"Amnesio" is the twelfth episodenote of Lilo & Stitch: The Series. It first aired on October 27, 2003.
While Lilo is worried that everyone has forgotten her birthday, an experiment that causes memory loss is on the loose.
We see Keoni Jameson playing table tennis on Lahui Beach with a friend of his using a yellow ball with the number 303 on it. The friend whacks the ball away, landing in a young boy's sand pail. Viewing it as a marble, the boy puts the "ball"—which is actually an experiment pod—on the top of his sandcastle, which gets washed away by a wave. The pod activates, and a teal insect-like creature appears, scaring the boy and flying away. The "insect" then flies in front an old woman celebrating her anniversary with her husband and fires red beams from his eyes, forgetting who her husband is and freaking out when he's about to kiss her.
Gantu is on his ship getting berated by Hämsterviel (again) for recently getting two useless experiments when the experiment pod container, mentions that Experiment 303, a memory-wiping experiment, has been activated. Hämsterviel, liking the idea of wiping the memories of millions in the "Galactic Empire", promptly orders Gantu to start looking for it.
The next morning, Lilo wakes up excited as it's her birthday that day. After waking Stitch on the promise of coconut cake and a big birthday party, they head downstairs, to find... nothing. They head to the kitchen to find Nani having burned toast for our duo and giving them orange juice as she's late for work. Jumba and Pleakley instead head out shopping. Lilo is disappointed that everyone seems to have forgotten about her birthday, so she decides to throw one herself without Nani.
Lilo goes around Kokaua Town passing invitations to random denizens—as well as Mertle and her posse, who of course reject them—when Stitch points out that Gantu is going after an airborne experiment. He grabs someone's fish net and tries to catch the experiment from a power line, but Gantu—who was distracted for a moment by Lilo throwing limes at him and calling him a "Big Dummy"—captures the experiment in a containment capsule. Stitch spits out multiple limes at Gantu at a high rate, causing Gantu to drop the capsule. As the three experiment hunters do a tug of war with the capsule, 303 fires beams in their eyes, causing Lilo, Stitch, and Gantu to forget who they are and drop the capsule.
The three experiment hunters, not knowing their identities, ask each other who are they and what are they doing here, but none of them can answer their questions. Stitch then bites Gantu's finger out of instinct, goes into his true form, and runs off. Lilo then suggests that Stitch has something to do with them forgetting their memories, to which Gantu agrees, then says that she and he must be a team, with Gantu supposedly being a police officer based on his looks, and Stitch being a convict. The two, taking X-303 with them, then head out to find the "monster" Stitch.
As the human girl and giant "police officer" look for Stitch, Lilo finds one of her birthday invitations in her muʻumuʻu's pocket (not knowing that it's hers). However, Gantu believes that it's a ruse by the town's "villains" leading him to a trap. They eventually find their way to the Orchard Falls Mall, where Lilo asks Gantu what should they call each other. Gantu believes that the little girl is named "Martha", while "Martha" says that the giant "police officer" looks like a "Leonard" or "Lenny" for short, disappointing him as the thought he would be an "Ace" or a "Jackson". They keep looking around the mall, first ending up in an arcade where "Lenny" mistakes a young, blue-clad boy for the "convict" Stitch, then painting pottery at a pottery shop where "Martha" paints a trophy with the words "World's Greatest Cop" on it for "Lenny".
They then find Stitch causing chaos in the mall plaza, and "Lenny" blasts Stitch into a net, only to be met with shave ice thrown at him by Pleakley during his shopping trip with Jumba, causing "Lenny" to drop the net, and allowing Stitch to break free. Pleakley tells Gantu/"Lenny" to back off or they will call the police, but the latter tells the former that he is the police, and Lilo/"Martha" walks into the argument with 303. Jumba recognizes 303 and points out that, from Lilo/"Martha", Gantu/"Lenny" and "the convict" Stitch's behavior and questioning who they really are, his memory-wiping abilities have been a success. He also tells them that they are not who they think they are, telling Lilo/"Martha" that she and Stitch are friends while Gantu/"Lenny"/"big Doofus" (the last one as Jumba called him) is not and that the way to undo 303's effects is to say a password in his earshot. But before Jumba could say the password, 303 wipes his and Pleakley's memories. Despite the setback, Lilo/"Martha" and Stitch agree to partner up to try to get back their memories, while Gantu/"Lenny" (or "Doofus" now) still joins them.
