The New Normal

"The New Normal" is the first episode of the third season of Amphibia, and the seventy-sixth episode overall.

It premiered on October 2, 2021.

Synopsis
Anne and the Plantars get transported to Earth and try to adjust to a wild new environment.

Plot
Picking up after the events of "True Colors", Anne and the Plantar family find themselves in the middle of traffic on the streets of Los Angeles. Astonished by their new surroundings, Anne and the Plantars walk through Anne's neighborhood as the frogs ask what their next move is. Anne affirms her belief that Marcy is alive and vows to find away back to Amphibia to help her and Sasha. They arrive at Anne's house as she is dumbfounded that she is about to see her parents again after all this time. She tells the Plantars to hide until she gives the signal and decides to not tell her parents yet about King Andrias, how she was betrayed by both Sasha and Marcy and especially to keep quiet about her "Blue Powers". Anne knocks on the door as her mother opens it and as the two see each other, Anne's mother tearfully embraces her daughter. Just then Anne's father sees them and joins in the hug. As Anne shares an emotional reunion with both of her parents and her cat Domino, Hop Pop mistakes a bird squawk for Anne's signal and reveals himself. Polly reprimands him for it and Sprig introduces himself. As Anne's parents are left in shock at the sight of the 3 talking frogs, Anne slaps her forehead.

Anne puts together a presentation explaining what she has been doing all this time (while leaving out the events of "True Colors" to prevent more panic). As her parents process everything their daughter said, Anne asks if the frog family can stay; they are reluctant and Mrs. Boonchuy suggests calling the authorities. But Anne is convinced that the government would do horrible experiments to talking frogs. Seeing how much the Plantars mean to Anne, the Boonchuys agree to let them stay, but on lockdown. The Boonchuys continue to pamper Anne and she has finally had enough. She demands that she be given space. When Mrs. Boonchuy tells them she's leaving to the market, Anne asks to come along and promises to disguise the Planters and keep a low profile. After Hop Pop and Mr. Boonchuy point out that Anne is a lot more mature than she used to be, Mrs. Boonchuy finally agrees. Meanwhile, in Amphibia, King Andrias is keeping Marcy alive in a suspension tank and orders a silver colored Frobot to go to Earth and kill Anne as she is the only one who still has her connection with her stone and is thus in the way of his plans (also to get the latest volume of book series that Marcy got him hooked on). As it arrives, it uses its cloaking device to stay hidden. Back in Amphibia, Andrias turns to Marcy and says that her part is just beginning.

Anne disguises the Plantars as they head to market. Anne's parents are actually amazed at how responsible their daughter has become and actually agree to let Anne take the frogs to try the noodles. As the Planters are loving the noodles, Sprig spots the Frobot assassin as it nearly chokes Anne, but they manage to distract it and run. Not wanting to alert her parents, Anne and the Plantars pretend like nothing is amiss. Anne turns on loud music to hide any noise they make when fighting. Anne and the Plantars fight the Frobot and realize that it too is trying to remain discreet. The robot proves to be a formidable opponent, but they manage to trick it into running into a freezer. The Plantars freeze due to being cold-blooded and Anne is backed into a corner. After the frozen Planters fall over and distract it, the drone attempts to attack them. Enraged by this, Anne unleashes her blue gem power and punches the Silver Frobot so hard it severely damages the machine and it flees to safety. Upon escaping the freezer, Anne collapses and the Plantars use a pungent durian to wake her. The Boonchuys, none the wiser, commend Anne for being responsible and mature as she and the Plantars remain quiet about the incident. Anne decides that she does not want to use her powers unless she needs to as it severely weakens her and something about them feels off. As Hop Pop helps Anne by opening the car door, the frogs start craving noodles again while commenting that Earth is pretty nice.

In the last scene, elsewhere at a tower under a stormy night, the Frobot is repairing itself and decides to double its efforts to destroy Anne.

