On the run to save an ugly van for its not-so-ugly owner.
The Van
Cricket and Gramma are fumed when they encounter a van parked outside their house for days and send it away, but when they discover the owner is friendly, they must help him retrieve it without getting busted.
"The Van" contains examples of:
- Animation Bump: Notice how Cricket's hair is blown back during the chase to get to the van; it is blown by several strands at a time, instead of just two sides stretching out.
- Bait-and-Switch: The episode begins on Bill putting up a novelty mailbox, when Alice screams at him to get rid of that monstrousity. Bill complains that he just put it up, but Alice then points to the van parked on front of their yard, which has been unseen until that moment.
- Big Eater: Marcus, the giant koi. He eats whatever enters his domain.
- Big "NO!": Tilly screams it as Cricket and Gramma jump into Marcus's pond.
- Bilingual Bonus: The Gratuitous Japanese is largely accurate!
- Tilly leaves out a couple of prepositions (in a way that would be realistic for a novice speaker), and the baker's intonation is off, but their conversation itself is scripted correctly.
- The Little Tokyo signs are all more "literal" than they would be in real life, mostly what kind of businesses they are rather than their store names. (But then, this might be a naming quirk in a place called Big City.)
- The only real mistake is when Marcus jumps up and is identified verbally as "Ike no Nushi" (池の主) but visibly as "Ike no Shujin" (池の主人) - both translate to "master", but "Shujin" specifically refers to human masters.
- Call-Back: It was revealed Rick had to park his van at the Green house because all of the spots at the hospital were taken and he had to find the nearest available space possible; it was shown in "Cricketsitter" that the hospital was just up the street from the house.
- Cut a Slice, Take the Rest: When Tilly goes to feed Marcus the koi fish, she picks out a small crumb of bread, and then tosses the rest of the loaf of bread to Marcus.
- Don't Sneak Up on Me Like That!: Cricket says this word per word (albeit with Bad "Bad Acting") when Rick comes upon he and Gramma admonishing him.
- Eat Me: To save the van after being eaten by Marcus, Cricket and Gramma dive in so they can be swallowed by Marcus and drive the van out his gullet.
- Eye Scream: Cricket and Gramma's fight with Marcus causes one of Cricket's eyes to swell shut.
- Foreshadowing: Keys saying the van is parked legally is the first clue that its owner is not as jerky as it appears.
- Good All Along: What Rick, the owner of the van, turned out to be. Instead of the jerky creep Cricket and Gramma assumed, he's actually a nice and caring young man.
- Impact Silhouette: One of the signs of damage left by the runaway van is a van-shaped hole in the wall of an apartment.
- Irony: In spite of thinking the van owner is a jerk, Cricket and Gramma become the jerks themselves.
- Legendary Carp: Marcus, the koi Tilly has been feeding at the Little Tokyo pond, is the size of a whale, big enough to swallow a van whole.
- Lost Food Grievance: When Cricket is about to eat the hot dog Rick gave him as thanks for helping him find his van, Alice slaps it out of Cricket's hands, causing Cricket to let out a sad "My doggie."
- Manly Tears: Rick sheds them after his van has been eaten by Marcus.
- Mundane Utility: Officer Keys is seen using a taser to warm a plate of spaghetti.
- Nice Guy: Rick, the owner of the van, turns out to be a thoughtful, considerate guy rather than the Jerkass Cricket and Alice imagined him to be.
- Out of Focus: Bill only appears in the first few minutes; after he goes inside to wait for the mailman, he's absent from the rest of the episode.
- The Reveal: Rick parked his van in front of the Green house because his wife was about to give birth but all the parking spots at the hospital were taken, so he had to park in the nearest available space possible.
- Shout-Out: The jerk van owner in Cricket's Imagine Spot is based on the artwork of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth.
- Snap Back: The mailbox Bill built is somehow never seen again after this episode.
- Special Guest: Stranger Things star David Harbour as Rick.
- Tears of Remorse: Cricket and Gramma burst into tears when they confess the truth to Rick.
If you take Mom out to the ballgame, let rivals eat her dust!
Bat Girl
When Cricket and Tilly's Little League team keeps losing to their unsportsmanlike rivals, Nancy joins the team to help them get back at them and even the score.
"Bat Girl" contains examples of:
- Adults Dressed as Children: Nancy pretends to be an eleven-year-old to help the Sue-Zers win. When Community Dan ask to see her ID, she responds "I don't have an ID, I'm eleven!" That's enough for the umpire to let her play.
- Asshole Victim: As big of bad sports the Sue-Zers become, it is hard to say the Elites and Community Dan didn’t have it coming. The Elites learn their lesson too.
- Baseball Episode: The episode focuses on Cricket and the gang playing baseball against an unsportsmanlike team.
- Berserk Button: When Benny gets kicked off to make room for Nancy, he does not take it very well.
- Bottle Episode: The entire episode takes place on the baseball field.
