Recap / Odd Squad S 3 E 29 Set Lasers To Profit Villains Helping Villains

When all you need is $23...and have subpar music skills.

Set Lasers to Profit

Airdate: November 1, 2021 ^note CBBC premiere, July 4, 2022 ^note PBS Kids premiere

Three villains team up with Bonnie Blaster and her high-powered, oddness-causing gadget.

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Tropes:

• Abandoned Warehouse: Most of the episode takes place in one of these.
• Advanced Tech 2000: The Odd Gadgitron 1000, a Ray Gun created by Bonnie Blaster that has a high level of power and manages to trap the Mobile Unit in thick ice.
  Omar: The what now?
  Bonnie Blaster: The this now.
• An Aesop: Don't be scammed by Con Artists — be smart with your money and think about offers being posed to you before going for them.
• Artistic License: When all four members of the Mobile Unit activate the heating in their uniforms, the ice they're trapped in is shown as a white snowy explosion, then ice chunks are strewn about along with powdered snow in a circle around them. Quite obviously, if all four melted the ice, it would be a puddle, not in solid chunks or powder.
• Back to School: Played with. It's never confirmed whether Tommy Twosie, High-Five, or Threesie Louise-ie attended school (and be reminded that this is a world where Odd Squad agents, and perhaps some average citizens as well, don't attend school as we know it), but Tommy Twosie brings up the three of them going to dental school in order to make money.
• Badass Normal: High-Five, Tommy Twosie, and Threesie Louise-ie are number-based villains, and as such, they have no odd powers. In order to gain odd powers of their own, they turn to Bonnie Blaster, a Con Artist villainess who promises them that her Ray Gun can grant anyone odd powers, but requires payment beforehand.
• The Bus Came Back: Tommy Twosie, who hasn't been seen since Season 2's "The Perfect Score", returns in this episode.
  • Likewise, Threesie Louise-ie from "Train of Thoughts" makes a return appearance.
  • High-Five, who debuted in "Down the Tubes", also returns.
• Call-Back: This isn't the first time agents have been trapped in ice — Oprah, Oscar and Oona have all gotten themselves trapped before. However, this time around it's the work of a villain and not of anyone's own doing.
• Captain Obvious: "You're still trying to escape?" asks Tommy Twosie of the Mobile Unit. Well of course they are, they're natural determinators. Did you expect them to stand there and wait for the ice to melt rather than try their damndest to escape?
  • Osmerelda later gets into it by telling Threesie Louise-ie that Stealing the Credit for capturing her and her teammates isn't a cool thing to do, only for her intent of getting the villainess to have a Heel Realization to backfire — she instead condescendingly praises her for being a good sport and gives her a pat on the shoulder as a reward, which activates the agent's "heat function" in her suit.
• Catchphrase: All three villains have trouble settling on a catchphrase, and Louise-ie attempts to try some out throughout the episode. Eventually they settle on one: "You can always count on a number villain to mess things up."
• Chekhov's Gun: Naturally, Tommy Twosie's two handheld mirrors allow him to save the Mobile Unit agents at the climax.
• Continuity Nod: "Jinx" had Oscar attempting to find his Catchphrase. This episode has Tommy Twosie, Threesie Louise-ie, and High-Five attempting to find their own Share Phrase and failing, up until the very end.
  • Simon Sixer, from "Mr. Unpredictable", is mentioned by Bonnie as a potential buyer for her Odd Gadgitron 1000 in the three villains' stead.
• Contrived Coincidence: The villains have an entire city right behind them where they could perform music, but instead, they choose to take someone else's spot, and as a result, their careers as Street Musicians are quickly cut short.
• Diving Save: Tommy Twosie puts himself in the path of the Odd Gadgitron 1000, and uses his two handheld mirrors to reflect the beam back at the machine, which turns it to stone instead of the Mobile Unit.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Mobile Unit's speech to High-Five, Bonnie Blaster and Tommy Twosie about repeatedly spending money to get what they want can draw some parallels to people who get scammed out of their money by initially well-meaning con artists, or people who buy and take drugs in the hopes that it will better themselves and keep spending money to support their habit — the latter of which certainly isn't helped by the fact that most of the episode takes place in a dirty, dimly-lit warehouse.
