Gumball: You don't understand! She's not your friend, she's a parasite! First, she uses you to get stuff. Then, when you think you guys are friends, she takes over your mind, attaches herself to your body, and before you know it, she turns you into a fungus thingy so that she can release her spores, contaminating more people and destroying civilization as we know it!
Darwin and Gumball find out Anais made another new friend, but, after reading her diary and seeing Anais interact with her, they begin to suspect that Anais' new friend may be using her.
Tropes:
- All Take and No Give: Gumball assumes this is the case with Anais and Jodie's "friendship", believing that Jodie is the Taker that's exploiting Anais as the Giver. He is correct that their relationship is this trope, except that Anais, the Giver, is the one causing trouble as she's giving things to Jodie that the latter never asked for nor wanted.
- And This Is for...: After Gumball tells Anais he knows about Jodie, she kicks him in the shin for reading her diary, kicks him in the other shin for impersonating her voice, slams a locker door in his face for trying to throw things at Jodie, and gives him a peck on the cheek for worrying about her.
- Big Brother Instinct: Gumball thinks that Jodie is trying to take advantage of Anais and doesn't really want to be friends, so he spends the episode trying to "help" his sister.
- Black Comedy Burst: Gumball gives Darwin, Anais, Jodie, and himself bagged lunches — one of which contains a poisoned sandwich. After much mixing around, the four tentatively take a bite and realize that none of the sandwiches they have are poisoned. Ambulance Cut to Richard gurgling on the ground, with the bitten sandwich next to him and the phone off the hook with the 911 operator trying to contact him.
- Body Horror: Anais and Jodie's bodies merged together.
- Bowdlerise: The Cartoon Network Philippines version cuts out parts that explicitly show that Gumball tried to poison Jodie (including the shot of Richard passed out at home just as he was trying to call Poison Control and Gumball's admission to Anais), making his intent with the sandwiches unexplained.
- Chekhov's Gun: The episode opens with Gumball's mimicry of Anais' voice, which he uses again near the end of the episode in an attempt to separate her and Jodie.
- Confronting Your Imposter: Gumball mimics Anais's voice while telling Jodie to get lost, but it turns out Anais was also on the other end.
- Easily Forgiven: Averted. Anais certainly believed this would be the case after she apologized to Jodie and asked to be her friend for real, but Jodie runs away while Anais is in the middle of her speech, clearly wanting nothing to do with her after she’s been unbearably clingy throughout the episode and fused onto her as a parasite.
- Epic Fail: Jodie's original science project was a potato-powered light that somehow blew up the whole school when Anais stuck the wires in. That's how Gumball and Darwin imagine it, anyway.
- False Friend: Gumball thinks Jodie is just a parasite because Anais is always doing her a bunch of difficult or questionable favors, like carrying her books, letting her eat her lunch, or switching science class projects. Jodie really isn't Anais's friend, but also didn't ask for any of those favors (and even objected to cheating). Anais forced them on her because she was desperate to make a friend.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Jodie and Anais start speaking different parts of the same sentences shortly before they merge together.
- Foreshadowing: A few regarding Anais' "friendship" with Jodie:
- Anais is eager to buy Jodie food from a vending machine and the cafeteria, despite Jodie not asking for it or being enthusiastic about receiving it. This hints that there's something wrong with their friendship, but it's actually Anais causing it.
- It could even be found as early as Gumball reading Anais' diary. Listen to the words Anais is using; she never claimed that Jodie asked for her lunch, science project or that she carry Jodie's bag. If anything, she implies that those favors were Anais' idea.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Darwin and Gumball made a list of pros and cons to secretly reading Anais's diary, where the pros part has two items, and cons part goes off the page, onto the floor, and out of the house. The actually legible parts, limited to the paper, are only visible for a second, but get a bit strange toward the end.The List
- Here We Go Again!: Anais realizes she was being crazy in her attempts to make Jodie her friend, and asks for a second chance. Then Anais notices Jodie already ran off, and chases after her while acting crazy again.
- Hypocritical Heartwarming: Gumball thinks he's the only one that should take advantage of Anais' generosity because he knows she's socially awkward and doesn't think it's good for her to be preyed on by anyone else.
