One pair gets promoted.
The other pair gets demoted.
High MaintenanceThe other pair gets demoted.
Airdate: November 10, 2016 note
Agents Olympia and Otis and the maintenance workers switch jobs for a day.
Tropes:
- Big Eater: Ohlm is shown eating through the popcorn flood at the end of the episode. Since the show doesn't rely on Cartoon Physics (and he's a real human being), he doesn't get very far. Even when he remarks that he can't eat any more popcorn, he continues to eat.
- The Bus Came Back: Obfusco, who hasn't had a major role since "Moustache Confidential" (barring a cameo appearance in The Movie), returns in this episode via a mention, as the person who wrote the Maintenance handbook.
- Continuity Nod: Precinct 13579 having a washing machine and a dryer of their own was something that was subtly implied in "The Curious Case of Pirate-itis" (versus hanging up sheets and clothes), and this episode confirms it to be true, as Otis is shown transferring clothes from the washer to the dryer after fixing a problem with the former machine.
- Deadpan Snarker: Even in the face of danger, Olympia still has snark to give.Otis: How do we know what button it is to turn it off?Olympia: I wanna say "try them all!" But that hasn't really worked out well for me today.
- Face Plant: Olympia tells Otis that "it's time to go swimming" through the popcorn flood. They jump up, and immediately land face-first into it, stiff as boards.Otis: Maybe we should just crawl.Olympia: Yeah.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Subverted. Olympia's glasses don't come off when she becomes a Maintenance worker; rather, they change color to reflect her rank change. Like when she was an agent-in-training, they become purple instead of red (or yellow, to reflect the color of the department).
- Gracefully Demoted: Played with. Olympia and Otis are in the Investigation department, which is higher in the Odd Squad hierarchy than Maintenance, so them becoming Maintenance workers at Ms. O's behest — combined with their berating of O'Mary and Obby — could effectively qualify as a demotion (despite her never stating it is such). However, despite them taking an immediate dislike to being demoted, they don't actively protest against Ms. O for it, and are forced to accept it rather than fight back in any way.
- How Is That Even Possible?: Played for laughs per Rule of Funny when Otis and Olympia are discussing how fast they can solve the case.Otis: I bet we can get this case done by lunch.Olympia: I think we can get it done by breakfast.Otis: I think we can get it done by yesterday.Olympia: That is impossible.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: When O'Mary suggests that she and Obby, and Olympia and Otis, switch jobs for a day, Otis responds by saying that no one's suggesting anything of the sort, and that Ms. O would never agree to such a thing. Sure enough, a second later, the Director performs her trademark Stealth Hi/Bye move and states that she would most definitely agree to it, before doing just that.
- It Amused Me: Ms. O's primary reason for switching the ranks of Olympia and Otis, and O'Mary and Obby. She even outright admits that it wasn't a good idea, but she's interested in seeing how it goes regardless.
- Literal-Minded: Ms. O tells Olympia and Otis that "what we have here is a classic textbook case". She then presses a button on her remote, revealing that the case involves giant textbooks being scattered and piled up all around town.
- Jerkass: Both O'Mary and Obby qualify as this, the latter moreso than the former. While Olympia is overall polite in asking them if they can let her and Otis through (and was in a rush, as well), Obby responds with pure sarcasm, and consistently snarks at the partner pair. It only grows worse when they succeed at being Investigation agents, versus the other side of the coin, with Olympia and Otis struggling at their Maintenance jobs.
- Jingle: Olympia has a jingle for the Maintenance department: "Maintenance, what's your business?"
- Just Ignore It: Otis and Olympia both neglect Ohlm's issue of the popcorn machine not working, and as a result, by the climax of the episode, popcorn ends up completely flooding the bullpen.
- Just in Time: With 10 seconds left to spare, Otis hits the button to stop the self-destruct countdown, saving Headquarters (and potentially, the lives of his co-workers as well as himself).
- Karma Houdini: Both O'Mary and Obby never receive any punishment of any sort for berating Olympia and Otis. However, on the other side of the coin, Olympia and Otis receive a ton of it to the extent that they both become Iron Butt-Monkeys.
- Let Me Get This Straight...: Olympia and Otis perform a bit of a variant.Olympia: What just happened?Otis: We tried to go through a door and now we're dressed in different uniforms.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: When Otis flips switch #21 in order to turn off the Medical bay's disco lights, the music winds down to a halt.
- Not So Above It All: Dr. O is unable to resist the music playing inside of her office, which is decorated like a dance floor, complete with multicolored lights and a rotating disco ball.