• Don't Celebrate Just Yet: All four villains celebrate when the Odd Gadgitron 1000 traps the Mobile Unit agents in ice, believing that they've finally defeated Odd Squad once and for all. However, Bonnie Blaster is quick to inform them that they aren't defeated forever, and that the ice they're trapped in will melt eventually (not to mention that Odd Squad has tons of agents that need to be incapacitated to some degree for the organization to truly be defeated).
• Don't Explain the Joke: A flashback from Oswald shows a fisherman riding a huge fish like a horse handing a note to the Mobile Unit seemingly from the Little O, when it's actually from a villain group who wish to defeat them. To hammer the joke in, once the flashback ends, Oswald then remarks that the note seemed fishy.
  • Later on, when Bonnie Blaster asks for $15 to fire the Odd Gadgitron 1000 again, High-Five tells her, "What do we look like, dentists?" He then goes on to explain that since dentists have a high salary, and since none of the villains work as dentists, neither one of them has $15 to spare.
• Dreadful Musician: It's a wonder how the villains even manage to get so much as a single dollar with how badly they play their instruments. While Tommy Twosie and Threesie Louise-ie have viable instruments to play with, High-Five, being the dimwitted one of the group, is forced to use a mop with its handle stuck inside a boot and bells wrapped around it. However, put their playing together with techno music, and it sounds much better.
• Evil Is Hammy: Threesie Louise-ie is clearly the hammiest villain of the group, and by God does it show.
• First Snow: Implied to be the case with Orla, who has no idea how cold and how tough ice can be when she tries to break free from being trapped in it. Of course, since she lived in the Amazon rainforest for a majority of her life, she would be unfamiliar with snow and ice.
• Forged Message: Bonnie Blaster and the other three villains wrote a letter to the Mobile Unit telling them to meet the Little O in an Abandoned Warehouse, and gave it to a fisherman riding a fish to deliver to them as a Singing Telegram. The agents end up falling for it.
• Foreshadowing: Bonnie claims that the Odd Gadgitron 1000 was designed to give people who have zero talent odd powers. However, it's later shown that it has another point in its design, which is to attack agents directly without any direct villain involvement — which clues the audience in to the fact that Bonnie Blaster is not a woman of her word.
• Freeze Ray: The Odd Gadgitron 1000 can fire an ice beam that encases and traps its target in ice. However, as is the case with ice over time, it's not a permanent fix.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Bonnie Blaster has her own handmade gadget, the Odd Gadgitron 1000, that she uses to attack and create oddness with. Subverted when it turns out that Bonnie didn't create the gadget with her own hands, but rather, she bought it.
• Girls with Moustaches: Osmerelda and Orla end up wearing mustaches as a result of the former accidentally activating the wrong function on her suit (with the latter following suit shortly after).
• Harmless Freezing: None of the Mobile Unit agents suffer any ill effects from being trapped in thick ice.
• Heel–Face Turn: Actively defied by Threesie Louise-ie, who states that in spite of Tommy Twosie putting himself in the line of fire for the Mobile Unit agents' sake, and in spite of the agents' speech to the villains, they are still villains and shouldn't be swayed to the side of good.
• Idiot Ball: Neither of the three villains have been known to be idiotic before, but this episode has them forgetting that ice melts after some time, leading Bonnie to remind them. Even Bonnie herself has to remark on how stupid one would have to be to forget something simple that even Odd Squad agents, who are children, are aware of.
  Bonnie: Ah-ha-ha, this isn't gonna last forever.
  High-Five, Tommy Twosie and Threesie Louise-ie: What?
  Bonnie: It's ice. It's...gonna melt.
