Recap / The Amazing World Of Gumball S 4 E 14 The Romantic

Penny: Gumball...

After Penny's ElmorePlus message to him ends with one emoji instead of three, Gumball panics and thinks it's a sign that his relationship with her has fallen on hard times, so Gumball sets up a love quest that Penny goes on to remind her of their love — and how much Gumball's plans tend to balloon into chaos thanks to poor planning.

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Tropes:

• Actually Pretty Funny: Gumball's insults to Penny about her mom and sister actually make Penny laugh rather than get her mad. She doesn't get mad until Gumball admits that the whole love quest was because he thought she didn't like him anymore because of two missing emojis.
• Blob Monster: Penny accidentally creates one in the chemistry lab at the direction of mixing two random chemicals left by Gumball.
• Book Ends: The quest started at the mall, where Penny's first reaction to Gumball's first big gesture was giggling a smile and saying "Gumball..." It ends with her final reaction to the last big gesture; a sigh with a smile "Gumball...", showing she still loves him.
• Bowdlerization: When this episode aired in Turkey, two scenes were cut:
  • The entire scene of Penny in the chemistry lab mixing the two chemicals and fighting off the blob monster she created.
  • The flashback of what really happened when Gumball tried to kiss Penny.
• Call-Back:
  • Gumball orders Penny peanut and blueberry ice cream, but then remembers her blueberry allergy from "The Dream".
  • For the finale, Gumball tries to recreate the moment of their first kiss from "The Shell". However, he forgot that their first kiss wasn't on the school auditorium stage (complete with a quick flashback), but in the middle of the forest Penny ran off into. Gumball wears the costume he wore at that school play for the rest of the episode.
• Critical Existence Failure: Leslie's violin snaps in half after playing the same piece 278 times.
• A Day in the Limelight: Most of the episode follows Penny going through Gumball's romantic quest.
• Drives Like Crazy: Poor Penny had to go ride the bus while Rocky is driving and reading the poem at the same time.
• Emoticon: The episode starts with Gumball and Penny's Emoji conversation, which ends with Penny typing one heart instead her usual three. Gumball overreacts to this and sets the plot in motion despite Anais's reassurances. Of course Penny found out and was not amused—which ironically saves them from the beasts in the forest, because it made her angry enough to change form into a dragon.
  • Anais draws an Emoji to tell how she feels about Gumball's plan which he does not understand. (Which is a face blowing through nose in a huff out of frustration). Penny eventually does the same Emoji to show how was she feeling after what Gumball put her through and Gumball understands it a bit.
  • Gumball does an Emoji which was the same one Penny used before in the ending after Penny had to witness the fireworks display. Penny just sighs and smiles as she can't stay mad at him after witnessing the fireworks.
• Fantastic Fireworks: Gumball's last big gesture in the quest... which comes at the right time when Gumball promised her no more big gestures. After witnessing the fireworks as well as the message that explicitly says that Gumball was the one who was messaging her. Penny was actually happy and relieved with the gesture.
• Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: Rocky reminds Penny to wear safety goggles when she goes into the chemistry lab, this is after his aforementioned Drives Like Crazy moment.
• Hopeless with Tech: Gumball tries to get Penny angry to transform by making fun of her mother for being bad with machines, such as spraying a computer just because Penny said it was buggy. Penny actually laughed instead and even said about the time her mother brought the computer mouse to a vet.
• Implausible Deniability: After being told by Penny to stop with big romantic gestures, Gumball tries and fails to stop a firework show he set up beforehand...
  Fireworks: I LOVE YOU PENNY
  Gumball: Pssh, nothing to do with me. Must be a different Penny.
  Fireworks: FROM GUMBALL
  Gumball: Heh, must be a different Gumball.
  Fireworks: WATTERSON
  Gumball: [Laughs] What are the chances?
  Fireworks: [Giant picture of Gumball's face]
• Is This Thing Still On?: The flash mob did everything Gumball want them to do by video... including the part where he was sending it and picking his nose, thinking the booger was either that or a piece of brain and putting it back into his nose before he realized the camera was still on. Penny giggles and smiles as she finds Gumball being dorky.
• Laughing Mad: Gumball's instructions accidentally send Penny into the "desert place" instead of the dessert place in Elmore, where they both shared their first ice cream. He even left her a message in the desert, made out of bones, apologizing about how he sent her out there and lampshading how easily he could've corrected the original message in the first place. This makes Penny laugh maniacally for a moment while turning into a gorgon.
• Love at First Sight: It is revealed that Gumball first meet Penny in the mall and fell in love with her.
• Oh, Crap!: Gumball remembered where he and Penny had their first kiss... and it is not at the play.
• Plot Allergy: Penny scarfs down a sundae containing peanuts and blueberries. Gumball remembered she was allergic to the blueberries, but managed to catch it and (instead of changing the order in advance) put some of her allergy medicine in the cherry on top to cancel it out. It... mostly works.
• Redundant Romance Attempt: Despite all evidence, Gumball thinks his relationship with Penny is on the rocks. To rekindle it, Gumball sets her up on a romantic scavenger hunt, most of which injures or endangers her because of his incompetence. However, the last part (a fireworks show) goes off without a hitch, somewhat salvaging the debacle.
• Self-Serving Memory: Gumball wrote to Penny to go where they had their first kiss, and waits for her on the school stage. It's only when Leslie questions him does Gumball realize the play was when he tried to kiss Penny, but headbutted her instead, and their actual kiss came later in the forest.
• Scared of What's Behind You: Penny outruns a wolf that then cowers and begins slinking away. Penny taunts the wolf, believing the wolf is afraid of her, only to discover that the wolf is fleeing from a bear approaching from behind her.
• Stopped Reading Too Soon: In the school lab, Penny reads Gumball's note.
  Penny: "Mix the liquids and you will see..."
  (Penny mixes two chemicals into a beaker; they bubble and begin to form a Muck Monster)
  Penny: "... that chemistry is unpredictable as we are." Probably should have read the whole thing first.
• Three-Point Landing: Subverted. When Gumball jumps down from the cliff to save Penny from the animals, he does a perfect three-point landing...then falls down in pain and moans that he hurt his ankle.
• Too Dumb to Live: Upon realizing the mistakes he made (the spelling error on the blackboard and giving Penny blueberry ice cream, which she's allergic to), Gumball doesn't even try to correct them, which would've saved Penny all that trouble.
• Too Hungry to Be Polite: When Penny finally crawls from the desert to the dessert place, she's so dehydrated that she shoves her face into the bowl of ice cream in Larry's hands. She eats it so fast that she doesn't realize part of it is blueberry, which she's terribly allergic to.
• You're Insane!: Penny says this to Gumball after he confesses the entire scavenger hunt was based around a simple text message. And she does so in the form of a dragon.
• Your Mom: Gumball tries to make Penny mad so she will transform and save them both by insulting her mom. Though Penny actually finds these insults funny because of how true they are.

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