Airdates: October 18, 2017 note , October 24, 2016 note
Olympia and Otis go to Negative Town to track down a villain.
Tropes:
- A Good, Old-Fashioned Paint Watching: One of the Negative Town residents was watching paint dry when she heard footsteps behind her and saw a bright flash, and began dancing.
- Authority in Name Only: Mayor Glumley isn't shown doing anything mayoral, aside from heading the "Come on Down to Negative Town" video at the end of the episode, where he takes center stage as singer while he advertises the town's features.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: Otis licks the sour cream cone with ease, as though he's enjoying it. When Olympia attempts to rip the cone from his grasp, he's shown trying to hold onto it and get a few more licks in, but ultimately failing.
- Bland-Name Product: Hilariously, the show does this with its own made-up brand. Negative Town has "Glumbers" as a direct counterpart to "Shmumbers", the show's Brand X name.
- An example with a real-life brand occurs with the Discomfort Inn, as a parallel to Comfort Inn
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- An example with a real-life brand occurs with the Discomfort Inn, as a parallel to Comfort Inn
- The Bus Came Back: Tiny Dancer, a villainess that hasn't been seen since "Undercover Olive", returns in this episode. However, like with Tommy Twosie, she is Put on a Bus after this episode and isn't seen for the rest of the series.
- The Cameo: Jerry makes a cameo appearance during "Come on Down to Negative Town".
- Catchphrase: Olympia attempts to make one stick for Odd Squad: "Never fear, Odd Squad is here!" Naturally, it doesn't stick.
- City Noir: Negative Town is completely dominated by the pitch-black night sky, its inhabitants always have a negative outlook on life, and even places such as restaurants and hotels have a gritty and dark aesthetic to them. Olympia, as well as Tiny Dancer, both stick out like sore thumbs due to their cheerful personalities.
- Clothing Reflects Personality: Mayor Glumley wears a suit in muted colors (dark green and gray) to signify his grumpiness.
- Company Cross References: The street where Olympia and Otis go is Oxley Street, a reference to Jennifer Oxley, who co-created Peg + Cat. That show is co-created by Fred Rogers Productions, one of the companies that co-creates Odd Squad.
- Continuity Nod: When asked why Ms. O is a hologram, Ms. O remarks that they "gotta spend the money, or we lose it", in reference to "Xs and Os".
- One of the things Otis asks the waitress for is a hot dog.
- This isn't the first time an agent has taken a food item away from their partner by force.
- Creepy Circus Music: The sour-cream cart has some pretty distorted and creepy music accompanying it, which plays as BGM as Olympia and Otis eat sour-cream cones.
- Dainty Combat: Aside from a few slip-ups, Tiny Dancer is incredibly graceful in combat. She also dances when fixing up everything and everyone in town.
- Dancing Is Serious Business: The episode involves people of Negative Town dancing in unenthusiastic ways.
- Deadpan Snarker: The waitress at the Glumbers Cafe has some snark to give visiting tourist Otis.Otis: I'll have the grilled cheese.Waitress: We're sold out.Otis: Okay, I'll have the pizza.Waitress: Out of that too.Otis: Hot dog?Waitress: Let me check. [looks to her left] Nope.
- Death Wail: Downplayed; the Mayor apparently practices moaning quite often, and leaves Olympia and Otis while moaning sorrowfully.
- Determinator: Played straight for Olympia and Otis, but naturally averted for the Mayor, who doesn't even bother trying to find Tiny Dancer and immediately gives up when he sees her first victim. Luckily, the partner pair get him back on track.
- Dodge the Bullet: A majority of the fight scene consists of Olympia, Otis and the Mayor dodging Tiny Dancer's blasts from her wand. When Olympia dodges a laser blast and falls onto the couch, Tiny Dancer immediately goes for her, but her flair of waving the wand in a circle just before she strikes gives Otis free reign to snatch the wand out of her grasp.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Olympia taking the sour cream cone away from Otis is strongly reminiscent of a mother taking away a food item from their child when they've had enough.
- Double-Meaning Title: The title of the episode has two meanings — Negative Town is both a place that has negative numbers for its house addresses, and is a place where people share a depressing, upset demeanor and outlook on life.
