"Snafu" is the sixty-fourth and penultimate episode of Lilo & Stitch: The Series. It first aired on June 23, 2006, just after "Glitch / Woops" and before the premiere of the show's Finale Movie Leroy & Stitch.
After learning from Nosy that every experiment that Gantu has captured, including Stitch's beloved Angel, is being held in his ship's holding compartment, Lilo and Stitch launch a daring rescue plan to save the cousins that they've inadvertently left behind. Unfortunately, complicating the mission is the activation of Experiment 120, who is designed to be the ultimate saboteur.
Experiments who appeared or were mentioned in this episode:
- Felix (X-010)
- Fibber (X-032)
- Hammerface (X-033)
- Fudgy (X-054)
- Stamen (X-103)
- Snafu (X-120): This episode's Monster of the Week; a teal experiment with tentacles on his giant head who is designed to sabotage enemy plans.
- Bonnie (X-149) - Part of Lilo and Stitch's rescue team; she and her partner Clyde used their break-in skills to get the team into Gantu's ship.
- Clyde (X-150) - Part of Lilo and Stitch's rescue team; he and his partner Bonnie used their break-in skills to get the team into Gantu's ship.
- Finder (X-158) - Part of Lilo and Stitch's rescue team; he was needed to help locate the holding compartment containing the experiments.
- Nosy (X-199)
- Nosox (X-204)
- Sparky (X-221) - Part of Lilo and Stitch's rescue team; he was tasked with creating a power surge to knock out the security system of Gantu's ship. Unfortunately, thanks to Snafu modifying Lilo's schematic, he ended up triggering it instead.
- Poxy (X-222)
- Sample (X-258) - Part of Lilo and Stitch's rescue team; he was assigned to be lookout while the rest of the team infiltrated Gantu's ship, and to give a rooster crow to let Lilo know things were clear. Unfortunately, Snafu tricked him into giving off a warning alert that let Gantu know his ship had been broken into.
- Tickle-Tummy (X-275)
- Amnesio (X-303)
- Hunkahunka (X-323)
- Dupe (X-344)
- Slimy (X-390)
- Slushy (X-523)
- Thresher (X-544)
- Tank (X-586)
- Woops (X-600): Nosy mentions how Woops blew Hämsterviel's cover in the previous episode.
- Sinker (X-602)
- Zap (X-603)
- Houdini (X-604)
- Holio (X-606)
- Heat (X-609)
- Plasmoid (X-617)
- Angel (X-624): Stitch is very motivated to get her back.
- Reuben (X-625): Does dirty deeds on his end for a lifetime supply of sandwiches.
Tropes featured in this episode include:
- Ask a Stupid Question...: Upon seeing a picture of Angel, Lilo asks Stitch if he remembers her. She gets her answer when it's revealed Stitch has a shrine to Angel in a compartment under his bed.Lilo: I guess you do remember.
- The Bus Came Back: By the busloads. In addition to every experiment Gantu had caught, Lilo and Stitch recruit Sparky, Finder, Sample, and Bonnie and Clyde for their rescue plan. Also, Slushy, Dupe, Houdini, and Holio make cameo appearances.
- Brick Joke: Reuben tells Tickle-Tummy when walking past her that he isn't ticklish. After she and the rest of captured experiments are freed, she tickles him, revealing that he is indeed ticklish.
- Call-Back: The log book Lilo was working on in "Drowsy" is briefly seen again at the beginning of the episode.
- Chekhov's Gun: Early in the episode, Gantu is shown making a karaoke tape of his singing. Unfortunately, Snafu uses it to ruin his plan to revert the rehabilitated experiments to evil by swapping it out for the recording of Angel's song.
- Dreadful Musician: Gantu's singing is so bad, 625 rightfully comments the only area in it is a disaster area.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Stitch and Angel are reunited against all odds, even when Snafu nearly sabotaged their plan. In addition, all the experiments Gantu captured throughout the series have been freed, with Lilo noting she’ll find a place where each of them belongs.
- Food as Bribe: Gantu gets 625 to help him with his plan by bribing him with a lifetime supply of sandwiches.
- From Bad to Worse: For Gantu, the experiments escaping while he's trapped in a large pod is bad enough, but then Snafu calls Hämsterviel, putting him in hot water. And then 625 reminds him he still owes him a lifetime supply of sandwiches.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: How Snafu gets caught. When he rewires the panel to the control that opens the containers holding the captive experiments so that instead Lilo and her team get trapped, one last pod comes down right over him. As Lilo puts it, he snafued himself.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: After everything he's done to mess up the rescue plan, Lilo defiantly tells Snafu that he's not going to keep her from freeing the experiments before flipping the switch. A second later, containment pods come down over her, Stitch, and their rescue team.Lilo: (Seeing Snafu holding a pair of wire-cutters) Then again, he could've rewired the panel.
- Literal-Minded: Pleakley and Jumba believed the term "Puppy Love" has to do with dogs, and had to be stopped by Lilo from experimenting on Precious Puppies.
- Love Confession: After getting caught in a capsule on Gantu's ship, Stitch finally confesses his love to Angel. This touches Snafu so much that he cries, and Angel is so touched by the confession that she excitedly busts open her and Stitch's capsules, accepts him as her "boojiboo", and hugs him.
- The Power of Love: Both the episode's Aesop and how Angel gets motivated to free herself from her capsule.
- Sequel Episode:
- To "Angel", with Lilo finally fulfilling her promise to Stitch that they'd get Angel back (along with all the other experiments Gantu captured).
- Also to "Woops" (which first aired the same night as this episode), as Nosy goes to the titular duo to inform them about Gantu's captured experiments after he was freed in that episode.
- Series Fauxnale: Three-fold as one, there was still one episode left to air ("Link"), two, there is a Finale Movie that follows this, and three,
Word of God decreed that the season two premiere takes place after this episode. - Spanner in the Works: This trope is Snafu's one weakness. He's frighteningly good at foiling even the best-laid of plans. But he can be beaten by improvisation, something he cannot anticipate.
- Stalker Shrine: Although Stitch isn’t a stalker, he’s revealed to have a shrine to Angel.
- Tickle Torture: Tickle-Tummy's schtick. Despite Reuben claiming he wasn't ticklish, after getting freed, she tickles him, leaving him laughing on the floor.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Experiment 120 would've gone unactivated after Jumba's explanation to Lilo, but Pleakley comes in with a garden hose and inadvertently sprays Jumba and the experiment pod, activating it.
- Use Your Head: After Stitch's declaration of love, Angel is so touched by it that she busts herself out of her containment capsule by headbutting it. She then busts Stitch out of his capsule with a headbutt and they both proceed to do the same with Lilo and all the other experiments in capsules.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Nosy calls Lilo out for willingly letting several experiments go to Gantu, himself included. Considering she plucked him from the harmless life he was leading and gave him to Gantu after she decided he annoyed her, he actually goes incredibly easy on her.note
- You Have Failed Me: Hammerface, Thresher, Heat, and Plasmoid were Gantu's hit squad in "Dupe". The fact that they were shown in capsules here implies that when they failed to defeat Stitch and capture Dupe, Gantu decided to put them in the containers as punishment for failing him then.
- Your Size May Vary: Poxy appears as the size of a typical experiment when he's shown inside a capsule on Gantu's ship, even though he's supposed to be microscopic. However, he disappeared after being released, so either he can change size at will or the glass container acted as a lens and magnified his appearance.
