Original airdate: October 19th, 2007
Book Ends: Tobey repeatedly threatens to destroy the city's new library. This part's associated vocabulary words are "destroy" and "predictable".
Mr. Big: The city becomes obsessed with a mysterious new product. This part's associated vocabulary words are "vague" and "specific".
"Book Ends" contains the following tropes:
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: WordGirl pats Captain HuggyFace on the head after he wins the dodgeball game for her.
- Argument of Contradictions: Tobey and WordGirl have a short one about whether or not Tobey is predictable.
- Brick Joke: At the Mayor's second attempt at opening the library, he accidentally reads a speech for a public pool instead. At the end of the episode. Mrs. Botsford enters the library in swimwear, looking for the pool.
- Collateral Damage: A non-lethal example Played for Laughs. Tobey is so bad at dodgeball that he accidentally takes out first his own robots and then himself.
- Delicious Distraction: A nearby hot dog stand distracts Captain HuggyFace from the dodgeball game he's competing in, forcing WordGirl to take the bullet for him later.
- Improbably Predictable: WordGirl and Captain HuggyFace do this to Tobey throughout the episode, much to his irritation.
- Medium Awareness: When the narrator starts to set up the face-off between Captain HuggyFace and Tobey's robot as a Cliffhanger, WordGirl points out that this isn't a two-part episode.
- One-Hit Polykill: Non-bullet example. WordGirl pierces through five of Tobey's robots with one dodgeball throw.
- Rule of Three: Tobey attacks the library three times before WordGirl suggests they duke it out with a dodgeball game instead.
- Running Gag: WordGirl and Captain HuggyFace teasing Tobey by copying him.
- Shout-Out: The episode is named after a Simon & Garfunkel song.
- Slow "NO!": WordGirl does this as she takes the dodge-ball bullet for Captain HuggyFace.
- Stop Copying Me: A variation: WordGirl and Captain HuggyFace copy Tobey's actions and words at the same time as he does and says them to illustrate their point about him being predictable several times throughout the episode.WordGirl: All I can say is that it's pretty easy to tell what you're gonna do next.Tobey: No, it's not.WordGirl: Yes, it is.Tobey: ''(while holding up his index finger, with WordGirl copying him)'' No, it's not.WordGirl: Yes, it is.(Beat)Both: ROBOTS, ATTACK!!
- Taking the Bullet: WordGirl takes a dodgeball for the distracted Captain HuggyFace, eliminating her just as she's about to win the game single-handedly.
- Tempting Fate:
- On his second attempt to destroy the library, Tobey announces that he doubts that even WordGirl can destroy ten robots. She does so before he's even finished his sentence.
- WordGirl herself does this later in the episode when she, having nearly won her and Tobey's dodgeball game, tells Captain HuggyFace that she thinks they're home free. Then a robot takes aim for the distracted Captain HuggyFace, causing WordGirl to take the bullet for him.
- Zerg Rush: Tobey uses this strategy to make WordGirl admit defeat. She can deal with ten giant robots, but fifty of them is too much for even her.
"Mr. Big" contains the following tropes:
- Buffy Speak: Mr. Big's product is the Thing, a white cube just as plain as its name.
- Circular Reasoning: WordGirl's first definition of "vague" is "not specific", and her definition of "specific" is "not vague".
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Mr. Big mind-controlling Captain HuggyFace into wanting the Thing to turn him against WordGirl backfires when Leslie brings in the Mega-Thing, and WordGirl successfully convinces Captain HuggyFace to attack Mr. Big instead so he can get it.
- Insult Backfire: This exchange when Mr. Big explains his plan to release the Mega-Thing.WordGirl: You fiend!
Mr. Big: Yes, well when you've got it, you've got it. - Mirthless Laughter: Mr. Big laughs nervously when Leslie inadvertently reveals his evil plan by wheeling in his Mind-Control Device at the wrong time.
- Non-Answer: Mr. Big does this a lot when WordGirl interrogates him about what exactly the Thing does. Special mention goes to his presentation about what exactly the thing is and does.Mr. Big: This little Thing is made from a mixture of space-age polymers. It's unbreakable! It's scientifically designed by scientists to do all the stuff you've always dreamed of doing! In fact, this Thing can do so much stuff that the sheer amount of stuff it can do cannot be listed! It's just too much stuff! The Thing is, quite simply, amazing!
- Noodle Implements: Mr. Big's plan #4 somehow involves clowns and a roast beef sandwich.
- Offscreen Reality Warp: At one point, the camera focuses on Becky reading from a billboard advertising the Thing. It then zooms back out to show that Bob is suddenly wearing a hat doing the same.Becky: Where did you get that hat? [Bob shrugs]
- Oh, Crap!: The grocery store manager has a moment of this when the crowd realises that he's carrying several Things in his apron pocket, despite saying that they're sold out.
- Shaped Like Itself: This line from the narrator at the start of the episode.Narrator: In a penthouse office, high above the city, a mysterious man is speaking... mysteriously!
- What Were They Selling Again?: The commercial for The Thing never actually explains what it does. This is the whole point—The Thing is really a useless white cube, and Mr. Big uses mind control to make people buy it.
