrogation of said unicorn only takes up a few brief scenes. Although, the unicorn is the worst-behaved of the character trio...
- Not a Game: While Otto initially believes that a unicorn, a robot and a mummy being in a library is a joke that Ms. O is telling, he soon finds out it isn't — he and Olive's mission is to find out who caused the characters to emerge from their books, lest the library closes for good. And since this is an Edutainment Show...well, that's just terrible.
- Off with His Head!: Otto manages to accidentally decapitate the mummy he's interrogating simply by tugging on a bandage that's stuck in its mouth. We don't see the mummy again after this scene nor is he mentioned.
- Oh, Crap!: Otto has one when he accidentally decapitates the mummy he's interrogating, and Olive and Otto have one in unison upon finding out that Oscar is reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which starts with a tornado.
- Overly Long Gag: Oscar asks if Olive and Otto need backup, only for them to say that they're fine. He then goes on a run-on sentence about how he has a lot of stuff to do in the Lab, like make a sandwich, only he doesn't know what kind.
- Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Ms. O has a pair of reading glasses that she is seen wearing twice in the episode, but hasn't worn them at any point beforehand, which would imply that they are simply for show.
- Put Down Your Gun and Step Away: Downplayed; Oscar isn't a hostage by any means, but Olive and Otto order him to put the book he's reading down and step away before the tornado he's reading about comes to life. Unfortunately, they're too late, and the tornado knocks all three kids down to the ground.
- Shame If Something Happened: Olive speaks this trope verbatim upon interrogating the unicorn, showing it a rainbow inside of a metal bucket. Once it refuses to comply, she smacks it to the floor and spills it.Olive: Word on the street is, you like rainbows. [picks up a bucket with a rainbow inside] Be a shame if something happened...to this rainbow.
- Shout-Out: W.W. Williams is an obvious reference to J.K. Rowling, right down to the British accent.
- May be unintentional, but "The Magical Land of Far-Far-nia" sounds like a Portmanteau of both Far Far Away and Unicornia.
- Skewed Priorities: Mr. Fonts attempts to get the unicorn and the robot to be quiet, as they are wreaking havoc in a library. He apparently can't hear or see the people running around him in fear as the unicorn and robot wreck the place.
- Suddenly Fluent in Gibberish: Otto is able to understand the mummy perfectly, despite it only speaking in grunts.
- We Have Ways of Making You Talk: Olive plays bad cop for most of her interrogation, with her trying various tactics to get the unicorn to talk, from spilling a rainbow to stating that she wants to help it. Eventually, after using a Counting to Three technique, the unicorn gives in.
- Why Are We Whispering?: Played with. Olive and Otto are forced to whisper their outcry when they are informed that the library could close for good should they fail, and Ms. O whispers along with them, but nobody questions why. Justified, as it was a gag.
Giving those like Queen Chrysalis a run for their money.
The BriefcaseAirdates: December 9, 2014 note , December 11, 2014 note , March 7, 2015 note
When Ms. O's important briefcase is stolen by the Shapeshifter, Olive and Otto must get it back.
Tropes:
- Abandoned Warehouse: Olive and Otto chase the Shapeshifter down in one, which is full of various boxes and open items, like a teddy bear, a birdcage, and a seesaw. Although considering the blatant use of signage and the color orange, it looks more like an abandoned Home Depot.
- Big "SHUT UP!": It's downplayed slightly, but this exchange ensues between Ms. O and Otto.Ms. O: I need you to go to a playground in the park.Otto: Sweet! [begins to exit the office]Ms. O: I'm not finished!Otto: [stops in his tracks and comes back] Oh.
- Brick Joke: Fake!Ms. O suggests that Olive and Otto take the day off simply for being adorable. At the end of the episode, the real Ms. O suggests the same thing to the partner pair as thanks for retrieving her briefcase...but Olive mistakenly believes that it's the Shapeshifter and fires her gadget once more. It doesn't work, and Ms. O immediately retracts her suggestion.
- Call-Back: Ms. O being sickeningly sweet to Olive and Otto as an Out-of-Character Moment? Wouldn't be the first time. However, it's more Played for Drama here, since it's really the Shapeshifter in disguise and not Ms. O herself.
- This also isn't the first time that a character experiences trauma symptoms after something horrible happens to them, but unlike in "Ms. O Uh-Oh", Olive's trauma becomes an essential plot point.
- Chase Scene: A brief one when Olive and Otto are chasing after the Shapeshifter, who's turned herself into a rocket. Them being two human kids running after a fast-moving spacecraft, they don't manage to catch up to her.Otto: Why didn't I say snail?!
- Another one occurs after the Shapeshifter makes another escape into an Abandoned Warehouse. Olive and Otto don't manage to catch her at that point, either.
