| "Operation: T.A.P.I.O.C.A." | |
| Season 2, Episode 16 | |
| |
| Mission: | 032 |
|---|---|
| Production Code: | 16b |
| Airdate: | October 17, 2003 |
| Credits | |
| Writer(s): | Mo Willems Mr. Warburton |
| Storyboards by: | Matt Peters Abigail Nesbitt |
| Episode Guide | |
| Previous Mission "Operation: S.U.P.P.O.R.T." |
Next Mission "Operation: M.O.V.I.E." |
Teens And Pudding Inconvenience Our Childish Agents
Operation: T.A.P.I.O.C.A. is the second story in the third episode of Season 2 of Codename: Kids Next Door. It first aired on October 17, 2003 on Cartoon Network, and introduced Grandma Lydia.
Information[]
Summary[]
After a dispute with a group of teenagers, a truck full of tapioca pudding is fired into the treehouse. The teenagers want their tapioca back, the reason might be too old to tell.
Plot[]
The episode begins with a tank truck speeding down toward a city commandeered by three teenagers called the Senior Citizen Squad. As they were about to head toward the city, they get a surprise visit from Numbuh 2. He demands the teens to turn the truck around or deal with him. The latter decided to deal with him first and two members, Sheldon and Maurice, both fight against him. However, Numbuh 2 seems to be able to hold them off long enough for the rest of Sector V to use a crane down grabbing the tank truck with M.E.R.R.Y.G.O.R.O.C.K.E.T., who are praising him. Numbuh 2 retreats back up and begins to spin the machine so fast that the teenagers were forced to bail out before the machine launches the vehicle at the Treehouse.
It turns out that Numbuh 2 was giving the storytelling narration to his grandmother, Lydia. However, Lydia was senile of his so called make believe story despite Numbuh 2 proving that he did get rid of the tapioca with a Tapioca Jetpack. Unfortunately, Lydia doesn't like her grandson for being a liar and keeps on getting his name wrong as being Tommy and not Hoagie. Grandma Lydia excuses Hoagie while she prepares herself for tonight as she starts apllying Anti-Aging Creme while Numbuh 2 leaves.
Numbuh 2 returns to the Treehouse and boasted that his jetpack can use two bowls of tapioca to get to his grandma's place. However, all of his teammates are more annoyed considering that their entire treehouse was covered in tapioca. Numbuh 1 berates him because the job was to stop the tapioca from getting into town, not flood the entire treehouse on accident. They started making fun of Numbuh 2 because of his incompetence which resulted of their treehouse filled with tapioca.
Numbuh 2 stays up all night trying to invent a machine that can get rid of all the tapioca in the treehouse. He was upset that none of his teammates gives him credit for stopping the teens. Just unexpectedly, the Senior Citizen Squad had returned to give Numbuh 2 payback for ruining their plan to deliver the tapioca. Numbuh 2 tries to get the alarm button, but the teens attacked him before they started to suffer from their own condition, agonizing in pain which gives Numbuh 2 the opportunity to sound the alarm. The teens flee before the rest of the teammates arrive on the scene, but the teens were already gone. The team blames Numbuh 2 for waking them up in the middle of the night with a supposedly false alarm despite Numbuh 2's innocence.
Later the night, Lydia returns to her home with two other old friends named Sheldon and Maurice. She complains about their time being wasted and comes over to get her Anti-Age Crème. They started applying the ointment to themselves which starts to take the effect, aging them back to their younger teenage selves. Lydia knows that the effects don't have enough time, but she vows to use the time to make a surprise visit to the Kids Next Door.
The next day, Numbuh 2 tries to convince his team that he really was attacked by the Senior Citizen Squad. Just as his answer was called, the Senior Citizen Squad in their teenager forms blasts through the hole that was repaired after the tapioca truck crashed through. Sector V fights back using their tapioca filled cleaners as weapons. Numbuh 5 and Numbuh 4 fires shots at Maurice, but the teenager had wheels as his weapons and blocks every shot before knocking her out. Sheldon had flight capabilities and attacks both Numbuh 3 and Numbuh 1. Lydia holds Numbuh 2 at staff point and was prepared to deliver a blow until the effects of the creme wears off, reverting all of the teenagers back to their elder selves. Numbuh 2 was shocked and demands an explanation. Before Lydia could give her story, Sector V recovers and prepares to deliver a tapioca blow to the adults. Numbuh 2 stops them. He convinces his teammates that none of them cannot fight his grandma or the adults that are present because they are so elderly that they couldn't even put up a fight against the young side.
