Recap / Amphibia S3E01 "The New Normal"

O brave new world, that has such people in't!

Hop Pop: So what's our next move, Anne? I mean, so much has happened. Do you think Marcy's-
Anne She's alive, Hop Pop; she's just gotta be. And with her and Sasha stuck over there, one thing's for sure: we gotta find a way back.

After Anne and the Plantars get transported to Earth, they try to adjust to a wild new environment while keeping their frog identities secret and Anne tries to hide the truth about Andrias from her parents. Meanwhile, a dangerous enemy is sent by Andrias to Earth to hunt down Anne and kill her.

Full Recap

Picking up after the events of "True Colors", Anne and the Plantar family find themselves in the middle of traffic on the streets of Los Angeles. Astonished by their new surroundings, Anne and the Plantars walk through Anne's neighborhood as the frogs ask what their next move is. Anne affirms her belief that Marcy is alive and vows to find a way back to Amphibia to help her and Sasha. They arrive at Anne's house and she is dumbfounded that she is about to see her parents again after all this time. She tells the Plantars to hide until she gives the signal and decides to not tell her parents about King Andrias and his invasion, how she was betrayed by both Sasha and Marcy, and especially to keep quiet about her "Blue Powers". Anne knocks on the door as her mother opens it and as the two see each other, Anne's mother tearfully embraces her daughter. Just then Anne's father sees them and joins in the hug. As Anne shares an emotional reunion with both of her parents and her cat Domino, Hop Pop mistakes a bird squawk for Anne's signal and reveals himself. Polly reprimands him for it and Sprig introduces himself. As Anne's parents are left in shock at the sight of the 3 talking frogs, Anne slaps her forehead.

Anne puts together a presentation explaining what she has been doing all this time (while leaving out the events of "True Colors" to prevent more panic). As her parents process everything their daughter said, Anne asks if the frog family can stay; they are reluctant and Mrs. Boonchuy suggests calling the authorities. But Anne is convinced that the government would do horrible experiments on talking frogs. Seeing how much the Plantars mean to Anne, the Boonchuys agree to let them stay, but on lockdown. The Boonchuys continue to pamper Anne and she has finally had enough. She demands that she be given space. When Mrs. Boonchuy tells them she's leaving to the market, Anne asks to come along and promises to disguise the Planters and keep a low profile. After Hop Pop and Jeff Boonchuy point out that Anne is a lot more mature than she used to be, Mrs. Boonchuy finally agrees.

Meanwhile, in Amphibia, King Andrias' plans are underway, and prepares for the upcoming dimensional invasion, but there is only one major obstacle standing between him: Anne, because she is the only one left with the power to defeat him due to retaining her connection with her stone. He summons a Silver Cloak-Bot to go to Earth and kill Anne as she is in the way of his plans, but asks it to make sure no one on Earth sees it to avoid alerting anyone of the invasion right away, and also to pick up the latest Cynthia Coven book. After it leaves, Andrias turns to Marcy, being kept alive in a suspension tank, and says that her part is just beginning.

The Cloak-Bot arrives on Earth and uses its cloaking device to stay hidden as it starts searching for Anne. At the same time, Anne disguises the Plantars as they head to market. Anne's parents are actually amazed at how responsible their daughter has become and actually agree to let Anne take the frogs to try the noodles. As the Planters are loving the noodles, the Frog-Bot sneaks up on Anne behind them, but some refrigerator magnets cause its invisibility to temporarily fade, allowing Sprig to spot the Cloak-Bot as it nearly chokes Anne, but they manage to distract it and run. Not wanting to alert her parents, Anne and the Plantars lie to them and pretend like nothing is amiss.

Worrying the fight will draw any attention, Anne turns on loud music to hide any noise they make when fighting. Anne and the Plantars fight the Cloak-Bot and realize that it too is trying to remain discreet. The Cloak-Bot proves to be a formidable opponent, but they manage to trick it into running into a freezer. The Plantars freeze due to being cold-blooded and Anne is backed into a corner. After the frozen Planters fall over and distract it, the drone attempts to attack them. Enraged by this, Anne finally unleashes her blue gem power and punches the Cloak-Bot so hard it severely damages the machine and it flees to safety. Upon escaping the freezer, Anne collapses and the Plantars use a pungent durian to wake her. The Boonchuys, none the wiser, commend Anne for being responsible and mature as she and the Plantars remain quiet about the incident. Anne decides that she does not want to use her powers unless she needs to as it severely weakens her and something about them feels off.