- I Resemble That Remark!: When Darwin comments that Gumball is starting to sound like their mom, Gumball denies it while speaking in Nicole's voice and looking just like her.
- I Would Say If I Could Say:Gumball: [Jodie] can walk on her own two feet like everyone else in this school!
(Alan floats by)
Gumball: Apart from him.
(William flies by)
Gumball: And him.
(Carrie floats by)
Gumball: OK and her, but you get the idea! - Knight Templar Big Brother: When Gumball suspects Jodie is taking advantage of Anais, he quickly resorts to attempts at violence, all of which end up hurting Innocent Bystanders or Anais herself.Anais: What do you think you're doing?
Gumball: The only sensible thing: poison the sandwich so your so-called friend gets the message that—OK, now that I said it out loud, I realize it sounds kind of wrong. - Literal Metaphor: The social parasitism between Anais and Jodie eventually leads to physical parasitism where their bodies end up merged together.
- Literal-Minded:
- Gumball orders Darwin to look harder, so Darwin sticks a toothpick in his mouth and puts on a Face of a Thug.
- Gumball tells to Darwin "throw some scientific facts at [Jodie and Anais]", Darwin starts reading facts from a textbook.Gumball: I mean that we should throw books! I said "throw facts" because it was like an action movie quip. Nevermind, just throw books.
- Long List: Gumball made a list of pros and cons for reading Anais' diary. The pros are two items. The cons go off the page, down the stairs, out the front door and halfway across town.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: One of the ways Gumball tries to deal with Jodie involves giving her a poisoned sandwich.
- Ninja Prop:
- The episode opens with a voiceover of Anais reading her diary. Then we pull out and see it's actually Gumball reading the diary entry to Darwin in Anais's voice.
- Anais never described in her diary what Jodie looked like, so when Darwin and Gumball imagine the events described, Jodie is visually represented as a slightly-translucent female silhouette. To Darwin's surprise, the girl they find looks exactly like that. She isn't Jodie, though. The real Jodie is a duck.
- Not So Above It All: Gumball justifies butting in Anais's life by calling attention to her insecurities.Gumball: You know Anais, in spite of being clever and sarcastic, she's also fragile and weird and she has trouble fitting in.
- Once More, with Clarity: Once Jodie's true nature is revealed, we get an accurate view of the events described in Anais' diary, including how ridiculously clingy Anais was being.
- Poison Chalice Switcheroo: Gumball tries to give Jodie a poisoned bag lunch to get rid of her. When Anais asks what's in it, Gumball says all the lunches he and Richard made were the same, so Anais switches Jodie's bag with his. Gumball, Darwin, and Anais then come up with various excuses to not take that same bag, with Darwin taking it himself once when he forgot. Rocky gets fed up with watching this, so he switches all the bags around faster than anyone can see. The four of them nervously bite into their lunches, but none of them are poisoned—Richard's was.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: "Let's throw some scientific facts at them." Darwin takes it too literally and starts reading facts out loud, instead of throwing books as Gumball intended.
- Shout-Out: Gumball and Darwin fuse together into a Clicker from The Last of Us.
- Take Our Word for It: Jodie and Anais split apart offscreen, and judging by everyone's reactions (along with the Sickening "Crunch!" and Wacky Sound Effects) it was really gross.
- Tap on the Head: Gumball throws Darwin's shoe at a girl he wrongly assumed was Jodie, it hits her directly in the head, and she collapses on the spot. After Darwin checks her pulse and affirms that she's still breathing, they assume she's fine and move on.
- Throw the Book at Them: Gumball and Darwin attack the merged Anais and Jodie with books.
- Title, Please!: Most likely by mistake, this episode (on the TV and online versions) doesn't have the usual title card. The Hulu version in America has the title card.
- Voice Changeling: Gumball is able to perfectly mimic Anais's voice and (accidentally) Nicole's voices.
- Wham Line: When asked for advice, the Nurse give them this.Joan: Pretty simple— your sister needs to let go of that poor girl. She is the parasite.
Gumball and Darwin: WHAT?!
Jodie: All I wanted was to borrow a pen!
