In 1920's era New Orleans, Louis Armstrong, and his band are playing the song, "When The Saints Come Marching In" while the Time Squad looks on looking completely battered and wounded.
Through quick exposition, the guys talk about how Louis Armstrong sure "gave them a run for their money" for trying to stop him from apparently plotting to drill a hole into the center of the earth. Why Armstrong wanted to do this, or how the squad stopped him and got him back to playing jazz is never stated. When the guys arrive back on the satellite, Tuddrussel tempts fate by saying, "Well, let's just hope that the historical instability alarm doesn't go off soon."
Cut to ten days later, while the guys enjoy the breakfast that Larry had prepared, they all discuss how great it is that they've had so much freedom to do whatever they want. Tuddrussel and Otto play pretend together as "Future Man and Sidekick Boy", and various other games. And Larry, who's known to be in depressed spirits, is so blissfully content with life that he pursues his favorite hobbies; such as gardening and needlepointing, and joins Tuddrussel and Otto in their games and doesn't even get mad at them for breaking his things.
But the fun times start to become tiring and dull; Tuddrussel can no longer keep up with Otto's childish energy to play and becomes restless for something else to do. Larry has grown irritable from the predictability of being able to do anything he pleases and becomes absentminded; this makes him not screw the top of the salt shaker on tighter and when Tuddrussel uses it, it easily pops off and all the salt pours into his lunch. Tuddrussel tries to start a fight over this, but Otto tries to calm him down by saying, " I think we've had just a little too much time off, we'll get another mission soon!"
Cut to several weeks later, and Tuddrussel has gotten more restless, chronically bored, and paranoid. He pushes away Otto and his wanting to play "Future Man and Sidekick Boy", and starts lashing out at Larry for dusting the room. Larry accidentally drops the feather duster on him, making Tuddrussel over-react in paranoid fear that Larry was on purposely trying to kill him with it.
Later, everyone is in the living room trying to "relax". Otto is in the middle of the floor, coloring in his "Evil Dictators" coloring book and humming a song. Larry is in the corner needle pointing "All work and no play makes Larry a dull boy" over and over again while looking like he's about to have a mental breakdown. And Tuddrussel, on the other side of the room, polishes his phaser gun. We hear Tuddrussel's troubling thoughts; he thinks that Larry is going to turn on him at any moment and that robots always turn on their masters, and Larry being a more clever robot is going to make it look like an accident. He drifts off to sleep for a moment, only to wake up and start thinking out loud.
Larry snaps at him, "Shh... .Quiet! What if the alarm goes off and we don't hear it?!" This, of course, makes Tuddrussel very angry. Larry's own irritability comes out into full swing when he suddenly becomes annoyed at the various sounds in his vicinity; Tuddrussel's deep, aggressive breathing, the sound of air hissing in from the vents above them, and the sound of Otto's crayons scratching on paper. Larry goes ballistic, he rants about the air conditioner and Tuddrussel's breathing and Otto's coloring. He gets so worked up that he kicks Otto's book away and screams as he leaves them to wonder what that was about.
Otto asks what was Larry's problem to Tuddrussel. Tuddrussel tries to warn him that Larry is only tricking him into being his friend, but Otto doesn't understand what he's going on about. Coming to the conclusion that Otto is on Larry's side, Tuddrussel nervously points his gun at Otto as he gets up to leave, telling him that "It's every man for himself".
That night, Otto gets out of bed in order to get a drink of milk from the kitchen. He sleepily opens the fridge and pours himself a glass, and as he drinks it he suddenly gets pulled into a net and is hoisted above the kitchen. Tuddrussel jumps from the shadows, thinking that he's caught Larry and that Larry has somehow disguised himself as "an orphan". Otto, terrified, tries to explain that it's him and that he only came into the kitchen for a glass of milk. Tuddrussel, in a moment of clarity, realizes that Otto is who he claims to be, but then tells him that "You don't want to drink any of that anyway, Larry poisoned it." He goes on to say that Larry has poisoned all the food in the fridge and that he plans on getting rid of all of it.
Tuddrussel opens the airlock that's located nearby. The fridge and all its contents are sucked into space. As soon as he shuts it back up, Larry appears. Before Larry can even begin to yell at Tuddrussel, the man picks him up and throws him against the wall. With Larry too rattled to fight back, Tuddrussel opens the airlock again, which sucks Larry out into space as well.
Otto cries out, "What have you done?" and states that he's just gotten rid of Larry and all their food. Tuddrussel, completely oblivious to the problem, reasons that they can just zap back to earth and get some more. But Otto reminds him that they can't do that because Larry is the only one who knows how to operate the transporter.
Meanwhile, outside in space, Larry is slowly making his way back to the satellite.
In the control room, Tuddrussel and Otto (who is still trapped inside the net and being carried around) try to call headquarters for a new robot replacement. Tuddrussel keeps pressing the activate button on the computer, but to his surprise, the machine won't turn on. Then, A very enraged Larry comes into the room and starts berating Tuddrussel for idiotically getting rid of him and all his food. He also claims that Tuddrussel is "The reason why the alarm hasn't gone off in weeks". Otto asks what he's talking about, which Larry promptly tells him that before he went on his little "space adventure", he discovered that in the control room Tuddrussel had unplugged the entire computer system in order to recharge his electric toothbrush.
Tuddrussel, not feeling guilty about any of this, reasons that fighting gingivitis is just as important as fighting crime. Larry plugs the computer system back in, and when the computer reboots it's revealed that the guys now have 112 missions to complete. Tuddrussel is excited about working all these missions, but Larry, exasperated with him, tells him "I hate you."
Tropes present in this episode include:
- Cabin Fever: The episode is named for the psychological reaction that can occur if stuck inside a certain space for too long.
- Caught in a Snare: Otto gets caught in a trap that Tuddrussel had built for Larry.
- Dramatic Space Drifting: Larry gets to 'swim' his way through space in order to get back home.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Before Larry enters the control room, Tuddrussel tries to order a new robot from headquarters but the computer does not turn on, foreshadowing its been unplugged.
- Only Sane Man: Otto retains all sanity while Tuddrussel and Larry lose their grip on reality.
- Sanity Slippage: Larry and Tuddrussel begin to dramatically drift into insanity.
- Space Madness: See Cabin Fever. Tuddrussel and Larry exhibit signs of breakdown from being cooped up on the space station for far too long including; restlessness, irritability, and an extreme distrust and paranoia towards each other.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: Tuddrussel gets rid of Larry and all of the space station's food supply through the kitchen's airlock.