Lilo/"Martha", Stitch, "Doofus" and 303 arrive at the Pelekai residence, with "Doofus" forced to wait outside with 303 for the former two. As Lilo and Stitch find the password on Jumba's computer, a wind blows Lilo's "Big Dummy" drawing of Gantu to his face, which upsets him upon looking at it. Deciding that he doesn't want to return to his past self, he walks away with 303.
Lilo and Stitch find him sitting alone, having freed 303. Gantu says he doesn't want to hurt anyone and wants to stay who is he in his amnesiac mind. 303 flies past them heading to a sugar factory, and Lilo and Stitch chase him down there, with Gantu following them in a desperate plea not to undo 303's effects. Once all of them go inside the factory, Lilo shouts the password, "ʻohana", restoring her, Stitch, Gantu, Jumba, and Pleakley's memories. Over at the mall where Jumba and Pleakley are still at, they hug when they recognize each other again, but then Pleakley notices a clock reading 6:05 and says they're late for something and pulls Jumba away for something.
Back at the sugar factory, Lilo and Stitch also recognize each other again and share a hug, but Gantu also reveals that he's returned to his old self, saying that he was actually missing his old life. After the three experiment hunters fight for 303 throughout the factory, Gantu recaptures the experiment and walks back to his ship to give him to Hämsterviel, meaning Lilo and Stitch have failed their mission for the first time. note
Lilo and Stitch walk back home during nightfall in defeat for having spent the day without their memories, losing an experiment to Gantu, and nobody remembering her birthday. Stitch quickly tears a palm tree into a tiki totem pole for her as a present, though Lilo tells him that he didn't have to make her one and having her ʻohana is the greatest gift of all, even if nobody remembered her birthday. However, they then walk inside to find that their ʻohana actually did remember Lilo's birthday, with Jumba, Pleakley, Nani, David, and Cobra throwing a surprise party for her. As Stitch eats most of the coconut birthday cake—don't worry, he saved Lilo a slice—Nani tells Lilo that she would never forget her birthday. After all, Lilo should remember that ʻohana means "nobody gets left behind".
Finally, over at Gantu's ship, he transfers 303 over to an impatient Hämsterviel, who gets his memories wiped by 303 almost immediately. Hämsterviel asks, "Who am I?" prompting Gantu—who is relaxing while holding Lilo's "World's Greatest Cop" trophy—to claim that the alien rodent is named "Doofus", a dangerous criminal wanted in twelve galaxies captured who was captured by him, "Police Officer Ace Jackson".
Experiments who appeared or were mentioned in this episode:
- Gigi (X-007): Makes a brief unvoiced cameo when Lilo gives Mertle and her posse invitations to her birthday party, with Mertle carrying Gigi in a messenger bag.
- Nosox (X-204): Mentioned by Hämsterviel at the beginning as a "sock hider".
- Poxy (X-222): His holographic silhouette is seen on Jumba's computer when an amnesic Lilo looks up Amnesio.
- Amnesio (X-303): This episode's Monster of the Week; a teal beetle/cicada-like experiment who can cause amnesia by firing red beams from his eyes into victims' eyes. His name is not mentioned in the episode.
- Nodessertro/Whatsisname (X-340): Mentioned by Hämsterviel at the beginning as a "pudding stealer". This experiment has never made a known full appearance in the franchise.
