Recap / Odd Squad S 3 E 23 H Two Oh No In Your Dreams

"Oh no" indeed. They forgot Spongebob!

H2 Oh No!

Airdate: July 14, 2021 ^note PBS Kids premiere, August 11, 2021 ^note  TVO Kids premiere, October 15, 2021 ^note CBBC premiere

Villain mastermind William Ocean plans to cover the entire world in water.

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Tropes:

• Amphibious Automobile: Apparently, the Mobile Unit van has an "underwater mode", where it turns into a submarine and can enter water without taking any damage.
• Apocalypse How: William Ocean's goal is to flood the entirety of Earth. Of course, he never gets a chance to.
• Artistic License – Biology: When Seahorse Tanya tries to explain to William Ocean that if her costume were more comfortable then she would be more willing to wear it, he tells her that "money doesn't grow on coral". However, coral is an animal, not a plant.
• Bound and Gagged: Osmerelda ends up being tied up by William Ocean when he conjures up seaweed. This leaves her unable to play her flute, forcing Omar to play it.
• Call-Back: Osmerelda is seen with her flute for the first time since "The B Team" (or, disregarding flashbacks, "Odd Beginnings: Part 2").
  • Osmerelda and Omar use their shields to protect themselves from William Ocean's fish attack, like in "End of the Road".
• Caught on Tape: Omar has his tape recorder running for the entirety of the adventure and stores it in his Hammerspace spine, meaning that he also has the notes that William Ocean plays recorded. This enables him and Osmerelda to escape each forcefield he and his minions put up.
• Chekhov's Gun: Omar's tape recorder ends up helping him and Osmerelda figure out the patterns to deactivate each forcefield.
  • Osmerelda's flute is also a key element in deactivating the forcefields.
• Chromatic Arrangement: All four villains are associated with a certain color via their costumes: William Ocean (blue), his lobster henchman (red), his starfish henchman (yellow), and Seahorse Tanya (purple).
• Defector from Decadence: Seahorse Tanya defects from William Ocean's team and helps out Omar and Osmerelda because she hates the fact that he makes her wear a costume, and she's fed up with his bossy attitude.
  Seahorse Tanya: I have a life to live!
  • Shortly after, the starfish and lobster henchmen also quit when their complaints to William Ocean fall on deaf ears.
• Deflector Shields: A rare example in which William Ocean uses these to trap Omar and Osmerelda, not protect them.
• The Dragon: Seahorse Tanya is this to William Ocean, as she serves as his assistant.
• Goofy Suit: All of William Ocean's minions are forced to wear one that look like ocean creatures (like how Seahorse Tanya has a seahorse costume), since he wants them to "look the part" when they flood the entire world. They aren't allowed to take them off either, which creates issues.
• The Great Flood: The Little O shows the Mobile Unit a picture of London, which has already been flooded by William Ocean.
• Humanoid Aliens: It's heavily implied that William Ocean is one of these, based on him showing disdain for his cronies looking like humans despite the fact that they are humans. It doesn't help that he looks humanoid with some alien features, such as his head, face and ears.
• Inherently Funny Words: Orla insists that Omar keeps saying "flabbergasted". In order to prove it, he keeps a tape recorder on at all times to see if he really does say it. She turns out to be right, although he doesn't remember saying the word (and the soundbyte of him saying "I'm flabbergasted" is clearly edited in with each recording that's played aloud).
• Instant Costume Change: Osmerelda manages to get her scuba-diving outfit on within a mere second. However, Omar tells her that there's no need, as the van can go underwater.
• Is This Thing On?: The episode opens up with Omar saying "Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3" into his tape recorder.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Omar keeps explaining that he doesn't remember saying "I'm flabbergasted". While it's meant to be Played for Laughs as to Orla being right about him saying it a lot, it does have some merit considering that we never hear him say it when he gets trapped inside the forcefields, and him saying "I'm flabbergasted" is simply a pre-recorded soundbyte added in post. When Osmerelda attempts to lighten the mood with some comedy by remarking how she's...something and letting him fill in the "something", he doesn't even guess "flabbergasted" right off the bat, and William Ocean chimes in with the word.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Since Osmerelda wasn't present during the events of "End of the Road", Omar recaps what happened with William Ocean and how he and the rest of the Mobile Unit set him free following The Shadow sending him to attack them, which in turn means that he still has his odd powers.
• Look Behind You: Omar does this with William Ocean and his henchmen, saying that there's a fish out of water. As soon as they look away, he and Osmerelda book it along with Seahorse Tanya.
• Mean Boss: William Ocean is this to his minions, which ultimately causes Seahorse Tanya to defect from his side.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: In "Follow the Leader" and "End of the Road", William Ocean was portrayed as a villain who had a conch shell which, when blown into, could summon small fish to attack his enemies. This episode shows that he can do far more than control fish, and creates a sprinkler along with three henchmen in order to flood the entirety of the world. He can also control seaweed, which is used as an equivalent to rope.
• Suddenly Always Knew That: Omar doesn't know how to play the flute. Osmerelda says that he's seen her play it a million times before and encourages him to take a crack at it. He does, and he manages to play it perfectly. May be justified by the fact that the sounds of the flute are, quite obviously, fake — meaning that Jayce Alexander isn't actually playing the flute, it's just sound effects.
• Super Drowning Skills: Ironically, William Ocean can't swim.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Seahorse Tanya repeatedly tells Osmerelda and Omar to call her Tanya. William Ocean chastises her for it.
• Underwater Base: William Ocean has one that looks very similar to an aquarium.
• Water Is Air: Despite being trapped in forcefields made of water, Omar and Osmerelda can still breathe and walk as though they're on land. When Omar attempts to escape the first forcefield by running into it, he fails, and gets knocked back as though it's made out of hard water.
• Written-In Absence: The Little O tasks Orla and Oswald with finding Oxley, who is lost somewhere in the van. They comply, and aren't seen nor mentioned again for the remainder of the episode.

