Recap / Odd Squad S 3 E 11 Music Of Sound

They're baaa-aaaack! And it only took them two seasons!

Music of Sound

Airdate: July 6, 2020 ^note PBS Kids premiere

After Orla accidentally gets Soundcheck to break up, the Odd Squad Mobile Unit must convince them to get back together again.

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Tropes:

• Animal-Eared Headband: Ava wears a glittery headband with cat ears on it.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Orla, being unaware of Soundcheck's existence, asks them a completely innocent question about themselves that just so happens to leave them at a loss for words.
  Orla: Tell me, what is this organization you call..."Sound Check"?
  Danny T: You don't know who we are?
  Orla: I do not. But you must enjoy many activities together. What are your favorites?
  [the band members exchange looks]
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "Fu-Ella" points out the contestants' talents. There's a mermaid who helped build the pyramids, an elf who has a degree in science, and Bertha the giant who... well she's not bright, but she's a good baker.
• Artistic License – Music: Overlaps with Impractical Musical Instrument Skills. When Eve grabs a poster off of the wall and turns it into the megaphone, she explains how it amplifies sound. However, when she shouts into the megaphone, it sounds more like she's speaking into a microphone, with a loud echo accompanying it. Similarly, a makeshift megaphone like that would do virtually nothing at a concert in regards to it functioning as a speaker, or as a microphone (the latter of which Soundcheck does at the end of the episode).
• Bait-and-Switch: Eve appears to confront Orla on her made-up name and her new hairdo initially, before complimenting it instead.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Opal, Oswald and Omar all borrow O'Donahue's "Ohh yeah!" catchphrase that was said often in Season 1.
• Breaking the Fellowship: Soundcheck as a band undergoes a breakup once Orla's Armor-Piercing Question of what the band members like to do together makes them stop and think, as they realize they don't have anything in common.
  • Once Soundcheck gets back together at the end of the episode, the Villain People break up and decide to get real jobs, all of them becoming podiatrists.
• Breather Episode: This episode is rather tame and lighthearted compared to the previous one, which was more serious in tone. It's also a break before the next two episodes, which feature The Shadow working on her next, and ultimately final, Evil Plan.
• The Bus Came Back: Soundcheck's members return after nearly 2 seasons of them being absent, with their last physical appearance being only Danny T in "Disorder in the Court". ^note Their music has played in subsequent episodes following "Disorder in the Court", however.
• Character Focus: While the Main 4 are all prominently featured, the episode mostly focuses on Orla, who ends up accidentally breaking up Soundcheck.
• Christmas Songs: "Christmas Smells Like Christmas", by Soundcheck. It's a rather odd twist on your typical Christmas song ("with pine trees, fresh cookies, Grandma's fish casserole").
• Comically Missing the Point: Opal turns to the camera following them into Soundcheck's studio and excitedly says how two four-person groups are about to meet for the first time. Omar then asks who the other group is, and Opal responds by saying that it's the Mobile Unit, their own group.
• Continuity Cavalcade: A lot of Soundcheck's previous songs play in this episode, both as diegetic and non-diegetic pieces.
• Continuity Nod: Does Oprah still like Soundcheck even after her rank ascension? Yes she does — she believes that they have great music and great hair.
  Big O: My favorite band of all time.
  • She also tells the hairstylist shampooing her hair to not forget the eyebrows.
• Didn't Think This Through: None of the Villain People even wonder if Orla (or "Um-Uh-Ah", as she's called) might know what happened to their instruments. They just ask what happened, and then make good of their new instruments.
• Diegetic Switch: Johnny J appears to be playing his rubber bands when the Rooftop Concert starts, but the scene then abruptly shifts to the song he and the rest of Soundcheck perform being non-diegetic.
• The Ditherer: The reason why the Villain People haven't carried out their Evil Plan yet is because none of them can decide what orders to give to their hypnotized audience, and their arguing causes their audience to leave. Eventually, all of them settle on their initial goal: have their hypnotized audience Take Over the World.
• Do Not Spoil This Ending: Ivy attempts to invoke an aversion of the trope, as she thinks that her band should hypnotize people into spoiling the endings of movies they see.
