Recap / Amphibia S1-E28 "Cracking Mrs. Croaker"

Oh no! One little old lady doesn't like you, Sprig! How ever will you cope?!

In an effort to get Mrs. Croaker to like him, Sprig digs up a secret from her past.

This episode has examples of:

• Accidental Pervert: When Jonah rips his shirt open to reveal his hidden arsenal, Mrs. Croaker mocks him with "Put your clothes back on, you pervert!"
• Ambiguously Gay: The way Anne describes trying to get another girl to talk to her sounds more like a one-sided crush than her trying to simply befriend the girl, and she's remarkably interested in young Mrs. Croaker, unhesitatingly calling her "hot".
• Anti-Advice: Sprig interprets Anne's advice to leave Mrs. Croaker alone as the complete opposite of what she meant.
• Bait-and-Switch: Sprig thinks Jonah is Mrs. Croaker's long lost love. Once he gets them together, however, it's revealed he just wants to kill her.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Anne and Polly are too busy looking at photos of young Mrs. Croaker to stop Sprig from looking for Jonah.
• I Was Quite a Looker: Anne, Sprig and Polly are struck by how beautiful Mrs. Croaker looked in her old photos.
• Ignored Aesop: Once Mrs. Croaker decides to give liking Sprig a shot, he says that he needs to accept that it doesn't matter... then starts cawing about how great it is that she loves him.
• It's All About Me: Sprig has this mentality throughout the episode that he even lampshades it when Anne tries again to make him to realize that not everyone has to like him by comparing Mrs. Croaker to Jamie Krieger, a girl that didn't like Anne even though Anne was being nice to her. This is Sprig's response...

  Sprig: Anne, this is totally different. This is about me. I'm totally likeable,

• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Mrs. Croaker tells Anne, Spring, and Polly not to go talking about her fight with Jonah.
• Noodle Incident: Jonah apparently wants to kill Mrs. Croaker to get back into "the Guild," but what the Guild is and why she seems to be such a high-value target is left to the imagination.
• No, You:
  • When Polly explains that the Plantar family house doesn't have sound-proof walls, she explains the source of the weird noises Anne has been hearing at night as Hop Pop practicing his yodeling.
    Anne: I thought it was a stray animal or something.
    Polly: Nope, just Hop Pop being a freak.
    Hop Pop: (from offscreen) You're a freak!
  • Right before the big fight scene, Jonah taunts Mrs. Croaker by calling her "just an old woman", to which she retorts "You're old!"
• Prepare to Die: Jonah says this word-per-word when he reveals his true nature.
• Somebody Doesn't Love Raymond:
  • The fact that Mrs. Croaker doesn't seem to care much for Sprig quickly gets under his skin.
  • Anne, herself, used to have this problem with another girl in her school back on Earth.
  Anne: I gave Janey all my pudding cups at lunch! Even the chocolate ones with the vanilla ribbons! And NOTHING! WHAT WAS HER PROBLEM?!
• Stealth Pun: Sprig finds a bowl of candies in Mrs. Croaker's house. They get stuck on his hand and while trying to shake them off, he breaks a counter. Hard candy, anyone?
• Strange Minds Think Alike: When Sprig shows up at Jonah's, Jonah asks if he's from the Puzzle of the Month Club. When Sprig later returns to Croaker's and says he's got a surprise for her, she asks if it's from the Puzzle of the Month Club.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The plot of the episode is similar to the Fish Hooks episode, "Fishing for Compliments: The Albert Glass Story".
• You Didn't See That: Mrs. Croaker warns Anne and the Plantar kids not to tell anyone what they just saw.