Anne trusts a questionable scientist named Dr. Frakes, who may have found a way to get her and the Plantars back to Amphibia. However, the scientist has sinister plans for the frog family.
Full Recap
TBA...
Tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming: While chastising Dr. Frakes as she's almost sliced up, Polly calls her Dr. Fink, which causes her to correct Polly.
- Actor Allusion: A villain voiced by Cree Summer refers to kids as "snot-nosed brats".
- Bait-and-Switch: After Dr. Frakes kidnaps the Plantar family and announces her intention to dissect them and reveal their existence to the world to make herself famous, Anne notices Dr. Frakes's assistant Terri running after her. Anne warns them not to try to stop her, only for Terri to reveal that they're not trying to stop Anne; they're trying to help Anne stop Dr. Frakes since it's wrong to kidnap and dissect innocent people. Anne lampshades this trope, stating that that was a nice change of pace.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Terri is this to Dr. Frakes, often having to put up with her jerky and egotistical behavior.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Plantars manage to escape Dr. Frakes and Terri is most likely their ticket to get back home to Amphibia but in the process, Terri is now blacklisted from getting a job in science since they helped the Plantars escape from Dr. Frakes, but Terri is okay with that because they promise to continue the research.
- Blunt "Yes": When Dr. Frakes threatens to have Terri blacklisted if they help the Plantars escape.Dr. Frakes: One email from me, and you'll never work in any scientific field again! Do you really want to risk your entire career for these creatures?!
Terri: ...Yep. - Broken Masquerade: Both Terry and Dr. Frakes find out about the Plantars being Frog Men. Terry joins the Plantars and promises to use their knowledge of Frakes's research to help them find a way home, whereas Frakes herself is left behind after she attempts to dissect the Plantars.
- Call-Back:
- A flashback shows that Dr. Frakes owned the Skip Man seen in "Wax Museum", and it was sent to Amphibia when the energy from Anne, Sasha, and Marcy opening the music box interfered with her lab. Fitting too since the Skip Man was the whole reason Anne was willing to go along with the Curator's exhibit scheme which nearly got her waxified despite the Plantars warning her not to recklessly jump into that situation as she felt it could help on her quest to return home. Pretty similar to how the Plantars nearly get dissected by Dr. Frakes because they were so obstinate on any chance they had at returning to Amphibia despite Anne warning them to not be so trusting...
- Hop Pop is wearing the same boxer shorts he wore in "Fort in the Road" after losing his clothes in the abandoned factory.
- The Cameo: A blurred image of The Owl House can be seen on one of Dr. Frakes's screens.
- Chekhov's Gun: The cicada cookies Anne makes at the beginning of the episode are used in the climax to summon a horde of zombie children to overpower Dr. Frakes.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: All the Plantars lose their masks when the portal closes. Somehow Hop Pop managed to lose everything except his boxer shorts too.
- Company Cross References:
- The titular Owl House can be seen as proof of Dr. Frakes's interdimensional research, though it is pixelated and blurry.
- One of the girls at the science center has a shirt with a black Disney logo.
- Cope by Pretending: The homesick Plantars made their own miniature model of Wartwood complete with figurines that resemble their friends and neighbors.
- Cutting the Knot: Whilst Anne breaks the Plantar family out of the dissection lab, Terri locks the door behind them, trapping Dr. Frakes inside. But she manages to escape by taking a large buzz saw that she attempted to use to dissect the Plantar's and breaking the large glass window in the room.
- Devoured by the Horde: Played for Laughs. The children at the museum center go crazy for any snack they can find and try to dogpile anyone who has even one concealed, behaving like a horde of zombies. Once Anne tosses her bag of cookies to Dr. Frakes and points her out to the children, they proceed to swarm her as the madwoman swears vengeance and falls on her back as her hand vanishes beneath the ravenous children.
- Disappointed in You: Anne makes it clear that she isn't happy with the Plantars guilt tripping her at the end, and their faces tell us they regret it.
