Two opposite sides of the same coin.
O is for OppositeAirdates: March 20, 2017 note , November 21, 2016 note
When Ms. O gets trapped in a mirror and Ms. O's reflection escapes, Olympia, Otis and Oona must predict where Opposite Ms. O will be in order to catch her and free the real Ms. O.
Tropes:
- Actually a Good Idea: Doug regards Olympia's idea of using chicken eggs instead of goat eggs in his recipes as a good idea.
- Actually, I Am Him: Played for laughs with Taekwondo Tony, who is presumed to be the real Tony and introduces himself as such, but when Olympia, Otis and Oona leave, it's revealed that "Taekwondo Tony" is actually a little kid, with the adult impostor remarking that that's the last time he'll pretend to be Tony. None of the Main 3 ever find out.
- Affectionate Nickname: Opposite Ms. O gives Olympia and Otis endearing nicknames such as "honey bunny", and calls them things such as "my darlings" and "my favorite agents".
- All Animals Are Dogs: More like All Animals Are Cats — Opposite Ms. O hisses at Olympia and Otis as they approach her, much like a cat does when threatened.
- And Then I Said: The scene that takes place after the Cold Open has Otis in the middle of a conversation with Olympia asking her how a tube operator leaves through the tubes if they're the ones that have to press the controls to begin with.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Lampshaded by Oona when Otis asks about the Magic Mirror.Otis: Why do we even have something like this?Oona: Have you seen where we work?Otis: Okay.Olympia: Fair enough.
- Art Evolution: The scenes of Otis and Olympia riding the tubes are more fluidly animated than they were in "First Day", which is something carried over from The Movie, whose opening credits were entirely animated.
- Bear Hug: Opposite Ms. O does this with Olympia and Otis, pulling them in and patting their backs while she hugs them.
- Big Eater: Opposite Ms. O manages to eat five egg salad sandwiches in one sitting — and is still going at it with a tub of egg salad by the time Olympia and Otis arrive at the back-alley restaurant, which she is eating out of due to the fact that Doug ran out of bread (keep in mind, he doesn't have many customers to begin with).
- The Bus Came Back: Delivery Doug, who hasn't been seen since Season 1's "Assistant's Creed", returns in this episode, and is revealed to now own a back-alley restaurant.
- Robot princesses also make a return after having a brief cameo in the Season 1 finale.
- Can't You Read the Sign?: Ms. O tells Oona that she could have at least put up a warning sign so the Director would know not to touch the mirror. As it turns out, Oona was buying red paint in order to make such a sign, but hadn't hung it up yet.
- Chekhov's Gunman: When Olympia and Otis fail to predict where Opposite Ms. O wound up, Taekwondo Tony offers them a suggestion: find one thing that the real Ms. O does at the same time every day, so that the Opposite Ms. O would do the exact opposite of that, and there wouldn't be choices for the partner pair to pick from. This tidbit ends up proving useful when they manage to find and confront her at the Princess Room and drive her back into the mirror, trapping her and freeing the real Ms. O.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Discussed by Oona, Olympia and Otis while in the tubes. The former asks the partner pair how she can get a red ball like they have (since balls are sorted by department color, she has green for Science, while they have red for Investigation), and they explain that it goes by department. She then muses over writing a letter to get a red ball, or a rainbow-colored one with lightning bolt patterns.
- Continuity Nod: This isn't the first time that a copy of Ms. O has been sickeningly sweet to the two main agents, only to turn out to be villainous.
- The Princess Room is seen again, having moved from where it previously was in "Hold the Door".
- The gadget that Olympia is holding in one of the photos with Opposite Otis is the Return-Body-inator, which was used in "Double Trouble".
- One of the places that Olympia and Opposite Otis visit is the Potato Room.
- Cross-Referenced Titles: With "O is Not for Old" and "O is Not For Over".
- Deliberately Monochrome: The Flashback Cut of Oona picking out paint colors at a paint store is colored in monochrome — fitting, considering the paint store owner doesn't seem very enthusiastic at her job.
- Disapproving Look: Otis and Olympia shoot Oona these when the latter asks the Scientist if she has bad news, only for her to ask if she can't just perform a Stealth Hi/Bye and make casual conversation. Otis's look in particular is more snark-filled than anything else.
