Alright, "House Sittin' For Sandy", show me what you got, because whenever I think of you I think of "Squirrel Record", so I basically have no opinion. Until rewatching, of course.
Gorgeous background alert! No one is surprised that I point them out every time, right? This beginning scene is pretty fun, especially because it features Gary. I love how this first scene also acts like an inverse to the typical “going to school on a Saturday” plot set up, AND it works as a call-back to “Something Smells”. Though SpongeBob takes this being Sunday in stride much more in that episode than in this one lol. His utter depression at not being able to go to work is pretty funny, and is a good set up for the episode once Sandy calls SpongeBob to ask if he could house-sit.
It’s kinda funny how this episode and the last have a very similar structure when you go to the basics: character entrusts responsibility onto another character, complete with detailed list. Said second character will eventually disregard the list and cause chaos. But see, at least this episode doesn’t have the second character be a smug *** about it, so, you might be able to guess which plot I like better. As Sandy shows SpongeBob around her treedome, I like how they’re kinda kindred spirits in their organization, as we know SpongeBob can be a little organizational weirdo, and Sandy is very meticulous in how she runs her home. More episodes showing Sandy and SpongeBob being close friends like this please, I quite enjoyed “Mooncation” so if we could like…do more that would be great.
SpongeBob manages to be a good housesitter for the next minute or so, which isn’t surprising. This of course means that something must happen in order for chaos to occur. And what else could fit this bill but Patrick, who I’m not exactly happy to see after last episode, especially because of the similarities between this episode’s plot and the last. I don’t mind Patrick encouraging SpongeBob into stupidity, I mean I liked “Sandy’s Rocket” after all, but I mean…it has to be funny and enjoyable. And also, the stakes in this epsiode are much, much higher than that one. Not to mention SpongeBob actually has duties to fulfill in this episode, so it’s just worse because of the disrespect to Sandy’s home.
Back in February, on Twitter, someone
posted an out of context screenshot of this episode, of SpongeBob in the treedome with no helmet, so that they could make a “modern SpongeBob bad” Tweet. The amount of people who did not do further research or who clearly haven’t watched a “modern SpongeBob” (AKA middle-aged SpongeBob) episode was astounding, because this was a
set up for a joke. God that Tweet irritated my soul. But anyway, all of this is to say that this episode has some good jokes in there, including this one that made “modern SpongeBob” haters show their a**es.
Anyway, we get the appearance of Patrick in this episode about 4 and a half minutes in, and like I was saying earlier, this did not excite me at all. In fact I was actively dreading what was to come because now things were about to become very predictable. This episode needed chaos, and they chose the most predictable and least entertaining way possible to do it. I don’t even mind predictable. I just mind it when it’s predictably dull. At least SpongeBob saying no to Patrick was entertaining, but of course he eventually gives in. Imagine if they actually did kick Patrick out, and then something else happens to cause chaos. That might’ve been really good, actually.
SpongeBob carefully tells Patrick what he is not to do, and while I can see what’s going to happen from a mile away, this isn’t as bad as it could’ve been, for sure. I do appreciate SpongeBob being really responsible in this episode; I just think “House Sittin’ For Sandy” has come too quickly after “Pet Sitter Pat”, which makes Patrick even worse to me here than he probably is. Though I will say that the “can I?” bit would’ve annoyed me on any day. Anyway, SpongeBob knocks over a bottle (so thankfully I suppose it wasn’t Patrick who did it), and this is where chaos begins, as Sandy’s robots start fighting each other and end up going crazy and destroying everything, which is definitely not how I expected things to go, so I appreciate the episode being unexpected in how the chaos played out.
SpongeBob’s heartbroken over his failure to housesit, which I again appreciate how seriously he took his responsibility here. Sandy then shows up, and she looks…shell-shocked, to say the least. Well, until she starts pointing a laser at SpongeBob and Patrick, making them cower in a way I haven’t seen since “Wet Painters”. Turns out the laser is a handy-dandy status quo machine (lol), and in a bigger plot twist, turns out this was all an experiment by Sandy to test this machine. I’d be more fine with this ending if it made more sense, as SpongeBob was doing just fine before Patrick showed up…the Patrick who
wasn’t there when Sandy left. I’m choosing to believe that Patrick was hiding in Sandy’s treedome the entire time and Sandy knew about it, or maybe that Sandy just knew that somehow Patrick would worm his way into this anyway. So maybe I do like this ending lol. Especially the last joke after Sandy’s house gets destroyed for real this time.
"House Sittin' For Sandy" was a pretty fun episode, and surefire improvement over the last where Patrick is concerned. I also appreciate SpongeBob a lot in this episode, so that's yet another bonus. But there are a few things not to like here, namely Patrick to be honest, and few bad jokes. In general, though, I liked this one.
Episode Tier: Great
Episode Score: 8.4/10
