The Kratt Brothers devise a new creature challenge: to try to survive 24 hours in the wild Australian Outback, without any kind of technology whatsoever—including their Creature Power Suits.
Tropes:
- And I'm the Queen of Sheba: A sort of variant occurs with Martin managing to get some water in Koala Balloon. Chris is being sarcastic, but he does have a needle embedded into his butt all the same.Martin: Yes, haha! I'm a creature genius!
Chris: And I'm a pin cushion. [proceeds to pull a cactus spine out of his butt] Ow! - Babysitting Episode: In a sense. The brothers become the caretakers of a baby koala that Zach sent flying from his ship, and it ends up not only costing them their lunch but also costs them half a bottle of water.
- Big Eater: Jimmy is the one who decides to nearly bite into a eucalyptus leaf before he's stopped by Koki, who explains that they are poisonous to humans as they don't have the capability to take the poison and flush it out via their liver that koalas do.Jimmy: I think I'll stick to what my stomach is specialized to eat: pizza!
- Blatant Lies: When the brothers return back to Aviva, Koki and Jimmy Z, the former says that she wasn't worried one bit. Koki fixes her with a smug expression while Jimmy tries to interject and gets quickly shut up as a result.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Martin puts things in his backpack that he needs to survive in the desert. Among those things are a bottle of water, a tarp for camping, and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
- Broken Tears: When Chris and Martin fall for a Hollywood Mirage only to realize that the mud puddle they hallucinated wasn't real, they break down in tears as they lament how they wanted to get themselves and Koala Balloon back home safely.
- Cactus Cushion: When trying to find how Koala Balloon should get water, Chris goes to sit on a prickly pear cactus without realizing it. It ends up being a "Eureka!" Moment for Martin as he realizes that cacti store water.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: Chris and Martin don't even take their Creature Pods in the event of an emergency, citing that they want to live like adventurers of the past, who didn't have cell phones. This, of course, comes to bite them in the butts later on, and Aviva even comments to Koki that she doesn't understand why they want to travel without technology when they have technology at their disposal.
- Character Title: "Koala Balloon" is the name of the koala that the brothers find.
- Chekhov's Gun: Martin being a good packer and packing seemingly random things into his backpack works to his advantage, as he brings along the Creature Power Suits and the thorny devil discs that effectively save the lives of him, his brother, and the joey he's in charge of.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Martin and Chris meet a thorny devil crossing the desert, which the former names Spinester. Later on, they spot Spinester again and resort to using their Creature Power Suits to activate thorny devil powers so they can get themselves and Koala Balloon home without further incident.
- Continuity Nod: Koki references the events of "Tazzy Chris" when she, Jimmy and Aviva spot a dingo going after the koalas.
- Crazy-Prepared:
- Martin really is less organized but much better prepared, as shown when discussing what to feed Koala Balloon. Unfortunately, he's not prepared enough to include eucalyptus leaves in his leaf collection, but does pack eucalyptus oil.Martin: Wait a minute! My survival pack! I've got all kinds of leaves in there!
Chris: What? Why?
Martin: Because I'm Martin Kratt, well-prepared creature adventurer.
Chris: [with an eye roll] Ah. - Martin being crazy-prepared is what ends up saving the lives of him, Chris and Koala Balloon — had he not packed the Creature Power Suits and the thorny devil Power Discs, they all likely would have died in the Outback.
- Martin really is less organized but much better prepared, as shown when discussing what to feed Koala Balloon. Unfortunately, he's not prepared enough to include eucalyptus leaves in his leaf collection, but does pack eucalyptus oil.
- Crossing the Desert: The brothers aim to cross the Australian Outback technology-free. It goes well at first, but throughout their journey with Koala Balloon in tow they're shown sweating bullets and growing exhausted.
- Decoy Getaway: Martin makes a fake Koala Balloon out of a tree to fool a pack of dingoes into thinking it's the real deal, and dumps a bit of eucalyptus oil on it to make sure it smells like a koala. The decoy works for only a short time, but he and Chris get away with the real joey before escaping into a tree.Martin: There's always time for a little art.