Elsewhere at a tower under a stormy night, the Cloak-Bot is repairing itself and decides to double its efforts to destroy Anne...

*Cue happy credits music*

---

Tropes:

• Absurdly Sharp Claws: The robot assassin's flexible limbs come tipped with a pair of these and it shows no hesitation at attempting to impale Anne with them at several points during its fight with her and the Plantars, so as to fulfil it's objective of killing her without drawing too much noise and attention.
• Achilles' Heel: The cloaking field the assassin robot has gets disrupted by proximity to refrigerator magnets. However, because the Plantars never directly witnessed the magnets being the cause of its cloaking failure, and the assassin wisely avoids further contact with magnetised objects, they never actually exploit this to fight the robot — not that it would be a great idea in the first place, since both sides in the fight have a vested interest in upholding The Masquerade.
• Actor Allusion: When Anne disguises the Plantars as humans, Hop Pop (voiced by Bill Farmer) wears red glasses, similar to a certain dwarf.
• Alien Arts Are Appreciated:
  • Marcy got Andrias hooked on a book series, to the point that he even tells the assassin he sends after Anne to get a copy of the next volume. He was also going to have it get potato chips, but it wasn't advanced enough to get the idea so he scrapped that so that it doesn't make a mess when it gets there.
  • The Plantars really like noodles when they get the chance to try them.
• Ambiguous Situation: Since we only get the tail end of Anne's recap of her adventures in Amphibia, we don't know how much she told her family about her shoplifting the Music Box, nor whether she went into detail about the extent of the situation revolving around her and Sasha's fallout. There's also an illustration of all 3 girls next to their respective stones in appropriately-coloured ink on the drawing board she's using as a reference, but it's unclear if Anne's realised the connection between her abilities to the stones and the temples.
• And I Must Scream: The Plantars are fully aware of what's happening around them while frozen, but their state as such leaves them unable to do much while Anne faces off against the assassin robot.
• Animesque: This episode reveals the season 3 outro, featuring Anne and the Planters in an anime sequence, using an upbeat remix of the ending theme with snippets of their voices mixed in.
• Audience Surrogate: Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy are this due to the strange situation of humanoid amphibians having befriended/adopted their daughter.
• Big "NO!": By Anne when she sees the frozen Plantars about to be killed by the Cloak-Bot, which in turn activates her blue powers so she can fight it.
• Big Damn Reunion: After spending half a year trapped in Amphibia, Anne finally reunites with her parents and her cat Domino.
• Bilingual Bonus: Some of the food items in the market are written in Thai.
• Bittersweet Ending: Anne defeats the Cloak-Bot, protects the Plantars and proves to her mother she's indeed a responsible person, but her parents remain none the wiser to what's going on; elsewhere, the Cloak-Bot still stands, now upgrading itself, and it won't stop until Anne is eliminated completely.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • The business names are this to real southern California businesses. 99 Ranchers is one for the Asian supermarket chain 99 Ranch Market.
  • Anne uses the search engine Doogle when trying to come up with ways to overthrow Andrias and his impending invasion.
  • Anne uses a small cup of Fun-Doh to give Hop Pop a makeshift nose.
  • When the assassin robot arrives on Earth, a store called "Trader Flo's" can be seen in the background, a reference to grocery store chain Trader Joe's.
• Blatant Lies: When running from the Cloak-Bot in the supermarket, Anne and the Plantars soon cross paths with her parents; because she promised not to tell them about Andrias' invasion, she lies to them and says nothing is amiss.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Anne and her parents have legitimate concerns for each other's actions. As the Boonchuys points out, their daughter mysteriously disappeared for five months, with no leads or clues. They are naturally worried that whatever took her away the first time could do it again, and they can't bear losing her a second time, which even Sprig admits is a fair point. Anne, on the other hand, has to point out that she's here now, she's not planning on going anywhere, and she's more capable than she was five months ago.
• Brain Bleach: Hop Pop wearing Anne’s old clothes is not a pretty sight. Anne, Polly, and Sprig’s disgusted reactions are proof of that.
  Hop Pop: If you've got it, you've gotta flaunt it.
  Anne: Actually, let's try something else.
• Cacophony Cover Up: To avoid getting caught fighting the robot in the market, Anne plays loud heavy metal music over the store's PA system.
