Yeah, they're outnumbered. But somehow, they all manage to pull a Villain: Exit, Stage Left.
Flawed Squad
Airdates: June 28, 2016 note , July 14, 2016 note
Six villains team up to break into Odd Squad headquarters.
Tropes:
- Actually a Good Idea: Played straight for Jamie Jam, Evil Mime, Fladam and Father Time, who come to find that the Noisemaker's idea of having the agents make silly noises is a good one after arguing against it earlier. However, the trope is inverted for the Shapeshifter, who doesn't like the outcome of the second election whatsoever.
- All Elections Are Serious Business: The villains take votes on what they want to do to the Odd Squad agents throughout the episode.
- Always with You: When the Shapeshifter remarks that the Noisemaker isn't present to put the villains' plan in motion, Jamie Jam says that the Noisemaker is there in their hearts.
- The Bus Came Back: The Noisemaker, who hasn't had a speaking role since "Jinx", returns in this episode with a major speaking role.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Olympia is able to make the rude Cold Open client into a nicer person (which he wishes to be) by shining a flashlight in his face briefly, disguising it as a Nice-inator gadget. It ends up working.Otis: I never heard of a Nice-inator.Olympia: No such thing. This is a flashlight. He had the power to be nice in him all along.
- Confronting Your Imposter: The Shapeshifter, disguised as Olympia, exits the Arts and Crafts Room...and immediately comes face-to-face with the real deal. The villainess angrily asks why she had to choose Olympia to shapeshift into.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Played with. Ms. O isn't intimidated by the villains because she's got hundreds of employees willing to jump into battle. However, no one even gets a chance to attack due to one of the villains, Father Time, freezing all of the employees with the power of his staff.
- Continuity Nod: The Shapeshifter once again shapeshifts into Ms. O in order to deceive agents. Unlike in "The Briefcase", however, no one manages to sniff her out.
- Copycat Mockery: The Cold Open client engages in this at the beginning of the episode.
- Didn't See That Coming: None of the villains anticipated that the agents would be unfrozen due to Father Time's ability having the drawback of only working for a minute. As a result, a majority of the episode is spent attempting to find a workaround.
- The Ditherer: None of the villains can decide on what to do next after Father Time freezes the agents. Jamie Jam wants to cover them in jam, Fladam wants to flatten them all, the Noisemaker wants to make them utter out silly noises, and the Shapeshifter wants to shapeshift each agent into items that can benefit her and the other villains. After Father Time's spell wears off and they hide in part of the lab, the Shapeshifter proposes that she and the other villains vote on what to do.
- Dragon Ascendant: Implied. The Shapeshifter was seen as being The Dragon to Odd Todd in previous episodes such as "Undercover Olive" and "Disorder in the Court". Since Odd Todd is now reformed (and thus, isn't there to lead the villains himself), she is seen leading the group of villains in the break-in, but it's not confirmed whether she stepped up as leader of the villains in his place or not.
- Dramatic Drop: Ms. O is left with a shocked reaction at Father Time using his powers, and as a result, she not only performs a Jaw Drop, she drops her juicebox (although since time is stopped for her and the other agents, it stays in midair).
- Enemy Mime: Evil Mime, natch.
- Ethereal Choir: One is heard as the Noisemaker runs through the bullpen.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: The villain group is comprised of three males (Father Time, Fladam, and the Noisemaker) and three females (Jamie Jam, the Shapeshifter, and Evil Mime).
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Both Jamie Jam and Fladam were seen being on the side of good in their respective episodes. In this episode, however, they return to the side of the villains.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Shapeshifter attempts to use Father Time's staff in order to freeze the agents again. However, she's holding it upside down, a fact that Father Time tells her mere seconds before she bangs the staff on the ground and activates it. It ends up freezing the villains themselves, but leaves the agents intact.
- Hypocritical Humor: When Father Time informs the villain group that his powers only work once every hour, and just for a minute, the Shapeshifter asks him, "So what, you're just a guy?" Later on, when he asks her to shapeshift into Ms. O to get rid of Olympia and Otis, she states that she can only shapeshift into the same person or object once a week, causing him to slyly remark, "Who's just a guy now?"
- I Surrender, Suckers: As Olympia and Otis order the villains to step out of the Arts and Crafts Room, they admit defeat and show themselves one by one. The Noisemaker is shown admitting defeat as well, before he stops, shoves random instruments in Olympia's and Otis' hands, and takes off along with the rest of the group. Both agents are stunned enough to not even try and chase after them.Olympia: Why did we take these?Otis: They looked expensive.Olympia: Oh.
