Recap / Sponge Bob Square Pants S 5 E 1 Friend Or Foe

Original air date: 4/13/2007 (produced in 2006)

Mr. Krabs reveals that he and Plankton were once best friends, but a fight over a formula ended it all.

Friend or Foe contains examples of:

• Accidental Discovery: It's revealed that the Krabby Patty formula was created when Plankton slammed a door so hard that a shelf full of ingredients fell into the vat of meat.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Kid Mr. Krabs and kid Plankton were outcasts - the former is mocked for being poor, having to wear dirty clothes made from rags, and the latter for being small and intellectual.
• An Aesop: Friends drift apart as they can get older because of differences, and that's okay. It doesn't always mean you don't like each other anymore, and it's okay to talk to them every once in a while.
  • Don't ruin your friendship over a petty rivalry, your friendship should be more important.
  • The key to a good business relationship is to know when to take responsibility for your actions, and not fixating on shifting the blame to someone else. A large part of what drove Plankton and Krabs apart was that neither wanted to admit their role in poisoning Old Man Jenkins, contributing to the deterioration of their friendship.
• Backhanded Apology:
  Kid Mr. Krabs: Hey, barnacle brains, I think you owe Plankton an apology.
  Classmate: You're right, Plankton, I'm sorry. Sorry you have to hang out with rag boy.
• Bait-and-Switch: When Old Man Jenkins takes a bite out of the Plabs Patty, a smile appears on his face, making Krabs and Plankton believe they'd made a great tasting burger...but then Jenkins keels over, still smiling.
• Berserk Button: The gorilla at The Poop Deck starts a food fight with Patchy when the latter says it’s not qualified to serve food.
• Big Fun: As long as your nickname isn't Rag Boy or Plankton, and you don't mind food poisoning, then Stinky is a fat, jovial, and successful businessman who deeply appreciates your patronage and lispect.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: When Old Man Jenkins arrives at the dump, Mr. Krabs and Plankton hear his Leitmotif playing in the background.
• Call-Forward: Mr. Krabs is shown acquiring his prized first dollar, which is presently hanging in his house as seen in "Wet Painters". Though given the fact that this occurred in his false retelling of the second half of the story, it's not entirely sure if it's truly how he received the dollar or not.
• Child Prodigy: After Patchy's attempt to make a patty fails, he tries to console himself by saying SpongeBob probably wasn't an instant success at fry-cooking either. Potty then shows a clip of SpongeBob as an infant making a perfect patty on his first attempt. Patchy is not amused with the parrot.
• Didn't Think This Through: Kid Mr. Krabs and Plankton try to start their own restaurant at their hangout, without success. Kid Mr. Krabs then lampshades it:
  Kid Mr. Krabs: Do ya think it was a good idea to open in a dump?
• Dissension Remorse: Mr. Krabs and Plankton go through this after Karen calls both of them out for letting the secret formula ruin their friendship.
• Framing Device: The episode is told in flashback by Mr. Krabs, plus a butt in from both Plankton and Karen.
• Gilligan Cut: Patchy being a terrible fry cook tries to console himself he's just a beginner and that maybe SpongeBob's first patty didn't turn out so well either. Then cue SpongeBob as an infant making a perfect patty on the first try.
• Given Name Reveal: Mama Krabs’ first name is Betsy.
• Hate Sink:
  • The appropriately-named Stinky. He’s a hypocritical Fat Bastard who makes not just crappy, but poisonous food and discriminates against outcasts. It's especially telling given that he very likely was once a poor man himself, yet now looks down on the outcasts of society once he became rich and "lispectable". It's hard to feel bad for him when he gets arrested and his store inevitably gets shut down.
  • There’s also the school bullies who treated Mr. Krabs and Plankton like dirt for no reason.
• Hope Spot: In the ending, it seemed that Mr. Krabs and Plankton were about to restore their friendship until Plankton steals the secret formula from his pocket.
• How We Got Here: The entire episode is Mr. Krabs then Plankton and Karen explaining just how he and Plankton became rivals.