• Call-Back: Once Anne's done explaining what she's been up to whilst she was trapped in Amphibia, the first thing her mother questions her on was if she really made Larb with maggots and how good it tasted.
• Cast from Hit Points: It turns out Anne's blue power leaves her severely tired, and she even goes so far as to say it feels like something "bad," serving as a handy excuse for why she doesn't just bust it out to solve every problem from now on.
• Catch and Return: Hop Pop throws a bowl of noodles at the robot, but it sends it right back.
• Cassandra Truth: Sprig sees the robot assassin when its invisibility is briefly disrupted by refrigerator magnets, but it re-establishes control over its cloaking to vanish before Anne and the others can see it, leading Anne to think he was referring to another toy when he yelled out "Killer Robot". She doesn't even get to finish her sentence before the assassin grapples her, however.
• Character Development: Lampshaded In-Universe by Anne's parents, noting that it's like she's a totally different person.
• Chekhov's Gun: Shortly after entering the store, Hop Pop halves a durian before Anne can warn him about its smell. When Anne passes out after using her powers, Sprig uses its smell to wake her up.
• The Comically Serious: Andrias tasks his robot bounty hunter, Cloak-Bot, to kill Anne, get him a book Marcy got him interested in, and bring back some potato chips, but he cancels the third order since it is clearly confused and asks him if he wanted it to also eliminate the potato chips.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Anne mentions the events of "The Third Temple" to her parents.
  • Anne mentions how she was living in a cave before meeting the Plantars.
  • Hop-Pop tells Anne's parents that she was made "Frog of the Year".
  • When Anne crafts a fake nose for Hop-Pop's disguise, he is overjoyed at having his own "face bump".
  • Once again, extreme cold is shown to freeze the Plantars instantly.
  • Andrias requests that his robot assassin pick up the latest volume of the Cynthia Coven series, since Marcy has been getting him into the book.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Andrias only sent the one robot assassin after Anne, but given she needs to tap into her Super Mode to fight it off, it's clearly a cut above the rest of the Mecha-Mooks Andrias has made up to this point. However, this robot is clearly far more durable than the more standard Frobots as it survived a direct hit from Anne's super mode, but not unscathed. It can also camouflage itself and is very flexable.
• Crazy-Prepared: Anne took a picture of the shopping list before they left the house, just in case. Her parents are surprised by her uncharacteristic forethought.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: When Anne finally activates her Super Mode triggered by her love for the Plantars when the Cloak-Bot is about to blast them to death, all it takes to get it to flee the scene is one powerful punch that badly damages its system.
• Darker and Edgier: The status quo is more serious than ever: Andrias is planning to take over Earth, Anne and the Plantars nearly die, Anne is so shaken by the previous events she doesn't have the heart to tell her parents about it, and feels she doesn't want to use her blue powers anymore as they severely weaken her. On the other hand, the scenes of Anne finally returning home, meeting her family and introducing the Plantars to them and life on Earth do make it Lighter and Softer, but that's mainly in comparison to "True Colors" and the high stakes they dealt with there.
• Death Glare: Anne gives one to the Cloak-Bot when she finally unleashes her blue powers, just before beating it up.
• Defensive "What?": Hop Pop lets out two in this episode.
  • He does the first one when he tries to sound like an authority figure by agreeing with Mr. Boonchuy on staying indoors, only for him to give Hop Pop a mystified look.
  • He does the second one when he shows his first attempt at a human disguise, only for the others to look disgusted.
• Description Cut:
  Anne: The bugs are tiny, the birds are small, and best of all, nothing's gonna be trying to kill us for a change.
  (Cut to Amphibia where Andrias summons the Cloak-Bot to hunt down Anne and kill her)
• Determinator:
  • It doesn’t matter where Anne is, King Andrias is bent on making sure Anne is assassinated before the invasion. Accordingly, his assassin is also similarly determined to fulfill its mission, retreating after Anne's Super Mode badly damages it, but planning to find sufficient material to upgrade itself enough to handle her next time.
    Cloak-Bot: Upgrades and repairs in progress... target will be destroyed... at all costs.
  • For Anne herself, she will stop at nothing to find a way to get the Plantars back to Amphibia and defeat Andrias once and for all, even if she has to hide it from her parents.