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She believes the Mobile Unit can get her through the night.

In Your Dreams

Airdate: July 14, 2021 ^note PBS Kids premiere, August 11, 2021 ^note  TVO Kids premiere, October 18, 2021 ^note CBBC premiere

The Dream Weaver turns Little O's dreams into nightmares.

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Tropes:

• Arbitrary Skepticism: Most anything is possible in the world of Odd Squad, but going into someone else's dreams is where Omar draws the line. He is quickly told by the Little O that yes, it is indeed possible to go into someone else's dreams.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When Orla, Osmerelda and the Little O head into the latter's dream, she points out the marshmallows made out of clouds, the sun made out of a kiwi, and purple skis with boots that don't look to be made out of any edible food.
• Artistic License – Biology: The Little O has a recurring dream where she can eat and swim at the same time and talks about how swimming after eating is bad for you. In reality, it's a common myth — most people can swim after eating and not feel any negative effects.
• Badass Boast: The Little O gives quite the incredible one when she beats the Dream Weaver.
  Little O: This is my dream and I'm the boss!
• Beautiful Dreamer: The Mobile Unit ends up watching Little O sleep on more than one occasion. Oswald and Omar are a sort of extreme example, as they remain in the waking world while Orla and Osmerelda head into the Little O's dreams, and can only watch her sleep and wait for their partners to return.
• Big "NO!": The Dream Weaver gives one upon her defeat.
• The Blank: Clocky the Snowman has no eyes, nose, or mouth. Instead, he has a clock for a face, which renders him unable to see.
• Catapult Nightmare: Every time the Dream Weaver alters Little O's dreams and turns them into nightmares, she becomes fearful and wills herself awake, then bolts upright in bed.
• Contrived Coincidence: The device that O'Becca has only allows two people to enter one person's dreams three times. She informs the Mobile Unit and the Little O of this when there are fourteen dreams remaining out of the thirty initially presented. One might think that the main reason for this setback is because the episode is eleven minutes long and isn't a Multi-Part Episode. It doesn't help that O'Becca worries that someone will ask her why this is the case, which, in a way, may be interpreted as the writers telling the audience that the reason why isn't important.
• Dream Emergency Exit: When the Dream Weaver is captured, Little O wonders how she, Osmerelda and Orla are going to exit from her dream. She ends up using Orla's cymbals, which the Mobile Unit agent had previously used to wake her boss up twice.
• Dream Episode: The episode revolves around Orla and Osmerelda entering the Little O's dreams in order to stop the Dream Weaver and her machine.
• Dream Reality Check: Orla and Osmerelda attempt to invoke this trope with the Little O. They remind her that nothing in her dreams nor her nightmares are real. She counters by saying that the odd stuff she sees in her dreams, when they become nightmares, feel real. There is some merit to that — the odd stuff that happens in Little O's dreams and nightmares could potentially happen in the real world of the show and be just as life-threatening and dangerous, so her being scared is very much justified. ^note That, and the fact that she is a little kid (appearing to be around Osmerelda's age, if not a year or two younger), who often don't understand that the things in their dreams and nightmares aren't real. To say nothing of the fact that it's all but said she has the ability to lucid-dream. However, Orla and Osmerelda only have three tries to stop the Dream Weaver, and because of it, they attempt to convince the Little O that she's dreaming and she has control over it. This is what enables her to stop the villainess.
• Dream Walker: Osmerelda and Orla enter the Little O's dreams in order to stop her from having nightmares by wearing helmets that are activated by O'Becca when she turns a dial on a cube-shaped device. However, the device only works thrice.
