Toad Tax

"Toad Tax" is the first segment of the tenth episode of the first season of Amphibia, and the nineteenth episode overall as well as the mid-season finale.

It premiered on July 2, 2019 alongside "Prison Break".

Synopsis
Anne befriends toad soldiers to gain respect in Wartwood, but must choose between her new respect and her frog family.

Plot
Anne feels that the town doesn't respect or care for her, calling her a monster and hiding in their homes whenever she walks by. One day as she's shopping at the Grub N' Go she notices the last packet of beetle jerky on a shelf and attempts to reach for it before Wally appears and snatches it before taunting her and running off. Anne pursues him only for Mrs. Croaker to push her from behind with a cart, calling her butt big. Anne walks off grumbling only to slip on a pool of water and crash down onto the floor, much to the amusement of the frogs in the shop who laugh at her and call her names such as "scarecrow". Anne retreats back outside and miserably complains about the treatment she receives from the citizens to the Plantars. Meanwhile, the toad tax collectors arrive on a spider cart to collect taxes from the town, Anne believes she can earn more respect if she hangs out with the toad soldiers, led by their leader Bog, as they go around collecting taxes. She introduces herself to them but the soldiers intimidate her and bring out weapons as Anne pulls out her racket just as Sprig turns up. One of the soldiers charge towards her and swings her axe but Anne dodges the attack and whirls her racket onto her face, leaving mark's on the toad's face. The toads begin to laugh and compliment her fighting skills as they turn back to their cart to collect sacks for the taxes. Hop Pop warns Anne to not associate with the toads as they weren't friendly and are quite dangerous. Anne believes she can indeed earn more respect by going along with the toads during their tax collection and doesn't heed Hop Pop's warning. She returns to the toad soldiers and Bog introduces his accomplices and gives Anne her own badge and sword as they begin the tax collection. Bog pulls a list from his belt which contains the names of citizens who failed to pay their taxes and in compensation, the toads took the belongings of the inhabitants, such as their furniture and food as well from the terrified frogs. Anne, feeling guilty secretly gives back at least one item to each owner such as Archie the spider's bed back to Mrs. Croaker. Meanwhile as Sprig strolls through town trying to find Anne, he notices a curtain placed around the statue of Mayor Toadstool which was situated in the middle of the town. He investigates and peers over the curtain to discover that Toadstool, with the help of his servant Toadie, were filling the statue covertly with the townspeople's taxes to use for their own needs. Sprig yells at them saying he was going to expose them as frauds to the citizens as he races off with Toadie and the weary and lethargic Mayor Toadstool on his tail. The toads arrive at Wally's crumbling cottage and announce he hasn't paid his taxes before roughly seizing most of his belongings, though not liking Wally much, Anne decides she has to help him too so she secretly slips the packet of beetle jerky from Bog's belt and returns it to Wally who shows gratitude to her.

When the toads reach the Plantar farm, they find out that even Hop Pop hadn't paid his taxes and ignore Anne's remark that Hop Pop always paid his taxes and that sadly she herself watched him do so. The toads then notice Bessie the snail, which they decide to take in compensation and the worried Anne watches as they commence to corner the frightened snail. Just as the toads were about to grab Bessie, Anne shouts at them to stop and back away from the snail. She declares that the only reason she had joined the toads was to get the town's respect but this was taking it too far. As the scene plays out many of Wartwood's residents begin to gather around and watch as the spectacle plays out in front of them. Anne then throws her badge down, enraging the toads who grab her and push her to the muddy ground. Bog chuckles as he denounces Anne's actions and claims that he had wanted Anne to be a part of the team. Just as Bog was about to crush her with his hammer, Anne dodges out of the way and the hammer falls onto Fens's foot instead before Anne pulls out her own sword and tennis racket. After a brief fight with the soldiers, Anne gets disarmed and hit on the arm by one of the soldiers.

As she falls back and lands on the ground, Bog prepares to deliver the final blow before being hit in the face with a stone Sprig launches at him with his slingshot as he appears from the treetops, stating that if the soldiers were going to fight with Anne then they would have to deal with everyone else too. The townspeople then begin to stand up against them bringing out pitchforks, protecting Anne and forcing the toad soldiers to drop their weapons and back off. Sprig then exposes the truth, telling everyone that the mayor was the one who had been hoarding the taxes for himself. Everyone then goes to the statue of Mayor Toadstool in town centre, Bog breaking it down with his hammer to release the coins which had been stored in there as the Mayor is spattered with old fruit thrown by the frogs. As the toads take the taxes, everyone receives the items which had been wrongly taken from them. As the toads leave in their cart, everyone cheers for Anne, the official protector of Wartwood and she finally receives the respect she had been longing for. As the soldiers leave to return to Toad Tower, Fens asks Bog if they were going to tell Grime about Anne, to which Bog states they definitely will.

Cast

 * Brenda Song as Anne Boonchuy
 * Justin Felbinger as Sprig Plantar
 * Bill Farmer as Hop Pop Plantar
 * Amanda Leighton as Polly Plantar
 * Darin De Paul as Bog
 * April Winchell as Fens
 * Stephen Root as Mayor Toadstool
 * Jack McBrayer as Toadie
 * James Patrick Stuart as Wally Ribbiton
 * Laila Berzins as Sadie Croaker
 * Brian Maillard as Leopold Loggle
 * Kaitlyn Robrock as Felicia Sundew

Additional voices

 * Sam Riegel as Janitor, Brown Overalls Frog

Non-speaking cameo

 * Ivy Sundew

Other characters

 * Mire
 * Bessie
 * Archie

Character revelations

 * At this point in the series, Anne has been in Wartwood for a month.
 * The villages in Frog Valley are all ruled by the toads in Toad Tower and must pay taxes.
 * Therefore the frogs don't like the toads as they are unfriendly and dangerous.
 * Mayor Toadstool has been stealing money from the townspeople of Wartwood and lying about it to the authorities in Toad Tower.
 * Hop-Pop is keen on paying his taxes and tried to teach Anne how to do it.
 * Captain Grime is first mentioned.

Series continuity

 * Anne doesn't feel respected by the townspeople and this is confirmed by the townsfolk themselves as they still treat Anne like a monster.
 * Mayor Toadstool's disinterest in the interest of his people is shown again, and so his unpopularity among the people of Wartwood.
 * Sprig's ability to use his slingshot is seen again when he hits Bog with a stone in the face.

Trivia

 * This is the first episode that the theme song isn't played.
 * It happens again in "Reunion".
 * This episode is 13 minutes long (which is 2 minutes longer than a regular 11-minute episode), making it the longest 11-minute episode of the series.

Edits

 * The words "curd", "ding-dang", "dang", and "You little brat." were cut in the Southeast Asia broadcast.
 * Anne's line "Kill me" was changed to "get me out of here" ("haal me hier weg") in the Dutch broadcast.

Allusions

 *  - When Anne is fighting the toads, she uses a sword and her racket, recreating the "Dual Wield" (二刀流) used in Sword Art Online by Kirito.
 *  - The line "It's just business." was also said by President Business in The LEGO Movie.

Errors

 * Hop Pop Plantar's name is misspelled on the list of townspeople who didn't pay taxes.