- The Dog Bites Back: Downplayed. Terri isn't thrilled about it but can mostly put up with Dr. Frakes's jerky and egotistical behavior. However, they draw the line at letting Dr. Frakes kidnap and dissect a sapient frog family. So they help Anne lock up Dr. Frakes in her own office, then later get Frakes Devoured by the Horde to help the frog family escape. When Anne and the Plantars apologize for ruining Terri's career, they admit that it was long coming, as their career wasn't worth putting up with Dr. Frakes's jerky and self-centered behavior.
- Everyone Has Standards: Terri is visibly put off by Dr. Frakes insisting that science is just a way to pursue fame, not knowledge. They also don't hesitate to help Anne save the Plantar family, because they see how wrong it is to kidnap and dissect a family of sapient frog people just to become famous.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Dr. Frakes is a heartless egomaniac who feels no qualms about dissecting still-living sapient frog people just to make herself famous. When Terri tries to stop her out of basic human decency, Dr. Frakes can't understand why Terri would risk their career on a bunch of creatures.
- Evolving Credits: Following last week's credits trauma, the show returns to its Anime-styled outro as usual.
- Expy:
- As a kindhearted genius who has short blue hair and access to powerful technology, and aligns themself with the heroine and her talking animal(s), Terri might remind a few people of Ami Mizuno.
- The glorified daycare center that Dr. Frakes and Terri work at, full of scientific doohickies for kids to play with and learn about science, is a clear reference to the Discovery Cube of Los Angeles.
- The Final Temptation: Dr. Frakes tries to invoke this to get Terri to help her dissect the Plantar family. She threatens to get Terri blacklisted from the entire scientific community if they stop her, and asks if Terri would really throw away their entire career on a bunch of creatures? Terri doesn't even hesitate to confirm.
- Foreign Queasine: Whilst she does bake them in mind to help cheer the Plantars up, it seems Anne has developed a taste for insects from her time in Amphibia, given she shows interest in eating her own baked goods as well, some of which have still-twitching insects in them.
- Foreshadowing: Dr. Jan warns Anne about getting her hopes up regarding her colleague stating that alot of scientists tend to be loose cannons with questionable personalities. Dr. Frakes turns out to be one of those mad scientists.
- Hourglass Plot: This episode can be seen as one to Wax Museum. In that episode, Anne was super eager to trust the Obviously Evil Curator because the Skip Man he had may have been a clue to how she could get home. This in spite of the Plantars warning her that even such a clue was not worth rushing into such a suspicious situation and she almost becomes a wax display attraction which forces the Plantars to save her. Here, it's the Plantars whose homesickness leads them to be too eager to meet Dr. Frakes despite Anne warning them that it's too risky to just trust her so soon. And big surprise, she proves to be a Glory Hound that's more than happy to dissect the Plantars to become famous which forces Anne and Terri to come to their rescue.
- Hypocrite: The Plantars know that Anne's been running herself ragged trying to get them home and they taught her to be patient instead of jumping into something headfirst: you'd think they'd follow their own advice, but all that time away from their home world has made them similarly desperate as Anne was to find a way home as soon as possible.
- I Ate WHAT?!: Mrs. Boonchuy eats one of Anne's cookies and notes that it's crunchy, only for Anne to tell her that it's because she baked insects into them.Mrs. Boonchuy: Mmm! How did you get them so crunchy?
Anne: Oh, that's the cicadas. Thanks, Mom!
(Mrs Boonchuy sees a Gross-Up Close-Up of the still-twitching insects inside the cookie she just ate)
Mr Boonchuy: Do I smell cookies? (Gets hit in the face by a Spit Take) - It's All About Me: Dr. Frakes is indeed a brilliant scientist, but she makes it very clear that she only cares about feeding her own ego and getting the recognition she thinks she deserves.
- Jerkass Ball: The Plantars' homesickness does not justify their constant guilt-tripping on Anne, who was cautious about Dr. Frakes, and they paid for it by being nearly dissected by the latter, after she discovered their true forms. Though, they felt remorseful for it at the end.