• Didn't Think This Through: Anne puts on some loud music in the store to cover up the noise of the fight. It works, but the Plantars have a hard time hearing her because she put on the music before explaining the plan. She also retreats into a freezer, forgetting for a few minutes that the Plantars are cold-blooded frogs and, just like "Snow Day", end up immobilised by the colder temperatures, leaving Anne alone to fight off the robot.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • The assassin is sneaking up on Anne and the rest before its cloaking is unexpectedly disrupted by some nearby refrigerator magnets, its body language clearly showing it wasn't expecting that. Though it quickly re-establishes control over its invisibility, the momentary lapse makes Sprig aware of its existence and allows him to quickly react when it grabs Anne while still invisible.
  • Though Anne and the Plantars were planning to find a way back to Amphibia to fight Andrias and thwart his intended invasion before it can happen, they clearly weren't expecting him to send an advanced robot assassin after them ahead of schedule, almost resulting in it killing Anne when her guard is down.
• Doomed Supermarket Display: Anne and the Plantars smash into a pyramid of cans while fighting the robot assassin, which Sprig hastily reassembles before Anne's parents notice.
• Dramatic Drop: Upon seeing her daughter on the front porch, Mrs. Boonchuy drops the bowl of batter she was holding to hug her.
• Entertainingly Wrong: When the assassin attacks Anne and the Plantars, they correctly deduce that it was sent by Andrias after them from Amphibia, but believe he sent it after them to capture them and bring them back. Only we the viewers know that Andrias sent it to eliminate Anne.
• Extra-Long Episode: Like "True Colors" immediately preceding it, this episode takes up a full 20 minutes.
• Facepalm: Anne does this after the Plantars show up before she could properly explain her experiences in Amphibia to her parents, especially because Hop Pop barely gave her any time to start explaining it all.
• Faint in Shock: Mr. Boonchuy faints at the sight of talking anthropomorphic frogs.
• Fan Disservice: Hop Pop barely fitting in a pair of Anne's childhood overalls, with Anne, Sprig, and Polly expressing their disgust.
  Hop Pop: What? If you've got it, you gotta flaunt it!
• Fish out of Water: After two seasons of Anne having to adjust to living in Amphibia, now the Plantars must adapt to life in her world.
• Foreshadowing: When Marcy is seen in a Healing Vat, Andrias comments that "her part in his plan is just beginning".
• Funny Background Event: Polly assures Frobo's severed head that they'll fix him up in no time, since Earth has lots of advanced technology. Behind her, a discarded Furby talks in a slurred voice before catching fire.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: At the end of the episode, Mr. Boonchuy says "I'm starving" in Thai.
• Harmless Freezing: While hiding in a meat locker from the killer robot, the Plantar family each end up encased in giant blocks of ice. Once Anne pushes them back out, they break free instantly.
• Heroic RRoD: Anne suffers a mild one as a result of using her powers—first she loses consciousness, and then she randomly finds her arms paralyzed on the way back to the car.
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum: Justified. Anne's powers have such a debilitating effect on her - she passes out and, after coming to, can't move her arms - that she resolves not to use them unless absolutely necessary.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: After the events of the day, Anne says she's fine despite the physical and emotional trauma of recent events and insists she can take care of herself. She then asks one of them to open the van door, as she can't move her arms because of the strain from using her powers.
• Immediate Sequel: The episode picks up right where the last one's cliffhanger ended, with Anne and the Plantars atop a car stuck in gridlock on a motorway and having to scramble to safety before recognizing that they actually are on Earth.
• Instant Ice: Just Add Cold!: In the freezer, the Plantars end up encased in blocks of ice, just like the last winter they went through.
• Instantly Proven Wrong:
  • Mr. Boonchuy says that the house is big enough that they all have plenty of room. Cue Polly kicking him to test out her new legs.
  • When Sprig is asking if things in the grocery store are robots, Anne says that not everything is a robot. Cue Sprig pointing at a robot toy.
• Irony: Anne explicitly doesn't tell her parents that Marcy was the reason that the girls ended up in another world for five months. They become paranoid of her disappearing again, precisely because of the way Anne and the Plantars narrated what happened. In the abridged version, a random encounter with the Calamity Box caused them to lose their daughter. If Anne had felt more comfortable explaining that one of her so-called friends manipulated her and it wasn't random at all, the Boonchuys might be less protective.
• Invisibility Cloak: The robot sent by Andrias has a cloaking mechanism that makes it invisible. It is disrupted briefly in the presence of a magnetic field, alerting Sprig to its presence.
