Carrie and Gumball scam people out of their Halloween candy by faking hauntings and exorcisms. Darwin reluctantly joins because it gives him a chance to be with Carrie. Things take a wrong turn when a real spirit takes over Elmore Jr. High and everyone expects them to exorcise it.
Tropes:
- 15 Minutes of Fame: Gumball becomes a renowned ghost hunter in Elmore, but that also means that the town relies on him to save the day when Gargaroth ends up being real.Gumball: I always knew I’d get my 15 minutes of fame, I just didn’t know they would be my last.
- Art Shift: Darwin's Animesque fantasy of him and Carrie together.
- Covered in Gunge: Gumball, Darwin, and Carrie emerge from the school after having defeated Gargaroth covered in his Ectoplasm and half-digested pieces of candy.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Carrie.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Gumball outright kills Gargaroth, who is powerful enough to warp reality into an apocalyptic state just by existing via Heroic Sacrifice.
- Eldritch Abomination: Gargaroth the Destroyer - he’s even more disgusting than Gumball described him to be.
- Ghosts Abhor a Vacuum: Gumball and Darwin use vacuum cleaners to exterminate the “ghosts” from Elmore Jr. High. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work on the real Gargaroth.
- Halloween Episode: Set around Halloween, though mostly during the day. The US broadcast was delayed from late season four to early season five for the sake of airing around Halloween. By comparison, the UK broadcast came first, airing it in May.
- Heroic Sacrifice: According to Carrie's story, Gargaroth can only be banished by "the sacrifice of a lone, selfless hero". She attempts the relatively minor loss of all the candy they'd scammed, but it doesn't work because Gumball hides away one last piece. Carrie then takes the much more drastic step of offering herself as Gargaroth's bride. In the face of this, and Darwin's Oblivious Guilt Slinging, Gumball reluctantly gives up his last piece and saves the day.
- I Got a Rock: Mr. Small's fake haunting includes him floating while being sucked into a ceiling fan. When he rewards Gumball and Darwin with a box of raisin, they have Carrie resume the haunting.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Gumball selflessly - if after making every attempt to avoid it - sacrifices all of his candy to stop Gargaroth and save Carrie, but under no circumstances is he happy about being forced to do the right thing. This leads to the amusing image of him maintaining a bitter scowl even as an adoring crowd crowdsurfs him away cheering his praises.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Gumball pretends to be a hero to scam people out of candy. When this brings Gargaroth to Elmore, Gumball is forced to do something genuinely heroic to get rid of him—give up all of his candy to save Carrie. He is then greeted with applause from the whole town, which he is not at all satisfied by.
- The Last Straw: Carrie's initial plan for defeating Gargaroth is to stuff him full of all the candy they scammed until he explodes. However, Gumball keeps one last piece for himself and Carrie has to marry him instead. Then Gumball feeds him the last of his candy and Gargaroth explodes.
- Monster Protection Racket: Carrie pretends to be a much more malicious ghost haunting places so Darwin and Gumball can get paid, in candy, to get rid of her.
- Narrative Shapeshifting: Gumball says that there are no words to describe Gargaroth, so he shows them what he looks like by briefly taking his form.
- Not a Mask: Ms. Simian compliments Tobias on his horrifying disguise. Turns out it was an allergic reaction to the make-up.
- Ominous Crack: When Gumball is telling Darwin that he’s planning to scam the whole town out of their Halloween candy, a huge crack appears in the floor of the school.
- Out of Order: The episode was made for season four but held back from airing for Halloween, hence Gargaroth appearing in "The Compilation".
- Pillar of Light: While hoarding all the stolen candy in the Wattersons’ attic, Gumball looks out the window to see a pillar of red light shooting out of the school. He comes to realize this as a sign of Gargaroth’s arrival.
- Playing the Victim Card: Gumball justifies his scam to Darwin by claiming he has too bad a reputation to get Halloween candy the usual way. When Darwin responses with an unconvinced Death Glare, Gumball admits to just wanting more candy.
- Poltergeist: With the help of Carrie’s ghost powers, Gumball tricks everyone into thinking the school is being haunted by one.
- Real After All: Gargaroth turns out to be real. Carrie speculates he was made real by all the buzz their actions stirred up.
- The Real Spoofbusters: Gumball and Darwin dress up in jumpsuits while pretending to "hunt" Gargaroth with a vacuum cleaner. Their montage has a Song Parody of the Ghostbusters theme (which manages to sound even more like "I Want a New Drug").
- Shout-Out:
- The costumes seen amongst Gumball's classmates include Beetlejuice (Gumball), The Moon from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Sarah G. Lato), and Audrey II (Leslie).
- The song playing during the boys' scam is a pastiche of "I Want A New Drug" by Huey Lewis and the News.
- Singing Voice Dissonance: The episode opens on a deep, operatic voice singing the witches' song from Macbeth. When the camera reaches Ms. Simian's class, we see Idaho was the singer, whereupon he says "thank you" in his usual high, soft voice.
- Skewed Priorities: As if unleashing a real monster upon their school wasn’t enough, Gumball almost lets Gargaroth take Carrie as his bride because he refuses to give up the last piece of candy. Even for Gumball, he grabs the Jerkass Ball pretty hard in this episode.
- Speak of the Devil: Gumball warns the kids not to say the name Gargaroth, but he himself repeats it various times. This is of course part of his plan.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Darwin tries this on Gargaroth. To his credit, it almost works.Darwin: Perhaps the emptiness isn’t in your stomach, but in your heart.
