Working with them is bad enough.
Going on an adventure with them is even worse.
The Potato UltimatoGoing on an adventure with them is even worse.
Airdates: March 31, 2015 note , March 30, 2015 note , May 24, 2015 note
When Otto starts shrinking, Olaf leads Olive and Oren on a quest for the only known cure to make him grow again: the magical Growing Potato.
Tropes:
- Ate It All: Downplayed. Otto doesn't eat the entire Growing Potato, but he eats quite a few bites in less than ten seconds. This is what causes him to grow larger than intended.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Otto eats more of the Growing Potato than was necessary, causing him to grow to the point where his jacket's buttons look ready to burst, and his head manages to tap the ceiling of the lab. He also speaks in a baritone voice, and towers over Oren, Olaf, Olive and Oscar.
- Buffy Speak: Oscar refers to himself as the most "awesomest" person in Odd Squad when playing with his dolls.
- The Cameo: Coach Roberts, who was last seen back in "Bad Luck Bears", makes an appearance, albeit as an illusion.
- Continuity Nod: Several.
- Olive suggests that Oscar use the Regrow-inator to try and turn Otto back to normal. Oscar tries it, but it doesn't work, and he realizes it only works on reindeer.
- Someone eating someone else's food on accident, causing tension and strife? Wouldn't be the first time.
- The Potato Song makes an appearance again when the Potato Room is introduced. The time card from "Rise of the Hydraclops" also makes a return.
- The Jacket-inator is brought up again for potential use by the trio before Olaf uses the Potato-Sack-inator instead.
- While Oscar is playing with his dolls, he acts out asking if Otto wants to help him catch some Centigurps.
- Delayed "Oh, Crap!": Both Olive and Otto get a taste of this when the former finds out that the latter is shrinking.
- Didn't See That Coming: Olive asks Oren what happens if the trio chooses the wrong recorder needed to open the stone wall. Oren plays the recorder that's in his hand, which causes a sudden flash and an explosion, startling them.Olive: Or you coulda just told me!!
- Distinction Without a Difference: Ah, Oscar...Otto: You made an Odd Squad dollhouse?Oscar: No, I made a house for my dolls to live in.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: While Olive covering her ears when being exposed to loud noises has been established to be one of her Character Tics, it becomes more of a glaring issue in this episode when she covers her ears due to Oscar's yelling, which isn't overtly loud to begin with. This is in stark contrast to Otto not covering his own ears when Oscar yells at him. Olive's painful reaction here, as well as those in past episodes, is highly reminiscent of hyperacusis,
which can cause increased auditory sensitivity to everyday sounds and is associated with PTSD (which Olive shows glaring symptoms of) among other disorders. - Ethereal Choir: One is heard when Olive scales the castle wall in order to get the growing potato.
- Exact Words:Olive, Otto and Oscar: Did you say "shrinking potato"?Oren: No, he said "shrinking potato salad!"
- Face Palm: Hilariously enough, Otto ends up doing this when watching Oscar play with his figurines.
- Foreshadowing: It ends up defied by Olive when she stops Oscar from bringing up the one agent whose name doesn't start with an O.
- Flashback Fail: Oren tells Otto that Olaf said to take "one teeny bite" of the Growing Potato. However, the flashback that occurs shows Olaf quietly telling Otto to take one bite of the potato right after the trio arrive at the lab — which wasn't spoken at all, nor could it be heard even if it were (let alone by anyone like Otto). Olaf promptly scolds Otto for his mistake with a Finger Wag and a few tongue clicks.
- Height Angst: Otto reveals that he used to be 5 feet tall (give or take a few inches). When Oscar measures him, his height is recorded at 4 feet, which puts him lower than Olive (who appears to be around 4'6'', as seen in promotional images)◊. Naturally, he doesn't like this change, and can't go on the mission to retrieve the Growing Potato with Olive due to his rapidly shrinking state.
- Here We Go Again!: Otto ends up eating too much of the Growing Potato, causing him to grow huge. Unfortunately for Olive, it requires a Shrinking Potato to turn him back to normal, which is found in the Potato Room — and much to her chagrin (and Otto's), the trio is forced to journey through it again to find it.
- Hidden Depths: During their journey, Olive, Oren and Olaf encounter the Cave of Your Least-Greatest Fears, which shows various people's dreams. When the trio get separated, they each encounter various illusions of things related to their dreams — Olive encounters Coach Roberts, who gives her various sports uniforms and balls for her to swat at (reflecting her love of sports), Oren encounters Ms. O, who is out sick and promotes him to Director to cover for him while she's out (reflecting his dream of being an Odd Squad Director), and Olaf encounters an illusion of a dentist's office with a patient ready to see him for a cleaning (reflecting his dream of being a dentist when he grows up).
