The gang investigates the mysterious removal of all the playground balls.
Tropes:
- Accidental Innuendo: This episode is full of "ball" puns!
- All for Nothing: Menlo didn't admit his mistake because he was worried panic might ensue. However, the same chaos happened anyway when none of the adults could offer any explanation for why the balls were taken.
- All of Them: Lawson comes up with a new game that he can beat Vince at that consists of all the balls. He calls it "All the Balls."
- Cacophony Cover Up: Menlo turns on the radio in his office, claiming that "they" are watching him.
- Chekhov's Gun: Prickly tells the gang that he approved a requisition form to get a new set of balls for the playground, but they never showed up. Gretchen wonders if the two sets might somehow be linked. Turns out, they were.
- Clark Kenting: Menlo wears drama club costumes to disguise himself as informants. For one of them, he doesn't even change his glasses. And somehow, this completely fools the gang.
- Comically Missing the Point: Gus, when they finally confront Menlo.Gus: Get on line with your little pal, the President, and get us back our balls!T.J.: Uh, Gus, it was Menlo. Just Menlo.
- Idiot Ball: No pun intended, but it really takes the gang too long to figure out that the informants are really Menlo. Butch mocks them for it.
- Insane Troll Logic: The gang comes to the conclusion that the President of the United States was involved in a conspiracy to get rid of their playground balls. Even T.J. has no idea how this fits.
- Motive Misidentification: The gang assumes Menlo got the balls removed to make the other kids miserable. It turns out he actually just made a mistake when filling out the forms and was too embarrassed to admit it.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Prickly shows his good side by being upfront with the gang and telling them what little he actually knows.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Apart from Prickly, all the adults that the Recess Gang confront about the missing balls say "they have no comment," leading them to think that they are trying to hide something.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To All the President's Men.