• It's Personal: While the assassin robot was already directed to kill Anne, after she blasts part of its face and body off while in Super Mode, the ominous way it declares its performing maintenance and upgrades implies that it is very angry and is going after her with renewed gusto next time.
• Knight of Cerebus: The Cloak-Bot. Unlike most other minor antagonists, it does nothing aside from search-and-destroy; Anne has to face a foe nearly as tough as any other she's faced, and it comes fairly close to killing her as well as her adoptive family.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: The robot assassin retreats when damaged by Anne's Super Mode, then decides to repair and upgrade itself so it can complete its mission.
• Lampshade Hanging: Both Anne and the Plantars admit that everything that happened in "True Colors" is a lot to digest.
• Limb-Sensation Fascination: Polly is greatly enamored with her new legs, enjoying putting them through their paces. She even takes the lower half of her and Sprig's Totem Pole Trench so she can keep using them.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Since he was absent when Anne unlocked her connection to the Calamity Box and went berserk on Andrias in grief over his supposed death, Sprig is understandably confused when Anne and the others start referring to her "weird glowing blue powers" without context — not that they have much idea of the context behind them in any case.
    Sprig: Blue powers?
    Polly: (dismissively) It was a thing.
  • In a more serious example, Anne and the Plantars unanimously agree not to tell her parents anything that occurred in "True Colors" or more broadly about how Marcy and Sasha betrayed her, given that they're having a hard enough time processing that their daughter has been trapped in a fantasy Death World for five months despite the clear physical evidence in the Plantars, without adding on the higher stakes and consequences brought about by that episode. Instead, Anne and the others lie that, shortly after finishing the Third Temple, the Calamity Box automatically opened a portal that sucked Anne and the Plantars through, stranding them all on Earth, to explain their presence and Sasha and Marcy's absence.
  • This actually causes a minor rift between Anne and her parents: the Boonchuys last saw Anne before her trip to Amphibia, which could charitably be called the longest five months of her life. As a result, they only know her as they saw her last: as a lackadaisical kid who hates responsibility and always fails to be mindful, the way she was at the start of the series. But since then, Anne has gone through a great deal of character development - becoming significantly mature, protective and conscientious - and they missed it. Throughout the episode, Anne chafes under her parents assuming she still can't be trusted, needing to convince them that she can handle problems before they will let her out of their sight.
  • Anne and the Plantars show confusion when the assassin works to keep The Masquerade going around the market's shoppers, being unaware that Andrias specified that it wasn't to be witnessed by anybody when completing its mission.
• Magical Eye Streamers: When Anne taps into her "blue powers" to fight the Cloak-Bot, her eyes are streaming blue wisps out of them.
• Masquerade: Andrias instructs his robot not to let any humans see it, as he doesn't want to tip anyone off about his invasion beforehand. Since Anne and the Plantars also want to keep that knowledge from her parents, they have no problem with this.
• Megaton Punch: Upon reactivating her blue powers, Anne delivers a punch to the robot that shreds its armor and faceplate, basically peeling its outer armour off with a single blow. Notably, that was only a partial activation based around Anne's fist and not the full-body power-up she had before, and it still nearly took the assassin out in one move.
• Microwave Misuse: Sprig becomes fascinated by a microwave and inserts various objects inside, such as a book, a potato, and Anne's shoe. He also tries to microwave Anne's phone, but she frantically snatches it out of his hand before he can do so.
• Mirthless Laughter: After Anne's parents talk about how they heard someone trashed the cooking aisle and are glad Anne would never do something like that, Anne nervously chuckles and the Plantars laugh hysterically.
  Anne: (covers their mouths, whispering) Don't overdo it.
• Mr. Exposition: Anne tells her parents the result of the last two seasons of the show (with a little bit of sugar-coating to keep them from finding about Andrias and the rest of the bad stuff).
• Mundane Object Amazement:
  • Once they manage to get away from the motorway, the Plantars are all overwhelmed by the (to them) bizarre and fascinating world of Earth, with Sprig in particular barely being able to contain his excitement at simple things like mailboxes and pushing walkway buttons like they dispense free candy. He swiftly changes his mind about investigating everything when he gets a whiff of the local sewers, though. During the quarantine montage at Anne's house where he and the others are kept inside in order to avoid unwanted attention, he becomes fascinated with the Boonchuys' microwave and its spinning function, microwaving a book, a potato, Anne's remaining yellow shoe, and almost Anne's phone before she stops him.
