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Operation: S.P.I.N.A.C.H.

"Operation: S.P.I.N.A.C.H."
Season 6, Episode 70

Mission:	123
Production Code:	605
Airdate:	Jan 05, 2007
Credits
Writer(s):	Andy Rheingold Tom Warburton Blake Lemons
Storyboards by:	Kim Arndt Quack Leard
Episode Guide
Previous Mission "Operation: W.H.I.T.E.H.O.U.S.E."	Next Mission "Operation: M.E.S.S.A.G.E."

Salad Pushing Invaders Now Attempt Crusade Here

InformationEdit

Summary:

The show begins with the king of Vespinaccia sending an emissary to America to spread the word about the glory of spinach. The first to meet them are Numbuhs 2 and 4, who are celebrating "Ditch school and go to the beach day", which Numbuh 4 states he made up. Numbuh 2 is captured and Numbuh 4 runs to the school to warn of the approach of the Spinach Armada, but is too late, as Vespinachio enters the school behind him and offers spinach to all the children. When Numbuh 1 and the other Sector V operatives attempt to fight back, they encounter a huge army of Vespinaccians outside and are captured. Wally however, is not captured because of his escape route malfunctioning and trapping him in a locker. He finds a Spinach monk passing by and grabs him to steal his robe and flee the school, but finds it is Numbuh 2, who has been converted to the way of Spinach. Numbuh 4 is promptly captured, as Numbuh 2 walks away, chanting contently to himself.

Numbuhs 1, 3, 4 and 5 are then seen held in a chamber, similar to the torture chambers of the Spanish Inquisition, in which various devices attempt to force them to eat Spinach. As they are tortured, the Spinach Inquisitors break into a musical number as they force the kids in various creative ways, including dunking Numbuh 1 in a vat of spinach and tying Numbuhs 3 and 5 to a board and force feeding them. Suddenly, Hoagie screams for the song to stop, saying that if children don't want to eat spinach, they should not be forced to. Vespinaccio sees this as heresy and a duel between him and Hoagie begins, ending when Vespinaccio falls into his own vat of spinach. As he struggles, he proclaims that he himself does not like spinach, and only pretend to to please the king. It is also revealed that none of the inquisitors like spinach either. Hoagie agrees to rescue him, but under one condition.

Later, the Vespinaccians and the Kids Next Door sign a treaty agreeing that in return for saving them, the Vespinaccians will never force children in their country to eat spinach ever again. Instead, they would try in Canada. We also learn that the king himself doesn't like spinach, and he only makes others eat it so he does not have to.

TriviaEdit

The song and dance number in this episode is a parody of a famous comedy song and dance number in the Mel Brooks film "The History Of The World Part 1".
There are also allusions to the famous Monty Python comedy sketch "The Spanish Inquisition" when Numbuh 2 discovers that they were forcing kid's to eat it. To this, Spinaccio replies "No one respects the Spinach inquisition." Amerigo Vespinaccio, the one-time character in this episode, is named after Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian Explorer after whom America was named.
The spinach armada is a play of the Spanish Armada, complete with the accents, uniforms, and the Inquisition.
During the musical number, at multiple times a singer is cut off before they sing their last word. Judging by the rhyme scheme, it is assumed that during Numbuh 1's solo moment, he may have been about to swear, before being dunked into the vat. His lyrics were "I said no once, I said no twice, you chained me up and that's not nice, I will not try it, not even a scrap, I will not try it, it tastes like..." and it could be assumed his final word was "crap". Also, the final line of the song is "We ask you very nicely, we ask you if you'll try. But if you will not taste it, I'm afraid you'll have to...", and it could be assumed that the last word was "die", but Hoagie cut the song off before they could finish.
When trying to feed spinach to Numbuh 4, and he refuses, Vespinaccio then says "Well, then if he won't try it, maybe his girlfriend will." Sure enough, next they try to feed spinach to Numbuh 3 (and Numbuh 5, but that's beside the point).
The King of Vespinaccia forces everyone to eat spinach so he doesn't have to. Father says something similar about broccoli in Operation: I.T..