- The Leader: The Shapeshifter serves this role in the group of villains, following up on her characterization from episodes such as "Undercover Olive" and "Disorder in the Court" (where she played the role of The Dragon to Odd Todd when he was a villain). She is of the Mastermind type, keeping a level head and being the most strategic villain of the group, much like Odd Todd was.
- Loophole Abuse: Each villain votes for themselves during the first election on what to do to the agents, leading the Shapeshifter to devise a new rule that no one can vote for themselves during the next election.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: All of the villains (bar the Shapeshifter) arguing loudly with each other in the Arts and Crafts Room leads Olympia and Otis to the room, where they quickly tell them to surrender. Not knowing it's Olympia at the door, the Shapeshifter takes initiative and attempts to shapeshift into her, only for the two to quickly sniff her out. However, she and the other villains manage to get away by the Noisemaker forcing them to take instruments, distracting them.
- At the end of the episode, when the villain group reveal themselves to Ms. O and the other agents once more, the Shapeshifter becomes so fed up with Father Time's stick-twirling that she grabs his staff from him and bangs it on the ground to stop time for the agents. However, Father Time points out that she's holding it the wrong way mere seconds before she performs the attack, causing all of the villains to be frozen instead of the agents.
Ms. O: Hmm. That was easier than I thought. - Oh, Crap!: All six villains have one when they see the agents beginning to unfreeze.
- Overcrank: With the aim to distract, The Noisemaker enters the bullpen through the automatic double-doors and taunts the other agents before running through the bullpen in slow motion with a golden spotlight following him and an Ethereal Choir as the backing track. However, it's nothing more than a fantasy — in reality, he runs in a very noisy and awkward manner before he trips and begins falling in slow-motion.
- Shapeshifter Baggage: The Shapeshifter transforms into Ms. O in order to lead the other villains to the Arts and Crafts Room, and later transforms into Olympia in order to deceive Otis as well as the real Olympia when they confront the villain group. Like with Olive, both Ms. O and Olympia are smaller than the Shapeshifter and share a weight gap with her (since the Shapeshifter keeps her weight when transforming into people and objects), and it's not explained where the extra weight went when she shapeshifted.
- Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: Averted. The Shapeshifter gains both Ms. O's Director attire and Olympia's Investigation attire when transforming into them.
- Surrounded by Idiots: The Shapeshifter gets hit with this quite a lot during the episode, being the Only Sane Woman in a group of dimwitted villains.
- This Is a Drill: The Shapeshifter and the other villains are able to access the Elaborate Underground Base where Precinct 13579 is located by shapeshifting her hand into a drill to dig underground. It's also able to break through the brick wall connecting underground to Headquarters. She even quotes the trope near-verbatim once she makes her way to the bullpen.
- Time Master: The aptly-named Father Time, who has the ability to freeze anyone by banging his staff on the ground, sending a shockwave at its target that stops time for them while leaving him intact. However, it comes with a drawback: the target can only be frozen for a minute, and he can only use the ability once an hour.
- Took a Level in Kindness: The Cold Open client is very rude, but wishes to be a nice person. Olympia ends up using the Nice-inator gadget on him, which is really just a flashlight.
- Villain Episode: This episode mostly focuses on six villains (Father Time, the Shapeshifter, Jamie Jam, Evil Mime, the Noisemaker, and Fladam) who break into Headquarters. The Main 4 sans Oscar and Oona all make appearances as they attempt to catch the villains, but they only take up about half of the episode's total screentime.
- Villains Out Shopping: Jamie Jam mentions that she has to take her nephews to the local museum next Saturday.
- Villain Team-Up: The premise of the episode revolves around the Shapeshifter, Fladam, the Noisemaker, Evil Mime, Jamie Jam and Father Time teaming up to break into Headquarters. However, their teamwork skills are incredibly weak, and after two elections centered around what to do to the agents, the Shapeshifter resigns to just having each villain attack their own way.Shapeshifter: Some may say that we have given up on teamwork. But, I would say we have learned a valuable lesson about thinking for ourselves.
- We Need a Distraction: While the rest of the villains head to the Chalkboard Room to vote a second time, the Noisemaker leaves the group to distract the agents at Jamie Jam's suggestion. His distraction is initially presented as him running through the bullpen in slow motion, with a golden spotlight shining on him from overhead and an Ethereal Choir as the backing track, but it's implied that this is just his imagination — in reality, his running is noisy and awkward, and outright confuses several agents, who don't even bother to chase after him. Eventually, he manages to trip and fall, and Ms. O apprehends him on the spot.