- Eat Dirt, Cheap: Olympia, Otis, and the Mayor are served rock soup for lunch, which is soup with rocks in it. While Otis is confused by it, Olympia is absolutely ecstatic over it and remarks that it looks delicious, which is only intensified by the waitress dropping three forks on the table (since the restaurant has no spoons) and telling them to "have a day".Olympia: Soup with a fork?! Challenge accepted!
- Everyone Has Standards: Olympia is more than happy to eat soup that has a giant rock in it, but she expresses dislike of the sour-cream cone she eats.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: A clown manages to finish Otis's sentence as he explains where Tiny Dancer will hit.Olympia: So that's the pattern!Otis: Which means the next place Tiny Dancer will strike is -20 - 20, which equals-Clown: -40 Oxley Street.Olympia: How'd you know that?Clown: Well, I got a calculator. I mean it's solar-powered, so not really good in this neighborhood. I gotta shine a flashlight on it, but- but still! Yeah.
- Foil: Olympia serves as one to Mayor Glumley. While she is a bubbly, energetic Genki Girl with a positive outlook on life who seeks to cheer him up, he is a grump who is cynical and despises sunlight.
- While Olympia and Otis are known to serve as foils to each other personality-wise, this episode makes it much more apparent — Olympia is happy to be in Negative Town despite the sad demeanor of its residents, while Otis isn't happy at all and finds Negative Town to be confusing. By the end of the episode, Olympia assures the Mayor (who is sad about them leaving) that they'll come back and visit, followed by Otis giving a hushed "Seriously?" to her.
- Hidden Depths: For being melancholy and depressed with the tone of voice to match, Mayor Glumley has a pretty good singing voice.
- Hologram Projection Imperfection: Subverted. The hologram of Ms. O works perfectly, up until Olympia runs her hand over it, at which point the hologram flickers briefly. It also flickers as she yells the last part of her Catchphrase at Olympia and Otis.
- "I Know What We Can Do" Cut: Olympia tells Mayor Glumley that he just needs to get more people to come visit Negative Town, and says that she has an idea on how to do just that. Cut to a musical number starting, which happens to be the Mayor advertising the town through song.
- Innocently Insensitive: In response to Mayor Glumley telling Olympia and Otis that Negative Town only gets 5 minutes of sunlight, Otis says that sounds horrible. Olympia lightly scolds her partner, telling him that just because something is different doesn't mean it's horrible. The Mayor agrees with Otis and says that it's horrible.
- Instructional Film: The man living at 5 Oxley Street, Jerry, gets asked about "-5" Oxley Street so often that he's made an instructional video on negative numbers, which he shows Olympia and Otis. It's surprisingly well-made for being a video made for under $4, but manages to leave the partner pair utterly confused.
- Irony: The Cold Open client, who is a worker at a grocery store, doesn't know how people react to eating lemons.
- Is That a Threat?: Downplayed. When Olympia remarks that a half-empty glass of water is "yummy", the waitress snaps at her by asking, "Are you messin' with me?" The Mayor has to point out to her that she's not from Negative Town.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: As Olympia points out Negative Town's ice cream cart, an upbeat ditty perfect for an ice cream truck begins to play, shortly before it winds down as the Mayor tells her it's a sour cream cart.
- Light/Darkness Juxtaposition: Oxley Street is divided into day and night, with one side being daytime and the other side being nighttime. The nighttime part of Oxley Street belongs to Negative Town, where everyone is gloomy and depressed, and has a negative outlook on life, while the daytime part is generally the more positive part.
- Lyrical Dissonance: The melody of "Come on Down to Negative Town" is upbeat and happy in stark contrast to the lyrics, which are comprised of Mayor Glumley advertising all of the negative things Negative Town has to offer: balloon strings, itchy beds, etcetera.
- Magic Wand: Tiny Dancer now wields one, which she uses to make items dance. Otis, by way of her going to attack Olympia, grabs ahold of it and offers her a hefty ultimatum: fix everything in town or the wand gets broken in half. She immediately surrenders.
- Meaningful Name: Mayor Glumley is constantly in a depressed state, always has a negative outlook on life, and always speaks in a sad tone of voice.
- Melancholy Musical Number: Due to Lyrical Dissonance, the "Come on Down to Negative Town" song comes off as this. It's basically the Mayor singing about how bad everything is in Negative Town (essentially, it's an advertisement for tourists to come and visit), while the melody is upbeat. The best part is that it actually manages to work — Ms. O remarks that the town has 5 more visitors, more than it's ever had.