- Does Not Like Spam: In stark contrast to the real Ms. O, Opposite Ms. O despises juice boxes. Otis and Olympia exploit this by shoving juice boxes in her face and backing her up straight into the mirror, where she quickly falls in and releases the real Ms. O.
- Evolving Credits: This episode marks the debut of a new opening title sequence, with clips from episodes such as "First Day" and "Failure to Lunch" being replaced with clips from episodes such as "The Perfect Score" and "The Ninja Situation". It also replaces old oddness slides with new ones, such as orcas swimming in the sky, a man grown giant-sized, and a woman whose shadow is a chair.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Olympia, Otis and Oona do this when determining where Opposite Ms. O went to eat.Otis and Olympia: So the place to go is...Oona: The Egg Salad Cafe! [as Olympia and Otis give awkward smiles] Is it cool I said that last part?
- She later does it again when the trio determine where Opposite Ms. O went on her off time.
Otis and Olympia: So the place to go is...Oona: To the dojo![Otis and Olympia shoot her Disapproving Looks]Oona: I did it again, didn't I? - Flashback Cut: Two are used to show how the real Ms. O got inside of the mirror, but only Ms. O's story is accurate — Oona's flashback consists of her going to the paint store and picking out a color, which is something completely irrelevant to the matter at hand, as she wasn't in the lab when Ms. O got stuck inside of the mirror.
- Friendly Enemy: Opposite Ms. O is essentially the embodiment of this trope, and goes so far as to say "please" and "thank you" when asking Otis and Olympia to put their juice boxes away.
- Group Picture Ending: Played with; it's not the end of the episode, but rather the climax, as Olympia and Ms. O take a picture together only for Oona to photobomb them.
- HA HA HA—No: The Cold Open client at the beginning of the episode, Pam, does something like this, laughing lightheartedly while on the phone before saying "stocks" and hanging up. Doubles as a Take That! towards businesspeople in general.
- Hammerspace: While Ms. O has used this ability in the past, this episode shows that she can also yank juice boxes from it. However, since she's trapped inside of a mirror, the juice box she does take out doesn't taste appetizing.
- Otis and Olympia also take out juice boxes from their backs when confronting Opposite Ms. O.
- Here We Go Again!: Not even a minute after the real Ms. O is freed from the mirror, Otis goes to get rid of it but ends up falling into it, releasing his reflection and trapping himself in the mirror the same way Ms. O did. Olympia capitalizes on this mistake in order to spend time with her partner and do all the things that the real Otis wouldn't dream of doing.
- Hidden Depths: There are quite a few facts revealed about Ms. O in this episode.
- She despises Delivery Doug's egg salad sandwiches, and doesn't like eating at his restaurant.
- She tends to prefer skydiving over activites like taekwondo and racecar-driving, and is also a student of Taekwondo Tony's class.
- Before she goes home after work, she closes and locks all of the doors so nothing can escape while she's away.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Opposite Ms. O is driven back into the mirror by the one thing she hates most of all: juice boxes. The real Ms. O is also released from the mirror this way.
- If It Tastes Bad, It Must Be Good for You: Oona is shown tasting juice and describing the flavor to the real Ms. O, who is unable to enjoy juice due to being trapped in a mirror, where the drink tastes absolutely awful.
- Kids Driving Cars: While not her preferred activity, Ms. O enjoys racecar-driving on her off time. Opposite Ms. O is apparently skilled enough to win first place in a stock car race.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Otis and Olympia use their shields to defend themselves against the robot princesses' laser blasts.
- Magic Mirror: One rests in the lab that has the ability to make anyone who touches it fall into it, releasing their reflection and leaving the real deal trapped inside of the mirror. While looking for Oona to return a gadget, Ms. O notices the mirror and decides to practice some of her "work faces", but upon noticing that it's dusty and going to clean it, she falls in, trapping her inside and releasing her reflection out into the real world.
- The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: A rather confusing example — Opposite Ms. O, otherwise known as Ms. O's reflection, is given a physical form when released from the mirror, and is able to communicate freely with the other Main 3 because of it. However, the real Ms. O, who is now a reflection, can still talk to the Main 3, but feels adverse effects from the mirror, such as the inability to enjoy juice.