- Oren is shown to be able to play a recorder quite well, which allows the trio to enter the cave.
- Otto apparently has a diary that he keeps on his desk, which Oscar makes a model of for his dollhouse.
- I Got Bigger: Subverted; Olive initially believes she grew taller than Otto when she first sees him, and the camera angles reflect the presumed height change. However, when Olive wonders how her suit still fits after growing, she comes to the conclusion that she didn't grow taller — Otto is shrinking. Despite this revelation, however, she's disappointed she didn't grow any more.Olive: This is horrible!Otto: I know!Olive: No, I mean I really thought I was getting taller...
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Olive, Oren and Olaf all wear potato sack jackets over their suits to keep them warm, with rope tied around the waists. While Oren and Olaf are fine with theirs, Olive outright despises hers. It doesn't help that the jackets are itchy too.Olive: The rope! We can use this rope to climb up there!Olaf: Now you like the outfits.Olive: Just hurry up, please!
- Incredible Shrinking Man: Otto, whose shrinking is brought upon by him eating Olaf's lunch (shrinking-potato salad) by accident.
- Insane Troll Logic: Oscar has shades of this when he begins yelling at Otto instead of talking to him normally, because he believes that since Otto's ears shrank, Otto can't hear as well. Lo and behold, Otto can hear Oscar perfectly fine even in his shrinking state. Be reminded that Oscar is generally regarded as intelligent, and apparently he forgot to factor in Otto's eardrums, which, like his ears, haven't shrunken.
- Jerkass Ball: Oren juggles it throughout the episode. While he is normally a Jerkass in general, this episode has him be a bit more benevolent towards Olive as they go on a journey to get the Growing Potato. However, there are times where he reverts back to being mean — such as him telling Olive that she'll need to get a new partner since the ladder the group needs is on vacation in Florida, when it's very possible that he knows about her traumatic past with Odd Todd (her old partner), and knows that Otto is a sort of Living Emotional Crutch for her.
- Lampshade Hanging: Otto asks if the door to the Potato Room keep changing (keep in mind, this room has been the Donut Room and Cookie Room before). A howl from Olaf and Oren's translation confirms it does.
- Mood Whiplash: Oren goes from being casual with Olaf and his howling to full-on dramatics in less than a second.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Otto accidentally eats Olaf's shrinking-potato salad instead of his own lunch, which causes him to begin shrinking. It's justified by the fact that Olaf didn't mark his own lunch properly, instead marking it with a simple "O".
- Only a Model: Oscar has a model of the precincts' bullpen which he places Otto in as the agent continues to shrink. It has fully-functional computers, and has a replica of Otto's diary in it. He also has a model of the bullpen which is bigger than the current bullpen. Somehow.
- Overly Long Gag: Oren's recorder-playing is something that Olaf and Olive are easily impressed by, but after a while the latter begins to grow annoyed, and it's clear that Oren is just showing off.
- Party Scattering: Not a few seconds after Olive, Oren and Olaf enter the cave, they all get separated. They eventually manage to find their way back out and join up with each other.
- Power-Up Food: Both the Growing and Shrinking Potatoes are this, as they are able to, well, grow or shrink a person. Oh, and the Growing Potato glows.
- Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: Otto keeps shrinking out of suits that Oscar makes for him, to the point where he wears clothes off of a figurine of himself that Oscar made (which fits him).
- Shout-Out: Otto's Helium Speech sounds incredibly similar to Fred.
- Songs in the Key of Lock: The door to the Cave of Your Least-Greatest Fears can only be opened by playing the correct recorder.
- Stereotype Flip: Oscar is shown to have a miniature model of Odd Squad's bullpen (which Otto directly refers to as a dollhouse) and has mini-figurines of him and Otto that he plays with, which busts the "girls can only play with dolls" stereotype.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: It's made evident that Olive doesn't really want to go with Oren and Olaf to get the Growing Potato for her partner, but as she doesn't know her way around the Potato Room, she is forced to rely on Oren and Olaf. As a result, there is some tension amongst the trio, and of course, Hilarity Ensues as well.
- Theme Naming: Lampshaded by Otto.Oren: Olaf clearly marked [the shrinking-potato salad] in the fridge![Olaf holds up a brown paper bag marked with an "O" and pokes it]Otto: How was I supposed to know?! Every agent that works at Odd Squad's name starts with an O!Olive: We're not gonna talk about that now.