- Non-Ironic Clown: As Olympia and Otis manage to crack Tiny Dancer's pattern, a clown comes up behind them. While he's not overtly happy, he is still affable towards the partner pair.
- No Title: The song the Mayor sings at the end of the episode to advertise Negative Town isn't given a name.
- Rhetorical Request Blunder: When Olympia and Otis stop Tiny Dancer by shouting their usual "Odd Squad, Odd Squad, stop right there" Catchphrase, Tiny Dancer decides to fire back with a worthy taunt, saying that "I think you mean dance right there!" while performing her Evil Laugh. Cue the partner pair telling her that they didn't say that at all.
- Shout-Out: The Stone Soup that Olympia and Otis are served (rocks in a bowl of soup), as well as the sour disposition of the waitress who serves it and her other customers, could be a potential reference to the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Hearthbreakers". note Similarly, the view of the sun and the moon being in the sky at the same time calls to mind Part 1 of the Season 4 premiere.
- Stealth Insult: When Olympia is telling the Mayor how much she loves Negative Town, saying that it's one of a kind, he starts to take the compliment into consideration. Otis, on the other hand...Otis: Well, I can honestly say I've never been anywhere like it.
- Squick: An in-universe reaction occurs with Olympia and Otis, who become absolutely disgusted when the Cold Open client takes a bite of an apple and her entire head moves along with her chewing.
- Mayor Glumley also has this reaction to one of Negative Town's residents dancing under the effect of Tiny Dancer.
- Stone Soup: Averted. Glumbers Cafe's "soup" is basically soup with rocks in it.
- Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: Lampshaded by Mayor Glumley at the end of the episode.Dark skies, overhead (come on down!)Rock soup, and itchy beds (come on down!)No balloons, just strings instead (come on down!)Plus our songs don't rhyme very often
- Technology Marches On: Averted in-universe — cell phones never caught on in Negative Town, so everyone uses telegrams to communicate.
- Telegraph Gag STOP: Negative Town gets messages via telegram, which is how the Mayor knows that Tiny Dancer struck somewhere else.
- Think Happy Thoughts: Olympia tells the Mayor that he needs to start thinking more positive when he tells her and Otis that Tiny Dancer isn't coming to the Discomfort Inn. As it turns out, he's right — Tiny Dancer struck another place, not the inn.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Tiny Dancer leaves the Mayor's house to fix up the rest of Negative Town.
- What Is This Feeling?: When Otis points out that the Mayor is smiling at the end of the episode, the Mayor is confused as to what smiling is.Mayor: Thank you, Odd Squad. For saving Negative Town! [smiles]Otis: Are you smiling?Mayor: Is that what's...happening to my face?Olympia: Yes, because you're happy!
She also needs a license to feel stressed during upbeat musical numbers.
License to ScienceAirdates: October 18, 2017 note , October 24, 2016 note
Oona must pass her Lab Director's test to remain on Odd Squad.
Tropes:
- Audience Surrogate: Oona is meant to represent teenagers and young adults who are nervous about getting their license (who are not in the show's primary demographic, but may watch the show anyway). The episode has numerous parallels to what first-time drivers experience, right down to the anxiety many develop as well as what can be on the test, but it's only made apparent that it's catered towards teenagers and young adults specifically by the ages of the characters. note
- Audio Adaptation: An in-universe example occurs with Mastering the Marketplace, a book written by an author known as Paul Shmumber. The audiobook is stored on Olympia's car radio, and she plays it for the X's and Owen.
- Beast Man: Downplayed; while she isn't turned into a full beast man (although Ocean warns her that she is), Olympia does have a furry arm with claws as a result of touching a contagious creature.
- The Bus Came Back: Odelia, who was last seen in "Oscar Strikes Back", makes a return appearance in this episode as Oona's test administrator.
- The Coats Are Off: Otis takes off his and throws it on the ground while dancing. Oona gives it back to him at the end of the dance number.
- Continuity Nod: The snap count that Olympia gives out consists of her and Otis's badge numbers, respectively.
- Oona hides in the same bunker she and Oscar hid in to get away from Ms. O.