- Mid-Battle Tea Break: Otis and Olympia stop their confrontation with Opposite Ms. O in order for Olympia to take a picture with her. Once that's secured, the partner pair go right back to backing her up into the mirror.
- Mirror Self: Ms. O's reflection is essentially a carbon copy of the real deal, but is far sweeter than her and does things that the real Ms. O wouldn't normally do, like eat egg salad sandwiches.
- New Job Episode: Played with. The Cold Open consists of a businesswoman named Pam offering Olympia and Otis a job at the company she works at, outlining the benefits such as a 9-to-5 workweek, 2 weeks of vacation, their own parking space, and good-sounding pay. When Olympia and Otis inform them that they are already employed with Odd Squad, she asks her assistant, Jim, why they're in her office, only for him to remind her of the void that she has. Olympia and Otis solve the problem, and she then offers them a price that she can pay them, only for the "price" to be a picture of a monkey on a bicycle. All in all, the partner pair obviously never end up taking the job offer.
- Perpetual Smiler: Even when Otis and Olympia are directing the robot princesses back inside the Princess Room, Ms. O still wears a smile on her face, and her protests are accompanied with a cheerful tone of voice to boot. She only loses her demeanor when the partner pair show her juice boxes and drive her back into the mirror.
- Photo Montage: Two are shown throughout the episode: one with Olympia and the real Ms. O (where the latter keeps on obscuring her face), and one at the end of the episode with Olympia and Opposite Otis.
- The Pollyanna: Opposite Ms. O fits the bill to a T. She even ends up hugging Olympia and Otis at one point, something that the real Ms. O wouldn't be caught dead doing even as a Benevolent Boss. note
- Opposite Otis also qualifies, as he's a lot more optimistic than the real Otis is by a landslide.
- Power Glows: The edges of the mirror glow green when the real Ms. O becomes trapped inside.
- Running Gag: This episode kicks off a brief season-long gag of a businesswoman named Pam constantly calling Odd Squad for help, as she appears in more than one episode.
- Selfie Fiend: Played straight for Olympia, who desires to have a picture with Ms. O and resorts to taking selfies with Opposite Ms. O instead (and later does the same thing with Opposite Otis), but averted for the real Director and the real Otis, both of whom hate being in pictures.
- Shockingly Expensive Bill: Olympia and Otis receive one for Opposite Ms. O's dine-and-dash that totals $500, for five egg salad sandwiches and a tub of egg salad. This is due to the fact that Delivery Doug uses goat eggs instead of chicken eggs, which are stated to be hard to get.
- Squick: An in-universe example, as Olympia has this reaction to seeing Opposite Ms. O eat egg salad straight.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Oona showcases the ability to do this twice throughout the episode, much like her predecessor was known for doing.
- Temporarily a Villain: Opposite Ms. O, who has a sugary-sweet personality and is amiable towards others, ends up becoming a villain when opening all of the doors, in contrast to what the real Ms. O does on the daily before she goes home. In doing so, she lets out the robot princesses from the Princess Room, which Otis and Olympia are able to beat back.Ms. O: [continuously cheerful] Why would you do that? It's our job to cause oddness!Otis: What?Olympia: Uh-oh, I just realized something. You're really nice, but also kind of like a bad guy.Ms. O: That's what Odd Squad is: a bunch of bad guys!
- Vanity Is Feminine: When Opposite Ms. O compliments the real Ms. O's appearance by saying that she looks beautiful today, the Director responds in kind by saying "Just today? I look beautiful every day!"
- Whale Egg: Doug has a goat named Randall that lays eggs which he then uses in his egg salad recipes. Olympia asks him why he doesn't just use chicken eggs, to which Doug gets an idea and lays Randall off from his job.
Airdates: March 20, 2017 note , November 21, 2016 note
The agents try to resolve a disagreement between Ms. O and Oksana.
Tropes:
- All That Glitters: Ms. O, meeting Oksana halfway on her demands, gifts her a bag of small diamonds. Oksana is grateful for the gift, but is quick to ask if the diamonds are real, to which Ms. O says that yes, they are real diamonds. However, when Oksana warns the Director that she can easily spot a fake diamond from a real one and asks her how she'll react if the diamonds turn out to be fake, she takes the bag back, tells Ohlm (dressed as a helicopter) to "abort mission", and immediately books it, revealing that the diamonds in the bag are entirely fake.
