This isn't a dance floor. It's a death trap.
Dance Like Nobody's WatchingAirdates: January 19, 2015 note , March 2, 2015 note , April 26, 2015 note
When the alarm system at Headquarters is triggered, Olive, Otto, Ms. O, and Oscar must avoid a series of booby traps in order to shut it off.
Tropes:
- Adaptation Deviation: This episode has a game based on it, Code Breaker, where the objective is to follow patterns, disable Oscar's booby traps, and open the door connecting the tube lobby and Trophy Room (which is secured by lasers). As with most games derived from the show, none of the show's characters appear in the game, aside from Ms. O giving a brief message at the beginning, and the game takes place in the tube lobby rather than in the hallways and bullpen. Furthermore, the game has you collecting juice boxes as a reward for each pattern you crack.
- Air-Vent Passageway: The Main 4 use this to access the first booby trap.
- Big "NO!":Otto: [after seeing Ms. O's shoe get turned to ice] That's like...nnnnnno!
- Butt-Monkey: While Oscar is this a lot of the time, he really gets the brunt of it in this episode thanks to the rest of the Main 4.
- Button Mashing: O'Duffy is repeatedly punching numbers on the keypad in the hopes that it will trigger the "off" function of the alarm system. When asked by Ms. O if he's just pushing random buttons, he outright admits it.
- Chekhov's Hobby: Otto is consistently shown listening to one specific Soundcheck song throughout the episode. By the climax, that one song is what helps Otto evade the lasers and disable the alarm system.
- Conversation Cut: As Olive, Otto, and Oscar are making their way through the first booby trap, Otto asks Oscar how many booby traps he made. Oscar begins explaining how he designed them, and the conversation continues right from where it left off after a transition to the group encountering the next booby trap.
- Dancing with Myself: Otto does this at the climax, dodging lasers in order to get to the deactivation button on the second floor. He even does a "Staying Alive" Dance Pose at one point.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: After Ms. O becomes frozen, Otto becomes anxious enough that he listens to music to help calm himself. Listening to music is a very common way to qualm anxiety and general nervousness, and is a common coping skill used by people with autism. To further hammer the point into the ground, Olive gives an eyeroll in response, which is a Truth in Television reaction from many.
- Dwindling Party: There's no death involved, but Ms. O, Olive and Oscar all manage to trigger the booby traps and get themselves captured (Ms. O by an ice block, Olive by being turned into stone, and Oscar by Silly String), leaving only Otto left to shut off the alarm system.
- Fantastically Indifferent: The rest of the Main 4 react with horror when Oscar throws a shoe into the path of a booby trap. Ms. O, on the other hand, has this to offer:Ms. O: New plan: we're going a different way.
- Good News, Bad News: Combined with Bad News, Irrelevant News when Oscar explains the first booby trap — the good news is that he knows to get through the trap, a pattern must be followed, but the bad news is that he forgot the pattern. Once he manages to shut everyone up, he says that he has more good news: he has jellybeans in his pocket.Otto: [deadpan] That is good news.
- Got Volunteered: Ms. O declares that Oscar is coming along with her, Olive and Otto to disable the booby traps, since he knows the most about them. Oscar's protests go ignored by her.
- Harmless Freezing: Ms. O is turned into an ice block upon triggering the first booby trap, and all she can do is blink, which is used as her primary form of communication. At the end of the episode, she's being thawed out by a Security agent who is slowly picking away at the ice block, but she's still feeling the effects of the cold.Otto: [holding a juice box] How about you, Ms. O?Ms. O: I-if it's c-cold, I don't want it.
- Headphones Equal Isolation: Otto keeps a pair of headphones on his neck for a majority of the episode, and once he puts them on and begins singing, he's nearly gone in his own little world.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Of a sort. Ms. O is the first one to volunteer to test her items on the booby trap. Once she feels she's figured out the pattern, she goes ahead of the others, and is immediately encased in ice as a result.
- Minimalist Cast: The only characters who have speaking roles are the Main 4, the tube operator and the client in the Cold Open.
- Never Say "Die": Surprisingly averted, as Otto yells at Oscar that "we can die here!" It's quite shocking, considering the show uses words like "destroy" in place of "kill" or "die", and the episode actually uses the word "destroy" at one point as a metaphor for dying.
- Once for Yes, Twice for No: Olive does this with Ms. O in order to communicate at one point. Apparently, she can speak blink.Olive: Ms. O, we're gonna shut off the alarm and then come back for you![Ms. O blinks]Olive: You heard her!! LET'S ROLL OUT!!
- The Slacker: Otto takes advantage of being stuck in the tube lobby by remarking that he can take the rest of the day off to listen to Soundcheck. Olive and Ms. O immediately set him straight.
- Taken for Granite: Olive gets turned into stone when she triggers the second booby trap. The horror is amplified by the fact that her face is frozen in a state of fear.