  • Anne gets a moment of this when she shows the Plantars her room, getting tears in her eyes at the sight of all her old clothing that she can now wear besides her school uniform and whatever else she happened to pack in her bag.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Played for Laughs. Due to being primarily programmed as a Killer Robot, when Andrias tries to additionally request that the assassin also pick up the next edition of a Cynthia Coven novel and some Earth potato chips whilst it's there, the assassin can only process that Andrias wants it to eliminate potato chips and he's forced to scrap the request. He's still adamant about it getting the book, though.
• My Beloved Smother: Anne's mother is the most protective of her parents after she gets back, hovering to the point of brushing Anne's hair while she's sleeping. Anne quickly tires of it and calls a family meeting after she gets up to brush her teeth and finds her mother holding her toothbrush.
• My God, You Are Serious!: Anne's mom initially laughs at her request for them to house the Plantars until Anne can figure out a way to get them home before realizing she's serious. Her husband's expression shows he knows that she's sincere from the get-go.
• Mythology Gag: Anne's dad calls Amphibia "Amphibiland" before being corrected, which was the show's original title before being changed to Amphibia.
• Near-Villain Victory: The only reason Anne survives her first encounter with the Cloak-Bot is because its cloak is disrupted by a group of refrigerator magnets, which renders it visible long enough for Sprig to notice and alert Anne of its presence. If the magnets didn't attract to the Cloak-Bot when they did, Anne would've been Killed Off for Real without warning, and Andrias would've won.
• Nobody Here but Us Birds: Prior to entering her house, Anne tells the others to hide in a trash bin and only come out after she's signaled them with a bird noise once she ease her parents about where she's been. Not too soon after reuniting with her parents, a bird flies by making a noise, which Hop Pop mistakes as the signal and comes out from the trash.
• No One Could Survive That!: Since the Plantars witnessed Marcy get impaled before their very eyes, Hop Pop questions if Marcy survived. Anne insists she did, if only to avoid the alternative of admitting her friend may be dead.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Andrias, as with the previous episode. Seeing Anne as the main threat to his dimensional conquest due to still retaining her connection with the stone, he goes to great lengths by sending a Killer Robot to Earth to hunt her down, which won't stop pursuing her until she dies.
• Not Helping Your Case: Hop Pop tries to persuade Anne's parents that their daughter has changed for the better. Emphasis on tries.
  Hop Pop: Were there bumps in the road? Sure. Did she burn the town down once? Yeah... Did she almost get us eaten by a large creature numerous times? Also yes... Did she-um... what was I saying?
• Not Hyperbole: Anne's father says she is the literal poster child for hating responsibility, before showing the actual framed drawing Anne made at age 6 stating that she hates responsibility.
• Not-So-Innocent Whistle: Anne tries to look up "How to defeat evil Newt King" on Doogle before her mother wonders what she's looking at as she quickly closes the laptop and whistles.
• Oh, Crap!: Sprig when he witnesses the Cloak-Bot, then by Anne and the Plantars all together when she is nearly choked to death and it is rendered visible from the Plantars' noodles.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: By Anne when she finally taps into her blue powers so she can defeat the Cloak-Bot:
  Anne: If you think I'm just gonna sit here while you hurt my friends, you've got another thing coming.
• Phoneaholic Teenager: How does Anne verify she actually made it back home and isn't dreaming or in some kind of illusion? Checking her phone for a cell signal. Her reaction to seeing she has full bars and 5G is something to behold.
• The Power of Friendship: How Anne's blue powers are activated, triggered by her true friendship and love for the Plantars when the Cloak-Bot threatens them.
• Power-Strain Blackout: Once again, tapping into her Calamity Gem powers causes Anne to pass out. Even after being woken by some durian, Anne can barely move her arms.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Anne's parents. As Anne frequently lampshades, despite having every right to be terrified of letting their daughter leave their sight (lest she disappear again or worse, get killed by the Cloak-Bot without even knowing), and freaked out by the large talking frogs she brought home, her parents are still willing to let the Plantars stay, and allow Anne and the Plantars to leave the house and explore the supermarket, provided they stay close and safe.