- Bait-and-Switch: When Ms. O reads Oksana's list of demands, she angrily says that she's done playing this game...before turning to show an assistant taking their turn in Swamps N' Gators, who is ordered to leave by Ms. O.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Owen is shown more dirtied up than any agent seen in the episode.
- Big "SHUT UP!": When Ms. O emerges from her office with an alarm blaring and agents running around in a panic, she stops the alarm and restores peace with a cry of "Enough, stop!!"
- Bland-Name Product: The ketchup and mustard bottles seen in the interrogation room while Olympia and Otis are making sandwiches are clear rips of the Heinz and French's brand bottles, respectively — and in true show fashion, they are covered with the Shmumbers brand instead.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: The Main 3 all recite the "Whaaaaat?" Catchphrase that was mostly used by Olive and Otto back in Season 1.
- Call-Back: Once again, Olympia and Otis are transferred to another department by force and are forced to work there, while becoming pure Iron Butt-Monkeys. This time, it's the Food and Beverage department.
- Camera Fiend: Joy Lafleur, natch, who is more than willing to take pictures of Olympia and Otis while they help out other agents.
- Continuity Nod: Ms. O is shown playing Swamps N' Gators with one of her assistants when Olympia meets with her.
- As Otis is rushing to meet Olympia while Headquarters is collapsing, a Scientist tells him that he needs cantaloupe to power the lights.
- Deadpan Snarker: While Oksana's response to Olympia asking her why the Breakroom is chained up is meant to be a poorly-aimed joke, it initially comes off as snarky due to her Creepy Monotone.Olympia: What's going on, Oksana?Oksana: I'm having a sale on chains and wooden road barricades.Olympia: Huh! I thought you were closing off the kitchen so nobody could use it.Oksana: Our sense of humor obviously isn't a match. Yes, I'm closing off the kitchen so nobody can use it.
- She also delivers some straight-up snark to Otis at one point.
Otis: Oksana, do you really need gold and diamonds to do your job?Oksana: Do you really need your face to do your job? - Death Glare: Otis shoots Ms. O a scathing one when she informs Owen that Otis and Olympia are "Oksana for the day". All he gets in return is a nonchalant shrug.
- Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: The Cold Open client is a newspaper deliveryperson who happens to have good aim with his newspapers, but every time he throws one at a door, the paper disappears. Olympia and Otis manage to fix the problem somewhat, but when the deliveryperson goes to throw another newspaper against a door, the entire house disappears.
- Feud Episode: Of a sort. The episode revolves around Ms. O and Oksana having a disagreement, with the former refusing to give the latter what she wants as she feels she is being selfish. As it turns out, Oksana doesn't demand things for herself; rather, she demands things to make food for the agents.
- Gracefully Demoted: Played with. Olympia and Otis are transferred from the Investigation department to the Food and Beverage department. While Investigation's logo has six sides, Food and Beverage's logo has four, and since Ms. O forcefully made Olympia a Food and Beverage worker despite her protests, the action could count as a demotion on Ms. O's part. However, while Olympia and Otis don't accept their new positions, they don't fight against them and are forced to go with the flow (with the exception of Otis, who refuses to be on lunch duty initially, but is eventually forced to be in such a position after reasoning with Oksana fails).
- Hidden Depths: Beneath her Emotionless Girl exterior, it's clear that Oksana is passionate about her job as Precinct 13579's cook, and is willing to traverse across an invisible path to the best fruit and vegetable orchard in town and bribe a spider king in order to get the best food she can for the agents she works alongside on the daily.
- Instant Costume Change: Ms. O owns a gadget which is able to transform the uniform of any Odd Squad employee to fit the department they're in. In this case, she uses it to change Olympia's Investigation uniform into a Food and Beverage uniform.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Otis believes that there's enough time to count every dinosaur in the Dinosaur Room in order to determine how many more cans are needed to feed them. He doesn't even get a chance to finish his sentence before the dinosaurs bang on the double doors.
- When Otis later goes to ask Ms. O to settle her dispute with Oksana, Ms. O tells him that he tried and it didn't go well, then states that it looks like everything is under control. Not even a second later, and Owen comes into the office to tell her that everything is far from being under control.