- Oh, Crap!: Otis and Olympia have this reaction upon seeing Obby's office, which is littered with phones that are all ringing off the hook. Their reaction only gets more extreme as Ms. O informs them of Headquarters' Self-Destruct Mechanism and they arrive to see the flood of popcorn in the bullpen.
- Ow, My Body Part!: Otis has a variant.Otis: I feel like my bones are tired...
- Rank Up: Like with Gracefully Demoted, this is played with. Obby and O'Mary are in the Maintenance department, which was the lowest known rank in the Odd Squad hierarchy at the time ("Odd Beginnings" would introduce a number of different departments and ranks, bringing the total to around 60), so considering that they swap roles with Olympia and Otis at Ms. O's behest and become Investigation agents in the process, it could qualify as a promotion. Unlike with Olympia and Otis, however, they happily accept their new roles and manage to be perfect at it.
- Rapid-Fire Interrupting: When Owen hears about Olympia and Otis working Maintenance, he doesn't even give Olympia a chance to explain before he delves right into his own problem.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: This exchange occurs at the end of the episode with Olympia and Otis, and O'Mary and Obby.Otis: And I bet you thought our jobs were pretty tough too![Obby and O'Mary stare at them]Olympia: Don't answer that!
- Sarcasm-Blind: When Olympia asks O'Mary and Obby, fixing the automatic double-doors, if they can let the partner pair through, Obby has this to say.Obby: I suppose I can get my magic tool which fixes this door in 5 seconds.Otis: Sounds amazing![O'Mary and Obby wear Disapproving Looks]Otis: That tool doesn't exist, does it?O'Mary and Obby: Nope.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: Odd Squad apparently has one in place that can be prevented by pressing the un-self-destruct button every 10 minutes. However, since Olympia and Otis haven't been pressing the button, Headquarters becomes in danger of self-destructing.
- Ship Tease: When Otis is reading the instructions for how to shut off disco lights in the Medical bay, he ends up falling right into Dr. O's arms while she's dancing — and he doesn't get right back up until after realizing what he has to do.
- That Was Not a Dream: Upon arriving at Obby's office and seeing all of her phones ringing, answering phone call after phone call, then hearing an alarm blaring, Olympia becomes convinced that she simply fell asleep at her desk and is dreaming the events of the episode up, which has quickly turned into a nightmare. Unfortunately, Ms. O arrives and assures Olympia that it's as far from a dream as she can get, and the worst is yet to come...in the form of a flood of popcorn overtaking the bullpen and an impending self-destruct of the entirety of Headquarters.
- Time Skip: Olympia and Otis fixing the automatic double-doors leading into the Trophy Room took four hours.
- Workaholic: While Olympia naturally falls into this trope as an Investigation agent, it's revealed that she also falls into it as a Maintenance worker, as those in the Maintenance department never stop working. Likewise, Otis also becomes one as a Maintenance worker, as the partner pair rush around and fix various issues in Headquarters.
- Worldbuilding: This episode expands more into the department of Maintenance and what they do to keep Odd Squad running.
Airdate: November 10, 2016 note
When Olympia and Otis get trapped in their computer, it's up to the Odd Squad IT Department to rescue them.
Tropes:
- Amusing Injuries: O'Seth gets hurt running into the force field and falls onto the ground, then both him and O'Beth get hurt and fall onto the ground as he takes the position of activating it so O'Beth can come in.
- Battle Cry: Both O'Seth and O'Beth give some when running into the force field.
- Big "NO!": Both IT workers give one as Olympia is pressing CTRL + S to save her work. As it turns out, the command isn't to save your work; it's to suck you into the computer.
- Blind Shoulder Toss: Olympia does this with one of her pictures in order to put it as her desktop wallpaper.
- Captain Obvious: The Cold Open client's issue is that he keeps getting wet, while working at a dry cleaning place. How does he get wet? By pouring water on himself, which keeps customers away. Olympia's solution is obvious: don't pour water on himself. When Otis produces a Towel-inator for the client to use and Olympia asks to have it dry-cleaned (making the partner pair his first customers in a while), he then pours water on himself again.
- Clashing Cousins: Averted; O'Beth and O'Seth, who are both cousins working in the same Odd Squad department, are amiable towards each other and have a stable relationship with nary an argument.
- Computer Virus: The "virus cat" and "virus dog" that Olympia and Otis download. They thought that both were files of a sick kitten and a sneezing puppy, respectively. The dog virus manages to escape into the real world along with Otis and Olympia when O'Beth and O'Seth get them out of the computer.
- Continuity Nod: The sweater that O'Beth generates is the same one worn by Oona in The Movie after Odd Squad disbands.
- Deflector Shields: Oona's lab is protected by a force field when she is away. It's pretty sturdy, but has the flaw of turning off for a brief second before it reactivates, which O'Seth and O'Beth use it to their advantage as one runs into the force field so the other can get inside the lab.