  High-Five: Well, why didn't you tell us that?
  Bonnie: You don't know that ice melts?
  Tommy: [laughing] Yes, we know ice melts. Now that you told us.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: While it's been well established that Odd Squad agents' uniforms have a lot of neat functions, the uniforms of those in the Mobile Unit department in particular have a "heat function" embedded in them that can be activated by an agent wearing the uniform touching their left shoulder. The agent doesn't get burned or injured in any way by activating this function, and it works as an instant way to melt things.
• Insult Misfire: Bonnie Blaster tells the Mobile Unit that the Odd Gadgitron 1000 was made for villains who have no talent whatsoever. High-Five taunts the agents out of the belief that the insult was directed at them, and not him and the other two villains, and Tommy Twosie gives a "No. Just… No" Reaction in response.
• Ironic Nursery Tune: The fisherman that delivers the villains' note to the Mobile Unit sings the contents of the note to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".
  Fisherman: Take, take, take yourself to this warehouse space, quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly, there's no time to waste!
• The Leader: Out of the three villains, Threesie Louise-ie takes the leadership mantle.
• Mirrors Reflect Everything: Tommy Twosie's handheld mirrors reflect the energy beam from the Odd Gadgitron 1000, sending it back towards the machine and turning it to stone.
• Moving the Goalposts: Bonnie Blaster, being a Con Artist, does this often.
  • She first states that the villains need to pay her $15 to blast the agents with a ray that will turn them to stone. However, when they manage to raise the $15 for her, she then states that they need $8 more for the spaghetti, the drink, and the beach chair that she bought for herself while waiting for them to get $15 for her.
  • In the process of the villains attempting to get $8, Bonnie reveals that she sold the "marble" feature of the Odd Gadgitron 1000 (which turns agents into marble) to Simon Sixer, but has a "premium marble" option available, which is like the initial "marble" feature but has more gloss to it. That option costs $8 a month for 5 years, which the villains immediately decide to go for before the Mobile Unit decides to wake them up to Bonnie's manipulative behavior.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Threesie Louise-ie decides to compliment Osmerelda on being a good sport about getting her picture taken by tapping her on the shoulder...which activates the "instant heat" ability in her suit and allows her to break herself and her teammates free of the ice.
• Non-Ironic Clown: Downplayed. Osmerelda doesn't completely turn into a clown, but she ends up gaining a rainbow-colored afro and a clown noise on her second attempt of finding the Mobile Unit department uniforms' heat function.
• Not in My Contract: Bonnie has the three villains sign a contract agreeing that they can use her Ray Gun to attack the Mobile Unit with whatever beam they choose. However, while the first use is free, future uses cost extra, something that all of the villains manage to forget. The villains also must pay Bonnie for her lunch and any additional accessories required to eat her lunch if she happens to get it, something that is stated in the contract but that High-Five initially protests against as not being fair before changing his mind.
• Oh, Crap!: The Mobile Unit's reaction to seeing the Odd Gadgitron 1000 when Bonnie Blaster unveils it. Tommy Twosie takes great delight in this, as he rubs their shock right in their faces with a "Gotcha!"
• Repeated Cue, Tardy Response: When Oswald tells the number villains that they have no powers, this happens.
  High-Five: Well, that all changes today!
  [pause]
  High-Five: Like, right now!
  [pause]
  High-Five: Now?
  Bonnie Blaster: [laughs] Hello Odd Squad!
• Rule of Funny: This is perhaps the best explanation as to why Threesie Louise-ie appears to be in Olando's ancient Headquarters carving out the logo of the Big Office on one of the wall slabs when a group of villains aren't set to raid it for another six episodes, and she isn't in said group at all.
• Singing Telegram: This is how the villains lure the Mobile Unit to them, although they intentionally list the sender as the Little O to fool them into thinking she's calling them when she's not.