- With Catlike Tread: The Noisemaker wears a variety of instruments all over his body, and as a result, he can't walk quietly, as the instruments make too much noise. However, he believes it's due to the fact he's a heavy breather. Jamie Jam exploits this by suggesting he be a distraction for the agents, but it doesn't go well.
You should see what's happening in the rest of Headquarters right now...
The Creature Whisperer
Airdates: June 28, 2016 note , July 14, 2016 note
Olympia and Ocean try to catch a loose Hopinbob before the Big O finds out.
Tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming: Owen refers to Ocean as "Mr. Pond" at one point, admitting that he's not good at naming bodies of water.
- Acting Unnatural: Ms. O's response to Decoy!Big O asking her if she's stalling is to give out Blatant Lies, then delve into Mirthless Laughter with Otis. Naturally, her boss doesn't buy it.
- Actually, That's My Assistant: At the end of the episode, it's revealed that the older, more distinguished Big O isn't the real Big O, and is instead part of his decoy. The real Big O is a child who looks to be younger than any of the Main 4 (at most, he's revealed to be attending kindergarten in the season finale). This manages to surprise near everyone as he reveals that Decoy!Big O posed as the real deal as part of a test given to Ms. O to test her intelligence, which she manages to pass.
- Answer Cut: When Olympia and Ocean go up to Owen and ask him to bring up security footage from outside the Art Room, Owen remarks in a sarcastic tone, "Oh, sure. Why don't I make you a three-course meal while I'm at it?" Cut to him having prepared a three-course meal for the both of them.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Oona shows off her new gadget, the Face-Replace-inator, to Olympia and Otis. While it is a useful gadget, it has a drawback of giving the target an elderly woman's face.Olympia: How is that useful?Oona: I don't use 'em, I just make 'em. Go wolf pack!! [runs off]
- Bait-and-Switch: At the beginning of the episode, Oona, Olympia and Otis are climbing a spiral staircase up to the second floor, while Oona is explaining how the key to doing...something is to focus and not get distracted. As soon as the trio reach the second floor, it's revealed that she was teaching the partner pair how to climb the stairs.
- As Olympia realizes that the Hopinbob is heading for Ms. O's office, with the Big O inside, she confidently remarks that she has an idea. However, it turns out she's simply inverting the Determinator trope, and wants to use the Face-Replace-inator to give her, Ms. O and Ocean new faces for their inevitable new lives they will have to live once they get fired from Odd Squad.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: As Ms. O is delegating roles to Olympia, Otis, and Ocean, she has this to say:Ms. O: Dr. O.Dr. O: Yes, ma'am?Ms. O: You're not in this story.Dr. O: Copy that! [leaves]
- Call-Back: This isn't the first time that someone from the Big Office comes to test Ms. O, only for something to go disastrously wrong in the process. This time around, however, it's the Big O himself that pays her a visit.
- Catchphrase: Downplayed; Olympia answers her badge phone with an "O to the '-lymp-' to the '-ia!'" It doesn't stick, however.
- Character Tics: This episode, as well as the past episode, appears to be making one for Ms. O that comes in the form of her saying "Let's move, people!" and clapping her hands twice when she feels motivated and wants things to get done. However, it doesn't really stick.
- Chest Insignia: Hopinbobs have triangles on their stomachs. If one eats a triangular-shaped object or food, another triangle will appear on its belly and it will go after food and objects with two triangles, and so on.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Keeping in tradition with agents' Tube Travel balls matching the color of the department they're in, Decoy!Big O and his assistants travel in white balls, matching the department of the Big Office.
- Continuity Nod: The Piss-Take Rap song "All I Really Want Is Eggs" is heard as Otis begins to stall Decoy!Big O and his assistants by dancing.
- Dancing Is Serious Business: Otis's idea of stalling includes dancing, and he performs a variety of dances for Decoy!Big O and his assistants.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The Cold Open client's office is greyscale, while the rest of the building is colored. As she, Olympia and Otis walk into the office, they lose their color as well. Olympia believes it's because the client has a Soul-Crushing Desk Job (which is somewhat true; she hates working behind a desk all day), when in reality, her "color-stat" is set to "black and white". Once Otis changes it, the color is restored to everything.
- Dissonant Serenity: Ocean accidentally let a creature in his care loose in Headquarters, and yet, he's as calm as can be. Otis remarks on it:Otis: How can you be so calm?Ocean: That's just on the outside. On the inside, I'm all like, "uhhhhh".
- Dragged by the Collar: Olympia tugs Otis back by his shoulder when Ocean tells her his day is going awful, wanting the both of them to help the Creature Room Director.