- Visual Pun: Olive is turned to stone with a horrified look on her face. One could say she's petrified at being petrified.
Airdates: January 19, 2015 note , March 2, 2015 note , April 26, 2015 note
Olive and Otto explain to Ms. O why a case went wrong and created a vortex, each in their own way.
Tropes:
- Affably Evil: Rainbow Robyn is a villainess who is known for stealing various items in the order of the colors of the rainbow. However, as it turns out, she's genuinely nice, all in the name of planting trees in the park with a group of volunteers.
- An Aesop: Friends should take the time to listen to each other when conflicts arise.
- Don't take things too seriously; it's okay to loosen up and have fun. On the opposite side of the coin, sometimes things are no joking matter, and should be treated seriously.
- As You Know: Olive quotes this verbatim when beginning her story about the case.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Thoroughly averted. Both Olive and Rainbow Robin look no less messed up than Otto after facing the vortex.
- Conflict Ball: Olive and Otto grab the ball and don't let go throughout the episode. They're on very negative terms with each other, and both try to bring each other down by painting each other in a negative light (Olive sees Otto as immature, while Otto sees Olive as being too serious). Olive in particular shows little patience for Otto's antics and exaggerates her own story to paint herself in a positive light. This is in stark contrast to previous episodes, where Olive and Otto had minimal conflict and worked well as partners.
- Derailed for Details: Olive and Otto are consistently interrupted by Ms. O, who is asking questions to confirm her suspicions about what happened.
- Homage: According to the show's social media, the episode takes heavy inspiration from The X-Files episode "Bad Blood"; however, since this is a TV-Y show, no death or vampires are involved. The post in question as archived on Pinterest
. - Dissonant Serenity: Ms. O couldn't care less about the health and safety of several of her Scientists, Oscar included, who are out fighting a nasty world-ending vortex. At one point, Oscar tries to have a conversation with her about something, but she hangs up on him before it's revealed what the conversation is about.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Rainbow Robyn is initially seen as a villainess, and she is — but she also likes planting trees and bringing food and supplies for other volunteers.
- Here We Go Again!: At the end of the episode, Olive and Otto decide to make amends with Rainbow Robyn by helping her plant her trees. They manage to do so, but at the cost of inadvertently opening up yet another vortex.
- Idiot Ball: Olive and Otto both get a knock in IQ points in this episode, from Olive needing to look up what the colors of the rainbow are at the town library (something a 12-year-old should reasonably know) to Otto mistakenly assuming a client wants an autograph.
- Lampshade Hanging:
- Ms. O points out the sheer ridiculousness of Olive and Otto's stories numerous times throughout the episode, even getting fed up with their exaggerations.
Ms. O: Will one of you tell me one thing that actually did happen?- When Coach Roberts finds his cones missing, he ponders the possibility that the person who stole them probably did leave a note, but a pigeon might have taken it. He laughs it off and calls it ridiculous, then dramatically calls for Odd Squad.
- Last-Second Word Swap: Invoked by Ms. O, who repeats the letter "O" (pronounced "aww") since both Olive and Otto's names begin with the same pronunciation.
- Laughing at Your Own Jokes: In Olive's story, Otto is the only one who cracks up at his own "orange" joke. Mrs. Mac and Olive just look confused.
- Laugh Themselves Sick: In response to Otto's first joke, Olive very nearly keels over from laughter as she cries out that "I can't catch my breath!"
- Rainbow Motif: Rainbow Robyn's schtick involves rainbows. This reflects on her dress, which has seven layers on the bottom for each color of the rainbow, and in her alleged stealing of items, which is in the order of the colors of the rainbow.
- Oh, My Gods!: Averted; Otto manages to slip in "oh my God" when laughing at his own joke, and the closed-captions in PBS airings pick up on it.
- "Rashomon"-Style: Both Olive and Otto have different accounts of what happened to create a vortex in the middle of the park, and they both blame each other for the incident. Rainbow Robin, a local citizen, later chimes in with her own version of events. While it's not determined exactly what the course of events was on the agents' end, Ms. O is able to determine that both of the agents inadvertently created the vortex by zapping trees, cones, apples and oranges together, in that order. Once the situation is resolved, both agents recite Aesops about listening to each other more.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Olive and Otto have egos big enough to envision Mrs. Mac telling them they are the "best agents I have ever met" and then ask for their autographs. When Ms. O asks them about it, it's all but implied that their big egos came into play when it came to what actually happened.
- Unkempt Beauty: Both Olive and Otto are in bad states, with sticks and leaves all over their bodies and Messy Hair to boot, but they actually look quite decent for having survived a vortex.
- When It All Began: Hilariously subverted when Ms. O asks Olive to "begin at the beginning". Olive begins to launch into her Backstory (to Otto's annoyance) before Ms. O cuts her off and explains that she meant the beginning of the case.
