The Wild Kratts Crew fly to a North American oak tree forest to study the unique relationship between gray squirrels, and the oak trees that they create. But after getting lost in the forest, Chris and Martin challenge each other to a creature contest, to see which is the better oak tree planter, the grey squirrels or the blue jays. But after the contest goes too far, Martin's creature power suit malfunctions, mutating him into an oak tree. Unable to move his branches to deactivate his suit, and with Chris stuck as a grey squirrel, the Kratt Brothers soon realize that they are trapped in the forest, and are surrounded by predators. Due to the Kratt Brothers' communicators also being broken, Koki is unable to track their location, leaving it up to a pair of Wild Kratts kids to find and rescue them.
Tropes:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Jimmy tells Chris and Martin to let him know when they've touched down on land. Both brothers land in a tree and give the cue of "touchdown". Jimmy does too, but only after falling backwards and having the football he's tossing bean him in the face, causing him to give a weak "touchdown..."
- Bring Help Back: Martin tells Chris to do this, as he's stuck as an oak tree and can't move or do much of anything. However, each time Chris leaves to seek help, he's chased right back to his brother by a predator. Eventually he's outright prevented from getting help by a hungry goshawk.
- Butt-Monkey: Martin becomes one about halfway into the episode, given that he's been turned into an oak tree that provides food and shelter to the animals of the forest.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Ronan and Jenny are shown walking in the woods and collecting acorns. When they find Martin's broken Creature Pod, however, they get dragged into the plot, calling the Tortuga to let them know where to land (which is, coincidentally, right near where Chris and Martin are trapped) and eventually freeing Martin from his tree transformation once Chris waves them down with a whistle.
- Description Cut: Happens directly after a transformed Martin manages to grow from an acorn into an oak tree.Jimmy: It's gonna be dark before I spot a place to land. And still no sign of the bros.
Koki: Aviva, you know what trouble those bros get into. We should find them.
Aviva: If they need us, they'll find a way to contact us. Besides, what kind of trouble can they get into with little squirrels and acorns? [giggles]
Chris: Martin? Martin? Martin? Where are you?
Martin: Uh, Chris? I think you're standing on my face.
[zoom out to show Martin's face, embedded right into the tree he transformed into] - Dispense with the Pleasantries: Martin sees Aviva, Koki and Jimmy Z rush up to him and tells him how great he is to see them, beginning to tell them about how he's been turned into a tree. Aviva and Koki pay him absolutely no mind and get right to work examining him.
- From Bad to Worse: A transformed Martin has to deal with animals relaxing on him and eating his acorns. Unfortunately, this doesn't exclude beavers — and one's keen on chopping him down. Meanwhile, a goshawk is keeping Chris trapped in one of Martin's knotholes, meaning he can't go and seek help.
- How Unscientific!: Martin doesn't believe his zoologist brother about squirrels being able to plant a massive forest of oak trees on his own. Said brother sets out to change his mind.
- Insult Backfire: In his argument with Martin about who is responsible for the oak forest being as massive as it is, Chris mentions squirrels being able to find their acorns in the winter thanks to having a good memory, then proceeds to say that blue jays are bird-brains. Martin, with blue jay powers, tells him that being called a "bird-brain" is actually a compliment, not an insult.
- Literal-Minded: When Chris gets chased back to Martin by a goshawk...Martin: Uh, Chris, I'm glad you kept your promise to come back, but where's the help?
Chris: Help!
Martin: That's not what I meant. - Missed Him by That Much:
- Only a second after Martin fully grows into an oak tree, the Tortuga passes by him, thinking he's just another oak tree in a sea of millions of them.
- Later on, Chris hops from tree to tree seeking help to deactivate Martin's suit, and a few seconds after he moves off-camera, the Tortuga comes flying through as Aviva, Koki and Jimmy Z look for a place to land. Chris lands on a branch and tries to wave them down, but they're too far away to notice him.
- Motor Mouth: Due to being consistently interrupted by Ronan and Jenny, Martin catches them up to speed as to what happened to him with fast talk and a deep breath at the end.
