The girls are in the Lorraines' kitchen, playing at being medieval princesses, with Martha joining in. When they get out to pretend the treehouse is a castle, however, they find T.D. and Truman there, playing pirates and using Skits as a shark. The girls try to get the boys to leave, but they won't budge, and instead invite the girls to join in.
They explain the game: the treehouse represents the ship, Skits is a shark, and you try to go from the treehouse to the house without him touching you. If he touches you, you "die" and become a shark, and the winner is the last one living. The girls don't want to play, and they instead ask the boys to join their game (playing as knights). However, they think it sounds boring, so they decide to come up with a new game.
Truman suggests a game called Solar System, where the tree represents the sun and everyone else is a planet orbiting it while spinning, and some of them play as asteroids and get in the way on purpose. However, everyone else finds the idea boring, so Carolina thinks they could play at running a beauty salon, but T.D. and the dogs find this idea boring as well.
T.D. suggests a game called Alien Invasion, in which someone is "infected" with an alien and everyone has to go back to Earth (the house) without being "infected", but everyone else thinks that's too similar to the pirate game. Martha thinks of a game that's just feeding her dog biscuits, but everyone else turns that down.
Then, Helen gets the idea to combine the games: the boys play as pirates who've invited the girls, who are princesses, over for tea. Then, Alice pretends to be "infected" with an alien who chases the rest of them down as they travel through the "solar system". Skits knocks Alice down as an asteroid and dog biscuits spill out, which the dogs eat.
This episode provides examples of
- Ahem: At the beginning, Carolina clears her throat to remind Helen to speak in pseudo-Shakespearean.
- Alien Invasion: T.D.'s game involves aliens invading via "infecting" humans.
- Aliens Are Bastards: The aliens in the game take over Earth via "infecting" people.
- Alliterative Title: Pirates and Princesses.
- Bait-and-Switch Sentiment: Martha is glad everyone learned to cooperate... because it means she gets to eat dog biscuits.
- Black Comedy: The pirate game involves being killed by a shark.
- Buffy Speak: The boys describe the pirate game as "shark-y".
- Continuity Nod:
- T.D. remembers Helen getting laryngitis, which happened in "Martha in Charge".
- The kids think Martha's game is too similar to "Give the Dog a Biscuit", the "game" they played in "Martha Takes the Cake".
- Delicious Daydream: When the girls are explaining the princess game, Martha imagines eating cookie crumbs.
- Dressed to Plunder: The boys wear pirate hats, vests, and boots, T.D. wears an eyepatch, and Truman wears earrings.
- Fantasy Sequence: Every time a game is explained, we see the characters imagining it.
- Fun with Homophones: When Truman first uses the word "summary", everyone else thinks he said, "summery".
- Idle Rich: Discussed when the girls claim they don't need to do anything as princesses, since they have servants to do everything for them.
- Joke of the Butt: When being asteroids in Truman's imagination, T.D. and Alice bump butts.
- Nap-Inducing Speak: Parodied when T.D., Martha, and Skits pretend to sleep to express that they find Carolina's idea boring.
- The Pratfall: Alice lands on her rear in Truman's imagination.
- Hesitation Equals Dishonesty: T.D. pauses a lot when he lies about the contract being written in invisible ink.
- Princess Phase: Downplayed — the girls are playing princesses in this episode.
- Shout-Out: During the game, T.D. mentions "warp speed", which is Star Trek talk for faster-than-light speed.
- Stock Animal Diet: The dog biscuits are shaped like bones.
- Threatening Shark: Discussed when Skits is cast as a killer shark.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Downplayed. Alice plays princesses, but she does say they're "not really [her] thing."
- Ye Olde Butchered Englishe: The girls speak in faux Shakesperean when pretending to be princesses.