- Oona brings up Oscar's promotion to President of the Scientists, citing it as the reason why she didn't get her Lab Director's license. She later makes two more nods to the same episode: when greeting Odelia, and when uncombining gadgets to make the Hat-inator.
- The Flip-Flop-inator makes a return and is given a gadget number: 9.
- Olympia fetches an ice orb from the same room where Olive got a trash bin to capture a loose blob.
- This isn't the first time a character has had an Imagine Spot of another character that has freely interacted with them.
- Dancing Is Serious Business: During the Training Montage, Otis begins showing off his dance moves. Even Oona — the Scientist he's training — tells him that he got carried away.
- Determinator: Naturally, it's played straight for Otis, and actively defied by Olympia. However, it's averted for Oona, who immediately decides to resign from Odd Squad to spare herself the embarrassment of the X's doing the honors of kicking her out for her.
- Dissonant Serenity: The desk that Olo was fixing falls to pieces as soon as she walks offscreen. While a few background agents turn to look, the X's don't do so much as blink.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Doubles as a neat Parental Bonus — the premise of the episode surrounds Oona getting her Lab Director's license, and taking a test at the DMG (Department of Motorized Gadgets). While this would fly right over the target demographic's heads, it would definitely resonate with teenagers who wish to drive for the first time, but need to obtain their license first to do so.
- Exposed to the Elements: Olympia is wearing her trademark Investigation uniform when going to fetch an ice orb from a cold room, but doesn't feel any ill effects from it.
- Failed a Spot Check: Oona is so nervous that she fails to realize that she has five other fingers to count to 25 with, which are gripping a gadget that she could easily set down.Oona: So now I just count on from 18. So that's 19, 20, 21, 22. 23. Otis, I'm out of fingers!!Otis: Oona, other hand.Oona: Right. [sets the gadget down]
- Fantastic Fireworks: Oona produces some with gadget #25.
- Flat "What": Olympia's and Otis's reaction to Oona telling them that she's going to New Mexico to start a dirt farm.
- Flying Face: Otis takes on this form at the climax of the episode to help Oona with uncombining gadgets, as part of an Imagine Spot.
- Hell Is That Noise: Oona's watch opening up and closing sounds vastly different than the watches other agents have, and is much more louder to boot. It definitely isn't a pleasant noise to hear, either.
- Hidden Depths: Otis and Olympia are surprisingly skilled football players to the extent that they could potentially stand toe-to-toe with Olive in a game. They even use proper football terms!
- Oona is incredibly anxious when it comes to tests. If she hears a test question, she immediately panics and hides.
- She also enjoys to dance, something that Scientists in general love to do as a result of many late nights in the lab. Unfortunately, she doesn't know how, leading Otis to teach her via a musical number and a Training Montage.
- Holding the Floor: Olympia attempts to stall the X's by making up odd problems while Otis and Oona train for the latter's test. She is absolutely terrible at it, but manages to stall them long enough for Oona to obtain her license.
- Oona tries to delay her test by making small talk with Odelia regarding the events of "Oscar Strikes Back", and asking her to go easy on the Lab Director. Odelia refuses, saying that the test doesn't work that way, before leading her to the testing room.
Oona: [nervously; to Otis] Where can I hide?! - Imagine Spot: Oona has one as she imagines Otis as a Flying Face encouraging her when uncombining gadgets. Odelia can see it and tells it that there's no outside help during the test, only for Oona to tell her it's imaginary, at which point Odelia says that imaginary help is allowed.
- Insane Troll Logic: Owen keeps his Security license in the Safe Room, claiming that since it's both a literal safe and an actual safe room, it's "double safe".
- Kill It with Ice: A non-lethal and non-human variant — Olympia freezes the Safe Room's door shut using an ice orb she had retrieved.
- Kindness Ball: The X's are much more benevolent in this episode compared to their debut episode, but go right back to being jerkasses in "O is Not For O-Bot" and future appearances.
- Lack of Empathy: Par for the course with the X's, who threaten Olo (who is in the middle of fixing a desk) with losing her job if she doesn't show them her license on the spot.
- Mix-and-Match Man: At the end of the episode, Olympia is nearly unidentifiable as a human being. She has a semitruck's front on her head, a tentacle that looks like it sprouts from her back, a glowing red basketball for a hand, and a furry monster arm (which is wrapped with a leaf bandage) as well as a leaf-covered arm. The only thing that makes others distinguish her from an odd creature is her Investigation uniform and her ability to speak fluent English despite her head being the front of a semitruck.
