262a. A Cabin in the Kelp

Sara SquarePants

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Discuss Saturday's episode here!

They brought back the "Gal Pals" from Girls' Night Out but this time added a little backstory to the club

I don't really know how I feel about the new character Fliberty Gibbitts which they just threw in without any foreshadowing

Did you guys like this episode?
 

Cykamp

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i think that the "gal pals" are going to be thing every seasons now..? not against it
 

Grass-Skirt-Chase

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I genuinely enjoy this Gal Pals thing. None of the female main/secondary characters have I ever really considered one of my favorite characters, probably because the male characters in SpongeBob dominate the show and do a fine job at it. Sandy doesn’t get a lot of on-screen time, and she’s a MAIN character! Personally, I’ve never found it a problem, but this Gal Pals thing gives the more popular female characters in SpongeBob a chance to shine together, and it’s actually kinda cute.
 
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Pugs4Thugs

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Yes, yes, and more yes. First off, this is perfect for the spooky vibes of this month (but still a little early for my normal Halloween marathon!). Second off, it’s an episode about the Gal Pals, which as we all remember I absolutely adored in “Girls’ Night Out”. So it’s great to be seeing them again.

This time around, the Gal Pals are gong to a cabin in the woods for the weekend. Oh boy…no way this can go wrong. You know, it’s funny that I pointed out how Pearl and Mrs. Puff interacted last episode, because this episode introduces the newest member of the Gal Pals…Pearl! See, if you really think about it, it can seem odd that this teenager is hanging out with a bunch of adults, (which then makes it obvious that the show is capitalizing on this idea of highlighting all of its women characters in one episode), but…I’ll allow myself to fall for it because I like having all these characters hang out. And considering that Mrs. Puff is dating Pearl’s dad, it makes it a lot less weird that she’d be accompanying them on this trip (not that I really felt it was that weird in the first place, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some did feel that way). Pearl is convinced that the Gal Pals will try to prank her on the trip, so she secretly brings SpongeBob with her so that she can prank them. Funny that SpongeBob’s here for a prank, just like the last Gal Pals episode. Poor SpongeBob gets crushed with all the stuff in the trailer, though.

So remember what I was saying about this episode being a shameless capitalization on the show using its female characters? Yeah this Gal Pals song proves that, by the way. It’s the type of shallow, aesthetically pleasing feminism that corporate entities love to use. Not saying that an episode of SpongeBob is a corporate entity (though the franchise itself has become that), but…some things do trickle down. This is one of them. That’s my soapbox moment for the day.

While the Gal Pals drive to the cabin, the trailer ends up getting unhitched from the car, sending SpongeBob, and all their stuff, careening off the road. Poor guy LMAO. He’s really smacked around in this one. But it’s funny. As for the Gal Pals, while they are briefly upset by the setback, Sandy declares that they’ll just have to rough it. Considering the feats she pulled in “SpongeBob vs. The Big One”, and what we learned about her survival skills in “To Save A Squirrel”, Sandy is exactly the person I’d want to “rough it” with. Meanwhile, SpongeBob is doing his own version of roughing it. Luckily he has his phone on him. And yes, SpongeBob has a phone. A flip-phone, to be precise. It’s interesting seeing the show adapt newer technologies while also not dating itself. Like I see these flipphones and I don’t think “dated”. That’s the timeless magic of this show. And I’ve discussed this at length for sure before.

Around the campfire, the Gal Pals decide it’s time to officially initiate Pearl into the group...using a cute little necklace. See, they don’t do any hazing around here. But they do mention their old mysterious fourth member, Flibberty Gibbet. I wonder if it would’ve been better if it was another female character we were familiar with, even if it was a background character. Ooh, imagine it was the real estate agent?? That would’ve been fun. But anyway, I like Flibberty Gibbet’s design so I don’t care that much. Anyway, the Gal Pals end up selling the story of Flibberty Gibbet as a scary story, which turns out to be the real initiation.

Just like “Graveyard Shift”, when things start getting legitimately scary, with something crawling around the bushes, Pearl assumes it’s just a continuation of the prank. And then she assumes that it’s SpongeBob. Both assumptions are, of course, wrong. But the Gal Pals, thinking that it is SpongeBob, decide that they’re gonna prank SpongeBob right back (well, Mrs. Puff is the most enthusiastic). Oh boy. Again, funny that in both Gal Pals episodes we’ve got SpongeBob being part of a prank. When they try to scare “SpongeBob”, they see that it’s not SpongeBob, but seemingly a decrepit Flibberty Gibbet.

And of course, when the Gal Pals are finally ready to leave, SpongeBob takes that moment to spring out so that he can do the prank. Which puts him in danger of being attacked by the very person the Gal Pals just ran from. I swear, SpongeBob in these episodes is written a very specific way and I find it funny. SpongeBob gets grabbed by “Flibberty Gibbet” (who turns out to be a cabin to cabin saleswoman), and so the Gal Pals bust in to save him, but turns out he don’t need saving. SpongeBob rarely does. But of course, the episode isn’t quite over yet, because who else appears but Flibberty Gibbet herself? Which causes the Gal Pals to fully run away. I have to wonder what her story is, like why did she randomly show up to this cabin?? I bet she was so confused when everyone ran away lol.

“A Cabin in the Kelp” was a really good episode. I just love the Gal Pals, though I feel like this episode didn’t actually spend enough time with all of them simply interacting, not like the first one did. And that’s one of the reasons why I prefer “Girls’ Night Out” to this episode. But I did feel like like “A Cabin in the Kelp” was a worthy follow-up. It just wasn’t quite as enjoyable, but still very much so. Now, where is our third Gal Pals episode??

Episode Tier: Amazing
Episode Score:
9.2/10
 
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