Operation: S.N.O.W.I.N.G.

"Operation: S.N.O.W.I.N.G."
Season 4, Episode 49
Mission:	091
Production Code:	410
Airdate:	May 27, 2005
Credits
Writer(s):	Mo Willems Tom Warburton
Storyboards by:	Matt Peters Kim Arndt Abigail Nesbitt Jesse Schmal
Episode Guide
Previous Mission "Operation: C.L.O.S.E.T."	Next Mission "Operation: M.A.U.R.I.C.E."

Sickly Nigel Opposes Warped Incumbent's Nasty Grasp

Operation: S.N.O.W.I.N.G. is the tenth episode of Season 4 of Codename: Kids Next Door. It first aired on May 27, 2005 on Cartoon Network.

Information

Plot

It's the first snow day of the year and all the members of Sector V are out enjoying their day off from school, except Nigel, who is stuck at home with a cold. Hoagie and Wallabee are patrolling the playground to make sure everything is alright, while Kuki and Abigail are patrolling another area. The two boys bump into Lizzie, who is on her way to Nigel's house to give him the special chicken banana fritter soup with extra curly fries she made to make him feel better. But judging by Hoagie and Wallabee's expressions when they get a whiff of the soup, it might actually make Nigel feel worse (or possibly kill him according to Wallabee). Despite being told this, Lizzie simply replies that the two of them have no taste.

Onboard his aircraft, a now-villainous President Jimmy stares down at the playing kids with anger, since he had called for a school assembly today to crown his queen and expected everyone to show up, regardless of whether there was a snow day or not apparently. It is revealed that his secretary Anna, who is the Common Cold's niece, asked her uncle to make Nigel sick to keep him from ruining Jimmy's plans. After ordering his Bus Walkers to be released, Jimmy then orders the Honor Roll to go capture an unknown target.

The Bus Walkers storm the playground and begin grabbing the kids. Abigail rallies everyone to fight back. Wallabee and his group shoot snowballs at them, while Hoagie and his group provide aerial assistance, but they are captured after being hit by a barrage of textbooks. While Numbuh 5's group acts as a distraction, Numbuh 3's group uses streamers to trip up one of the Bus Walkers, but it doesn't work and they are captured as well. Wallabee and Abigail are soon captured themselves as a Bus Walker stomps on the camera.

At Nigel's house, Lizzie has finally gotten her boyfriend to have some soup by forcing him to eat it, and unsurprisingly it disgusts him. Nigel sees the Bus Walkers outside and learns from Lizzie about Jimmy forcing everyone to attend the assembly. Before he leaves to go fight, Lizzie gives him the soup thermos, telling him to "use the soup". While she watches him fly off in the F.L.I.E.R.P.L.A.C.E., shadowed figures appear behind her.

Jimmy is furious when he sees Nigel and demands that he be blasted out of the sky. Numbuh 1 does well at first, but between the F.L.I.E.R.P.L.A.C.E. taking multiple hits and him being sick, he ultimately ends up crashing into the ground. A delighted Jimmy is informed that his target has been acquired - none other than Lizzie, with whom he is in love.

TRANSMISSION INTERRUPTED

Out in the snow, Nigel is visited by an apparition of Lizzie, who once again tells him to "use the soup", despite his protests. After he passes out, Joaquin, one of the tree house's power-providing hamsters, revitalizes him.

Back on Jimmy's aircraft, he orders Anna to go keep an eye on their prisoners, especially the KND. After she leaves, Lizzie is brought before him by the Honor Roll and demands to know what's going on. Jimmy asks if she has ever thought of becoming a queen, and says he could make her one, if she agrees to be his girlfriend. Jimmy attempts to kiss Lizzie who becomes disturbed by this and backs out.

While Lizzie is flattered by the offer, she politely declines since she's already dating Nigel. This statement enrages Jimmy who reveals he did everything for her and Lizzie says that he cannot make her like him. But the undeterred Jimmy unveils a boyfriend helmet, which he modified so it would work on her, causing Lizzie to respond with disbelief. Lizzie is then dragged off by guards to be prepared for the assembly, with Jimmy taunting her about Nigel never making it past his defenses. As the Bus Walkers park in the school's driveway, Nigel rallies the power-providing hamsters to take him to Gallagher Elementary, dodging Jimmy's defenses along the way and wants to notify the other KND operatives that he's on his way to save the day.