- Emotion Eater: Apparently the blobs in the Creature Room feed off of fear, which doesn't help the IT workers' case much considering they're terrified of the Creature Room in and of itself.
- Failed a Spot Check: Otis lampshades the fact that he and Olympia managed to miss the giant CPU server that sits not too far away from him and Olympia:Otis: I can't believe we missed this! You know, you just get so caught up in work and-O'Seth: This is dangerous! You cannot be on the computer while it's being fixed!
- Failure Montage: One is shown as O'Beth and O'Seth run into Oona's forcefield repeatedly, attempting to get inside her lab. Eventually, O'Beth succeeds in doing so...but gets the wrong gadget, leading the pair to run into the forcefield repeatedly to get inside the lab again.
- Great Big Book of Everything: O'Beth has an IT manual, which helps her and O'Seth figure out what part goes where.
- How Is That Even Possible?: Otis asks this of the IT workers when they tell him and Olympia that they can get sucked inside if they remain on the computer.
- Idiot Ball: Despite them working in a high-tech facility, Olympia and Otis become computer-illiterate enough to download a file on the former's computer called "virus cat"...because they thought it was a picture of a sick cat. They later do the same thing, only with "dog virus", because they thought it was a picture of a dog sneezing.
- Inside a Computer System: Olympia and Otis end up sucked into the former's computer when she decides to save her work before logging off. While they are trapped inside of the computer with barely a way to escape, they can still freely communicate with O'Beth and O'Seth.
- IPhony: Of a sort. The desktop of Olympia's computer has a dock similar to that of an Apple iMac, complete with the Investigation department's symbol as a logo in place of a bitten fruit (which adorns the front and back of the computer). It's implied that a majority of the desktop computers that Odd Squad uses, if not all of them, are physically modeled after iMacs, but it's unknown if all of them have docks similar to Olympia's.
- Lower-Deck Episode: This episode primarily focuses on O'Beth and O'Seth, of Odd Squad's IT department.
- Minimalist Cast: Only O'Beth, O'Seth, Olympia and Otis have speaking roles in the episode.
- Never My Fault: Olympia attempts to share the blame of getting her and Otis sucked into the computer with her partner before she corrects herself.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Olympia pressing the CTRL + S keys on her computer — which serve as the "save" function — causes her and Otis to be sucked into it. (Of course, she could have hit the "save" button manually...)
- Olympia and Otis manage to put two viruses onto the computer, which corrupts the server and leaves the IT workers racing against the clock in order to rescue them before the virus completely overtakes the computer.
- Nice Kitty...: Olympia does a variant of this to the dog virus at the end of the episode, nervously saying "good puppy..."
- Remember the New Guy?: Similar to O'Beth's appearance in "Three's Company", this episode introduces O'Seth, who is her partner and works in the same department as her: IT.
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: After the Cold Open, there is a scene of Olympia asking Otis what sound a blob makes: a "chhhh" sound, or a sound that's similar to Blowing a Raspberry. Otis responds that it's none of those; the sound is more akin to a cat's yowling.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: O'Seth does this with O'Beth when suggesting a way to get Olympia and Otis out of the computer.
- Some Kind of Force Field: Oona is revealed to keep her lab protected with a force field. Unfortunately, O'Seth doesn't realize it until after Olympia and Otis bring it up to O'Beth, and he promptly smacks right into it.O'Seth: So the lab has some kind of force field.Olympia and Otis: We know!
- Tempting Fate: When O'Seth tells Olympia and Otis that they can't be on the computer while the server is being set up, she responds by blowing him off and asking what's the worst that can happen, they're going to get sucked inside?O'Beth and O'Seth: Yes!Olympia: [panicked] Really?!Otis: How is that even possible?O'Beth: We went through [these] villain companies, they're all sort of evil computers now, but the Internet is way faster.Olympia: Okay, fine.
- This Is Gonna Suck: O'Seth and O'Beth have this reaction upon realizing that they need to get through the forcefield to get the Feather-inator needed to repair part of the server.
- Otis also has this reaction to Olympia willingly inviting him to look through the photos on her computer.
Otis: Why do I feel more trapped now? - Worldbuilding: Heavily downplayed. While it is revealed there is a server that runs all computers in Odd Squad, Olympia's desktop computer's dock reveals that there are now nine main ranks and departments instead of the usual six, with three more added throughout the season: Athletics and Conflict Resolution, Task Force, and Creature Control.
- World Tour: Apparently, Olympia has traveled to numerous places around the world, and keeps photos of her adventures in a file on her desktop.
