The kids get a new kickball and decide to play with it. Gus gets the honor of being the first one to kick it, but unfortunately, he ends up kicking it over into The Yard of No Return and must retrieve it.
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion: Dottie is voiced by Tress MacNeille, who voiced Dot Warner on Animaniacs.
- Anxiety Dreams: After losing the ball to the Yard of No Return, Gus starts to have dreams that his losing the ball will follow him throughout his life. He'll be unable to graduate college, he'll be turned down at job interviews, and he'll be barred from Heaven. This is what convinces Gus to retrieve the ball from the infamous yard, knowing he'll never live with himself otherwise.
- Big "NO!": Mikey yells this when Gus seems to disappear into the Yard of No Return.
- Catapult Nightmare: Gus wakes up screaming from a nightmare about how his life is ruined by the mere fact that he kicked a ball over the fence and was too scared to go get it.
- Cool Old Lady: It's revealed that Dottie treats Gus and the kids to cookies. When they reveal that they wanted Gus back, she says that it's perfectly fine, and returns them all the balls that fell into her yard.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: The old lady who lives in the Yard of No Return points out that the kids could've simply came up to her door and asked for the ball back instead of having Gus go over the fence.
- Covered in Mud: Gus falls into a mud puddle while retrieving the ball.
- Dated History: In-Universe example: One of the school supplies in the delayed shipment is a chart of all the presidents, ending with Jimmy Carter.
- Dirty Coward: Gus considers himself to be this for not being brave enough to climb over the fence to get the ball, which he then resolves to do.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: See Covered in Mud.
- Fluffy Cloud Heaven: Heaven is portrayed this way during Gus's nightmare, when he's denied entrance at The Pearly Gates because of the lost ball.
- Foreshadowing: The episode begins with Gus's daydreaming about being a knight in King Arthur's time who is requested to retrieve the sword Excalibur from a cave but is too scared to do so. This is set up as a framing device for the events of the plot.
- Fun-Hating Confiscating Adult: Subverted. The owner of the Yard of No Return is set up to be this but then is revealed to be a Cool Old Lady who gives them back not only the ball they were looking for, but every ball that's ever been kicked into her yard.
- Jerkass Ball / Out-of-Character Moment: Mikey of all people chides Gus about losing the ball at one point. Although this could be just Gus's imagination, since it happens when he seems to be hearing the word "lost" nonstop and even hallucinates the fence chiding him.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After Gus disappears, with his safety line cut, TJ ties the rope around his waist and prepares to go save Gus. When the others protest, he tells them that their pettiness over Gus losing one ball resulted in them losing him and they must save him.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Gus is given a hard time by the other kids due to kicking the new ball over the fence and he fears that his reputation as a "ball loser" will follow him for the rest of his life. Luckily, he manages to win everyone back by retrieving the ball.
- Produce Pelting: Gus is subject to this at his high school graduation during his nightmare.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Dottie doesn't exactly confirm what happened to Jimmy Kratner. (Going by the Brick Joke at the end of "The Experiment," he was abducted by aliens and it had nothing to do with the ball he lost.)
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Everyone's reaction when they realize that Gus, of all people, won the honor to be the first to kick the new ball.