- Translator Buddy: Olive brings Oren along on the journey so he can translate what Olaf is saying.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Oren, who is shown wearing a female Director's outfit while going through the Cave of Your Least-Greatest Fears. "O is Not for Over" would later give male Odd Squad Directors their own uniform with pants and a tie instead of a skirt and a necklace.
- You Must Be Cold: A non-romantic example — Olive, Oren and Olaf all wear what are basically potato sacks, but with openings for the legs, arms, and a hood, as well as rope tied around their waists. This is to help prevent them from being affected by the high winds.
Good effort, Oprah. It's...progress.
Fistful of Fruit JuiceAirdates: March 31, 2015 note , March 30, 2015 note , May 24, 2015 note
Ms. O tells Olive and Otto the story of how she first joined up with Odd Squad.
Tropes:
- After-School Cleaning Duty: Cleaning Day at Odd Squad functions similar to this, with an agent and their partner taking up the task of cleaning not a single room, but the entirety of headquarters. In Olive and Otto's case, they're tasked with cleaning the Trophy Room.
- Bitch Alert: Olga. Holy hell, Olga. Most of her onscreen appearances, including her very first appearance, are comprised of her either belittling Oprah or having a Small Name, Big Ego — so it's no surprise that she ends up being the culprit behind the thefts.
- Bound and Gagged: Olga binds up Oprah, O'Donahue and Big Red with rope, but doesn't silence them. This allows her to make her escape...that is, until Yucks intercepts her. (It's worth noting that, as a Freeze-Frame Bonus, one can see the bound trio moving towards the showdown between Olga and Yucks.)
- Bungling Inventor: Oprah and Yucks are both this to an extent, trying out various ways of taking fruit juice on the go, such as a bag or a net. Yucks does manage to find a solution, though: a box.Oprah: (after seeing the "juice in a net" idea) I feel like we're moving backwards.
- Call-Back: This episode is the second to explore Ms. O's origins after "Totally Odd Squad", only it shows how Ms. O got to be an agent of Odd Squad rather than how she was promoted to Director.
- The Coats Are Off: Subverted, as Olive and Otto don't have their coats off for combat purposes; rather, they leave them off to clean.
- Comically Missing the Point: Oprah, of all people, has a moment of this when Yucks informs her of the robbery.Yucks: Oprah, Oprah!Oprah: What's up, Yucks? Got a new joke?Yucks: The fruit warehouse was robbed!Oprah: That's a terrible joke!
- Continuity Nod: Oprah's fruit stand looks similar to Mrs. Mac's.
- There's a person named Big Red who is initially viewed as a villain. Big Red was the nickname that Oprah gave Santa Claus in "Reindeer Games". Similarly, Oprah gives the same "shut up" gesture to Big Red in this episode as she did to Oscar in that episode.
- Dramatic Drop: Oprah does this with her pencil when in the Mathroom (or as it was known back then, the "Mathematical Figuring-Out Locale").
- Entertainingly Wrong: When Ms. O remarks that she knows the former Odd Squad Headquarters depicted in the photo, Olive and Otto ask if she's been there and if she was a part of Odd Squad with confidence, remembering the last time she told a story from her past. They're not entirely right — Ms. O did see the old headquarters, but she wasn't a part of Odd Squad, much to their shock.Ms. O: You wanna keep doing this back-and-forth thing, or do you want to hear the story?Olive: Story!Otto: I was gonna say "back-and-forth thing"...sure, we can do story.
- Expansion Pack Past: Ms. O explains that after Olga was caught, she didn't join Odd Squad right away — she delivered papers in Norway, then became the ruler of Portugal, then joined Odd Squad. These events are never explained in full, and haven't been alluded to since.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: A plaque with Odd Todd's molded hand is shown hanging in the Trophy Room, with said molded hand stolen.
- Fruit Cart: Subverted. While Ms. O's fruit stand isn't plowed into by a carriage, she still gets fruit stolen from the warehouse that provides it that she doesn't get back.
- Girlish Pigtails: Olga wears a braided form of these in two loops secured by red bows.
- Hair Flip: Olga does this when O'Donahue tells Oprah the agent has a knack for catching criminals in the act, although it doesn't work as well as it should considering her hair is up in braids.
- Hidden Depths: Olive is shown to have a love for cleaning, and is not above gushing over how it makes her feel. This is in contrast to Otto, who doesn't like to clean.Otto: Hold on. You like doing this?Olive: What's not to like? The way the dust gets in your nose and eyes and makes your throat a bit stingy...I love it!!