- Jerkass Realization: While Terri takes Anne and the Plantars home, Anne told the frog family that she's doing her best to take them back to Amphibia and tells them to stop guilting her. The Plantars felt guilty and apologized for causing trouble throughout the quest.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The homesick Plantars constantly kept on guilt tripping Anne into trusting Dr. Frakes during the first half of the episode, and eventually their homesickness got the better of their judgment and were seconds away from being disected by the mad scientist.
- Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: Sprig lost his shoe after he, along with Polly and Hop Pop were exposed as talking frogs.
- Meaningful Name: Double Subverted with Dr Frakes, whose name sounds like a Portmanteau of 'Fraud' and 'Fakes', as well as her science lab being run out of a children's daycare, but she is a legitimately brilliant scientist, who has managed to somewhat re-create the inter-dimensional portal effect that transported Anne and the Plantars from Amphibia to Earth and vice versa, simply working with budget issues at the moment. However, she turns out to be a complete egoist, obsessed with her own fame and reputation and willing to sacrifice the Plantars to improve her name in the scientific community, meaning she's still not somebody they can trust.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: Darcy now replaces the scene of Marcy in a tank during the opening and she joins Andrias in the splash image at the end.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: The Plantars use this as part of their tactic to guilt-trip Anne.
- The Reveal: The Skip Man from "Wax Museum" is revealed to have originally belonged to Dr. Frakes and was teleported to Amphibia the same night that the Calamity Trio opened the music box.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: Dr. Frakes asks Terri if they're really willing to throw away their career on a bunch of creatures, clearly expecting the answer to be "no." However, Terri, a Nice Guy, doesn't even hesitate to confirm.
- Silence, You Fool!: Dr. Frakes does this twice with Terri.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Played with in regards to Dr. Frakes. She is constantly described as brilliant, but the fact that she is running a glorified daycare, was shown goofing off in the flashback while her assistant worked, and the fact that said assistant is confident they can build a working portal without her show that she's not nearly as capable as she thinks she is.
- Shout-Out:
- The episode name is based on the children's story If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.
- While it may be heavily pixelated, one of the pictures on Frakes' monitors clearly resembles that of the Owl House.
- If you listen closely as Dr. Frakes gets Devoured by the Horde, you can hear the Heavy's signature "om-nom-nom."
- Dr. Frakes may be a reference to sci-fi actor and director Jonathan Frakes.
- Start My Own: Dr. Frakes threatens to have Terri blacklisted from the entire scientific community for helping the Plantars escape. Terri points out to Anne and the Plantars later that they have all of Dr. Frakes's notes and research about interdimensional portal travel, which they can use to get their own grant.
- Sweet and Sour Grapes: Downplayed. Terri gives up their career to help Anne and the Plantar family escape Dr. Frakes, though reveals at the end that they can continue Dr Frakes's research into portal technology to get the frog family home, and then share said portal to redeem their own name in the scientific community.
- Take a Third Option: Dr. Frakes seems to think the only two options on how to deal with the Frog Men is to either parade their dissected bodies around the world to become famous, or keep them a secret and remain obscure. As Terri points out at the end, they can continue to research a way to get an interdimensional portal working to send the Plantar family home, and then share said technology with the scientific community to get their own grant. That way, everyone is happy.
- Technically-Living Zombie: The kids at the museum center act like this, especially when it comes to snacks.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Anne, Hop Pop, and Polly's reactions when Sprig is allowed to drive Terri's car. Cue the car driving recklessly and falling over with a big crash.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: In-universe, Dr. Frakes has this attitude about the loveable frog family, like Sasha and Mr. X before her. Defied by Terri, who instantly sees how wrong it is to kidnap and dissect a family of thinking, feeling, talking frog people just to enhance one's own fame.
- Wingding Eyes: Upon hearing and seeing that Dr. Frakes has cookies, the young children in the room turn to look at her with their eyes as stars, depicting their excitement.
- Would Hurt a Child: Dr. Frakes has no problem with dissecting the Plantars. Two of them happen to be children.
- You're Insane!: Polly yells "You're crazy!" at Dr. Frakes when she is preparing to kill her and her family.
