When the Wattersons arrive at the mall for a day of shopping, they struggle to find a space in the parking lot. They search for a space everywhere — using all their intelligence, cunning, and trickery — but as the day goes on, the desperate hunt for a space becomes more important than the trip to the mall itself.
Tropes:
- Alien Blood: Gumball accidentally pierces the side of the milk carton security guard who bleeds milk. It's played for pretty dark humor as he's clearly on the verge of bleeding out before Gumball plugs it with a dollar (he's shown later to be alive with a bandage over his stab wound).
- Bowdlerise:
- In Spain, the scene of Nicole scribbling on Marvin's car in a rage was shortened.
- The Cartoon Network Philippines broadcast cut the part where The Wattersons park their car in a hospital patient and Dr. Old Man Reaching For A Jar Of Olives throws them out after finding them under the covered gurney.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: If Nicole hadn't given into Richard's laziness, and stayed in the first parking spot, there would have been no story. Also had Richard told them about the empty parking spot he saw later instead of using it to play "I Spy".
- Frothy Mugs of Water: Parodied; to pass the time looking for a space, Richard and the kids sing "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall," only "Beer" is replaced with "Age-Appropriate Beverages".
- Gullible Lemmings: Richard accidentally spray paints an arrow pointing to a wall in a parking garage. An endless procession of cars proceed to drive through the barrier to plummet to the ground. Even a few scenes later cars are still driving off, forming a pile that almost reaches up to where they're driving from.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Nicole demands the kids stay in the car when they suggest being dropped off first. Later, they end up driving her crazy when singing together.
- Insufferable Imbecile: Even though it was his laziness that demanded they find a better parking spot, Richard is distracted from pointing one out immediately because he decides to do so playing "I Spy". Nicole can't even call him out on it because he starts crying and she has to comfort him with two cookies.
- Laborious Laziness:
- Richard has Nicole pull out of the parking space she's in already to go into one that's slightly closer to the entrance so he doesn't have to walk a few extra feet.
- An old lady walks around the parking lot to con someone into giving her a lift to the bus stop. The Wattersons end up falling for it.
- Parking Payback: Marvin takes a parking space the Wattersons were going for, so Nicole vandalizes his car with a tube of lipstick. Darwin points behind her, she notices that the elderly man took a handicapped space they couldn't use anyway, and Nicole hastily alters his scribbles into a friendly mural. Darwin then clarifies that he was talking about how Marvin is still in his car and looking straight at them all.
- Parking Problems: The entire episode is the Watterson family having a difficult time finding a decent parking spot. When they seemingly do find a good spot at the end, they have to compete with a bunch of other cars appearing out of nowhere.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: After spending the greater part of the episode looking for a space, before deciding out of desperation to park anywhere, the Wattersons end up parking in front of their own house.
- Sherlock Scan: Anais does this as a demonstration of properly profiling people in the car park who are leaving.
- Sudden Anatomy: During Anais' Sherlock Scan of Hank, he suddenly gains fingers when she concludes he's unmarried because he's not wearing a ring.
- Stealing the Handicapped Spot: Inverted; Marvin appears to steal a parking spot from the Wattersons, but they discover it was a handicap spot only he was allowed to use because he's elderly.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Averted; Anais's Sherlock Scan is so indulgent that, by the time she gets to the third person and determines he's actually leaving, he's already left and someone else took his place.
