Stakeout

"Stakeout" is the second segment of the third episode of the first season of Amphibia, and the sixth episode overall.

It premiered on June 19, 2019 alongside "Hop Luck".

Synopsis
Sprig wants Anne and Hop Pop to get along, so he tricks them into going on a stakeout.

Plot
Anne and Hop Pop argue over various things. With Anne being from the modern city in her world and Hop Pop sticking to the old days, the two constantly bicker with one another, driving Sprig crazy. Not wanting them to end up like their former neighbors who used to argue all the time and were now ruined, Sprig decides to make it his mission to force the two together after getting inspired by Polly's unintentional suggestion of forcing them together. Sprig tells everyone that someone stole Hop Pop's "prize winning" corn and that Hop Pop and Anne will have to be the ones to catch the thief. Once the chosen volunteers are out of earshot, Polly deduces that Sprig stole the corn and argues with him about it, saying that it was not the right thing to do, but to no avail.

Anne and Hop Pop start their stakeout while Sprig and Polly watch from their bedroom. While arguing about who would fall asleep first, Anne presents her Blam Berry Blitz power drink while Hop Pop shows off his Gourd Tea recipe to keep each other awake. They try each other's drinks and laugh about it after having repulsed reactions to them. The two seemingly bond over their similarities until they get into another argument about whose situation was worse, Anne not being home and Hop Pop not living in the "good old days". It is immediately halted when Hop Pop's head turns into a tea kettle and Anne's hair turns into rainbow stardust. The two realize that they are having hallucinatory reactions to each other's drinks due to their body chemistry as the whole world around them suddenly turns into neon colors and items around them begin to float around.

Fearing that his plan is failing, Sprig and Polly go out to stop Anne and Hop Pop, but in their hallucinatory state, see Sprig and Polly as a giant corn monster. They try to fight them off with magic (in their minds), but nothing works so they grab "power-ups" (a sickle and a pitchfork) and chase after the two. Cornering him at the house, Sprig breaks down in tears and apologizes for his actions just as the hallucinations and drinks effect wears off on the two. Anne and Hop Pop realize that they had tried to protect each other from the "corn monster" and laugh before falling asleep. Sprig passes out as Polly is amazed that his plan actually worked. Being thirsty she drinks the Blam Berry Blitz that Anne left and begins to hallucinate too as she summons Bouldertron, her humanoid rock golem.

Cast

 * Brenda Song as Anne Boonchuy
 * Justin Felbinger as Sprig Plantar
 * Bill Farmer as Hop Pop Plantar
 * Amanda Leighton as Polly Plantar
 * James Patrick Stuart as Wally

Additional voices

 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Boulder-tron

Trivia

 * Anne and Hop Pop get extremely delusional on each other's special "drinks" and have an anime themed/style battle. As a result:
 * Anne has glowing blue hair and Hop Pop becomes a Tea-Boiler in their anime form.
 * Anne's glowing hair almost resembles her calamity gem form in "True Colors", in which her hair is also blue.
 * They also gain special attacks.

Revelations and significant events

 * Sprig is willing to go (too) far and lose his sense of reason to avoid the discomfort of a family squabble and to get people to like each other.
 * This also indicates that Sprig has a fear of his family and friends tearing apart and losing them.
 * Sprig can go a little mad at times.
 * Hop-Pop used sharp rocks as furniture in his youth.
 * Anne occupies the bathroom for long periods of time.
 * The Plantars had neighbors who argued all the time and broke apart.
 * Hop-Pop grows corn that he calls his 'price-winning corn'.
 * Sprig has a short attention span.
 * Hop-Pop reveals that he is 68 years old.
 * Frogs will hallucinate from energy drinks, just like the recipe for tea from Hop-Pop's mother will make humans hallucinate.

Continuity

 * Sprig is willing to go far to avoid family members and friends squabble and fighting is being heavily pointed out in this episode, but in earlier episodes his affection and care about friends and his family have been shown.
 * The garden wall from the outro (from season 1) where Anne and Sprig are seen reading with the credits, appears in this episode as the hiding spot for Anne and Hop-Pop.
 * The garden wall is nearer to the house in the episode than it is shown in the credits.

Production notes

 * This is the first episode boarded by Jenn Strickland and Steve Wolfhard.
 * The corn beast in this episode and "Tea-Pop" were both designed by Brandon Wu.
 * Crew writer, Michele Cavin explained about this episode that it was difficult to write because it deals with all four main characters and, at this point in the writing, the writers were still trying to figure out who they all were.
 * In fact, according to Cavin on the (now defunct) Amphbi-crew Tumblr page, the voice actor of Sprig had not been cast yet, so the writers did't know what he sounded like and, as a character, they thought he felt very generic. Through writing this episode, and exploring his obsession with forcing Anne and Hop Pop to get along – specifically, just how far he's willing to go, simply to avoid the discomfort of a family squabble – they finally began to see some of Sprig's quirks rise to the surface. This was further developed, later at board
 * Cavin also said about the development of Sprig's character: At the pitch, seeing the moment when Sprig leaps out of his bedroom window, backwards, was a real, aha moment for me in terms of Sprig's character. I remember thinking how cool it was that Sprig could move in that way, and also— oh yeah, he's totally lost it.
 * Also according to Cavin about the relationship between Anne and Hop-Pop: "For a long while, their story arc wasn't working, but once I landed on the idea of them complaining in similar ways (Anne with: "where I'm from" and Hop Pop with: "back in my day"), both stuck living in the past, rather than focusing on what they have in the present, things finally clicked and fell in place."
 * Anne's "galaxy hair" was created by Daniaelle Simonson. The looping texture in Anne's hair was created completely with practical effects. Daniaelle had the idea to film iridescent cellophane rotating on a turntable and run that footage through a kaleidoscope filter on her phone.  She built a rig at home so that she could easily film the material. Afterwards, it was added to Anne's hair via After Effects.

Errors

 * When Polly puts two playing cards on the table, the two under the ones she put on the table are still visible. However, in the next scene, only one of the cards is visible.
 * When Sprig talks to Polly about the Hendersons' house, there are 33 playing cards on the table. However, in one of the next scenes, there are only 30.
 * In the scene where Polly gathers the cards, they are on a heap already, when they were not in the previous scenes.
 * The Hendersons' house is never seen in a previous episode, nor has it appeared in any episodes after this one.
 * When Hop Pop stands up after Sprig says they were robbed, a part of the shading on his trousers disappears.
 * Sprig's action figures from "Flood, Sweat & Tears" are missing in Sprig's room the entire episode.
 * When Hop Pop says he had a feeling Anne couldn't stay awake long, the wrinkle under his left eye disappears for a single frame.
 * When Sprig and Polly are running through the corn field in fear, either the flap of Sprig's hat or the hat itself is not drawn in right, as a part of Sprig's head is visible between the flap and the hat.

Edits

 * In the Southeast Asia broadcast, Anne's line "You should have seen the look on your face. You were dying." was shortened to "You should have seen the look on your face."