Darwin: Look, I agree that he's kind of mega-gross, cold, wet, smells like a belly button, and has the beady eyes of a ventriloquist dummy, but he's part of the family now, so we're gonna love him like a Watterson.
Gumball, Darwin, and Anais convince Richard to get a new puppy, despite Nicole's objections. Too bad Richard buys a turtle instead, who turns out to be a psychotic killer bent on attacking the family.
Tropes:
- The Bait: Since Richard eats all the turkey legs that Anais and the boys were going to use as bait to catch their turtle, they end up using Gumball as bait instead, as the turtle seems to like biting him the most.
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Lampshaded as the kids are practicing their pitch to get a dog.Anais: Don't forget to compliment the buyer.
Gumball: Love your shoes, by the way, I have the same pair myself.
Anais: Dad doesn't wear shoes.
Gumball: Love your feet, by the way, I have the same pair myself. - Behind the Black: The kids don't notice Richard has left until it cuts to a wide shot of the living room despite them looking right in his direction the whole time.
- Bittersweet Ending: Close to a downer; The turtle's rampage was stopped for now, but the Wattersons are pretty much stuck with her until she dies of old age.
- Blatant Lies: Darwin says the turtle "passed away peacefully" while looking at her desiccated body with her face writhed in agony ("Like a peaceful, evil raisin").
- Chekhov's Gun: Among the things Richard said "the store" sold was fireworks...
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Richard's insane rambling ended up predicting exactly where the van he got the turtle from went.
- Foreshadowing: "BITE, BITE, BITE! NEED FOOD FOR STRENGTH TO BITE, BITE, BITE! MAKE LITTLE TURTLES TO BITE EVEN MORE!" hints at the Evil Turtle's fate in the next season.
- Fun with Subtitles: In a moment of probably-accidental humor, the official subtitles
◊ bluntly describe the sound the turtle makes as "[imitating Hannibal Lecter]". - The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: Richard believes he purchased the terrifying, near-immortal turtle from a shop that wasn't where he remembered it being...but it turns out it was just a red van that sold (probably stolen) merchandise and it drove off instead of disappearing.
- Meaningful Background Event: After Darwin abruptly disappears into the bush, after a moment, you can hear a splash in the lake.
- Mistaken for Dog: Richard mistakes the vicious turtle he buys from a dodgy van for a puppy.Richard: It's a labradoodle.
Turtle: *hisses*
Richard: It's a labraturtle. - The Needs of the Many: At the end, the Wattersons decide to keep the turtle, if only to spare the rest of the world her wrath. It helps that the turtle's stubby little limbs render her unable to leave her terrarium.
- Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Gumball hated the turtle even more than everyone else, so he couldn't think of anything to say when she appeared to be dead.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: The turtle cannot be physically harmed, and even severe dehydration was merely an inconvenience — shortly after being rehydrated, a car hits the turtle and gets bounced back.
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Combined with Broken Pedestal and The Farmer and the Viper—Darwin's the most caring towards the turtle and is the only one convinced that the turtle is totally harmless. It's not until she try kills to kill Darwin (by dragging him to the bottom of the lake in an attempt to drown him and eat him) that he finally turns against her.
- Not Quite Dead: The turtle appears to have died from dehydration, but was rehydrated by Darwin's tears ("It feeds on misery!")
- Off the Chart: When proposing to get a puppy, the children show a chart of their "projected happiness level" represented by a bar that goes off the notepad and through the ceiling.
- Out of the Inferno: The turtle crawls out from the exploded van unharmed. Then Anais catches her under a bowl.
- Rage Breaking Point: Darwin has been pretty chill about the turtle, giving it chance after chance to integrate into their family with only natural concern that it might hurt him. When it drags him away and leaves him at the bottom of the lake, he shows up later, damp, dirty and furious at the reptile, forgoing attempts to peacefully interact and instead going on the attack.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Gumball is wearing a pink top at the start of the episode.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The ultimate fate of the turtle, as the Wattersons decide to keep her from rampaging by stuffing her in a terrarium.
- String Theory: Richard connects a bunch of photos on the wall by string to find the van he bought the turtle from.Richard: So, we're here, and we know the store was here, and if we draw a line between them, it spells the letter "i". And we all know that there's no "i" in team, so we know that the van isn't in a sports center! But look what happens when I draw a line here and here! The trident of Poseidon, lord of the sea! You know what that means? The store is waiting for us at 475 West Elmore Boulevard!
Anais: That's a map of Switzerland.
Richard: Exactly! - Shooting Superman: The turtle tried dragging Darwin, a fish with legs, to the bottom of the lake.
- Take Our Word for It: Whatever the turtle did that finally made Nicole and Richard agree that they needed to get rid of her was never shown and not really described (all we can gather is that was really, really bad).Richard: I mean, there's horrific (holds hand at chest level), and there's absolutely horrific! (raises hand to car roof) But you were- (opens window to raise hand above roof)
- Tear Off Your Face: The turtle literally bites Gumball's face off at one point, leaving it flat and featureless.