• Reflective Eyes: The Plantars frozen in ice blocks are reflected into Anne's eyes as she sees them about to be killed by the Cloak-Bot, which in turn activates her Super Mode.
• Rubber Man: The robot assassin's arms are noticeably longer than its tall and lanky body, and in combat it makes full use of their flexibility for attacking or assisted movement, even winding up a massive punch to smash/impale Anne like a spring.
• Rummage Sale Reject: When Anne is showing the Plantars around her house, she's so overjoyed by having access to all her normal clothes again that she starts putting them all on then and there, starting with a shirt and eventually moving up to a scarf and winter clothing.
• Secret-Keeper:
  • Anne and the Plantars opt to keep the events of "True Colors" a secret from the Boonchuys for the moment, due to their need to ensure that they agree to house the Plantars until a way back to Amphibia can be found. Instead, they claim that the four of them were unexpectedly sucked through a portal that formed the instant they completed the Third Temple, as a means of explaining how the anthropomorphic Plantars got stranded on Earth without a way home. As for Marcy, Anne is not convinced she's dead, so she's not going to jump at that conclusion yet.
  • Despite needing a lot of convincing, Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy decide to keep the Plantars' existence as Frog Men a secret from the rest of the world and take extra precaution in ensuring that no one can know. This also avoids needing to answer any uncomfortable questions from Sasha and Marcy's families about where their children are, especially since there's currently no easy way for them to reach Earth.
• See the Invisible: Initially the robot assassin can only be seen by the viewer whilst in 'stealth mode' by its translucent outline, and sometimes not even then - only by the effect it has on the surroundings. However, some nearby refrigerator magnets end up disrupting its stealth functionality as it's sneaking up on Anne, alerting her and the Plantars to its presence, and since they don't know that magnets disrupt its camouflage, they resort to more mundane means of tracking it, such as throwing noodles or flour at the robot, making it partially visible.
• Secret Identity: Anne decides to disguise the Plantars as normal people in response to their fear they could be taken away and be experimented on.
• Sequel Hook: At the end of the episode, the damaged robot starts to "upgrade" itself.
• Shout-Out: Sprig is seen reading what seems to be a comic book titled Monday Cat during the Good-Times Montage. He even makes some microwave lasagna, which is the cat's Trademark Favorite Food.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: Now that Anne is finally home, and has access to other clothes, she wastes no time in donning a new outfit. While she's at it, she finally gets the leaves and twigs out of her hair and gets to wearing two shoes again.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • Mrs. Boonchuy's first question after Anne explains her adventures in Amphibia and the kind of things she's been up to is if her daughter really made Larb with maggots, and if it tasted good.
  • Andrias sends his robot assassin to Earth to kill Anne before she can master her powers and thwart his invasion... and also to get the latest Cynthia Coven book after Marcy got him hooked on them and some Earth potato chips. He decides to compromise on the chips when the order proves too complex for the robot to fully process, but is adamant about getting the book as well whilst the robot's there.
• Skyward Scream: Anne give a massive "I'M HOOOOMMMMMMEEEEE!!!" upon verifying that she is indeed back in Los Angeles and not dreaming.
• Spanner in the Works: The assassin has tracked Anne down and is all set to land a lethal sneak attack on her when it passes too close to some refrigerator magnets, which disrupt its Invisibility and exposes it to Sprig, who then interferes before it can finish its attack on Anne. Notably, because the Plantars don't see what caused its cloaking to fail, they're unable to utilise this when fighting the robot and have to resort to mundane methods in order to keep track of it.
• Stepford Smiler: Anne insists that she's fine, despite the Plantars knowing that she has gone through a lot of things, and can tell she's not okay and that’s only a matter of time before she eventually breaks.
• String Theory: Anne draws up one of these as a visual aid to help talk her family through her time in Amphibia, as well as to keep track of all the plot points up to "The Third Temple".
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: When the robot winds up a massive punch to put Anne down, the Plantars try to ram it with their frozen bodies to stop the killing blow. The music builds up as it seems like they're charging right to it...only for the music to slow to a stop when the frogs slowly slide and bounce harmlessly off the robot. After all, they can't exactly move their bodies properly when they're frozen. It does end up switching its focus from Anne to them.