The other members of Sector V are now shackled and making their way into the assembly hall with the other kids. Abigail's communicator starts ringing and she asks Kuki to try getting it out of her coat pocket. However, they are caught by Anna, who takes the device (after which it rings again) and says it is just what she needs.

In the auditorium, Jimmy is presented to the booing audience as their "4th Grade President For Life" and declares his intent to crown Lizzie as his queen. His speech is interrupted when Nigel shows up. He tells Jimmy that it's a snow day and he "plans to spend it with [his] GIRLFRIEND!". Jimmy grows furious about this and doesn't know how Nigel got inside the school, but he knows he's not getting out. The Hall Squad prepares to attack Nigel, but the other members of his sector, now free thanks to Anna, intercept them, allowing Nigel to go save Lizzie. Jimmy lassos him and pulls him up to the rafters where they have their final showdown (using a mop and a ruler that Abigail threw to Nigel), so the job of saving Lizzie falls to the rest of Sector V, but they are unable to remove the helmet since it is fusing to her head. To Nigel's dismay, the now-brainwashed Lizzie announces that she loves Jimmy, and Jimmy knocks off Nigel's ruler, sending him to the ground and prepares to finish him off. Naturally, Nigel recalls Lizzie's words and uses the soup thermos to block Jimmy's attack. The soup falls out (in slow motion) and onto the helmet, causing it to short-circuit and explodes, destroying it and the building in the impact, much to Jimmy's distraught. Everyone plummets on the ground, but remains unscratched from the explosion.

While everyone goes back to enjoying the snow day, Nigel and Lizzie (who survived, albeit with noticeable scrapes from the explosion, with Lizzie's hair being blown off barring her pigtails) have a romantic moment together. Jimmy, also noticeably scraped and scorched from the explosion, is arrested by the KND, to which he questions as to how Sector V managed to escape his defense systems and their shackles. It's then that Anna, also held in cuff by Numbuh 44, admits that she helped them, because she was in love with Jimmy and jealous of his feelings for Lizzie (as a bystander 44 reacts rather awkwardly). Jimmy is touched that she did all that for him, and the feeling appears to be mutual before Wallabee interrupts and tells both of them off. As they are lead on board the KND's G.O.G.E.T.T.E.R., Wally expresses disgust at their mushiness and says that "no one will EVER catch him acting like that, not with ANYONE." For obvious reasons, Wally angers and annoys Kuki, who shoves him out of frustration, with Wally being ignorant as to why as Numbuh 2 and 5 laugh.

END TRANSMISSION

Ending Credits

Lizzie is making a much better soup (out of oat bran, cream, red chili peppers, steak, orange juice, and tons of salt) for Nigel, but Nigel doesn't want to test the soup, so he disappears. Lizzie tries the soup for herself, although it's poorly made, like the one Nigel used against the Modified Boyfriend Helmet and gets her mouth lit on fire. She says "Yummy!" (over the Curious Pictures logo) after tasting the soup.

Featured

KND Operatives

• Numbuh 1
• Numbuh 2
• Numbuh 3
• Numbuh 4
• Numbuh 5

Allies

• Monty Uno
• Lizzie Devine
• McGillicutty
• Joaquin
• Hamsters

Villains

• Anna Worthington
• President Jimmy
• Honor Roll Nerds
• Hall Monitors
• Common Cold (mentioned)

Cameos

• Numbuh 440
• Numbuh 44
• Tommy Gilligan
• Pauley Marcus
• Unnamed Sector H operative
• Eggbert Eggleston

Locations

• Numbuh 5's house
• Numbuh 3's house
• Numbuh 4's house
• Numbuh 2's house
• Numbuh 1's house
• Myers Elementary School (mentioned)
• Kendall Preparatory School (mentioned)
• Gallagher Elementary School

2x4 Technology

• Mailbox Cannon
• Snowball guns
• Sled Wings
• W.H.A.T.
• F.L.I.E.R.P.L.A.C.E.
• Rainbow Monkey communicator
• G.O.G.E.T.T.E.R.

