With "Restraining SpongeBob", all I can do is remember previous reviews…my mind is forever tainted. I just remember the hatred spewed at this episode. Not anywhere near the most infamous ones of the series, but it still had quite a bit of negativity sent its way. And so it was hard to come into the rewatch with a blank slate. But, I must've done so well enough, because turns out I liked this episode quite a bit.
This episode gets right into the swing of things very quickly with SpongeBob causing a racket on Conch Street, and Squidward going through some amusing slapstick. It’s a pretty good set up to the episode, and gives a within-episode reason as to why Squidward slaps a restraining order on SpongeBob. I’m not entirely sure that Squidward has a legal leg to stand on for this restraining order though, lol, especially because the incident that ends up breaking him was caused by him and a little bit by SpongeBob’s clumsiness, not because SpongeBob is abusing him lol.
The restraining order makes things very inconvenient at the Krusty Krab, which is to be expected when only 2 people work there. In the real world, this would never work, and I’d imagine one of the two would’ve lost their job LMAO. I mean, usually if a restraining order is between coworkers, the employers just look at the terms and conditions of the restraining order and go from there. So if Mr. Krabs actually had other employees, then it would be something like making sure that SpongeBob and Squidward don’t work the same shifts. Or, more likely, Squidward would’ve been fired since he didn’t even try to do work anyway lol.
I start getting annoyed once Mr. Krabs somehow blames SpongeBob for things not running smoothly, when Squidward is the one who caused this whole thing and is thus irritating me. So. That’s not a good sign for the episode. SpongeBob eventually recruits Patrick, which for once actually is a good idea, and he annoys Squidward even more than SpongeBob does, which is unsurprising. It’s fun to see Patrick in a Krusty Krab hat again. And when Squidward finds out what’s going on, Mr. Krabs redeems himself by being pretty funny and trolling Squidward, because it’s clear that he knows that he hates both Patrick and SpongeBob. The “please” joke is done again, and it’s even funnier the second time.
Eventually, Patrick drives Squidward insane, and the build up to this is pretty entertaining, especially when Patrick starts following Squidward around everywhere. We then get a situation similar to the first scene when Squidward gets launched and hurt in some slapstick way. I love how protective Patrick is of SpongeBob here, attacking Squidward when he thinks he’s a monster set out to hurt SpongeBob. Listen, I’ll take any great example of their friendship I can get, because it’s been rough out here. SpongeBob violates the order to stop Squidward and Patrick from fighting, and Squidward changes the restraining order to Patrick. The episode ends with Patrick laughing like a less than sane person, which I think is hilarious.
“Restraining SpongeBob” was better than I expected, and that’s only because I remember negative opinions about it, not because I ever felt strongly about it. There were a few moments that irritated me, so this episode certainly isn’t Amazing-tier, but I think it’s better than Good-tier too, because the humor was great and somehow didn’t annoy me other than those few moments. Pretty impressive.
Episode Tier: Great
Episode Score: 8.3/10