- Motor Mouth: Olympia is well-aware this is a common trait for her, and she's not afraid to weaponize it.Olympia: I'll distract the X's and buy you guys some time.Otis: How are you going to do that?Olympia: With a little gadget I call, the Talk-inator! [beat as Otis and Oona look confused] My mouth, guys, 'cuz I tend to talk a lot. I'm doing it right now, aren't I? [Otis nods; she begins to walk away] I'm gonna go do the thing I told you I was just going to go do, I'm gonna go distract the X's because that's what I said I'm gonna do and I-[scene transition]
- Nervous Wreck: Oona. By God, Oona. She is constantly berating herself even with Otis trying to help her, and while at the DMG she is shown pacing nervously and refuses to listen to Otis's reassurance. It only manages to get worse when Odelia blindsides her with a portion of the test she didn't study for: uncombining gadgets.
- No Reprise, Please: Averted; Oona and Odelia don't stop Otis from reciting the final line of the chorus of the Training Montage song.
- No Title: The song in the Training Montage doesn't have an official title.
- Offscreen Teleportation: When Oona tells Olympia and Otis to ask her a question that would be on the test, the camera cuts to the partner pair as Otis asks her what 2 + 2 is. He doesn't even get to finish the question before we hear the shovel falling to the ground, and the camera cuts to the bunker, where Oona hid.
- Oh, Crap!: Olympia has one when Dr. O tells her that if she doesn't have car-itis, she doesn't want to put a cube on her head (which treats the illness).
- Pacing a Trench: Played with — Oona does pace nervously while in the DMG's waiting room, but doesn't wear a hole into the floor.
- Playing Sick: Olympia fakes an odd illness (making involuntary car noises) in order to stall the X's, and by extension, Dr. O. It ends up working, but comes with the disastrous consequence of Dr. O's treatment: putting a cube on her head, which turns it into the front part of a semitruck. Ironically enough, she makes involuntary car noises while her head is a semitruck, but can speak fluently for the most part.
- P.O.V. Cam: During the musical number, we get a few shots from both Oona's and Otis's perspectives.
- Product Placement: Played with. While at least one previous episode has been known to strip emblems off of cars (resulting in Product Displacement), this episode doesn't bother with that, and instead shows various makes of cars in a parking lot, including Nissan, Mazda, and Honda, among others. However, no car manufacturer paid to have their cars featured in the episode.
- Repeat Cut: Employed at the end of the Training Montage, with Otis leaping into the warehouse.
- Retcon: The episode's premise revolves around Oona not having her Lab Director's license. However, not only has she been shown to be a competent Lab Director in past episodes, but Oscar has never mentioned either having a license or creating the Lab Directors' test for potential Lab Directors, making this appear to be an Ass Pull.
- Shout-Out: The episode's title is a reference to the James Bond film Licence to Kill.
- Suspiciously Apropos Music: The Training Montage song that plays (commonly referred to as "Dance the Science Back Into Your Life" by fans, since it has No Title) is basically one long scene for Isaac Kragten to be The Cast Showoff. However, its lyrics also match up with Otis attempting to train Oona, and the stress she undergoes learning things for her test.
- Training Montage: One occurs during the episode, and with it comes an amazing song that sounds like something straight out of The '80s.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Averted — quite a few background agents watch Otis dancing in the bullpen.
- Worldbuilding: This episode introduces Lab Director's tests, which a Lab Director must pass if they want to stay employed with Odd Squad. Generally, there are three parts to the test: combining gadgets to make new gadgets, combining gadgets with bigger numbers, and...dancing. However, other parts can also be added in, such as uncombining gadgets.
- It also introduces licenses for every department, including the Scientists. While Lab Directors in particular need to pass Lab Directors' tests, it's not made clear what other departments must do to obtain their licenses.
- The Department of Motorized Gadgets, or DMG, is introduced. It features an indoor skydiving wind tunnel as well as a few monitors and a large testing room with a table.
- You Go, Girl!: One of the football players in the Cold Open is a girl, and she's just as skilled as her teammates. Doubles as a Stereotype Flip as well.
- You Shall Not Pass!: A team of Burly Bears football players prevent the Cold Open client from getting milk for his coffee.