Cast

 * Brenda Song as Anne Boonchuy
 * Justin Felbinger as Sprig Plantar
 * Bill Farmer as Hop Pop Plantar
 * Amanda Leighton as Polly Plantar
 * Keith David as King Andrias
 * On Braly as Mrs. Boonchuy
 * Brian Sounalath as Mr. Boonchuy, Store Greeter (credited as additional voices)

Additional voices

 * Troy Baker as Silver Frog-Bot, Noodle Vendor

Non-speaking cameo

 * Marcy Wu (comatose)

Pictured

 * Sasha Waybright

Other characters

 * Frobo (head only; destroyed)
 * Domino

Songs

 * "The Quarantine Song"

Trivia

 * This is the first 22-minute special of the season.
 * A sneak peek of the episode was shown during the San Diego Comic-Con 2021.
 * This episode aired exactly 5 months after the premiere of "True Colors".
 * This episode marks the full-time appearance of Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy. Mrs. Boonchuy had previously appeared in flashbacks in the episodes "Lost in Newtopia" and "Ivy on the Run", as well as having been heard in "Family Fishing Trip".
 * Similar to the first episode of the second season, "Handy Anne"/"Fort in the Road", this episode does not premiere on DisneyNOW the same day as its original airdate.
 * During the Quarantine montage, one of the headboard legs on Anne's bed has the initial carvings of Sasha in SW and Marcy in MW as her best friends forever in BFF.
 * This is the first episode of season 3 that doesn't use the theme song. Other episodes in the series include "Toad Tax"/"Prison Break", "Reunion", "The First Temple" and "True Colors".
 * This is also the first season premiere episode that doesn't use the theme song.
 * Anne and the Plantars quarantining in Anne's house shares strong parallels to the ongoing . Since "The Quarantine Song" was recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic, this was a coincidence to the real quarantining caused by it.
 * This is the first season premiere to not be animated by Rough Draft Korea. Instead, it was Saerom Animation.

Revelations and significant events

 * Anne is reunited with her parents after five months in Amphibia.
 * This also confirms that the passage of time on Earth is the same as Amphibia, since the same amount of time has passed on Earth.
 * The sea lion calendar on a wall located at the 99 Ranchers store customer service shows the month is January, though which day or year is unknown. Nonetheless, it might assume Anne with the Plantars got to LA some time during January 2020 due to Anne with Marcy and Sasha teleported from LA to Amphibia sometime in August 2019.
 * King Andrias sends a specific Frobot to Earth to assassinate Anne, but the robot fails its mission and has to retreat to repair itself.
 * King Andrias keeps Marcy in a comatose state and mentions that she will have a part as he plans for his conquest of Earth, which is revealed at the end of the episode "Olivia & Yunan" as a host for his master.
 * Sprig finally witnesses Anne's blue glowing abilities.
 * Anne's parents now finally realize she is more capable and responsible.

Continuity

 * This episode takes place immediately after "True Colors".
 * The events of the previous episode are also mentioned.
 * Anne mentions the following events:
 * She remembers that frog cannot be at low temperatures in the freezer or else getting freeze into ice, referring to the episode "Snow Day".
 * She mentions the events of "Anne or Beast?", when she was living in the cave in "Cane Crazy" and the Plantars took her to their home.
 * Hop Pop mentions the following events:
 * Anne setting the town on fire in "Anne of the Year", as well as her becoming frog of the year.
 * Anne becoming a town protector in "Snow Day".
 * Anne almost getting the Plantars eaten by large creatures in "Hop Luck" and "The Domino Effect".
 * King Andrias has become a fan of the Cynthia Coven series thanks to Marcy, which was first shown in "Maddie & Marcy", as well as potato chips.
 * At the end of the episode "Taking Charge", Anne's phone battery was charged up to 10,000 percent. When Anne and the Plantars end up on Earth, Anne's phone shows that the battery was currently low.

Production notes

 * In original storyboards, the scene where Polly and Sprig were wearing glasses with a big nose and mustache, Anne made Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly wear masks (with one that resembles Jason Voorhees), and when Anne opens the mirror to brush her teeth, Polly wears the same mask, however it was cut.

