Coming up next, we've got "Waiting", an episode I already know people do not like. I'll talk about this later of course, but my own opinions on this episode are so divided, because for me this episode has very distinct segments that I either really like, really dislike, or just don't care one way or another, so it's hard to combine all of it into one score. But I think I've got a good idea now of where this episode should be, so let's talk about it.
This episode begins with SpongeBob walking down Barg N' Mart with Gary, which first off I think it’s very wholesome that SpongeBob brings his pet shopping with him. But anyway, the episode plot kicks off with SpongeBob picking up a cereal box with a prize inside. I point this out because this episode is one of the ones that leans so much into the childish side of SpongeBob’s character while also juxtaposing it with his adult reality (he’s literally grocery shopping, and he will be doing the eponymous waiting at his house that he pays for). SpongeBob running around in excitement about the prospect of a prize is cute. And then we find out that SpongeBob falls victim to what so many of us do…not reading the fine print lol. And the whole box tops thing is such a fun element because it reminds me of my childhood and those box top lunch things. Fellow Americans, do y’all remember those? And perhaps people outside of the US too, I’m not sure if it was an international thing or not. I like how once we cut to SpongeBob engorging himself with cereal, I start thinking about how he could’ve just cut the box tops before eating the cereal, and lo and behold my GOAT tells SpongeBob to do exactly that. I love Gary so much it’s not even funny.
And then we transition to the next segment of the episode…the waiting. And it’s…it’s waiting. Waiting for something to be funny—
Okay, okay, that’s mean. But it’s true. Not even the “I’m waiting” version of “I’m ready” gets me very interested in the waiting. And then SpongeBob doesn’t get his prize at first so we get more waiting. By the time the 2 minute mark rolls around, I'm starting to be very bored, but I still have hope at this point because unlike last episode, 2 minutes is not half of the episode. But it is a significant chunk. Speaking of relationships to the previous episode, I think it’s interesting how both of these episodes take place in largely one location. And for this episode, I think that’s to its detriment. With “Rise and Shine” it was understandable because it was just 4 minutes and it was supposed to be during Patrick’s morning. And yes for plot reasons I get why we spend all our time at the mailbox but it’s for longer this time and we don’t do anything with it so it’s just boring.
We start moving from boring to irritating as SpongeBob starts being quite rude to everyone who only serves as a “distraction” to him. It starts with Sandy, which was very uncalled for and luckily she gives him the stink-eye because we know Sandy wouldn’t take that treatment sitting down. And then it goes on with Gary where we get a far less entertaining and reasonable version of “Have You Seen This Snail” in 30 seconds. And then he shouts at Patrick for no reason. And before anyone says anything yes I get that SpongeBob becoming a jerkwad about this toy is the point. I get that he’s drawing on elements of his character we’ve seen in “Party Pooper Pants” and “Have You Seen This Snail” by becoming obsessed with something to the detriment of his relationship with others. But just like in those episodes, I worry if this kind of character element can ever be anything but annoying and unpleasant to watch, especially being in such stark contrast to the SpongeBob we normally know. And y’all know I’m not even against SpongeBob ever getting mad or trolling people just to be annoying, but this is something different.
The bit with Patrick, the cake, and the fork was actually much more entertaining than I was expecting it to be. Probably because it didn’t end up going on that long, and so I liked the stinger with the fork being the present lol. Thankfully, this gag is also the turning point where SpongeBob realizes how much of a jerkwad he’s been because of this toy, so that’s definitely a plus. And I like how SpongeBob’s being all dramatic like “I’ve wasted my whole life waiting for this toy” and Patrick’s like “you’ve only been here 20 minutes”, that was good. And things continue to improve when the mailman comes by and Patrick does my favorite thing of becoming defensive and protective on SpongeBob’s behalf. I love moments like that, and I thought this one was pretty funny because of Patrick’s insistence that SpongeBob is “having a moment”. And then SpongeBob finally gets his toy, and we get an…interesting sequence of SpongeBob and Patrick mirroring each other with increasingly weird reactions. Not really sure what that was about because it felt a little stilted but we move on.
Yes, SpongeBob finally gets his toy, and the second Patrick so much as touches it…it breaks. I think the build up to the explosion is hilarious, because of Patrick’s immediate nervous reaction and SpongeBob’s voice and face of false calm, peace, and serenity. Not to mention the entire episode had been building up to this moment, so you already know the inevitable freak out is going to be one for the books. It’s admittedly a good twist to the plot that retroactively improves some of the more unpleasant parts of the beginning minutes of the episode, because we’ve seen SpongeBob get increasingly worked up about this toy, just for it to break immediately.
So at this point, I'm looking forward to the freakout. And unfortunately, it's a let-down. SpongeBob blames Patrick for a second, Patrick cries a bit, and then the two devolve into tears, and I just sit there being like "that's it?". I think it would’ve been much funnier if we got something akin to SpongeBob’s brief breakdown in “Rock Bottom” or even the way he yells at Patrick in “Rock-A-Bye Bivalve”. So frankly this was a missed opportunity. But moving on, I like the surprise appearance of Squidward, who’s like “just keep walking” as SpongeBob and Patrick roll around and cry. But of course, Squidward can’t ignore the two for that long. Squidward is necessary for the episode to end, but I do wonder if it would’ve been funnier if Squidward only had this brief cameo and then just didn’t appear after shutting his door lmao. But anyway, SpongeBob’s explanation for the chain of events was definitely way too long, he should’ve just shown Squidward the broken toy and that’s it, because we literally all just sat through the last 6 minutes we didn’t need a tear-filled recap.
I do like the little twist that the toy is supposed to do that, though poor Squidward had to deal with SpongeBob and Patrick not being smart enough to realize that. And the very ending of this episode is nice, I thought it was cute that SpongeBob and Patrick are so grateful to Squidward in the end, and Squidward’s line about moving to another neighborhood was a good note to end the episode on.
“Waiting” was going up, down, left, right in terms of how I was feeling about the episode as it progressed. It started off with a decent beginning, got annoying real quick, then redeemed itself and more by getting legitimately funny and cathartic, then disappointed a little bit by not fully paying off with the redemption, and then just kind of ebbing out into something decent. So it’s kind of really hard for me to figure out where I want to place this episode. I don’t think it should be any lower than “Okay”, at least, because while those annoying parts could’ve easily sent this episode straight to “Mediocre”-ville, there was that redemption that also really helped retroactively improve the annoying bits.
Episode Tier: Okay
Episode Score: 6.4/10
