Recap / Codename Kids Next Door S 5 E 12 A Operation LICORICE

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Lost
Island's
Crop
Of
Red
Irreplaceable
Candy
Endangered

Numbuh 5 recruits Stickybeard's help when Heinrich von Marzipan is kidnapped by pirates made of black licorice.

Tropes:

• Always Someone Better: When it comes to sugar drinking, Numbuh 5 to Stickybeard. Zigzagged with Black John: while she can down her sugar faster than he can, he can handle more sugar than her due to being a skeleton. Then again, the point was to use the sugar drinking as a distraction.
• Artistic License – Geography: Played for Laughs. Stickybeard's song claims that Black John discovered Red Stalk Isle on the coast of North Dakota, a state completely landlocked between South Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, and Canada. (Given the Candy Pirates' ships treat dry land as an ocean, it's possible he just meant its border.)
• Answer Cut: After Stickybeard and his crew explain the story of Black John to Numbuh 5 via "The Villain Sucks" Song, she still wonders what Heinrich did with the seed. Immediately after she asks this the scene cuts to Heinrich, tied up by the pirates, screaming exactly what he did with it.
  Heinrich: (sobbing) I ATE IT!
• Big "NO!": Heinrich screams a loud "Noooooo!" when John and his crew stick him in the ground so the seed will grow in his stomach.
• Body Horror: Even if it's done in stills, Black John's crew watching their flesh melt into bone, then into licorice, is still pretty wince-inducing. To say nothing of the licorice seed almost successfully growing out of Heinrich's head, and sprouting its tentacle-like roots out of his ears, mouth, and nose.
• Call-Back: Heinrich's prison room at the Arctic Prison has posters of King Two Tuns of Candy's tomb inscription, the rabbit statue from his attempt to make chocolate bunnies out of a live one, and a cheeseburger after he was cured of his dip in choco-lava.
• Catapult Nightmare: Heinrich wakes up from a pirate ship visiting Kids Next Door Arctic Prison before Black John Licorice and his crew show up at the very moment Heinrich recounts his nightmare.
• Cue the Sun: The sun rises after Numbuh 5 and Black John's sugar contest.
• Curse: Black John became Black John Licorice because of this. He and his men found an island of red licorice trees off the coast of North Dakota and cut down every stalk. For their greed, the licorice they stole turned black, and they themselves turned into undead black licorice skeletons who could only walk around at night.
• Curse Escape Clause: The only way to break the curse is to go back to the island and plant a seed there, douse it with soda, and shine moonlight on it, allowing for the licorice they stole to grow back.
• Cutting the Knot: After the pirates find out Heinrich ate the seed they need to plant to be human again, Black John decides that instead of wasting time trying to get the seed out of Heinrich, they'll just plant Heinrich in the ground himself and let the seed grow while it is still in his stomach.
• Duel to the Death: Downplayed and Parodied, as neither Numbuh 5 or Black John Licorice die. Their sugar drinking contest is more to the death of their blood-sugar levels.
• Enemy Mine: The premise of the episode. Numbuh Five teams up with Stickybeard to rescue Heinrich from Black John before he can grow the Red Stalk Seed stuck inside his body.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Parodied. Numbuh 5 doesn't understand why Black John and his crew are so unhappy about being made out of black licorice, seeing as she happens to like the stuff perfectly fine.
• Handwave: The song explaining John and his crew's backstory mentions them getting the seed from a mysterious woman one night and her explaining to them how they can break the curse. It is never explained how she knows this or how she got the seed, nor is it explained why the pirates can't return to her for another seed after losing the one she originally gave them.
• Here We Go Again!: The episode ends the same way it began, with John's ship approaching the arctic prison, presumably after Heinrich again. What they plan to do without the seed is unknown though.
• Last-Second Word Swap: During the "Licorice" song, there's a verse that goes "Licorice, Licorice / turned rancid and black / 'Twas dead , though not red / and tasted like — " with the last word covered in coughs.
• Meaningful Echo: Numbuh Five calls Stickybeard "sugar-free" to goad him into a sugar downing contest. Stickybeard later uses this insult on Black John to have him take on Numbuh Five.
• Mood Whiplash: "Licorice," the Pirate Song, alternates between a silly, lighthearted sea shanty accompanied by accordion, and a more serious, dirge-like tune that is surprisingly chilling.
• Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: An insult to the candy pirates is to call them "sugar-free".
• No Man of Woman Born: When Stickybeard challenges Black John Licorice to a sugar drinking contest, this exchange happens.
  Black John Licorice: Ya think you can beat me? No man has ever outsugared Black John Licorice!
  Stickybeard: (smirking) Now, who said anything ‘bout a man? (steps aside to reveal Numbuh 5)
• Pirate Song: "Licorice" is sung by Captain Stickybeard and his crew. It tells the backstory of Black John, a pirate who became cursed because of his greed for candy. It also explains how Stickybeard's crew drew the ire of John's crew after Heinrich, Stickybeard's cabin boy, took the seed that John needed to break his curse. Interestingly, some of the verses of the song are done in a very lighthearted sea shanty style, accompanied by accordion, but the chorus and other parts are much more ominous, accompanied by an orchestra and sounding like a dirge.
• Post-Victory Collapse: After saving Heinrich from John and his crew, by facing John in a sugar eating contest all night as a distraction until the sun comes up, Numbuh 5 has just enough energy to have one more sip of sugar with Stickeybeard to celebrate before collapsing to the ground from a massive sugar crash.
• Predecessor Villain: Black John Licorice to Stickybeard, who served on his ship as a cabin boy named "Stickyfuzz".
• Save the Villain: The villain being Heinrich, who, despite it all, Abby still sees as a friend.
• Spit Take: Stickybeard does this when Numbuh 5 tells him that Heinrich's sudden disappearance from the Arctic Base Prison involved a certain type of candy.
  Numbuh 5: I didn't come here for sweet talk, I came for information. It's Heinrich. He's missing.
  Stickybeard: Blasted fool probably got himself in trouble with the Marshmallow Mayans again. (goes back to drinking his mug of sugar)
  Numbuh 5: Nope. It has somethin' to do with licorice. Black licorice!
  Stickybeard: (spits out the sugar)
• Stock "Yuck!": Black licorice is treated as a cursed food that no kid nor Candy Pirate wants anything to do with, with the Villain Song coming as close to calling it awful as a kids show can get away with. Red licorice is treated as the only desirable form.
• Too Dumb to Live: Yes, Heinrich, eat the magical licorice seed that is the only way a murderous, sadistic, candy pirate can break the curse on him and his men just because you hated the food at the Arctic Base. Even Stickybeard recognizes how much of an idiot he is, and is still willing to fight for him in spite of that.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Zigzagged. While Heinrich is grateful Numbuh 5 saved his life and even thanks her for it, he makes it clear that this does not make up for Guatemala — especially after she sends him back to prison.
• "The Villain Sucks" Song: The Tale of Black John, which is also a Villain Song at the same time!
• Weakened by the Light: Black John and his crew dissolve into bones when the sun rises, then they come back to life at night.
• Whole-Plot Reference:
  • Having run out of Indy movies to parody^note Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull would still take a year or so to come out, the writers decide to stick Numbuh 5 in a Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl parody instead.
  • The part about how Black John got cursed in the first place also strongly evokes The Lorax; allegedly, the show had a never-produced script ("Operation: T.R.E.E.S.") meant to be a parody of exactly that.
• Would Hurt a Child: John and his crew are perfectly fine with letting the seed grow in Heinrich, even if it most likely will kill him in the process, as long as it means they get to be human again.