Allusions

 * - During the pan up of the view of the Los Angeles skyscrapers, a "Good Day" blimp can be seen.
 * - Anne's phone automatically connects through 5G, a real-world wireless technology.
 *  - The bird screeching when Anne hugged her parents has the same color as Mordecai from Regular Show.
 * Amphibiland - After Anne explains everything to her parents, her father refers to Amphibia as "Amphibiland", which was the original pilot name and the name of the series itself.
 *  - Anne finds information how to take care of King Andrias in the Doogle version.
 *  - The book Sprig was reading during the Quarantine montage is titled Monday Cat, a reference to the Garfield comic strips.
 * Later on in the episode, while in the 99 Ranchers store, Anne uses a TUESDAY mug to press the store's customer service microphone button.
 *  - In the living room below the TV, a Sega Saturn game control is visible with the game Nights into Dreams next to it.
 * - Hop Pop's fake nose is made of Fun-Doh, a reference to Play-Doh.
 * - A blimp can be seen in the background that says Good Day, which is a reference to the Good Year blimp.
 * Donald Duck - One of the fridge magnets at the market is a duck with a sailor hat and a bow tie, similar to Donald. Additionally, the sailor hat also being red is a nod to Huey Duck, one of Donald's nephews, who is known for wearing red clothes.
 *  - The 99 Ranchers supermarket Anne, her parents and the Plantars go to is a reference to the actual real store.
 *  - One of the fridge magnets resembles Mario, but with a yellow hat and pink overalls (similar to the outfit of Mario's evil twin, Wario) with a "P" on both of them.
 *  - The Boonchuy residence features a board game based off "Sorry!" called "My Bad!"
 *  - One of the magnets bears a resemblance to Lloyd Nebulon, the titular character of Lloyd in Space.
 *  - When the Plantars are hiding in the garbage can, a broken toy that resembles a Furby can be seen.
 *  - Andrias addressed humans are also called Earthlings. A term for an inhabitant of the planet Earth, often used in the context of Earth in science fiction.
 *  - After the Silver Frog-Bot enters the portal to Earth, a store called Trader's Flog can be seen in the background.
 *  - A bag of clown popcorn has a girl on the bag.
 *  - Anne's poster after they disguise the Planters looks like a house in space.
 * '/' - Said picture looks like one of the playable stages in Super Smash Bros Brawl and Super Smash Bros Ultimate.
 *  - Anne's bedroom has a poster resembling this popular boy band.
 *  - When the Plantars are shouting at Anne because of the loud music, an ube roll can be seen in the bakery. Besides being a traditional Filipino pastry, one was also made in the Steven Universe episode "The Good Lars".
 * - Anne's bedroom has a poster resembling this popular tennis player.
 * - At the end of the episode, there is graffiti in the city saying "Kobe!", a tribute to the late basketball player.

Errors

 * During the scenes where Anne reunites with her parents, the front yard is all grass. However, the Boonchuy residence has flagstones in the front yard.
 * When Sprig, Polly and Hop Pop are frozen, they are able to move and see what is happening around them. However, as seen in "Snow Day", this was not possible.
 * The Calamity Box is missing its key when the scene cuts to King Andrias' throne room. But in the next shot, the key is back in its place.
 * King Andrias mentions that Marcy had potato chips with her when she got to Amphibia. However, Marcy never brought a bag with her.
 * It could be possible that she had a bag of potato chips in her hoodie's pocket all along, or that she made them herself later on in Amphibia.
 * After Anne and the Plantars run away from the Silver Frog-Bot, the magnets disappear from the fridge.
 * In the bedroom scene, before when Sprig and Polly knocked over the shelf with things in it, there is a medal in the top half of the shelf, but when they knocked it over, the medal is gone in the next scene.
 * On Disney+, there are a few caption errors:
 * When Polly was using her legs while walking to Anne's house, she says "Legs! Legs!", but the captions read "Lights! Lights!"
 * After using the durian to wake Anne up, Hop Pop said "Oh, thank frog!", but the captions read it as "Oh, my God!"