- Sprout (X-509): His holographic silhouette is seen on Jumba's computer when an amnesic Lilo looks up Amnesio.
- Kixx (X-601): His holographic silhouette is seen on Jumba's computer when an amnesic Lilo looks up Amnesio.
This episode contains examples of:
- An Aesop: Family means nobody gets forgotten.
- Amnesiac Dissonance: Lilo, Stitch, and Gantu all get zapped by Amnesio and try to reassemble their pasts together; they don't come up with much that's conclusive about Lilo or Stitch, but reckon Gantu must have been a cop. So they become very good friends, and don't worry all that much about their memories until Lilo learns that there's a way to reverse the effect, and learns the codeword. Gantu, meanwhile, has learned that he was not a very nice guy. He's quite vehement that he doesn't want to go back to being a jerk—until Lilo says the codeword, ʻohana (What are the odds Jumba would pick the Hawaiian Earth word for "family"?), anyway. He then remembers the one bit of context his amnesiac self didn't, viz. he loves being a jerk.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Gantu finally captures an experiment on-screen for the first time in this episode. Thus Lilo and Stitch have failed to find his one true place. It's not until the last produced episode that we get to see him again.
- Birthday Episode: For Lilo.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Even though it's Lilo's birthday, there are still experiments that need to be captured and reformed before Gantu gets to them first. Lilo complaining about this previously provided the trope page's quote.
- Bittersweet Ending: Everyone gets their memories back and Lilo has a happy birthday, but Amnesio has been recaptured by Gantu meaning Lilo and Stitch have failed to find a one true place for him.
- Brick Joke: When Lilo/"Martha" suggests that "police officer" Gantu is a "Leonard" or "Lenny", he responds that he thought he would be an "Ace" or a "Jackson". At the end of the episode, after the memory-restored Gantu uses Amnesio to wipe Hämsterviel's memories, Gantu claims to the amnesic alien rodent that he (Gantu) is "Police Officer Ace Jackson."
- Cut a Slice, Take the Rest: Inverted; the moment Stitch sees the coconut cake at the end of the episode, he proceeds to eat seemingly the entire cake all at once, much to Lilo's shock. However, as he's chewing, he lifts up a plate showing that he saved her a slice, showing that he's not going to deny her (at least, a slice of) her own birthday cake.
- The Dog Bites Back: After enduring so much abuse from Hämsterviel, Gantu takes advantage of the memory loss inflicted on him by Amnesio.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The holographic silhouettes of Poxy and Sprout can be seen in this episode. Their episodes come later in the season.
- Edible Ammunition: Stitch stuffing his mouth with limes and spitting them out hard at Gantu to get him to drop the containment capsule with Amnesio inside.
- Forgot the Call: Amnesio temporarily caused Lilo and her nemesis, Gantu, to forget who they were. They temporarily became friends until they were un-brainwashed.
- Hidden Depths: Gantu's character is explored after he loses his memories, not only suggesting that his true dream job is a police officer, but that he is also an Animal Lover and a lot more gentle than he seems.
- I Hate Past Me: Amnesiac Gantu doesn't like the idea that his former self was actually Lilo's arch nemesis, or that he was generally a bad guy. When Lilo is about to say the password that restores everybody's memories, he practically begs Lilo not to revert him to who he was.
- Not-So-Forgotten Birthday: How the episode ends. Lilo and Stitch finally come back to their house and find Nani, Jumba, Pleakley, David and Cobra having thrown a surprise party for her.
- Thank the Maker: When Jumba and Pleakley's memories are restored, they hug and the latter says, "Thank the Lorkazar!"
- Title Drop: Averted; because Lilo and Stitch did not capture 303 in the end, the experiment's name is never mentioned.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: The episode begins with Hämsterviel insulting Gantu for getting two experiments with lame, useless powers. It's hard to disagree with him when their powers are just taking away socks and pudding.Hämsterviel: What am I supposed to do with these useless experiments? Throw a slumber party?!