- I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Zig-zagged. While it's heavily implied that Olga was fired from Odd Squad for her villainous deeds, and it's shown that she works under Yucks (who now runs the fruit stand), it's not made clear if Olga was sentenced to working for Yucks by the Director in charge, or if Yucks willingly took her in. Nonetheless, Olga isn't on friendly terms with the new fruit stand owner.
- Insult Backfire: While O'Donahue attempts to ask Oprah if she's seen any signs of oddness, Olga tells her that she wouldn't understand what oddness is anyway. Oprah responds, in dead earnest, that she probably wouldn't understand, because she's working on her latest fruit product.
- It Will Never Catch On: This episode's Running Gag, which features a character pitching some sort of an idea, only for someone else to say some variant of "it'll never work".
- Letting Her Hair Down: In her flashback, Oprah wears her hair down from the Prim and Proper Bun it is in the present day, with the exception of a donut-shaped braid that sits atop her head.
- Police Are Useless: Odd Squad in the 1870s falls under this trope, since people are encouraged to report any oddities to Odd Squad the same way people are encouraged to report crimes to their local police. However, O'Donahue and Olga fail to do anything about Oprah's stolen fruit, and she becomes extremely upset with Odd Squad as a result. Oprah and Yucks eventually decide to find the culprit of the fruit themselves.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The episode's title is based on the the 1964 film A Fistful of Dollars.
- Obviously Evil: Olga. Small Name, Big Ego? Check. Constantly bullying Oprah? Check. Throwing Oprah off of her trail to cover up her tracks? Yep. Considering the fact that she's the only antagonistic person in the entire episode, it's a Foregone Conclusion that she's the one behind the thefts. She's basically a Walking Spoiler.
- Origins Episode: For quite a few characters and things.
- Oprah, who reveals in flashback how she came to join Odd Squad in 1870, and how she got her love of juice.
- The Mathroom, which is implied to have been created by Oprah and went by "Mathematical Figuring-Out Locale" back in the day when it was inside of a shed.
- The Shmumber brand, which was started by Yucks Shmumbers, a friend of Oprah's who took over the fruit stand for her after she joined Odd Squad.
- The Tube Travel system, started by Big Red (a local citizen of the town) to help agents get around the world much faster.
- Similarly, the tube operators of Precinct 13579 all having ginger hair, which is revealed to have been started by Big Red (who has ginger hair) when digging and creating the system. (Whether Big Red became a tube operator himself once the system was created, though, is left ambiguous.)
- Refusal of the Call: When O'Donahue asks Oprah if she's seen any odd stuff happening, Oprah cuts him off abruptly, stating that she doesn't want to get involved in any Odd Squad-related shenanigans, and is happy just selling fruit to the townsfolk. However, she eventually does get dragged into Odd Squad business when some of her fruit is stolen, much to her chagrin.
- Telegraph Gag: When asked why he didn't report his six missing mailboxes to Odd Squad, Big Red explains that he did report it by way of telegram. Cue a mailman coming up to Olga, O'Donahue and Oprah and hanging them said telegram.Big Red: Amazing, isn't it? You can send a message to someone in just one day.O'Donahue: Yeesh. Someone should invent a way to do this faster, like an instant textual messaging delivery service.Mailman: Ehh, that'll never work.
- Showdown at High Noon: Parodied when Yucks intercepts Olga while the agent is making her escape, leading to this. It's over pretty quickly, since Olga used her rope on Oprah, O'Donahue and Big Red, and has no weapons on her.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Perhaps one of the biggest examples of this trope yet — Olga is swiftly defeated by slipping on juice that Yucks squirted at her and falling. In the middle of a leaf-covered road. She doesn't even try to get back up!
- Wham Episode: This episode reveals the origins behind the Shmumbers brand (which has been a mainstay of the series since its premiere) and also reveals how Ms. O became an agent of Odd Squad. It also reveals how she came to love juice, and how the Mathroom was created, as well as how Big Red created the Tube Travel system. In the case of the latter, the lineage of Precinct 13579's tube operators, all of who have ginger hair, is revealed to have been started by him.
- Whole Episode Flashback: The episode focuses on Ms. O, who tells the story of how she became a part of Odd Squad via flashbacks.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Oprah's best friend and assistant had the unfortunate outcome of being named Yucks. Oprah realized that having "Yucks" on juice boxes wouldn't sell very well, so she suggested Yucks use her last name instead: Shmumbers.
- The Wild West: Ms. O's story takes place in 1870, and the setting looks very reminiscent of the Wild West era as well, with horse-drawn carriages and period-piece wear, among other things. Even Odd Squad headquarters looks vaguely reminiscent of a tavern, and agents are dressed similar to cowboys.