  • Similarly, the Dream Weaver also enters one of the Little O's dreams to plant her Bad Dream Machine, then appears in most every single dream that she has. This leads the Little O on a wild goose chase in order to find the villainess and her machine.
• Dream Weaver: The name of the primary antagonist of the episode, who has a "Bad Dream Machine" that allows her (and the machine itself) to enter the dreams of someone and turn them into nightmares. She also has a remote handy that has all the functions of the machine in compact form. The affected person can reverse the effects of the machine by thinking of their good dreams and overriding the nightmare.
• Electric Jellyfish: A common staple of the Dream Weaver's nightmares. While they never shock anyone, it's all but stated that they do have the ability, as they're meant to be the odd equivalent to lightning.
• Evil Genius: The Dream Weaver is one of the smartest villains on the series, and it shows. Not only has she managed to build a machine to give others bad dreams that's as tall as her, she managed to build a compact version of it in the form of a remote which accomplishes the same thing. She also continuously stays one step ahead of the Little O, Osmerelda and Orla and is not above scaring and taunting the former as she seeps into her good dreams and taints them. The only stupid thing she does is inadvertently give the trio clues as to where her machine is hidden.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: Averted — the Little O doesn't have these despite being sleep-deprived.
• Fell Asleep Standing Up: The Little O has a tendency to do this as part of her Sleep Deprivation.
• The Fool: O'Becca is implied to be this, as her defining character schtick is giving an explanation of what's happening or describing what an object does, then being completely unable to comprehend it herself. Despite this, however, she's pretty competent at her job.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: The bed that O'Becca wheels in has a teddy bear on it, which the Little O cuddles with as she goes to sleep.
  • O'Becca herself also has a small teddy bear in her lab coat pocket.
• Go-to-Sleep Ending: The episode ends with the Little O falling back asleep after being free of the Dream Weaver's influence.
• Hopeless with Tech: Due to her Fish out of Temporal Water status, Orla has no idea how a scanner works.
  Oswald: Orla, let's get the journal into the computer.
  Orla: [holding up the journal] Scanning ho!
  [she drops the journal directly onto the top of the closed scanner]
  Osmerelda: Maybe I should try.
• Insomnia Episode: The Little O is unable to have any sort of restful sleep due to the Dream Weaver changing her dreams into nightmares. As a result, she is unable to solve any odd cases, as they keep piling up.
• Instant Waking Skills: Orla uses cymbals that she keeps in her Hammerspace spine to wake the Little O up, and when she does wake up, she experiences no drowsiness whatsoever.
• Level Ate: The Little O's first dream takes place on a beach, with clouds made out of marshmallows and the sun being a sliced kiwi.
• Moment Killer: The Mobile Unit and the Little O cheer when they've narrowed down the latter's dreams to two. Unfortunately, they forgot about O'Becca, who is in the room with them...
  O'Becca: I hate to boo-hoo your woo-hoo, but...the helmets will only allow you to go into one more dream.
• Nightmare Weaver: The Little O is terrified of jellyfish that shoot lightning and large tarantulas, which the Dream Weaver creates to turn her dreams into nightmares.
• No Water Proofing In The Future: Subverted when the Dream Weaver states that she would never hide her Bad Dream Machine on a beach and Osmerelda thinks it's because the water would short it out and destroy it, only for the villainess to tell her that the machine works fine around water. Instead, it's sunlight that would destroy it.
• Nutritional Nightmare: The Little O likes her hot dogs with a metric ton of relish. She isn't even finished asking the hot dog vendor to put relish on her hot dog before the Dream Weaver shows up.
  Hot Dog Vendor: Too much relish, right?
  [Little O shoots the hot dog a confused look]