- I Warned You: When Olympia returns to Otis wearing a Food and Beverage uniform, Otis smugly tells her that he warned her not to get involved. He quickly drops the smugness when Olympia tells him that they're both on lunch duty, and resolves to straighten things out with Oksana.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: After witnessing her Headquarters nearly fall to ruins without its Power Source, Ms. O realizes that her precinct can't run properly without Oksana and decides to give in to her demands.
- Literal-Minded: Oksana tells Olympia and Otis to talk to Ms. O about her demands, saying that the ball is in the Director's court...because Oksana wrapped her list of demands around a tennis ball and threw it into her office.
- Mellow Fellow: Ocean falls into this trope by default, but this episode shows that he can be calm even in the face of dinosaurs that will soon be hungry for agent.
- My God, What Have I Done?: At the climax of the episode, Ms. O realizes that not only can Otis and Olympia not keep up with supplying appliances like furnaces with food in a timely manner, but her precinct will fall to ruins simply because she refuses to meet Oksana's demands. Luckily, she manages to stop the destruction before it occurs and gives in to the cook, citing how she now realizes that the precinct cannot run smoothly without her.
- Plot Allergy: As it turns out, Olympia has a ham-and-cheese allergy, which doesn't help her much considering that the sandwiches that she and Otis are making happen to contain those two ingredients. Once she makes a whole pile of 80, she ends up sneezing directly on them, destroying any edibility they have and forcing her to make 80 more sandwiches.Olympia: So...gonna remake all these sandwiches! [softly] Yay.
- Poor Communication Kills: Olympia offers Ms. O a suggestion to meet Oksana halfway on her demands, citing that agents will be upset if they don't get their lunches. Ms. O states that her agent makes a great point...right before demoting her to the Food and Beverage department and completely misreading what she said.Ms. O: You said you wanted to get involved in this.Olympia: No, I said maybe we could meet her halfway on her demands.Ms. O: Olympia, we can spend the next half-hour arguing about what you did or didn't say. Or you could go make sandwiches.Olympia: [smug] I'm willing to argue.[Ms. O growls at her]Olympia: I'll go make sandwiches.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title is a reference to the TV show Kitchen Nightmares.
- Priceless Paperweight: Instead of using knives to cut food, Oksana uses real diamonds, citing that she does so in order to achieve extreme precision when cutting it.
- Put on a Bus: This episode marks Oksana's final appearance on the show, due to her actress, Madeline Barbeau, growing too old to play the role any longer.
- Refusal of the Call: While Olympia is more than willing to help mend the rift between Oksana and Ms. O, Otis flat-out refuses to help, saying that he doesn't want to get involved. Eventually, he Can't Refuse the Call Anymore when he is assigned to take Oksana's place in the Food and Beverage department along with Olympia.
- Running Gag: Agents asking who took the pictures that Oksana has of herself, followed by Oksana introducing them to Joy Lafleur, a part-time photographer who constantly takes pictures of them. The gag ends up being subverted at the end of the episode, as the pictures of Oksana going to retrieve fruits and vegetables were taken not by Joy, but by her teacher, Cheryl Stevens.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The end of the episode reveals that Oksana isn't demanding things from Ms. O for herself, like what the Director initially thought. Instead, Oksana wants things to help get ingredients to make the best food she can for her agents.
- Skewed Priorities: Ocean meets Joy Lafleur just as he and Otis determine how many dinosaurs are in the Dinosaur Room, and he asks Otis if she does creature portraits. He is quick to tell the Creature Room Director to throw tins into the room while he gets more. Once Otis leaves, Ocean does so, but makes poses throughout while Joy snaps a few photos.
- Tempting Fate: "How hard can it be to help Oksana get what she wants?" Oho, Olympia, you'd be surprised...
- Worldbuilding: It's revealed that Odd Squad has a furnace which runs on carrots. Owen, who takes care of the furnace, remarks that he tried using onions once, but it made everyone cry. (Quite ironic, considering that Odd Squad is a high-tech organization.)
- In a similar vein, it's revealed that the entirety of Odd Squad relies on food as a Power Source. Apparently, Oksana is in charge of maintaining every single machine and appliance that uses food for fuel.
