| The Trouble With Centigurps | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Season 1, Episode 10a | |
Production Information | |
| Air Date | December 8, 2014 |
| Written by | Guy Toubes |
| Directed by | Stefan Scaini |
Episode Guide | |
| Previous | Next |
| "The Great Grinaldi" | "Totally Odd Squad" |
For the Season 3 episode of a similar name, please see The Problem with Pentagurps.
The Trouble with Centigurps is the A-plot of the 10th episode of Odd Squad.
Synopsis[]
When Otto accidentally releases 100 small furry creatures called centigurps in headquarters, he asks Oscar to help get them back before Ms. O finds out.
Olive's Random Slide[]
This...isn't anything.
Learning Goal[]
- Numbers and Counting: skip counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's to 100
- Geometry: recognizing three-dimensional shapes (spheres)
Plot (contains spoilers)[]
The episode begins with Otto and Olive talking to a guy named Derrick who has a cartoony rain cloud over his head, even though he is really happy. Otto tells the man not to worry and zaps the cloud with a gadget, which turns it into a cartoony smiling sun. He thanks the agents, and they leave; once they are gone, the sun introduces itself as "Slappy the Sun" and starts singing an irritating song to him. The man realizes he can't live like this and yells for Odd Squad.
Back in Ms. O's office, Ms. O informs the two agents that a giant goldfish is attacking the harbor and tells Olive to prepare her suit for water travel. She does, turning into a spherical version of herself and leaving for her mission. Ms. O then gives a container to Otto, telling him to deliver it to storage and not open it. Begrudgingly, Otto leaves.
Lamenting over the trivial difficulty of his mission, Otto becomes curious as to what lies in the container. He has a flashback of Ms. O telling him not to open it, but he ends up giving in to temptation. He sees a fuzzy creature inside and thinks it's cute. Suddenly, Oscar comes around the corner warning him to close the container, explaining that the creature is a centigurp, a creature that can clone itself 100 times if exposed to light too long. Before Otto can do so, the centigurp does exactly just that, leaving him to beg Oscar to help him catch the now escaping centigurps; Oscar is hesitant but is then reminded of his own personal mistake (a particularly bad haircut) and agrees. He explains that centigurps are attracted to spheres, giving Otto an idea of where to look first.
In the Ball Room, Oscar and Otto catch several centigurps and take them back to the lab. At the lab, however, they have trouble counting the centigurps. Oscar has an idea on how to count them and leaves, prompting Otto to beg Oscar to leave him with the crazy creatures. Fortunately, Oscar returns with some special boxes that hold ten centigurps each. They fill five boxes and calculate that they still need to find 50 more centigurps. Oscar then pulls a gumball out of his pocket and starts to chew on it, which gives Otto another idea on where to look next.
At the gumball machine, Oscar attempts to break the centigurps out of it using quarters, only to see Ms. O coming to get a gumball. He hastily covers up the gumball machine and offers her a slightly melted chocolate bar, which she takes and goes to her office to eat instead. In the meantime, Otto had already broken the centigurps out, so the boys go to the lab to count them.
Back at the lab, Oscar and Otto put the new centigurps into three boxes of ten, raising the total to 80 centigurps. They go out again to search for more centigurps. They find more centigurps on Dr. O's globe,Obbs' ice cream cone, several other agents' belongings, and the Odd Squad power grid, which is revealed to be powered by a cantaloupe. They put these new centigurps into nine boxes that hold two Centigurps each bringing the total up to 98. They realize they still need to find two more centigurps and wonder where to look. Oscar then realizes what Ms. O brought for lunch - spaghetti and meatballs.
Oscar rushes to Ms. O's office and sees the centigurps on her lunch. He hastily throws the lunch out the door only for her to come in and ask what he is doing. He comments that he makes mistakes all the time and they both flashback to his bad haircut. She dismisses the matter and he runs to Otto who has caught one of the centigurps but failed to catch the other one. They see it rolling down the hallway and take off in hot pursuit. Oscar comments that they need a sphere to attract its attention which gives Otto the idea to turn into a sphere using the water travel mode he learned from Olive earlier. He manages to lure the centigurp into the lab where they turn the 100 centigurps back to one whole centigurp.
Otto happily struts down the hall with the centigurp and brings it to the storage room run by Octavia, which is just a small room with a table and light fixture. He gives the container to her and leaves, only to bump into Olive, who is impressed that Ms. O asked him to take a centigurp box to storage in his first months of service. Otto asks why. Olive says that she was here for several years before Ms. O gave her such a job and points out that she trusts Otto. They leave together. Meanwhile, Octavia becomes curious as to what's in the container. She opens it, accidentally releasing the centigurps again causing her to scream for help.
Trivia[]
- The episode's name, plot, and star creatures are all inspired by a 1967 episode of Star Trek titled The Trouble With Tribbles.
- One of the books on the table in Ms. O's office is titled The Second To Last Unicorn, which is a parody of Peter S. Beagle's novel The Last Unicorn.
- According to the Odd Squad Facebook page, its sister episode is "Worst First Day Ever".
- The prefix of "centigurp" is centi-, which means 100. This is why a Centigurp can clone itself 100 times if exposed to light too long.
Gallery[]