- Description Cut: At one point, Aviva remarks that she hopes the brothers are having fun in the Outback. Transition to the Outback, where we see two exhausted, sweating, sleep-deprived brothers making their way through.
- Dissonant Serenity: Koki asks Chris and Martin where they found a koala in the desert. Chris tells her, with nary a lack of calmness, that he dropped from the sky. Cue confused reactions from Aviva, Koki and Jimmy, followed by him saying that It's a Long Story.
- Everyone Has Standards: The Kratt brothers have been on all sorts of adventures with animals in all sorts of climates that they can withstand. Ask them to trek 400 miles through the Australian Outback without technological assistance, though, and it becomes clear that they can't do it, much less when they have a baby koala to care for.
- Failed a Spot Check: Neither Chris nor Martin realized that koalas get their water from the eucalyptus leaves they eat and don't drink water straight until Koala Balloon cost them half a bottle of water.
- Hairball Humor: Martin gets Koala Balloon to go to Chris and sit on his head. The joey instead sits on the younger brother's face, causing him to fight to pry him off and eventually settling for shoving him up onto his head. A second later and Chris spits up a hairball, much to Martin's surprise — and rightfully so, given that Chris is a human and not a cat (transformed or otherwise).
- Hollywood Mirage: 300 miles into their journey, Martin manages to spot a mud puddle and points it out to Chris, who begins to see it too. It's only when they both try to dive in that they drop to the ground and realize that what they saw was a mirage.
- I Ate WHAT?!: Chris and Martin both accidentally drop their sandwiches when Koala Balloon climbs on them, but they still pick up their food from the ground. Chris eats his sandwich and doesn't get even one bite down before he realizes that he got sand in his sandwich. Martin's sandwich has a pile of sand on it to begin with.Martin: He's cute, but he sure knows how to put the "sand" in "sandwich".
Chris: Ugh. I've heard of crunchy peanut butter, but never crunchy jelly. - Lampshade Hanging: Martin is an intelligent zoologist whose packing skills are far more disorganized than that of his brother's. All he has to do is throw things into a backpack and he's set. Aviva, being the complete opposite, comments on this.Aviva: I can't figure out how Martin finds things when he packs like that.
Martin: If I packed all organized like Chris, I'd never find anything. - Oh, No... Not Again!: Just as Martin manages to get Koala Balloon off of his head, the baby koala climbs right back up him to sit on it again. Luckily, Martin intervenes and gets the joey to go to Chris, since he's wearing green.Martin: Welcome to my world, dude.
- Sea of Sand: Averted. The Australian Outback is largely desert, but also has cacti and a few plants growing around in addition to dunes. There's also a eucalyptus forest oasis at the end of the forest that is situated in the Outback.
- Self-Imposed Challenge: Chris and Martin declare another "creature challenge" — try to cross a desert and survive with no technology. They end up failing with 100 miles left to go, thanks to the intervention of a koala joey.
- Tempting Fate: When explaining the reasoning behind the Self-Imposed Challenge he's undergoing, Chris tells Aviva that he and Martin can handle anything the Australian Outback throws at them. But then Koala Balloon comes into play...and they find that they are woefully unprepared for taking care of a baby koala even with their careful packing.
- That Came Out Wrong: Jimmy remarks that the Kratt brothers love swimming with lions and battling fish, then corrects himself and says that it should be the other way around.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: A sick Zach ends up being the one who throws a wrench into the Kratt brothers' creature challenge of surviving in the Outback, as they become the caretakers of a baby koala that one of the Zachbots inadvertently brings to Zach.
- Useless Without Cell Phones:
- In contrast to the brothers, Jimmy remarks that he can't live without his teleporter or video games. Koki remarks that his reliance on technology is exactly why she and Aviva didn't drop him in the Australian Outback.
- Chris and Martin believe they can go without technology in the Outback, but end up needing technology to complete their journey without dying.
- To say nothing of Aviva, who is constantly wondering if Chris and Martin are doing fine without their Creature Pods and if they need them. Both Koki and Jimmy have to repeatedly remind her that she's referring to, and underestimating, two people who are well-suited for survival in general.
