"I can't remember. I have nothing left of who I was. I'm… nobody."
When Nicole, Richard, and Anais accuse Gumball and Darwin of stealing items around their house (Nicole's money, Richard's toothbrush, and Anais' Daisy the Donkey Doll), the duo think there's someone living in their house and investigate.
Tropes:
- Accomplice by Inaction: It was the brothers' failure to notice Rob in The Void and his resultant disfigured self from his narrow escape that led to him becoming their nemesis.
- Body Horror: Rob looks half-animated and glitchy after escaping from the Void.
- Call-Back: When Rob regains his memories, the episode flashes back to the events from "The Void".
- Cerebus Retcon: When Rob had a cameo in "The Void". it just seemed a throwaway joke about how forgettable he was to Darwin and Gumball because they just pass by him without comment. It turns out that Rob was upset that Gumball and Darwin didn't stop to rescue him too, and resents them for not helping him.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- As Gumball is looking for a weapon in the kitchen, he tries everything but the obvious (a knife), even revving up a mixer as if it was a chainsaw. Darwin asks what he'll do if someone takes the weapon, so Gumball suggests a weapon that couldn't actually hurt anyone—a cooked sausage.
- The first thing that comes to mind when Gumball's finds their hidden basement is that it'll add a lot of value to their house.
- Create Your Own Villain: Gumball and Darwin decide there are no good-guy personalities open for Rob, but not so much for bad ones, so they suggest he becomes a villain. They end up restoring his memories, giving him a genuine reason to hate them.
- Cut Phone Lines: The second phone call to the police Gumball makes cuts off after a few seconds, which makes him think the stranger cut the line. The phone actually just had its cord stretched so far that it was torn out of the wall.
- Downer Ending: In the end, since "all the good personalities are taken", Rob decides to take on a bad personality and become Elmore's resident villain. It's at this point that he remembers who he really is and vows to become Gumball and Darwin's Arch-Enemy as revenge for ignoring him while he was trapped in the void in "The Void"... then Gumball and Darwin shrug it off and walk home, much to his dismay.
- Epic Fail: Gumball tries to knock Rob out by throwing things at him, but hits everything except him. He still succeeds in stopping Rob, but not without massive collateral damage (he's more ashamed of the bad puns).
- Every Car Is a Pinto: Parodied when Harold's lawnmower, of all things, explodes after Gumball and Darwin jump off it in because it was too slow. It didn't even seem to hit anything, it just seems to simultaneously explode once its off-screen.
- Flashback-Montage Realization: When Rob remembers his past, events from "The Void" are shown as he recounts them from his perspective.
- Failed a Spot Check: None of the Wattersons ever noticed that they had a basement or that someone was taking stuff from the house until this episode. Rob explicitly tells the duo that this is why he chose their house. (Also applies retroactively back to the Void.)
- Foreshadowing: A number of moments and elements in the episode all subtly hint at Rob's return and his escape from the Void:
- The title of the episode itself. If "The Pony"note is anything to go by, Rob fits the description of "nobody" far more than anyone else in Elmore.
- The title card includes the sound of radio static. The background of the void is an endless static pattern.
- Some of the panels on Gumball's comic feature a one-eyed alien.
- A lot of the Watterson's possessions go missing, some from right under their noses, without them noticing (at first) - kind of like what happened to Molly.
- As Gumball investigates the fridge, the title card music from "The Void" plays.
- In the basement, only Gumball and Darwin's eyes are seen in the darkness. It looks like Gumball has three eyes until he turns on a flashlight, revealing that the extra eye was only a reading lamp. Still, it's an interesting gag to include when it turns out that Rob, a Cyclops (albeit with an entirely different-looking eye), was hiding in the room all along.
- When the disfigured Rob is finally revealed, but before Gumball, Darwin, the audience and even he himself find out who he is, not only does the string from "The Void" begin playing again but some of his 'skin' is textured with the same TV static pattern that makes up the background of the Void.
- Fresh Clue: The last sign of the intruder's presence before he appears is that the food left in the basement is still hot.
- Go to Your Room!: As Gumball and Darwin were already in their room, Nicole has them leave their room so she can say this.
- Halfway Plot Switch: It seems like the plot is building up to something similar to The Procrastinators, where it will mostly be a Bottle Episode with interactions only between Gumball and Darwin. Then they discover the hidden basement...