Villain Technology

• President Jimmy's ship
• Bus Walkers
• Rulers
• YesDear 5000

Transcript

Operation: S.N.O.W.I.N.G./Transcript

Trivia

• In Wallabee's room, at the beginning of the episode, if you look to the far left, there is a picture of Kuki on the wall.
• At the end of the episode, Wallabee starts making fun of Anna and James being in love. He quotes, "You will NEVER catch me acting like that, not with ANYONE!" Kuki looks like she's about to explode with anger and pushes Wallabee to the ground while letting out a frustrated scream (most likely at his dense nature) and stormed away in annoyance. This shows that Kuki has a crush on Wallabee and vice versa.
• The radio announcement about school being off mentions two others in the area:
  • Meyer Elementary School, which is named after series character designer L. Todd Myers.
  • Kendall Prep., which is named after series background designer Gideon Kendall.
• Numbuh 1 likes to build model cars, according to the model car set on the desk in his room.
• The way Kuki pushed Wallabee in the snow at the end is similar to the way Lizzie pushed Nigel into the mud in Operation: L.I.Z.Z.I.E..
• Ben Wilgus's KND-sona, Numbuh 440, makes her debut in the episode. She will later cameo in the sixth season episode Operation: C.R.I.M.E..
• Being an overall parody of Star Wars, this episode is also the first to parody events from not only the Star Wars movies but also events from the Star Wars Expanded Universe (in this case Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire), although most Star Wars fans that pay attention to mostly the movies don't really recognize those references that much.
• Jimmy reveals that the reason he became evil was to win over Lizzie.
• This episode aired 3 days before the premiere of The Life and Times of Juniper Lee on May 30, 2005 on Cartoon Network.
• Joaquin wears a small barrel around his neck, similar to how St. Bernard dogs are depicted with barrels around their necks when looking for victims in snowy terrain.
• The hamsters pull Numbuh 1 towards the school in a similar way to dog sledding.

Series continuity

• James Nixon McGarfield is still the fourth grade president since Operation: P.R.E.S.I.D.E.N.T..
• Anna reveals that the Common Cold is her uncle, making her yet another character related to a villain.
• Jimmy's "Boyfriend Helmet" is a modified YesDear 5000, which Lizzie used on Numbuh 1 back in Operation: L.I.Z.Z.I.E. to brainwash him.

Cultural references

• A poster for the band "Misfits" can be seen hanging on the wall in Numbuh 5's room.
• Hoagie, while his sled-flight team is attacking the Bus Walkers, he says, "Watch me for the changes, and try to keep up.", this is a reference to Back to the Future Part I, in which Marty McFly performs "Johnny B. Goode".
• This episode is a parody, tribute and retelling of the movie Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, similar to how Operation: C.A.K.E.D.-F.I.V.E. is a parody of New Hope. James is Darth Vader, Nigel is Luke Skywalker, and Anna is Lando Calrissian. The school buses parody the AT-AT walkers and Numbuhs 2, 3, 4, 5 are taken prisoner by the villains much like Han Solo, Leia, Chewbacca and C-3PO.
  • The Honor Roll resemble Droidekas, and their Repeating Blasters. The name Honor Roll is a reference to the Droidekas' Ball Mode.
  • The quote "Alright, rebels! We do this one by the book!", is similar to the quote "Alright men, Lord Vader wants this raid done by the book!". This quote was in Star Wars: Battlefront II Campaign mode in the Polis Massa mission entitled "Birth of the Rebellion".

