Alright, jokes aside, time to post my thoughts on this episode.
It was bad. That's right. I'm finally saying this about a season 11 episode. This. Episode. Was. Bad. I don't think I've ever disliked a SpongeBob episode this much in a long time. It's such a shame too because I've loved how innovative and unique the season has been compared to other seasons. There has been a few fairly weak ones like Fun-Sized Friends and Stuck on the Roof, but this right here broke the streak. I was even interested in this episode when the title was revealed only for it to turn out that the title alone was a red flag as to what this was going to be about. It literally left me kind of despondent once it was over. Now, I probably would've given it at least a 6/10 if it was executed better, even if it did involve everyone drinking Squidward's essence, because I've tolerated such things from this show lately. But enough rambling. Let's get into the actual episode.
This episode has some positives. I honestly thought some of the facial expressions were too hilarious to not laugh at, and the casual exchange between Patrick and Squidward at the beginning was nice, and I did like some of the visuals and variations on the running gag, and that's about it, which isn't a good sign. Now on to the problems. Again, I personally don't mind the concept of Bikini Bottomites drinking ink as a beverage since it's expected. A majority of the episode lacks any sort of substance and basically boils down to Patrick scaring Squidward and making him shoot ink out of his nose, which is supposed to look cartoony and funny, but I didn't find any of it funny this time around. It just looked unsettling. My biggest gripe with this episode is Patrick. He's awful in this episode and has practically hit a new low in his list of unlikable appearances. He's definitely not Yours, Mine and Mine levels of bad here, but he's still out-of-character in this episode. The fact that he's actively going out of his way to scare Squidward and take advantage of his ability to ink was just uncomfortable to sit through. I know Patrick is dumb and doesn't know any better, but that doesn't excuse his actions here. Now, I wouldn't exactly compare him to Mr. Krabs in One Coarse Meal like some people do, but this is still easily one of his worst performances. It beats seeing him being a huge jerk, but it's worse than him being stupid and ruining everything. Also, I didn't like the ending, either. I already knew there was going to be a poor attempt at a "comedy ending" when SpongeBob and Patrick gave Squidward those cookies with spiders eggs. This is my new least favorite episode of season 11, and it's definitely Bottom 20 material for me, which is quite a shocker since I usually like episodes from this season. It probably would have been better off as a short rather than 11-minutes.
My overall rating for this episode is a 2/10. I really hope the remainder of this season will be way better than this.