After those abysmal episodes, I need a break from flaming piles of garbage, and “The Inside Job” provides!
The episode begins…fine. We get the typical dynamic between Plankton and Karen, which is fine with me, where Plankton tries to act like he’s better than Karen and then makes a fool of himself. The fact that this guy was showing his son the Chum Bucket just to revel in its failure is pretty funny. And then Karen proves to be queenie once again as she comes up with a pretty good plan for Plankton. The part where Plankton’s launching and people keep walking in the way is pretty funny, especially once it’s revealed that the Mr. Krabs standing there was just a cardboard cut-out, and Plankton ends up entering SpongeBob’s brain. It almost feels like a call-back to “The Chaperone” or “As Seen on TV”.
The imagery of this episode is pretty neat. I liked the design of different parts of the brain (or head I guess) being “plugged in”. When Plankton unplugs SpongeBob’s eyes, I am then reminded of how much I really wish I was watching “Planet of the Jellyfish” right about now. Also, I’ve noticed that at least twice in the episode we get off-screen quips from characters. First Mr. Krabs, then Squidward. And I like it because that means we get more dialogue humor, and also I just think it’s neat, and makes the episode feel more…full even if the characters don’t physically show up.
Plankton causing problems with SpongeBob’s workday is also a good source of humor. SpongeBob making a “patty” blind is pretty amusing, especially when he gets his sight back and he freaks out about it. And then when Plankton takes out his ears, I thought this was a clever way to not actually reveal the formula, as the show is wont to do. I love how Plankton just goes “I hate my life!” when this fails for him. Additionally, the ending of this hearing bit is another great use of awkward humor that completely outclasses most of season 6’s attempt at it. So maybe season 6 really just was a learning stage for using this kind of humor, because that’s like 3 times now it’s been done well.
Eventually, Plankton decides to just try and get the information from SpongeBob’s brain directly. Despite how scientifically inaccurate this is, I do love how SpongeBob’s brain is segmented into all these different types of information that are so very him. It was nice to see jellyfishing in there too, since it’s been a while since we’ve seen SpongeBob jellyfish, I feel. When Plankton goes inside the brain, once again we get some neat designs here with the inside of SpongeBob’s brain looking like his house, just with brain matter. It’s gross yet visually interesting, and it doesn’t elicit any kind of visceral reaction. I really loved the “sounds that make Squidward upset” bit. And I love that SpongeBob put the secret recipe in his heart. Yeah it’s cheesy, but it’s also cute.
And then the episode takes a turn as Plankton not only gets the recipe, but also SpongeBob’s personality and characteristics. The way he turns into a mini SpongeBob is hilarious. Mr. Lawrence’s imitation of Tom Kenny’s inflections is amazing. Same with Bill Fagerbakke’s when Plankton then gets turned into a mini Patrick. And I thought this was a neat end to the episode. The only thing I didn’t care for was how Karen said it was Plankton’s fault, when literally for once none of the things that went wrong here was his fault, it just seemed like an unintended side effect of the procedure lol.
“The Inside Job” was a simple and fun episode. It starts off a little slow, but once Plankton sets the plan in motion, things stay pretty enjoyable for the remainder of the episode. There’s also some really good humor in this episode, which I absolutely love. There isn’t too much to say other than that.
Episode Tier: Great
Episode Score: 8.5/10