• So Long, Suckers!: Inverted. None of the Mobile Unit are able to escape their ice confinement, and Bonnie Blaster takes great amusement at their attempts to do so — so their "so long, suckers" is her "have fun staying in that ice block until you thaw because you can't escape, suckers".
• Stealing the Credit: With Bonnie Blaster pulling a Villain: Exit, Stage Left and retreating from Odd Squad and the other villains, Threesie Louise-ie proposes that she, Tommy Twosie and High-Five claim that they were the ones who trapped the agents and not Bonnie.
• Stealth Pun: Threesie Louise-ie, Tommy Twosie and High-Five working together doesn't seem to make sense at first...up until one realizes that their names form a rather punny equation (3 + 2 = 5).
• Street Musician: The first idea the villains have to make $15 for Bonnie is to become street musicians. However, they end up taking the spot of a band comprised entirely of wizards, who are also street musicians and quickly chase the villains away once they come across them.
• Strong as They Need to Be: Orla is a Pintsized Powerhouse who is far and away one of the strongest agents out of the main cast of 13 and has displayed some incredible feats of brute strength before, but when she tries to break free of her ice confine, she's unable to make any progress. It's justified, however, as the ice looks different to the ice that has trapped agents before, and it's possible that the Odd Gadgitron 1000 has made the ice too sturdy for Orla to easily break free out of.
• Taken for Granite: The Odd Gadgitron 1000 also has the ability to turn people into stone statues in addition to trapping people in ice. The villains agree on turning the agents to stone as the next course of action in spite of them already being trapped in ice, but run into a problem when Bonnie Blaster needs $15 as payment and they can't come up with enough money.
• Tempting Fate: Oswald points out that none of the number villains have powers of their own to fight with, and Orla and Omar smile while shaking their heads, knowing they've got an upper hand against them. Then they meet Bonnie Blaster, and the tables are turned in the villains' favor.
• Third Eye: Downplayed. Although it's not an actual eye, Threesie Louise-ie's glasses have three lens which makes her appear to have a third eye. The third lens, located at the top, is used to project images into the air.
• Villain Cred: The whole reason why Threesie Louise-ie, Tommy Twosie and High-Five work with Bonnie Blaster to receive odd powers is because they're looked down upon by the entirety of the villain community, and defeating the Mobile Unit will help them earn the respect they want.
• Villain Episode: The episode primarily focuses on Threesie Louise-ie, Tommy Twosie and High-Five as well as Bonnie Blaster. Although the Mobile Unit is seen and is pivotal to the plot, them being trapped in ice leaves them incapacitated, and as such, they don't get much screentime up until the climax and the ending.
• Villain Has a Point: When Bonnie tells the villains that they need to pay her $3 extra for the beach chair she bought, Tommy asks her why she bought a beach chair in the first place. Bonnie fires back with the relevant question of what kind of person eats spaghetti standing up, something that both Threesie Louise-ie and Tommy Twosie recognize as fair points.
• Villainous Rescue: Tommy Twosie saves the Mobile Unit from being Taken for Granite by sending the Odd Gadgitron 1000's attack straight back at it. Most everyone, including the Mobile Unit agents themselves, are shocked by this sudden display of action.
• Villain Team-Up: This episode has a villainess known as Bonnie Blaster teaming up with Threesie Louise-ie, Tommy Twosie, and High-Five to cause oddness with her gadget.
• Win-Win Ending: The Mobile Unit agents are freed from their ice confinements, but the villain trio also end up winning because they settled on a Catchphrase in spite of Threesie Louise-ie accidentally helping the agents secure a win.
• Worthy Opponent: Orla sees the ice that she's trapped in as this, even calling it a worthy opponent verbatim after she tries and fails to break free of it.
• "YEAH!" Shot: The episode ends on the villain trio jumping into the air after finding a Catchphrase that suits them.