• Dreadful Musician: In contrast to Soundcheck, who have decent singing voices, the Villain People are terribly bad at playing music. When they make a Trash-Can Band at one point and start playing with trashcans and a recorder, all Orla can do is stare in a nonplussed manner. Despite their lack of musical talent, however, they still manage to win over fans.
• Evil Counterpart: The Villain People is a Distaff Counterpart and more villainous band to Soundcheck, being an all-female band who is (most likely) a direct Take That! at girl groups, like how Soundcheck is a Take That! at boy bands.
• Extreme Omnivore: Ivy is seen chowing down on her drumsticks when introducing themselves to the audience.
  • Later on, Ava eats dirt that Orla created by using the Dirt-inator gadget on the band's speakers.
• Facial Scruff: Invoked by Soundcheck, who sings that if one grows a huge beard and wear neon-colored pants, they're still invisible (in the literal sense, that is).
• Fluffy Fashion Feathers: Ivy wears a coat made of feathers.
• Framing Device: The episode is filmed in the style of a documentary, with the Main 5 (including the Big O) and Soundcheck giving interviews throughout the episode and the camera following the Mobile Unit as they try to get Soundcheck back together again.
• Gag Haircut: Played with. The Big O is seen getting her mid-afternoon shampoo from an Odd Squad hairstylist at one point, but even though there are hairstyling tools placed next to the shampoo bowl, it's not revealed if she gets a haircut.
• Good News, Bad News: The trope is inverted, but plays out in the straight fashion — Johnny J tells a patient that he has plantar fasciitis, but then tells him that the good news is that there are exercises the patient can do to help with his condition.
• Hairstyle Malfunction: Averted. For the first half the episode, while posing as the Villain People's manager, Orla appears to be wearing a blond wig that's brown at the top, but it doesn't accidentally come off or get ruined in any way.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: The Mobile Unit agents all become hated by most everyone for breaking up Soundcheck, despite it being only Orla that had done so. When they get the band back together at the end of the episode, they manage to redeem themselves in the public eye.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: While not used against the Villain People themselves, Soundcheck uses the instruments they made do with to host a Rooftop Concert that wins back their fans.
• Humble Hero: Subverted. When Danny T asks the Mobile Unit how the band can thank them, Opal initially acts humble before outlining exactly what she wants them to do: play to win back their fans and have them defect as part of the Villain People's evil army.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: Opal tells Omar and Oswald not to panic, as they just need to find an animal that can walk, fly, and swim on land to bring three out of the four Soundcheck members back together. She sits on what she says for a moment, and then cries out how it's hopeless.
• The Infiltration: Orla is forced to pose as the Villain People's band manager to stop them from enacting their Evil Plan, and she repeatedly tricks the band to leave the room so she can turn their musical instruments into objects that are believed to be unplayable — however, all of the objects she turns the instruments into turn out to ultimately be playable.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Omar, Opal and Oswald go into Fanboy/Fangirl territory when they come across Soundcheck, to such an extent that they could rival Otto — an Ascended Fanboy himself — for how much they squee over the boy band, even saying that they want to be like them when they grow up. Orla, on the other hand, doesn't understand why her teammates are freaking out, and instead greets the bandmates in a more formal manner — when Danny T goes for a fistbump, she grabs the fist and shakes it instead (which is justified, since she is a Fish out of Temporal Water unfamiliar with boy bands). By the end of the episode, she cheers for them just as loudly as the rest of the Main 4.
• Lack of Empathy: Orla managed to make Soundcheck break up by asking them an Armor-Piercing Question, which in turn let down their fans all across the world. Instead of feeling any regret over what she did, she dismisses the consequences of her actions as trivial and believes that people are overreacting.
  Orla: So be it. A band broke up. Is it really the end of the world?
• The Leader: Apart from being the lead singer of the Villain People, Eve is also more rational and levelheaded than her bandmates.
• Literal-Minded: Ringo says that Soundcheck doesn't know the meaning of the word "fail". Then Tony D says that they keep a dictionary around with them at all times, but they don't know how to use it.
• Mind-Control Music: The Villain People have the ability to hypnotize people via their music, despite said music being annoying, villainous, and a far step backwards from the quality of Soundcheck's music.