Reluctantly, his teammates agrees with him and stands down, but Lydia warned that they've shouldn't underestimate the elderly and the squad transforms their assisting tools into a giant Senior Citizen Robot. They grabbed all of the operatives and demands them to hand over their tapioca, much to their confusion. The whole team couldn't believe that they went through all the trouble just so the squad can get their hands on the tapioca. Lydia ends up starting to lecture kids about their plan of taking the tapioca, and it was becoming boring to the kids to the point where Numbuh 4 yells at them to just take the tapioca and leave.
By then, the entire treehouse was cleared up of all the tapioca and the team congratulates Numbuh 2 on another successful job done. Of course, it was all being narrated by Numbuh 2 who was talking to his grandma about how he managed to get all of the tapioca to her place with the entire truck crashed in Lydia's place, though she didn't mind because she wanted tapioca and rebukes Numbuh 2 as the episode ends.
Featured[]
KND Operatives
Allies
- Tommy Gilligan (mentioned)
Villains
- Senior Citizen Squad (debut)
Locations
2x4 Technology
- P.I.P.E.R.
- M.E.R.R.Y.G.O.R.O.C.K.E.T.
- Grater Hook Shooter
- Tapioca Jetpack
- D.O.O.Z.I.E.
- T.A.P.I.O.C.A.N.N.O.N.
- Vacuum Cleaner
- Bellows Gun
- T.H.U.M.P.E.R.
Villain Technology
Transcript[]
Operation: T.A.P.I.O.C.A./Transcript
Trivia[]
- This is the first episode to feature Numbuh 2's grandmother, as well as the first of two to feature the Senior Citizen Squad.
- The plot of the episode is a parody of "anti-aging cream", which is a common name for wrinkle cream.
- Numbuh 2 reports in the coordinates of the tapioca truck, "2 11 68", which is Mo Willems' birthday.
- Numbuh 4 is seen using Numbuh 3's T.H.U.M.P.E.R., the only time he does this in the series.
- This is one of the stories where Sector V are shown to be overzealous. They may not have known why "teenagers" wanted a truck of tapioca pudding, but deemed it some kind of threat.
Series Continuity[]
- Grandma Lydia and her Senior Citizen Squad are now enemies of the KND. They later reappear in Operation: A.F.L.O.A.T. among other villains.
- Numbuh 2 continues to annoy his teammates with his bad puns.
- The Senior Citizen Squad steal food for the retirement home they live in. This happens again in Operation: L.U.N.C.H., but with done by the cafeteria staff instead.
Pop Culture References[]
- When the Senior Citizen Squad's items turn into a robot, it references a number of Mech-type shows and anime, including Voltron, Super Sentai, and Power Rangers.
- Numbuh 2 says "It's time to twist and shout"; "Twist and Shout" is a 1961 song by The Top Notes, and later rendition by The Beatles.
Errors/Goofs[]
- The device Numbuh 3 is holding when Numbuh 2 arrives at the treehouse is gone in the next shot of her.
- The Senior Citizen Squad's arrival in Numbuh 2's room is announced by their shadows on Numbuh 2's work table. But Numbuh 2's light is right above him, and the teens are standing in darkness in the next shot.
- There's no tapioca on the floor when Numbuh 1 is swooped up into the air.
- The big mound of tapioca behind Numbuh 4 is gone when the wheel hits him.
Voice Credits[]
- Benjamin Diskin: Numbuh 1 and Numbuh 2
- Lauren Tom: Numbuh 3
- Dee Bradley Baker: Numbuh 4 and Maurice
- Cree Summer: Numbuh 5
- Jennifer Hale: Computer
- Tom Kenny: Sheldon
- Candi Milo: Grandma Lydia
Gallery[]