Other notable SW references

1. The "Bus Walkers" are parodies of AT-ATs (All-Terrain Armored Transports).
2. The "sledwingers" are parodies of the T-47 Airspeeders (AKA Snowspeeders).
3. Nigel's ship looks similar to a Z-95 Headhunter, but is a parody of a T-65 X-Wing Starfighter.
4. When Nigel hit the Bus Walker, the three people inside were parodies of AT-AT pilots and General Maximillian Veers.
5. Lizzie appearing through "The Force" telling Nigel to use the soup is similar to when the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi appeared to Luke, instructing him to go to Dagobah and learn from Yoda.
6. "Use the Soup, Nigel!" is a parody of "Use the force, Luke!"
7. Joaquin coming to Nigel's rescue right after the vision mirrors when Han Solo rode up on his tauntaun to a delirious Luke, although Han Solo's tauntaun died from the cold temperature while Joaquin did not.
8. Nigel and President Jimmy's duel was very similar to Luke and Vader's duel on Cloud City.
9. The way Anna betrayed Jimmy was like Lando Calrissian betraying Vader.
10. The quote, "I turned evil for you!" was similar to Anakin Skywalker falling to the dark side to save his wife Padme, which ultimately failed.
11. When Jimmy directed his open hand toward one of his minions out of anger, the minion started choking, after a couple of seconds admitting something was caught in his throat. This is a reference to the numerous times Vader choked officers and Moffs (and usually killed them in doing so) either for their incompetence or for making fun of the Force.
12. The battle at the beginning was a parody of Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back when the Galactic Empire attacked Echo Base on Hoth while the Rebels attempted to hold them off while they evacuated.
13. Kuki and her squad trying to trip the Bus Walkers with streamers mirrors the harpoon and tow cable system used by the T-47s to trip the AT-ATs, except the girls failed because they used flimsy streamers as opposed to the hard flexisteel cables used by the Snowspeeder gunners.
14. The Honor Roll use books as their armor and curl up into a ball so they can roll to a new location in the same manner as the Droidekas (Destroyer Droids/"rollies" in clone trooper slang).
15. The scene in which Jimmy attempts to seduce Lizzie into becoming his queen indirectly mirrors a similar scene from Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, in which Prince Xizor, leader of the crime syndicate known as Black Sun, attempts to seduce Leia by developing Falleen pheromones that make him irresistible to women (Xizor, being a Falleen, was able to secrete these pheromones). The only major difference is that Jimmy managed to succeed for a moment by putting the boyfriend helmet on Lizzie and controlling her with it while Xizor ultimately failed after Chewbacca managed to snap Leia out of Xizor's control, which resulted in Leia kicking Xizor in the groin afterwards. The aforementioned reference also states how Jimmy parodies not only Darth Vader but also Prince Xizor.
16. The scene in which Nigel takes down the Bus Walker is also similar to the scene in which Luke Skywalker takes down an AT-AT. The only difference is that Luke tossed a concussion grenade into the torso of the AT-AT, thus destroying its cockpit from the inside and tipping it over while Nigel simply tripped the Bus Walker by making it slip on a banana peel.
17. Anna, being Jimmy's secretary and having a crush on him, parodies Guri, a human replica droid who serves as Prince Xizor's lieutenant/bodyguard and is considered his love interest in Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. Guri, however, is reprogrammed after Xizor's death and forgets about her former master in order to rethink her life while Anna still maintains her love for Jimmy.

Goofs

• President Jimmy's long shadow is missing his arms.
• The Hall Monitor close to Jimmy was not nowhere to be seen a second earlier, but suddenly appeared on the spot.
• Jimmy and Anna's positions relative to each other on the bus ship change between shots.
• From the inside, the window before Jimmy is huge, but just before the outside reveal of the bus ship, the window has changed to a regular size window.
• The snowy landscape changes a lot from a residential neighborhood to hills and lots of trees with barely a house in sight.
• The table holding the Boyfriend Helmet under a piece of cloth is not present when Anna first enters. It's also missing when Lizzie is being brought out of the room.
• The divide down between the aisles in the auditorium changes place between shots.
• The side stairs up to the stage is first to the left of the curtains, then in front of the curtains.
• When Numbuh 1 is being hoisted up by his leg, the stage is far smaller than earlier and would not fit the giant screen.
• The rope that was holding the Boyfriend Helmet disappears when Sector V reach Lizzie on stage.
• Lizzie's appearance also changes between those two shots, with her already starting to fuse with the helmet in the second shot.
• When it zooms out after Lizzie yells Jimmy's name, Lizzie is alone on stage.
• When Gallagher Elementary blows up, the security walls around it are much closer than they were earlier.
• Just before Numbuh 4 yells out in disgust at Jimmy and Anna's love, Jimmy's chain is still being held by Numbuh 5. But just afterwards, the long chain is missing and Jimmy is now only handcuffed.
• Numbuh 44's nose is straight while his head is tilted to his right (our left).
  • Numbuh 44 is also absent in the following closeup shot of Anna confessing her love for President Jimmy, where she also noticeably lacks her handcuffs.

Voice credits

• Ben Diskin: Numbuh 1, Numbuh 2, Honor Roll (Blonde), Bus Drivers, Additional voices
• Lauren Tom: Numbuh 3, Additional voices
• Dee Bradley Baker: Numbuh 4, Joaquin, Eggbert, Bus Drivers, Hall Monitors, Additional voices
• Cree Summer: Numbuh 5, Numbuh 440, Additional voices
• Grey DeLisle: Lizzie, Hall Monitor, Additional voices
• Jennifer Hale: Computer, McGillicutty, Additional voices
• Tom Kenny: President Jimmy, Honor Roll (Brunette), Hall Monitors, Additional voices
• Anndi McAfee: Anna
• Frank Welker: Radio Announcer, Monty Uno

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