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Hard to do that when you're Clashing Cousins, though.

Villains Helping Villains

Airdate: November 2, 2021 ^note  CBBC premiere, July 4, 2022 ^note PBS Kids premiere

Jamie Jam and Marty Marmalade are always stopped by Odd Squad! Determined to help other villains avoid getting caught, they team up to trade tips.

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Tropes:

• Audience Surrogate: Marty Marmalade is one for the target audience at times, which might explain why he grips the Idiot Ball throughout the entirety of the episode. And they aren't subtle about it either — the scene where Jamie Jam asks him to solve a problem with the numbers 2, 4 and 6 has him acting like an excited and curious child who's in the show's target demographic.
• Berserk Button: Marty insults Jamie by taunting her about using her strawberry jam powers to attack two people, and she absolutely snaps, attempting to make him the third person on her list.
  Jamie Jam: And using strawberry jam, I only jammed two people.
  Marty Marmalade: Two?! Hahaha, what's the matter? You couldn't find any more people to jam? [laughs]
  Jamie: I can always make the number go higher!
  [she attempts to blast him with a beam of jam but misses]
• The Bus Came Back: Jamie Jam returns in this episode after having last been seen in "Villain Networking".
  • Likewise, Marty Marmalade also returns in this episode. He was last seen in "Two Agents in a Baby", but was mentioned in "Mission O Possible".
• Call-Back: Scenes from "My Better Half", "Mid-Day in the Garden of Good and Odd" and "Two Agents and a Baby" appear during the instructional video to demonstrate what villains do wrong.
• Clashing Cousins: Both Jamie Jam and Marty Marmalade don't get along too well on camera, to the point where they begin having an argument over who will deliver the last tip while the camera is still rolling.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Jamie states that if Odd Squad were making a video in the same vein as Villains Helping Villains, then there would be five tips ready to share and no one would have to stumble on what the fifth and final one would be. Of course, the Odd Squad Agent's Handbook serves as well enough of a guide on its own.
• Continuity Nod: Marty advises villains to be as random as possible in terms of committing their odd crimes. Clearly he forgot about the one villain who tried to use Confusion Fu and was still defeated by Odd Squad in the end.
  • Oddstagram, which hasn't been seen since "Substitute Agents", makes a reappearance when Jamie is giving her third tip and is listing off names of villains. The name of the social network itself isn't shown, but the layout shown is clearly Oddstagram.
• Didn't Think This Through: Jamie and Marty hope to send their Instructional Film to every villain in the world via a USB stick. It's never explained how, though — whether it's by making copies of the USB stick, sending it by email, or going around and showing it to others — which proves useful when the original copy somehow lands in the hands of the Little O, who promptly seeks to dispose of it.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Jamie Jam calls Marty Marmalade by just that, and he sharply corrects her by telling her that his name is "Llama" now.
• Evil Gloating: Lampshaded by Jamie, who explains that while it's fun to brag about how your IQ far surpasses that of Odd Squad agents, it just ultimately leads into you telling them who your victims are, where you'll strike, and what pattern you'll follow to commit your odd crime.
  Jamie Jam: Listen, I get how fun it is to brag about how much smarter you are than Odd Squad, and how they'll never catch you. I've even done it myself. [...] Great speech, right? Wrong. I told Odd Squad what I was going to do and where I was going to do it, which made it so much easier for them to catch me!
• Evil Laugh: It's an Instructional Film for villains presented by villains. You won't go five minutes without hearing at least one of these in some capacity.
• Exhaustion-Induced Idiocy: Lampshaded by Marty Marmalade, who explains that the reason he was caught by Odd Squad in "Two Agents and a Baby" was because he was exhausted from already attacking two houses before. His tip, the second on the list, is to not commit odd crimes every day because one can get burnout from doing so.
• Fake-Out Opening: The episode opens up smack-dab in the middle of an Odd Squad Needs You commercial, with a woman's voice narrating how Odd Squad has stopped villains since before time began. The disgusted noise that a man makes after she says Odd Squad's name is an easy clue-in that the narrators are villains — and indeed, they're Jamie Jam and Marty Marmalade, who tear through a drawing of two agents stopping a villain on horseback using a gadget and declare their intention of making an instructional video for other villains.
• Foreshadowing: Jamie and Marty don't appear to have good chemistry beginning right with the Fake-Out Opening, and at the climax, they end up getting into an argument on camera over who will present the final tip.
• Fourth Wall Psych: At the end of the episode, Orpita looks almost into the camera and asks an agent offscreen to destroy the USB stick containing Jamie Jam and Marty Marmalade's video. One would think that she's referring to the audience (as the target demographic is often referred to as "agents"), but the camera then cuts to the llama that Jamie and Marty were telepathically communicating with earlier as it agrees to Orpita's offer.
• Idiot Ball: Although Marty Marmalade was never shown to be idiotic in past episodes, this episode reduces some of his IQ points to play the Women Are Wiser trope straight.