• Multi-Part Episode: The fifth one of Season 3.
• Narrator All Along: The episode's events are narrated by someone that initially appears to not be seen. However, the end of the episode reveals that the narrator is actually a llama at a local petting zoo, seen earlier when the group attempts to round up Ringo, who works at the petting zoo.
• Never My Fault: The Villain People blame Soundcheck for people not showing up to the girl group's concert, instead of trying to pinpoint the problem that might by lying in their talents. (Spoiler alert: they have no talent in the realm of music whatsoever.)
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Orla ends up breaking up Soundcheck by pointing out how they have differences and aren't similar to each other. This allows a rival band, the Villain People, to take over and perform Mind-Control Music on their audiences. It gets to such a point where all of the Main 4 end up taking responsibility, not just Orla, and as a result, they all receive heavy backlash from critics.
  • The members of Soundcheck end up doing this to each other at various points — the Main 4 get Danny T and Tony D to reunite, but when Danny asks his bandmate if they want to celebrate by playing a game of Squash, he says that he only likes outdoor games, which creates another rift in their friendship and brings the Mobile Unit back to square one. It happens again when Ringo reunites with Danny T and Tony D, which Omar attempts to defy, but ends up failing.
• Oh, Crap!: Omar, Oswald and Opal all get these when Tony D finds that he doesn't have something in common with Danny T, and when Ringo finds that he doesn't have something in common with Danny T and Tony D.
• invoked The Other Darrin: Johnny J is played by Graham Scott Fleming in this episode rather than Matthew Armet, who played him in prior episodes.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title of the episode is a reference to The Sound of Music.
• Product-Promotion Parade: Downplayed — the Main 4's VIP passes have a shirt design that was for sale at the show's Amazon store at the time the episode aired (and is still listed to this day). There are no other Soundcheck shirt designs that are featured in the episode aside from that one.
• Putting the Band Back Together: The premise of the episode — while Orla stalls the Villain People, Opal, Omar and Oswald try to get Soundcheck back together.
• Take Over the World: The Villain People's ultimate goal, which they wish to achieve via Mind-Control Music.
• Take That!: Par for the course for Soundcheck, who is a direct hit at boy bands such as One Direction. The Villain People as a band, however, appears to be a jab at all-girl groups, like Little Mix and Fifth Harmony.
• The Rock Star: Uva is very dimwitted (and we mean dimwitted), but she can shred a guitar like nobody's business.
• Running Gag: Oswald reminds the band that they love singing, dancing and jean jackets. The band member the group is trying to bring back realizes he has something in common and rejoins. Then something happens that causes said band member to break away from the band until Oswald, Omar and Opal find a commonality shared among all of the band members, which causes the member to rejoin the band again. Rinse and repeat three times.
• Trash-Can Band: Orla decides to change the rubber bands the Villain People are using into trash cans, which she thinks will remedy the problem. However, it fails to stop them, and they use the trash cans as instruments.
• Rooftop Concert: Soundcheck holds one of these at the end of the episode.
• Series Continuity Error: Tony D states that he only likes animals that fly. However, his song "Zoological" has him list off his favorite animals, many of whom swim or walk on land, and don't fly.
• Shaped Like Itself: Soundcheck's Christmas song, "Christmas Smells Like Christmas".
• Shout-Out: The name of the rival band, Villain People, is an obvious reference to the Village People.
  • The video game controller seen when the Van Computer pulls up a list of games that can be played both indoors and outdoors looks nearly identical to an Xbox controller.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Danny T and Tony D both appear on the couch directly after Opal, Omar and Oswald find out what game can be played indoors and outdoors.
• Theme Naming: The names of the women in the Villain People band are Ava, Eve, Ivy and Uva, all of which are three-letter names.
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Orla asks if Soundcheck breaking up is really the end of the world. The Big O answers with "yes", as though she's right beside her (when the episode is shot documentary-style, so she would have no clue of hearing the agent).
• Villain with Good Publicity: When Soundcheck breaks up, their fans grow to love the Villain People when they perform and become the hot new band worldwide, despite their music sounding awful.

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