- Hidden Supplies: Noticing that the refrigerator seems much shallower than he remembers, Gumball slides open a panel in the back to reveal a bunch of extra food. It's at that point that they realized their stranger had been living in their house for months.
- Hero Stole My Bike: Gumball commandeers Harold's lawnmower to chase after Rob. Harold politely asks that he clears one patch of grass on their way out, and Gumball complies.
- House Squatting: It becomes apparent someone is squatting in the Watterson home while the family is still there.
- Hurricane of Puns: Gumball delivers a series of hot dog-related puns while trying unsuccessfully to stop Rob from running away.
- I Would Say If I Could Say: Darwin tries to echo Gumball's claim that he can sniff out guilt only to tap the empty space on his face where a nose would be and cut himself short.
- Identity Amnesia: Until he remembered near the end of the episode, Rob had no idea who he was.
- Jerkass Ball: So Darwin and Gumball will be left in the house by themselves, Nicole, Richard, and Anais immediately assume one of them had stolen their things based on very little evidenceto elaborate , and leave them behind while they visit a museum.
- Luck-Based Search Technique: Gumball attempts to intentionally invoke this and fails, only for Darwin to play it straight.He must have a secret hideout somewhere in the house. And the best way to find a secret hideout... is by accident.
- Major Injury Underreaction: A pot falls off a shelf and is smashed on Gumball's head and he falls back on a chair when he tries to find a hidden room. He doesn't even flinch.
- Paranoia Fuel: In-Universe, Gumball and Darwin find out that someone has been hiding in their house.
- Police Are Useless: Donut Cop doesn't come by to investigate because he thinks the "someone" in the Watterson house is Gumball. There's also a chart on the wall showing crime in Elmore as dangerously high. After hanging up, Donut Cop thinks he did such a great job that he draws a line on the chart showing it going down.
- Ramp Jump: Done with Harold's lawnmower, even though it's going too slow to make the jump.
- Regained Memories Sequence: Rob is inadvertently reminded of what happened to him when Gumball suggests he be "the villain", accompanied by a montage of Rob stuck in and escaping from the Void during "The Void".
- Sequel Episode: The events of the episode turn out to be a direct result of the ending of "The Void".
- Sequel Hook: Darwin and Gumball tell Rob he should try being a bad guy, he remembers who he is, and he swears vengeance on them for leaving him behind—that he'll destroy everything they care about and take away everyone they love. He may also have a connection with the ending of "The Oracle", which shows Banana Barbara's latest painting of The Wattersons running and screaming in the dimension of the world's mistakes.
- Stylistic Self-Parody:
- Darwin says if he fell in the basement alone he would need a clean pair of legs (because he doesn't wear pants).
- When Gumball tells Rob he can be "the guy who walks around with no pants on", Darwin covers himself in shame.
- Sudden Anatomy: After just having a gag that points out Darwin doesn't have a nose he still grows one to do some sniffing.
- The Bus Came Back: Rob has returned.
- Twist Ending: Darwin keeps guessing that the reason things keep disappearing are a bunch of stock twist endings, including that it's All Just a Dream, all of them have been Dead All Along, and that one of them is an Imaginary Friend.
- Unishment: One of the punishments Darwin and Gumball get until one of them admits to taking things is that they don't get to go to the museum, which neither one cares about.
- We Have the Keys: Nicole breaks down the door to Gumball and Darwin's room to confront them about the missing stuff without even knocking. She puts it back on once she tells them to stay in their room.
- Wham Episode: The person hiding in the Watterson house turns out to be Rob, who managed to escape the Void by clinging to Janice, but was horribly scarred and lost his memory in the process, and after he regains his memory he apparently decided to become the show's Big Bad. What's more is that the picture seen in the end of "The Oracle" may be coming to fruition.
- Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Rob's eye widens and his iris shrinks when Darwin's comment makes him regain his memories.
- Your Mom:Gumball: Oh, you know what else is thick? Your mom's chin!
Rob: I don't have a mom.
Gumball: (extremely nervous) Yeah, I meant your mom's skin.
Rob: I still don't have a mom.
Darwin: Quit saying "mom".
Gumball: I meant your fun twin.
Rob: I don't have any siblings either.