• Ignored Expert: Lampshaded and defied by Jamie and Marty, who pose the question many villains would ask of "Why should we listen to you?" And they promptly answer with their credentials — they've been caught by Odd Squad one million times (that amount is between themselves), so of course they know exactly what they're doing and whom they've been dealing with.
• iPhony: The phone that pops up on the screen as Jamie is describing villains with fun names is quite obviously an iPhone — an iPhone XS Max, as a matter of fact. Although it was made clear that a lot of Odd Squad's technology runs on Mac OS, this episode confirms that iPhones do exist as well.
• Instructional Film: The aptly-named Villains Helping Villains, created by Marty Marmalade and Jamie Jam to help other villains avoid Odd Squad capture. Their intent is to personally send it to every villain they know, but in the end, they only have one copy, which is in the possession of Orpita and given to a llama agent to dispose of shortly after.
• Jabba Table Manners: Jamie and Marty attempt to hold a full-fledged argument while stuffing jam and marmalade, respectively, into their mouths. It's almost a miracle how they don't choke.
• Kill Tally: Lampshaded by both Jamie and Marty for their fourth tip, as they explain how villains should keep track of what odd crimes they commit, whether their victims be people, animals, or objects.
• Letting the Air out of the Band: The music that often accompanies the Odd Squad Needs You commercials winds down to a halt as Marty Marmalade rips through the drawing shown onscreen and introduces himself, followed by Jamie Jam doing the same.
• Meaningful Name: Lampshaded by Jamie for her third tip.
  Jamie Jam: There's lots of fun villains with lots of fun names. Noisemaker! Fladam! Lady Chair! But sometimes, your name can make it easier for Odd Squad to catch you. [...] If his name wasn't Symmetric Al, maybe Odd Squad would have never figured out that he did it!
  • Directly after that, Marty informs his cousin that the two of them have meaningful names of their own, that tell others what they specialize in. They decide to rename themselves and think about what their new names will be for a bit, and then they both settle on "Llama".
• Mood Whiplash: Jamie goes from happily encouraging Marty to figure out which house she jammed next to sternly telling the audience that following a pattern makes it easier for Odd Squad to catch you.
• Nested Story Reveal: The entirety of the Villains Helping Villains video is revealed to not have been filming live, but rather, it's already been filmed and is being watched by one Little O, who remarks on how agents would be put through further hell and back catching villains if they saw it.
• Shout-Out: As Jamie explains about patterns, Marty is shown staring off into space while math problems fly by — a reference to the famous Math Lady meme.
• Siblings in Crime: Jamie Jam and Marty Marmalade, who were explicitly stated to be cousins by Oprah in "Two Agents and a Baby".
• Status Quo Is God: Orpita remarks that if villains got ahold of Jamie Jam and Marty Marmalade's video, it would make catching villains a lot harder and would bring a massive invoked Difficulty Spike for agents. So of course, she manages to be in possession of the only copy of the video, is the only one that watches it, and has her llama agent dispose of it as soon as she's done.
• Stylistic Suck: The beginning of Jamie and Marty's video contains a lot of this, to the point where it looks like they just got video editing software and are playing around with it for the first time.
• Taught by Experience: Jamie Jam and Marty Marmalade are both recurring villains in Odd Squad's Rogues Gallery, and since they're experienced in battling agents, they decide to share tips with other villains who may not have had enough run-ins with Odd Squad to understand what threat they pose. It's made abundantly clear that Odd Squad agents repeatedly capturing them has taken quite a toll on the two villainous cousins as well — they sound almost desperate at some points when they explain where they failed in their plans.
• Telepathy: Jamie and Marty speak to a llama for this way for no other reason other than it falls under the Rule of Funny, and likewise, the llama talks back to them telepathically. It's eventually revealed that it works for Odd Squad, which is likely how the Little O managed to get ahold of the video.
• To Know Him, I Must Become Him: Marty, and eventually Jamie, come to the conclusion that in order to beat Odd Squad, they have to think exactly like agents do. This serves as their final tip in the Instructional Film.
• Villain Episode: The episode focuses on Jamie Jam and Marty Marmalade, with the Mobile Unit not even featured. However, Orpita makes an appearance near the end.
• Villain Respect: Although Marty and Jamie both despise Odd Squad, Marty points out that they have a very strong sense of teamwork, they heavily embrace The Power of Friendship, they're determinators who never give up, and they use their failures to better themselves and become stronger.
• Villain Song: "When You're Not Causing Oddness", sung by Jamie Jam and Marty Marmalade as they explain what villains can do when they're taking a break from committing odd crimes. Notable in that it's the second Villain Song for the series as a whole (as a majority of the songs are sung by, or are about, Odd Squad and its agents) following "Say You Did Wrong" from "Odds and Ends", which Jamie also sung.
• Workaholic: Defied by Marty in his second tip of the video.
  Marty Marmalade: Do not cause oddness every day. I know, I know, you want to cause oddness all the time, but trust me, take some days off and you'll be able to cause more oddness better!

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