Recap / The Casagrandes S 3 E 3 The Curseofthe Candy Goblin

When the kids take trick-or-treating too far, they must return their candy to the neighborhood goblin.

Tropes:

• Adults Are Useless: The adults are all too busy trying to get Vito unstuck from the mercado entrance to be of any help to Ronnie Anne and her cousins.
• An Aesop:
  • Don't take more than your fair share.
  • Innocent people's safety is more important than a competition.
  • Don't leave other people out of your activities.
• Bait-and-Switch: When the kids run away from the Candy Goblin, they leave Carlitos sitting helplessly on the couch. Carl and CJ come running back, making it look like they’re going to rescue him, but save their buckets of candy instead.
  Carl: How could we forget?!
  CJ: My baby!
• Bedsheet Ghost: Carlitos dresses up as one, which Ronnie Anne thinks is adorable.
• The Bet: The kids make a bet that whoever gets the most candy while trick-or-treating gets everyone else’s candy too.
• Big Ball of Violence: When Ronnie is wrestling Carl.
• Big Sister Instinct: Ronnie Anne tells Carlitos (who's still just a baby) to stay home with the grownups while she and the others are out trick-or-treating, especially since some of the places that they were planning on visiting would probably be too scary for someone his age.
• Brain Food: Bobby dresses up as a zombie for Halloween and acts like he’s trying to eat his grandpa’s brain.
  Bobby: Want...abuelo...brains!!
• Bring My Brown Pants: When Ronnie Anne asks who flushed the toilet when she, Bobby, and Carl are hiding in the bathtub, Bobby proudly says, “I already peed in my pants earlier!”
• Can't You Read the Sign?: The sign at the creepy house the Casagrandes trick-or-treat at clearly says “Only take one, or the Candy Goblin will come!” Bet you can guess what they do next...
• Cassandra Truth: None of the adults believe Bobby’s account of the night.
  Frida: You kids are so funny sometimes! Such imaginations!
• Continuity Nod: When Carlitos turns the TV on, the movie shown is Evil Hat Man: The Brimming, the same movie Ronnie Anne and her friends were watching in "Home Improvement".
• Creepy Doll: The room in the Goblin’s house that Carlitos is being held in is filled with scary broken dolls, one of which is a Monster Clown for good measure.
• Dog Walks You: Carlota gives Lalo a sniff of her candy in order to have him lead her to victory. When he catches a whiff, he drags her along to the next candy source.
  • This backfires on her when Ronnie plays Go Fetch with a steak and Lalo goes chasing after it.
• Door Handle Scare: Carlitos is the only one who notices the Candy Goblin jiggling the door knob to try to get into the room all the kids are hiding in.
• Dramatic Thunder: Thunder crashes and lightning strikes when Carlota and Lalo arrive at a creep-looking Old, Dark House.
  • Happens again when the group realizes the Candy Goblin might really be after them.
• Dresses the Same: While Carlos is pleased he and his neighbor wore the same Halloween costume, Vito is decidedly less enthused and goes home to change.
  • He comes back in a witch costume to find that someone else is already wearing the same thing - the Casagrandes’ “Mr. Inflatable” outside of their bodega.
• *Drool* Hello: The Candy Goblin does this as he looms over Ronnie Anne, Bobby, and Carl when they’re hiding from him in the bathtub.
• Evil Laugh: Hector does one over the loudspeaker in the bodega to scare Laird.
• Faint in Shock: Bobby faints in fear when a fake spider surprises him at the bodega. Considering all that he went through earlier in the night, it’s no surprise his nerves are shot.
• Fireball Eyeballs: The Goblin’s eyes turn into burning flames after Carl tries to argue about bringing him their candy next Halloween too.
• Furniture Blockade: The group uses one to lock the Candy Goblin out of the room. Unfortunately, he just ends up using the window.
• Gasshole: CJ uses “Abuelo Fart Mode” to fly past the rest of the kids while trick-or-treating.
• Ghost Butler: The doors of the haunted house swing open on their own to let the kids in to return the candy and then slam shut behind them.
• Halloween Episode: The Casagrandes compete to see who can get the most candy trick-or-treating on Halloween.
• Hostage for MacGuffin: To force Ronnie Anne, Bobby, Carlota, CJ, and Carl to give up the candy they stole, the Candy Goblin kidnaps Carlitos.
• Ignoring by Singing: Carlota is making fun of how little candy Bobby got while he covers his ears and sings “la la la!” to block her out.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While they may have taken the competition too far, the gang did raise a couple of good points —
  • 1.) Not trusting Sergio's word on not flying (since Sergio has a tendency to lie and/or cheat).
  • 2.) With how young Carlitos is, Ronnie Anne was right to be concerned about some of the places they were planning to visit on being too scary for him.
• Luck-Based Search Technique: Bobby finds a Secret Room after he gets scared and jumps into the arms of a Grim Reaper statue which triggers the door to open.
• Ocular Gushers: Tears come spraying out of Bobby’s eyes when he tells his family the story of the kids’ Halloween night.
• Oh, Crap!: Ronnie Anne, Bobby, Carlota, CJ, and Carl the first time they see the Candy Goblin.
• Our Goblins Are Different: The Candy Goblin is tall, with big feet, a big sharp chin, and green skin. He hunts down kids who don’t follow the rules on Halloween.
• Real After All: Just as Sergio, Sancho, and Carlitos are about to enjoy their candy, the real Candy Goblin comes along to give them a good scare!
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Candy Goblin has glowing red eyes when he first appears to the kids in silhouette outside their window.
• Rewatch Bonus: When Sancho discovers the bowl of candy empty, he gets a glimpse of the Candy Goblin warning, which foreshadows him being a part of the plan to get revenge on the kids.
  • Him and Sergio being the Candy Goblin is further hinted at by how the Candy Goblin has the ability to fly.
• Rhymes on a Dime: The Candy Goblin does this, as Bobby points out:
  Candy Goblin: You stole from my bowl, now you must pay the toll.
  Bobby: You know, he’s scary but he’s got a real knack for rhyming!
• "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: The ending reveals that Sancho and Sergio (with some help from Carlitos) were the Candy Goblin all along.
• Shout-Out:
  • Carlos is dressed up as Prometheus from KaBlam!'s Prometheus and Bob.
  • The clown doll that scares Carl is a dead ringer for Zeebo the Clown from the Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode "The Tale of Laughing in the Dark".
  • Another doll resembling Slappy the Dummy from Goosebumps (1995) is also seen.
• Skewed Priorities: Even after being chased by a literal monster, the kids are still more concerned about who’s going to win the bet.
• Strong Family Resemblance: CJ dresses up as his abuelo to go trick-or-treating and Bobby doesn’t realize it’s him at first until he takes off his fake mustache. Hector is quite pleased with the costume though.
  Hector: You’re gonna get so many sweets this year because of this handsome, handsome costume.
• Worst. Whatever. Ever!: Sergio says it’s the “Worst Halloween ever!” because not only does he not get to go trick-or-treating, but he also can’t go through the haunted maze in the bodega.