• Hypocritical Humor: The last we see of Stinky.
  Stinky: I've worked TOO LONG and TOO HARD to make this a lispectable business! As it is, I can barely afford the essential things in life. (wristwatch beeps) Is it quittin' time already?! (rips off uniform into a fancy outfit) Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to enjoy some of... life's essentials.
• I Call It "Vera": Old Man Jenkins calls his truck "Ol' Bessie".
• It Tastes Like Feet: Patchy keeps hamburger meat in an old boot ("That's what gives it its special flavor").
• Jerkass: Stinky and the school bully towards Krabs and Plankton.
• Kids Are Cruel: Krabs and Plankton got picked on by the other kids. The former for wearing rags and the latter for being a genius.
• "Kiss the Cook" Apron: Patchy the Pirate wears a "Kiss the Cook" apron while working at a restaurant called "The Poop Deck". When his parrot Potty questions this, Patchy remarks that he might "get lucky" and turns to the camera, offering himself to the ladies in the audience.
  Potty: Now I'm gonna be sick!
• Laser-Guided Karma: Stinky was a real jerk towards Krabs and Plankton and refused to serve them any of his own burgers. Eventually, he got arrested and his store was shut down by the health inspector. And while not stated it can be inferred that Stinky lost his financial fortune to paying for health code violation penalties and to pay the bail for his release.
• Lethal Chef:
  • Patchy. He keeps burger meat in an old boot, allows rats in the kitchen, doesn't wash his hands after using the lavatories and doesn't wear a hair net. Even he admits his food tastes awful after taking a bite out of his hamburger.
  • Stinky is also this, but seeing how Stinky Burgers is the only burger stand in town, he attracts customers despite the terrible food.
  • Plankton and Krabs literally start off as this. Their first burger almost kills Old Man Jenkins. This is implied to be due to chum being part of the Plab Patty recipe. While Krabs went on to invent the Krabby Patty (albeit accidentally), Plankton stays this trope.
• invoked No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: In-Universe and Inverted. The damning newspaper article published after Krabs and Plankton's "Plab Patty" puts Old Man Jenkins in a coma does nothing to improve their business, and have may in fact further doomed it.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Young Mr. Krabs expresses dismay at accidentally poisoning his old neighbor with the Plab Patty. Plankton however is utterly uncaring, only noting that he was old as it was. This ends up causing the two to get into a fight over whose fault it was for the Plab Patty's terrible nature.
• Never My Fault: Kid Mr. Krabs and Plankton's partnership/friendship came to an end when they blamed each other for their first patty poisoning Old Man Jenkins.
• Pauper Patches: Mr. Krabs and his Mom were going through some rough financial times, so Mama Krabs had to fashion Mr. Krabs' clothes from rags.
• Portmanteau: When two kids argue over whether they like or respect Stinky, he coins the term "lispect".
• Rags to Riches: Krabs went from "Rag Boy" (referring to having to wear rags meant for washing cars) to the most successful restauranteur in Bikini Bottom.
• "Rashomon"-Style: Mr. Krabs claimed the moment his friendship with Plankton ended was when Plankton went mad with power. ("I'm ruling their stomachs, and soon I'll be ruling their minds!") However, Plankton appears and claimed their friendship actually ended when Mr. Krabs went mad with greed. ("First, I'll rule their stomachs, and then...their money!") But then Karen (who was just starting out as a security system at the time Mr. Krabs and Plankton started their own restaurant) shows up and revealed they didn't attract any customers at all; it didn't help that they opened their restaurant in a junkyard. In fact, the only customer they did have got poisoned by the burger. Krabs and Plankton then blame each other and fought over who gets to fix the recipe, leading them to start their own separate restaurants. Notably, the only constant element in all three versions of the second half of the tale was the two tearing their original recipe in half.
• Secretly Wealthy: Stinky, who hides his fortune from the kids and is in fact wealthy enough to afford tux suits and a limo.
