259a. The Ghost of Plankton

Sara SquarePants

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A secret formula plot with a TWIST

Is it just me or did the Bikini Bottomites look different in this episode?

They looked like the version from the 2004 and 2015 movies like the show's animation budget has been increased or something
 

MimicMadness

Born On January 14
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A secret formula plot with a TWIST

Is it just me or did the Bikini Bottomites look different in this episode?

They looked like the version from the 2004 and 2015 movies like the show's animation budget has been increased or something
That's nice animation!
 

Pugs4Thugs

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Dang, just a little bit too early for this episode to fit into the Halloween spirit. Yeah, I celebrate Halloween the entire month of October, but I typically leave my media viewing for the last week haha. Oh well. Today’s first episode is “The Ghost of Plankton”, an episode I don’t remember very well. But as with all the season 12 episodes, I know I’ve seen it at least once.

I must say, I love the atmosphere of this beginning spooky movie. It’s funny seeing Plankton get really into it, we don’t typically see him acting goofy. Of course, this lasts all of 5 seconds until he takes his goofy shenanigans and builds a scheme out of them. Honestly, this man needs to unclench for once. And Karen has had enough of this. Me too Karen. Plankton decides to use his very painful looking ghost extraction machine (toothpaste as the visual?? really?? you’re riding a fine line when it comes to visceral imagery, episode) to become a ghost (leaving his literal corpse in the restaurant).

With Plankton able to sneak into the Krusty Krab because he’s incorporal, I’m sure you all can guess exactly what his problem is going to end up being. If you guess before the episode makes it clear, congratulations, you officially have more common sense than Plankton lol. Anyway, after Plankton predictably is unable to abscond with the formula because he’s, you know, incorporal, we then get the entrance of my favorite secondary (or is he tertiary? can’t remember) character, the Flying Dutchman. It’s always a treat to see him, seriously. Has he even been in a bad episode? I can’t recall. The Flying Dutchman is laughing at Plankton’s misery, as he should, and he makes fun of Plankton’s utter lack of ghostly abilities. Seems like there’s a ranking system of ghosts around here (huh…reminds me of one of my favorite cnovels, actually).

The Flying Dutchman offers to teach Plankton about being a ghost. This episode fully establishes to me that the Flying Dutchman is fully and completely a being of chaos and whims, because he always just does whatever will entertain him. In every episode. And I like that. First lesson for Plankton? Shapeshifting. Oh this should be fun. Love the Pearl cameo here. Choosing to see that as a reference to “One Coarse Meal” (well, I say I’m choosing to, but obviously it is a reference to that episode…I admire this show’s ability to not give a single F, because as we all know that’s one of the most infamous episodes in this entire show, and here we are referencing it like it’s nothing). I like the random shape that Plankton turns into too, and then how the Flying Dutchman literally treats him like a cat.

Next lesson for Plankton is scaring. Ooh boy I can see the “Shanghaied” flashbacks now. Or even “Ghost Host”. Plankton ending up scaring himself was pretty funny too, and I loved the visuals of it. And speaking of “Ghost Host”, Plankton’s next lesson is haunting houses, and the house in question is Squidward’s. Now I’m remembering that absolutely glorious haunting scene from that episode…man can’t wait to rewatch that for my Halloween marathon! The haunting in this section, it may not give that episode a run for its money, but that’s only because the context is different here, and the scene is shorter. It is still excellent.

Finally, we reach Plankton’s last lesson, how to pick things up. Which apparently requires him to get really angry. Hmmm…well now I’m thinking of how easily the Dutchman picked up the formula earlier…which now makes me think of that one scene from The Avengers. Yeah, y’all know the one. That scene will never die. Anyway, I love how proud the Dutchman is of Plankton. It’s wickedly funny. And I mean wicked in the evil sense. So, armed with his new knowledge, Plankton sneaks back into the Krusty Krab. With us being only 7 minutes into the episode, I have to wonder how the rest of this is going to play out.

Well, I don’t wonder for very long, as Plankton yet again proves to have no common sense, and he’s unable to get the formula out of the safe its locked in. And the Dutchman’s back to laugh at him. Have I mentioned I love the Dutchman? Plankton decides that he’s had enough, and he’s gonna go back to his body. And the Dutchman follows with a rather surprisingly unreadable look, considering this is a cartoon and that kind of ambiguity rarely happens. Plankton enters the Chum Bucket…and his own funeral. Oh I love this, now this is funny. I love how SpongeBob is the only one to say something nice about Plankton, it’s cute and hilarious. When Plankton explains to the Dutchman that he can get back into his body, well, let’s just say I’m unsurprised by the outcome that is the Dutchman taking over Plankton’s body. Of course, he learns quickly that he doesn’t want to be in Plankton’s body, no sir-ee.

“The Ghost of Plankton” was a generally fun episode filled with some spooky vibes. And also a lot of slapstick. Which worked pretty well with Plankton being a ghost and all. I can’t believe I haven’t even mentioned this yet, but it’s also got a new character pairing. I know we’ve seen them together briefly before, but we hadn’t really spent a lot of time with the Flying Dutchman and Plankton. Honestly, the Flying Dutchman doesn’t have a lot of interactions with people who aren’t SpongeBob, so this is an absolute win.

Episode Tier: Amazing
Episode Score:
9.3/10
 
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