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Squishy, the Little O's mermaid friend in her beach-related dream, is a multi-colored mermaid with turquoise-colored hair who is shown to love relaxing on the sand. She is never seen in the water, however, despite being a mermaid.
• Plant Person: Randall the Creepy Fiddler, a swamp creature which is generated by the Dream Weaver as part of the Little O's nightmares. He is a Dreadful Musician, being horrible at playing the fiddle, and wears a very unsettling look on his face.
• Recurring Dreams: The Little O has a total of thirty things that she always dreams about. The dreams we see include her being at a beach with her mermaid friend Squirmy, being at a bowling alley with her snowman friend Clocky, and at a swimming pool where trays of food float by so she can eat and swim at the same time.
• Reveal Shot: The episode opens up with the Mobile Unit staring at something offscreen, with Omar trying to confirm if the Little O called them and Osmerelda saying that she did and that it was important. Then Oswald asks why the Little O is sleeping, and the camera cuts to the boss in question, asleep in her chair.
• Shock and Awe: The Dream Weaver often conjures up thunder and lightning as part of the victim's nightmares. In the Little O's case, she also conjures up Electric Jellyfish.
• Shout-Out: The Little O conjuring up good dreams to beat back her bad dreams is similar to Inception.
• Shown Their Work: The Little O explains that she can get into a dream that takes place indoors just by thinking about it, and keeps a dream journal on hand. She also states that she has thirty Recurring Dreams. It's never stated in the episode itself — mainly because the subject is too complicated for the target demographic to understand — but she engages in lucid dreaming, which is when one is aware that they're in a dream and have the ability to control things in the dream, such as the environment, the characters, and how it turns out. It's also a good way to help reduce nightmares, which is what the Little O is combating. Her ability to lucid-dream is what gives her the upper hand against the Dream Weaver.
• Sleep Deprivation: The Dream Weaver's overall goal is to cause this in her victims so they'll be too exhausted to solve oddness effectively.
• Sleep Mask: O'Becca wears one not over her eyes, but on her head, as part of the required uniform for Dream Scientists.
• Sleepyhead: The Little O becomes this as a result of being sleep-deprived. She can fall asleep in mere seconds what would normally take people about 10-20 minutes to do.
• Snow Means Cold: The bowling alley in the Little O's second dream is littered with snow, the reason being because she loves bowling in the wintertime. There are also snowballs serving as bowling balls.
• Spinning Clock Hands: Clocky's face hands do this when the Dream Weaver ends up showing up.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Orpita may be the highest-ranking person in the organization (or at least the second-highest, behind only Oprah), but she's also just a kid who, like most other kids her age, are terrified of nightmares, and has a child-like side to her personality to boot. For these reasons, it's perfectly justifiable that she would be afraid of what the Dream Weaver is doing to her nightmares and would attempt to wake herself up (which may be a likely factor as to why she hasn't been able to find the villainess nor her machine). Luckily, she has Orla (a girl much older than her) and Osmerelda (a girl around the same age, but more mature) to help her understand that the things she sees in her nightmares aren't real and that she can take control of her dreams.
• Tempting Fate: The Little O tells the Dream Weaver that she can't ruin her beach dream. Cue the villainess doing exactly that and the Little O losing any semblance of confidence she had.
• Title Drop:
  Dream Weaver: If you're having bad dreams, you won't be able to sleep. And if you're not sleeping... [small gasp] You'll be too tired to deal with oddness!
  Little O: In. Your. Dreams!
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: The Little O has an intense fear of spiders and Electric Jellyfish.
• Worldbuilding: Dream Scientists are introduced. Based on O'Becca's attire, they appear to be a division of the Science department.

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