• Tears of Joy:
  • Anne's mother immediately begins weeping when she sees her missing daughter, finally home and safe. It doesn't take long for Anne and her father to join in.
  • Anne also sheds these when she returns to her old room and opens her closet containing all her her old clothes, finally having the opportunity to wear something other than her school uniform.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Near the middle of the episode, Anne notes that for once something isn't trying to kill her or the Plantars. Cut to Andrias sending a robotic assassin after her.
  • When Anne calls a family meeting over her parents violating her personal space, Anne's dad claims that it's a big house and the 6 of them have plenty of room to themselves inside it. He's then immediately hit in the head by Polly practicing her now-available jump kicks which makes him reconsider his position.
  • At the end of the episode, Sprig says that everything should be fine as long as the robot doesn't come back. Anne lampshades how he really should stop saying things like that. Sure enough, the robot is in the process of repairing itself before coming back for round 2.
• They Would Cut You Up: When the elder Boonchuys suggest handing the Plantars over to the government, Anne expresses the belief that they would be probed and dissected.
• This Is Gonna Suck: After Anne and the Plantars excitedly run into the grocery store after promising to keep a low profile, Anne's mother expresses the belief that it was a bad idea. Anne's father agrees.
• Title-Only Opening: Just like "True Colors", this one has the theme shortened to only the show's title.
• Totem Pole Trench: Anne disguises Sprig and Polly in a trench coat to appear as one person. Polly was supposed to be on top, but she insists on being the bottom so her newly acquired legs won't go to waste.
• Unseen No More: After having been mentioned in the first and second seasons and shown in a flashback, both Anne's parents finally appear in the flesh, along with Domino the cat (who was shown on Anne's phone).
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
  • Hop Pop rolling on the ground in agony is laughed off by another customer, since he just got his first whiff of a super-stinky durian fruit.
  • After the fight with the assassin robot demolishes the noodle area's tables, the clerk, who missed the fight due to his headphones, just gets a mop and groans about how the noodles make people go crazy, meaning it's not the first time it has happened.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: The Cloak-Bot is brutally damaged by the super powered Anne, causing it to flee for now; even though her efforts were pretty good against it, it is now upgrading and its dialogue proves it's not finished with her.
• Visible Invisibility: At a few points the invisible robot assassin can be seen while cloaked, but it's clearly something only visible to the audience. The rest of the time, it's as invisible to the audience as it is to the Plantars.
• Wingding Eyes: The robot assassin's eyes become question marks as it tries to process the request for potato chips.
• With Catlike Tread: As soon as the assassin robot turns invisible once it arrives on Earth, it smashes a car.
• Wham Shot: Well, not really, since her survival was intentionally spoiled by using season 3's opening as The Stinger to "True Colors", but once Andrias sends his assassin through the portal, the camera then pans out to reveal Marcy is still alive, hooked up to a medical vat in the same room, despite her almost-assuredly fatal injury.
• Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: Downplayed. The assassin does have a blaster hidden inside its hand that it can bring out for ranged combat, but since its orders were to kill Anne without any human being seeing it, it settles for the less noisy and flashy method of trying to impale her on its claws when it has the element of surprise on her in the middle of a crowded food market, only bringing out the blaster when it's inside the isolated deep freezer with thick enough walls to muffle the sound.
• Would Hurt a Child: Continuing his streak from "True Colors", Andrias orders his assassin to "kill the girl" when sending it after Anne, and at several points during the fight with the Plantars, it tries to impale her with its Absurdly Sharp Claws.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Inverted. Anne has to convince her parents that she's better than they remember her being before her time in Amphibia gave her much-needed Character Development.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Mr. Boonchuy's expression when Anne asks if it's okay to house these weird otherworldly frog-people in their house until she gets them home screams this.

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