Moving right along into our first special of the season, we’ve got “Frozen Face-Off”. I’ve always liked this episode, and I’m not sure if that’s an unpopular opinion or not. I feel like this episode leans towards the realm of being forgotten to be honest, I never see anyone talk about it…like ever. And that’s too bad, because I think this is a neat little special. The frozen theming makes it unique, though I wonder if this episode is forgotten because snow is associated with Christmas, and this is not a Christmas special.
I really like how this episode wastes absolutely no time getting into the plot, as we open on the newscast that inspires our characters to enter the sled race. Firstly, I love everyone’s little outfits for the sled race, they’re so cute! And I love everyone’s different sleds, they’re all very revealing of who they are. Gary being the mush dog here is a win for me because Gary inclusion, not to mention he’s basically the most important character in the episode lol. Karen pretending to be a worm is also hilarious. And I love some good competition between Plankton and Krabs. And then we get the reveal that Plankton clearly left a decoy up at the race, as we see him sneaking off before the race begins. This is an excellent beginning to our episode, to sum it up.
And once the race gets started, it’s pretty entertaining. Poor Gary having to pull the increasing number of people makes me feel bad, but not seriously lol. He gets plenty of moments to shine in this episode, which makes me very, very happy. And the way each of the other main characters have to join SpongeBob’s sled is pretty good. I especially love how Squidward’s worm just stopped to have a spot of tea LMAO. Poor Squidward keeps getting frozen in this episode, which I think is a pretty funny gag. And I like how all the characters come together pretty quickly too. And it doesn’t take too long from there for them to get trapped by an avalanche. At least Gary is nice and toasty!
Then we get the completely random yet very much welcome addition of the stop-motion abominable snow mollusk. This is very unexpected, but you know what I like it. And Mr. Krabs having a past with it is great too. And I love how it ends up with Squidward frozen again too lol. So useless LMAO. And after an entertaining and daring rescue by SpongeBob, somehow Mr. Krabs thinks it’s a good idea to run after the prize himself…because he’s stupid and short-sighted.
We then get the reveal of Karen frozen in the snow, which then reveals Plankton’s plot. Plankton is pretty low-down for doing this to his wife. I also just really like how Karen actually has stuff to do in this episode, and she feels more like part of the gang here, which I’m a huge fan of. And we see Sandy being queenie in this episode, which is yet another win. I love all the action sequences of this episode, they’re so fun! And then SpongeBob saves Gary from basically dying, so that’s yet another win and I’m taking it as an additional apology for “A Pal For Gary”.
Moving the focus over to Plankton’s little sideplot for a second, this section is mostly a bunch of funny gags as Plankton tries to get the safe to open, and of course it ends with the funniest one of Plankton performing nuclear fission. And, surprisingly, he actually does win for a little bit in this episode, stealing the formula, and even overcoming the roadblock of not being able to open the bottle with the help of Patrick’s stupidity. But of course, Plankton can never truly win, so he loses spectacularly by being eaten by the abominable snow mollusk.
I really enjoyed “Frozen Face-Off”, this is definitely an underrated little special. And again, I say that because it's so rarely brought up, I'm not sure what the popular opinion is. There isn't really anything I dislike about this episode either, and it has that "wow" factor I so covet, so it's a worthy addition to my Amazing tier.
Episode Tier: Amazing
Episode Score: 9.1/10
But anyway, I'm glad to see someone else likes this episode too.