- Brick Joke: When the game begins and the Sue-Zers begin to lose, Sue talks to Cricket in "baseball talk" to use his special throw. Nancy uses same technique when she realizes she taught the kids to become jerks and convinces them to throw the match for the rival team's sake.
- Bittersweet Ending: Cricket and the gang lose the match, hence they decided to let the Elites win on purpose when Nancy reveals they became bad sports. However, they're not upset about it, they're good sports again, and the Elites seem to have made amends with them.
- Call-Back: When Nancy first meets Gabriella, she comes to the realization Cricket has a girlfriend. She's the last of the Greens to learn such.
- Character Development: Cricket seems to have grown out of his dislike for shoes in the early days, as for the first time, he actually wears shoes throughout the entire duration of the episode.
- Continuity Nod: This wasn't the first time characters communicated through charades.
- Custom Uniform: The standard Sue-Zers uniform consists of a red jersey and blue and white cap, though they alter parts of their uniform in some way. For instance, Remy and Gregly have short sleeves while Benny and Sue have full-length ones, Gabriella wears capris, Tilly's shoes are purple, and so forth.
- Eye Twitch: Nancy gets one when Community Dan says she doesn't look younger than fifty-five.
- Fisher Kingdom: Thanks to Nancy's aggressive skills, this causes the Sue-Zers to become as snobbish and rude as the Elites are, to the point they've become the bullies and the Elites are now the humiliated party.
- Foreshadowing: Nancy taking over Cricket's original position as the pitcher while he ends up in Benny's original left field position shows how reckless she will cause the team to become under her power.
- Gosh Darn It to Heck!: "This is bull-honkey!"
- Hug Tropes: This is the first time we see Cricket and Gabriella hugging each other. It can be viewed here.
◊ - I Let You Win: Nancy convinced the Sue-Zers to throw the match for the sake of becoming the gloating cheaters like the Elites.
- Impact Silhouette: A ball goes right through Remy's glove. Remy screams, until he realizes the ball missed his hand.
- Inner Monologue Conversation: Characters speaking in "baseball talk", which is certain hand signals and gestures, with their thoughts playing out what they're saying. Nancy and the kids later all do this when she is apologizing for turning them into jerkish bullies with her techniques.
- Irony: In spite of wanting to get back at their jerky rivals, the Sue-Zers become jerks themselves.
- Jerkass Realization: Nancy, upon learning that the Elites have lost all interest in the game after the Sue-zers start rubbing their victory in their faces.
- Kick the Dog: Wheezie tells one of the Elites that no one's coming to their birthday party.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The scenes with the Sue-Zers cheering together as seen in the promos; said shots made it seem like they won the game and are celebrating. The team actually lost, hence they threw the match following Nancy's Jerkass Realization.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Nancy's reckless skills cause the Sue-Zers to become mean and cheating jerks just like the Elites, to the point they've become the bullies now.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The episode title happens to share its name with a certain DC Comics heroine.
- Shown Their Work: Characters speaking in "baseball talk", by using hand gestures to alert players to what's going to happen and what they should do.
- Spanner in the Works: Benny, upset that Nancy took his place in the team, nearly spoils the team's plan to throw the game when he tries to catch the final home run. Fortunately, Cricket tackles him before he can.
- Stealth Pun: When Nancy joins the team and Benny is bumped off, she takes over as the pitcher while Cricket is moved to Benny's original position in the left field. Cricket has been shunted to the background.
- Team Hand-Stack: Done by the Sue-Zers as they are preparing for the game.
- Tempting Fate: Hoo-boy...quite many.
- Just after Nancy claims nothing's getting in the way of her kids winning, the Elites, the almost unbeatable team, immediately arrives on the scene.
- Tilly doesn't think the Elites are so bad; they begin insulting Sue.
- Tilly tells a butterfly, "The pitcher's my brother." Nancy becomes the pitcher after she joins.
- Even though the Sue-Zers end up throwing the match, Sue is confident this will be a great season. The following caption appears: "It wasn't."
- Throwing the Fight: Feeling sorry about making the Sue-Zers cheat, Nancy gets them to throw the game and let the Elites win so they won't be totally humiliated.
- Token Good Teammate: Tilly was the only one on the team who does not insult or physically attack the Elites in a way; instead she sics a butterfly after a player, befitting her sensitivity and pacifism.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Nancy helping the Sue-Zers get back at the Elites with her reckless baseball skills eventually causes them to become as jerky and rude as the Elites are, while the Elites become the humiliated.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The Saturday morning promo with Amphibia spoils the final shot of the episode.
- Unsportsmanlike Gloating: The Elites engage in trash-talking, which makes Nancy want to beat them and put them in their place. Later, as the Sue-Zers start trash talking as well, Nancy realizes she had made them into the very thing they hated.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Bill, Gramma and the Remington parents disappear for the rest of the episode after Nancy pitches the final ball.
- "YEAH!" Shot: The episode ends with the Sue-Zers minus Benny jumping excitedly over looking forward to a great season, which freezes followed by the onscreen caption "It wasn't."
