Well shoot, I wasn’t expecting to hit The Tidal Zone so soon! Oh, I feel like I should be writing a whole paragraph about this, because y’all know I’ve been asking for a new anthology series since season 8!! And I do love this concept. I loved The Tidal Zone as it appeared in “No Pictures Please”, and I love this idea of a crossover between all 3 of the spin-offs. It appeals to me, and I think it’s a great way to capitalize on the fact that yes, there are spin-offs, and consolidate the audience for all 3.
With this episode, I really love the robot theme here. I really just like that this episode is literally an alternate reality. I feel like multiverses have become quite the trend, and it seems SpongeBob SquarePants is no different. But if its explorations of a multiverse are going to be like this, then perhaps I won’t mind. I love how much care was clearly put into making this alternate reality clearly an alternate reality. From the backgrounds to the music, the atmosphere is top-notch. Everyone here is a robot, and so everything, even the clouds, are metal. I like that. Now imagine if they had chromed-up the place. Now that would be funny.
And then of course, we have the actual characters themselves. SpongeBob, or SpongeBot, I suppose, is actually so adorable. RoboGary is also just amazing (and the way that SpongeBob’s normal Gare-Bear nickname changes to Gare-Bearings???? I can’t. My heart). Can I call this a Jimmy Neutron reference? Pretty please? Or maybe even Doctor Who??? RoboGary stows away in SpongeBot as he goes to work, and as SpongeBot does so we see some other familiar faces, like SquidBot (who’s just finished making a twin of himself…a twin that kills himself when he realizes he’ll have to live next to SpongeBot…wow, dark. Yet hilarious) and PatTron (whose design is not at all what I expected, but I love it!).
I love the aesthetic of this whole place. Have I already said that? Because it’s true. The Krusty Krab being a giant battery??? Who’s coming up with this stuff, I love it! I also love how all the characters are a bit…glitchy. It adds zest. Mr. Krabs’ design is also quite fun (and “Bot-to”??? These new nicknames are so cute), which is to be expected at this point.
RoboGary’s appearance at the Krusty Battery causes some chaos, which brings both him and SquidBot to the Grease Bucket, where we see an adorable PlankBot design (the curses in this show have improved immensely…there was one a few episodes ago where I had to do a full double take because it sounded so much like a real curse word). And then we also get the reveal that Karen is the only one in Binary Bottom whose not a robot. Her design also reveals that she’s Black so…a win for me. As RoboGary and SquidBot cause chaos through the town, I realize that this episode has been reminding me of something the whole time. Who watched Backyardigans growing up??? Because this episode is making me think of that one robot episode…”Robot Rampage” I think??? Man, those were the days.
Sandroid being…well, Sandroid, actually made me laugh out loud. Who came up with this???? Please this is so funny. I’m assuming this is some kind of Texas joke. Before we see more of her, though, we go to Lube Lagoon, where we see a whole bunch of other familiar faces. And I love all of these designs. Again, there was clear effort put into this episode’s visual look, and I can appreciate that. We also get a quick GrandPat appearance, which I’m assuming will make more sense once I watch “A Skin Wrinkle in Time”.
So, back to Sandroid, who ends up being this episode’s main antagonist lol…she ends up stealing people’s bodies to form her own giant body. You know what, sure. Idk why Sandroid is the villain here, but it’s hilarious to me so I’m cool with it. It seems her prerogative is to assimilate everyone, so they can all be tighter than bark on a tree (who gets the reference…I know in the end it’s just a reference to the show but come on).
"Welcome to Binary Bottom” was such a fun episode. I loved every little thing about this. And I like how in the end, the episode kinda doesn’t even get resolved, as everyone just gets assimilated into Sandroid, and she rides off to a skyline in the distance. This could only really happen in this episode, as we’ll likely never see these characters again. So I like the difference. And as I’ve been saying throughout this entire review, I adore the atmosphere here. It’s absolute perfection.
Episode Tier: Amazing
Episode Score: 9.5/10