- Comically Missing the Point: Surprisingly, it's Olive who does this when she pulls a pineapple from Hammerspace in order to use it for a weight problem.Otto: [flabbergasted] Where'd the pineapple come from?Olive: Hawaii.
- Cower Power: Olive cowers behind Otto twice upon coming face-to-face with her greatest fear, complete with Security Cling as she grasps Otto's arm.
- Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: Olive and Otto both get curious about what's inside the briefcase, and get sidetracked by weighing it on a scale (which serves no purpose other than to pedal the episode's mathematical Aesop forward). This is what gives the Shapeshifter an open opportunity to steal it right from under their noses.
- Cute, but Cacophonic: Make no mistake, Olive has her adorable moments. But when she screams, hoo boy, is it loud.
- Determinator: Surprisingly inverted for Otto — despite him showing perseverance in past episodes, he gives up off the bat after failing to catch the Shapeshifter, lamenting how he and Olive will get fired from Odd Squad and wondering what he'll do for a job.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: While it's well-established that Olive has symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, this episode deconstructs said symptoms when she comes face-to-face with one of her triggers: pie. The Shapeshifter, being a sadistic villainess who cares little for Odd Squad and its employees, exploits this by turning the briefcase into a pie, which Olive is encouraged to retrieve by Otto.
- Face Your Fears: Otto tells Olive this verbatim and encourages her to grab the pie in order to weigh it.
- I Know What You Fear: The Shapeshifter has Fear Invocation, and is able to turn parts of herself, as well as objects, into pies in order to scare Olive, who is afraid of them.
- Jerkass Ball: If Otto's face expressions and dialogue are anything to go by, he finds Olive's fear of pie to be nothing more than a laughable overreaction. And he's been at the Squad for a while now to get used to a fair amount of the oddities that occur inside of it.
- MacGuffin: The titular briefcase, which is kept in the possession of Disguise Dan when Olive and Otto go to retrieve it.
- Made of Iron: Despite going through the tubes and having her organs mixed up (which, yes, can definitely happen in this universe — it is a world of oddities, after all), Olive has no pain and simply pats her stomach a few times to right them back up. Otto, on the other hand, suffers from stomach pain, and clutches it accordingly for a good portion of the scene. It's implied that this happens quite often to agents who use Tube Travel.
- Malicious Misnaming: The Shapeshifter refers to Olive as "Jennifer" at one point.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Otto asks the Shapeshifter if she can shapeshift into anything. Unfortunately, one of the items he lists off is a rocket, which gives her an idea of what she can transform into in order to make her escape.Otto: Oopsies.
- No Name Given: The name of the gadget Olive uses to expose the Shapeshifter and the various items she transforms into is never mentioned, neither in-show nor in the credits.
- No Questions Asked: Played for Laughs when Ms. O orders Olive and Otto to retrieve her briefcase.Ms. O: Disguise Dan will meet you [in the park] and give you a briefcase. That briefcase is very important. Bring it back to me immediately. No. Questions. Asked.Olive: What's in the briefcase?Ms. O: That would be an example of a question.
- Otto later exploits it after he and Olive are handed the briefcase.
Otto: So...what do you think is inside?Olive: We're not supposed to ask questions, remember?Otto: Aha! That was a question!Olive: Fine. - Out-of-Character Alert: Both Olive and Otto are quick to doubt "Ms. O" as she approaches them at the playground and acts more like an overbearing mother than a Jerk with a Heart of Gold boss. When Olive gets a call from the real Ms. O, however, she's quick to come to the conclusion that the Ms. O who took the briefcase is a phony — and she's right; it's the Shapeshifter, a villainess, in disguise.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The titular briefcase is stated to be important to Ms. O, and Olive and Otto treat it with high importance despite wanting to open it to see what's inside. However, what turns out to actually be in the briefcase is... Ms. O's lunch that she happened to forget at home that morning. Olive and Otto are rightfully upset, until Ms. O grants them the rest of the day off...before revoking it once Olive hits her with an exposure beam.
- Shapeshifter Baggage: Despite it being said that the Shapeshifter retains the same weight, she transforms into things like a pigeon and a rocket and is still able to fly away with ease.
- Ship Tease: Albeit it's merely a facade used by the Shapeshifter, Ms. O tickling Otto ("You bet, you little cutie!") and her pinching Olive's cheeks ("And you, such a face!") can be seen as this, which is only pushed further by Otto's comment:Otto: I think she's starting to warm up to me!
- "What Do They Fear?" Episode: Of a sort — it's revealed that Olive has a morbid fear of pie, and becomes terrified when she makes eye contact with one, no matter how far away it is. The Shapeshifter exploits this fear by disguising Ms. O's briefcase as a pie.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: This episode first establishes Olive's fear of pie, which the Shapeshifter has no problem tormenting her with.