• Self-Serving Memory: For the first half of the flashback, Mr. Krabs told it accurately, until he got to the part where he and Plankton had their falling out. Plankton then told his own version of how it happened before Karen came in and told the true story.
• Series Continuity Error:
  • In "Enemy-In-Law", Mr. Krabs claimed the Krabby Patty recipe was a Krabs' family recipe, and Plankton believed him, but here, it's shown that he developed it by accident, and Plankton was aware of that.
  • "The Krusty Krab Training Video" showed a much younger Mr. Krabs as being aware of money at that age, compared to this showing him discovering money when he was older. The same episode established Mr. Krabs bought an old retirement home to use as the building for the Krusty Krab, while his Krabby Patty cart here resembling the building of his later restaurant seems to carry the implication he built said building from scratch as the evolution of how his business started.
• Start My Own: It's revealed that Krabs and Plankton started a restaurant together as a retaliation when the owner of another restaurant wouldn't accept them as customers. Also, before Krabs started to make Krabby Patties, Plankton broke the partnership to start his own restaurant because nobody liked the patty the two of them made together.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: There ends up being several:
  • In the present day, Plankton can keep the Chum Bucket afloat (no pun intended) despite being a Lethal Chef. Stinky does not get the same luxury and finds out selling terrible food that violates multiple health violations is a one way ticket to getting shut down by the health department.
  • In Mr. Krabs and Plankton's respective sides of the story, they manage to drum up business despite their restaurant being in a junkyard. When Karen shows what really happened, they get no customers and Krabs even asks if it was a good idea to open up their restaurant there.
  • Selling your food without checking if it actually tastes any good is an incredibly stupid idea. The Plab Patty was noted as the "best looking burger" under the sea by Krabs in his story, but there's no indication either he or Plankton actually tasted the food. And given they made it in the middle of a junkyard hangout, with Plankton literally sweating into the food and touching the rolling pin that flattened the patty with his feet, the food was a hazard waiting to strike. Poor Old Man Jenkins...
• Tear-Apart Tug-of-War: In a flashback, Krabs and Plankton fight over a patty recipe and accidentally tear it apart, marking the beginning of their bitter rivalry.
• This Means War!: When their friendship/partnership falls apart, Kid Plankton declares that if it was war Eugene wanted, it's war he'd get.
• Toilet Humor: SpongeBob swallows the formula to keep Plankton from getting it. He returns later with the formula, informing Mr. Krabs, "You have no idea what that went through to get there."
• Visual Pun: After both Patchy and Potty are fired, Potty shows that he got a golden parachute.^note A large paycheck or compensation if an employee is terminated As in a literal parachute made of gold.
• Walk the Plank: After biting into the patty he had made, and finding it tastes terrible, Patchy forces it to walk the plank into the trash can.
• We Are Not Going Through That Again: To stop Plankton from stealing the Krabby Patty formula at the beginning of the episode, SpongeBob swallowed it, returning it after it 'passed' through him, much to Mr. Krabs' disgust. When Plankton shows up again during Mr. Krabs' story, SpongeBob attempts to swallow it again, but was stopped by Mr. Krabs, who cited that once was enough.
• We Used to Be Friends: The premise of the episode.
• Wham Line: Mr Krabs reveals the shocking truth to SpongeBob.
  SpongeBob: Why, Mr Krabs? Why does he hate us so?
  Mr Krabs: Well, you might as well blame me, SpongeBob. There was a time when Plankton and I were best friends.
• Whole Episode Flashback: To Krabs' and Plankton's childhood and friendship turned rivalry.
• Wingding Eyes:
  • Krabs has dollar signs in his eyes when he gets the idea to make a burger better than Stinky's.
  • All the kids have hearts in their eyes when they taste their first Krabby Patties.
• Word, Schmord!: "Skill schmill, Krabs, baby. Who needs skill when science is on your side?"

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