- My Instincts Are Showing: Martin tells Chris to get help in order to deactivate his Creature Power Suit. Chris, chanting "get help", quickly runs off to get help. Then a few acorns fall from Martin's branches, and Chris chants "bury acorn" instead, being overridden by squirrel instinct. Even when Martin orders him to go get help, Chris still follows instinct.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Koki neglected to pinpoint where the Tortuga dropped Chris and Martin off, meaning that, in addition to the forest not having a clearing to land in, the brothers are effectively stranded.
- No Mouth: Acorn-transformed Martin lacks a mouth, but is still capable of speaking.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Inverted. Jenny and Ronan, who were flagged down by Chris to rescue Martin, ask Martin a flurry of questions as to whether they performed a creature rescue on him and how he got to be transformed into a tree to begin with. He can't even get a single word edgewise, and when he's finally able to, he speaks fast.Ronan: Was that a creature rescue?
Martin: Oh yeah it was, because trees are creatures too-
Jenny: How did you turn into a tree?
Martin: Well-
Ronan: Does it feel weird?
Martin: N-
Jenny: You look kind of weird.
Ronan: Yeah, what happened?
Martin: My blue jay suit malfunctioned, I got turned into an acorn and got planted and grew into a tree, yes it feels weird and now I need Aviva to deactivate me! [takes a deep breath] - Off-Model:
- Tree Martin's bottom half is shown being chewed on by a beaver, with the creature being halfway there in chopping him down. When Jenny and Ronan lure the beaver away with a branch and return to Martin, however, he has his bottom half completely intact like it was never chewed on at all.
- His Creature Pod is also shown to be intact when Jenny holds it up to him, even though it was shown cracked beforehand.
- Offscreen Teleportation: One moment, Jenny and Ronan are on the ground. The next moment, they're sitting on Martin's branches without him even feeling them climb up him.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Martin's reaction when he sees a beaver chewing away at him.
- Both Martin and Chris share this reaction when Aviva re-aligns the former's Creature Power Suit and re-inserts the blue jay Power Disc, causing a whirring sound to fill the area that causes everyone (sans the brothers, of course) to leave.
- Phlebotinum Breakdown:
- A blue jay pecks at Martin's Creature Power Suit while he's holding an acorn in a wing, causing the suit to malfunction and for him to transform from a blue jay into an acorn that the real blue jay pecks into the ground.
- It's implied that Chris is stuck with squirrel powers as well, going by a throwaway line as he tries to flag down the Tortuga, but his suit is shown to be working fine throughout the episode and doesn't malfunction.
- Power Glows: The Creature Power Suits always glow when they're activated or deactivated, but the blue light that surrounds Martin when Aviva deactivates him is at near-blinding levels of glow.
- Riddle Me This: Martin gives Chris a riddle in the form of asking, "What's the best way to catch a squirrel?" The answer? Climb a tree and act nuts.
- Self-Imposed Challenge: Martin pits the idea of a "creature challenge" to Chris, to see whether Chris is right in squirrels planting entire forests of oak trees or Martin is right about the blue jay doing it. It ends up being a tie once Martin accidentally turning into an oak tree throws a wrench in things.
- Sibling Rivalry: The "creature challenge" Martin and Chris partake in leads to quite a few spats between them over whether the squirrel or the blue jay is better at eating and storing acorns.
- Tempting Fate:
- Directly after Martin drops his Creature Pod, Chris tells him to not worry because he's got his own Creature Pod they can share. Not a second later and he drops it after getting startled by the sound of a goshawk cry, whereupon it shatters when it hits ground (unlike Martin's, which bounced off of a rock and went into a bush).
- Martin remarks that he has to get turned back to normal before something else happens to him. Cue a coyote proceeding to pee on him.
- Urine Trouble: As an oak tree, Martin gets peed on by a coyote looking to mark its territory.
- Transflormation: Due to a blue jay pecking at his suit and making it malfunction when he was holding an acorn, Martin transforms into an acorn, then grows into an oak tree with blue leaves. When Chris tries to deactivate his suit, he fails because he's too small to press the button with squirrel powers.