- Dramatic Drop: When Olympia tells the Odd Squad Jazz Room agents that the Hopinbob is going to eat the triangle players' two triangles, they drop the instruments in shock.
- Hidden Depths: Otis is quite the skilled dancer, and manages to perform a variety of dances in order to stall. This is justified, as Isaac Kragten, Otis's actor, is a professional dancer.
- Owen is revealed to be a Supreme Chef who manages to prepare a three-course meal for Ocean and Olympia.
- Got Volunteered: Otis is pushed forward by Ms. O towards the Decoy!Big O so he can stall him and his assistants.
- Holding the Floor: Ms. O tasks herself and Otis with stalling the Decoy!Big O so Olympia and Ocean can find the missing Hopinbob. Otis takes the helm in stalling by performing a series of dances for his boss's boss, at her insistence. He later distracts the decoy by performing a magic trick.
- I Can Explain: Ocean says this to Ms. O upon her revealing that she knows about the Hopinbob loose.
- Ms. O herself later says this to Decoy!Big O when he asks about the Hopinbob.
- Innocuously Important Episode: This episode introduces the rank and department of the Big O and the Big Office, respectively — the Big O being the person that is in charge of every Odd Squad precinct in the world, as well as the organization in and of itself. Come the Season 2 finale, Ms. O is promoted into this rank and remains as the Big O for the duration of Season 3.
- In-Series Nickname: Ocean is referred to as "Creature Guy" by both Owen and Orchid.
- Kubrick Stare: The real Big O does one when he reveals himself.
- Mirthless Laughter: Otis and Ms. O nervously laugh when Decoy!Big O asks the latter if she's stalling. It goes on for an uncomfortably long time before he interrupts them.
- Musicalis Interruptus: The Odd Squad Jazz Room agents' song gets cut off by Olympia and Ocean, barging in and telling them about the Hopinbob.
- Must Make Amends: Ocean, being the one who let the Hopinbob get loose to begin with, takes responsibility and owns up to his mistake by letting the secret about it being loose out to Decoy!Big O, and giving items to Otis, Olympia and Ms. O to help them take their minds off of the danger. He manages to calm down and catch the creature successfully on its own.
- "No. Just… No" Reaction: Otis, Ms. O and Decoy!Big O have a nonverbal variant of this reaction when Olympia manages to give herself a "grandma" face (although it looks more like she's transformed into a grandma) and remarks how she can finally get the seniors' discount at the local diner. Otis in particular uses his magic wand to push Decoy!Big O's head back into the box he's sitting in.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Otis gets a little too close to Decoy!Big O while dancing.
- Not So Above It All: Ms. O outright admits to Otis that she's nervous about meeting the Big O for the first time, and it shows. She's nervous enough to send Otis to stall rather than have them work as a team.
- Prompting Nudge: Ms. O pushes Otis forward as Decoy!Big O and his assistants are heading inside in order to get him to stall. She later nudges him with his hand, prompting him to laugh along with her.
- Speak of the Devil: Otis assures Ocean that he and Olympia can help him out and Ms. O doesn't have to find out. Clearly, he forgot about the Director's Stealth Hi/Bye ability, as she instantly appears next to Ocean and reveals that she knows about the ordeal, scaring all three agents.
- Status Quo Is God: Naturally, Ms. O gets to keep her job at the end of the episode.
- The Stoic: Decoy!Big O doesn't so much as crack a smile throughout the entire episode. Considering the department that he works in, being no-nonsense is potentially justified.
- Super-Speed: Hopinbobs can run incredibly quickly, which is why Olympia and Ocean have trouble catching the one that got loose.
- Tempting Fate: When Olympia gets wind of Ocean letting a creature loose in Headquarters, she resolves to help him find it, asking, "How hard can it be?" As it turns out, it's incredibly hard, and neither she nor Ocean can catch it until the end of the episode.
- Vertebrate with Extra Limbs: Hopinbobs are furry creatures with triangles on their bellies and six legs.
- Voices Are Not Mental: Olympia doesn't only develop an elderly woman's face by accidentally using the Face-Replace-inator gadget on herself — she's transformed into one. However, her voice remains the same.
- Wild Take: Ms. O has one upon hearing the screams of her agents down in the bullpen as the escaped Hopinbob rushes around.
- Worldbuilding: This episode introduces the rank of Big O, as well as the department of "Big Office". While it's not expanded on in the episode as to what they do, later episodes (as well as The Movie) would reveal that the Big O is in charge of every Odd Squad precinct in the world and of the organization as a whole, and issues tests to Directors to test their competence in running precincts.
