Decided to expand my review on this one since I watched for last night.
Decided to redo my review here.
Squiditis is one of those episodes where it falls in the same category as Gullible Pants. How? Both episodes, to their benefit actually have amusing jokes involving messing with SpongeBob's head. Also the Krusty Krab crew all seem to partake in these episodes fest. The plots of them are pretty simple and it takes place in the restaurant, being one of the million episodes that do. So they're both forgettable episodes to most people. To me? They're some of the funniest of their season. Let's look at Squiditis though for now, because it has a certain appeal to it.
Character roles today:
Mr. Krabs: Doctor, bossman (obviously) and cashier/Frycook towards the ending
Squidward: faking an illness, wanting to be sent home
SpongeBob: Afraid to get sick, unaware Squid's faking it.
The episode starts off with Squidward and SB chatting about how glorious the day is and that Squidward can't even go outside because of work. It eventually leads to Squidward faking an illness. Squidward goes in Krabs' office to confirm he's sick, so Mr. Krabs does a old navy check up on him. This check up borderlines between a little slow time wise, but it can be amusing. After Krabs knowing he's not really ill, Squid has to keep working. This where one of my favorite moments of the episode happen. SpongeBob wears a gas mask to deliver food to the customers so he can avoid Squidward's "sickness". I just love how paranoid SpongeBob is in the episode. It's just enough where it makes the story even funnier and it's not over exaggerated. Squidward comes over and teases with him, breathing hard on purpose and even sneezing in his mask. Do you guys know how much I treasure when Squidward has his little harmless teasing moments? It's his way of getting back at SpongeBob for all the things he's caused, without getting himself hurt really. Graveyard Shift was another glorious example of his teasing/storytelling. Oh and more recently there was the oh so clever Don't Look Now episode. So SpongeBob goes to Krabs' office and tells him of the situation with the Squid. Krabs knows he's not ill even when SB says he is. But Krabs tells Squidward to take some time off because SB can't work when he's paranoid like this. Even though Krabs mentions money in this, I just can't help feel a sincere approach on how he handles this. Where do you ever see Mr. Krabs giving people the day off when they're not sick? I felt it was very mature. Which leads me to this. Something I haven't talk about which really made this episode for me was Mr. Krabs- MR. KRABS NOTHING. He was by far the best character in the episode. His lines had a certain charm in this episode and to my surprise, he actually didn't get furious that Squidward was faking an illness. Nope, he's just all like "And get well soon Mr. Squidward (laughs)".
See? That's the Krabs I know, he knows when to take things seriously and when to not.
Getting back to the plot, SpongeBob thinks he's getting sick now from Squid's Disease. So he makes some of his grandma's down home remedies to cure it so he won't have to be sent home. This? Uh. Well this episode does have its flaws. One being how dull it can sometimes get and its filler. I just don't think the episode had to go in this way where SpongeBob thought he was sick too. Then Cha, you might ask what way would it go then? I don't know. I just don't think the episode got its full potential. Well SpongeBob drives himself to believe he's full fledged sick and Mr. Krabs sends him home. There Squidward and SpongeBob recover together much to Squid's dismay. I really liked how Squidward kinda just went with it towards the ending of that scene. He could have made a scream about it and be like "GIT OUTTA MAH HOME U EEDIOT". Squidward realized the little guy wouldn't leave until he helped Squidward and him recover. I found this a little sweet from both sides. Back at the KK, Krabs is taking control of the register and the cooking. Hey this reminds of when he use to have no employees. (See SpongeBob Moves In for an example.) Even though Krabs motivation is pure, he doesn't realize the mess he's made with the customers, since there's so many. Back with the dynamic duo, Squidward gets fed up with SpongeBob's never ending Romantic Comedy sequels and runs back to the Krusty Krab. SpongeBob follows and the both of them find Krabs in a mess. Mr. Krabs now thinks he has Squid's Disease from how awful he feels from handling two occupations at once. The episode ends (cheesy imo but not bad) with SB suggesting he recover with a Romantic Comedy movie.
Huh? Squidward learned his lesson in this and they didn't even have to pull out the overly bad squid abuse in it to hammer the idea down? Huh, weird. The episode had its share of chuckles, some sweet moments, dull and a little filler. Though this episode probably isn't that rememberable, it will always be there on my top season eight episode list.
8/10