The Authority

"The Authority" is the nineteenth episode of season two of The Amazing World of Gumball. It is the fifty fifth episode overall.

Synopsis
Granny Jojo's overprotective behavior puts the Wattersons in danger of losing their brains.

Plot
This episode begins with Richard sitting down to watch TV. When he attempts to turn it on via remote, there is no response as the battery compartment is empty. After noticing some batteries lying on the coffee table, he chucks them at the TV one by one in an effort to hit the power button on the set itself, breaking the screen in the process. Afterwards, he tries fixing the problem in various other ways such as pounding on the set and adjusting the satellite dish after cutting a hole in the wall with a chainsaw to get outside. After gaining access to the roof, via a nearby ladder, he continues by pelting the dish with batteries, one bounces back and hits Richard in the head, causing him to fall. While lying on the ground, roof tiles and finally the dish strike his head, knocking him unconscious.

He wakes up in Elmore Hospital with the rest of the family looking concerned. The doctor asks Nicole for a signature from whoever is responsible for him. Before Nicole is able to sign, Granny Jojo objects after abruptly entering the room, claiming (as Richard's mother) she is responsible. She insists on moving in with them saying Nicole is incapable of taking care of her family. Gumball notices his mother's rage and asks the doctor which object in the room is most inexpensive. He points to an IV rack which Gumball passes to Nicole. She proceeds to bend it out of shape, but after being told it was worth three hundred dollars, she bends it back to normal.

When the family walks outside of the hospital, as they are about cross a crosswalk, Nicole and Granny Jojo try to tell Gumball which direction to look on the road and Gumball's head gets split in half. As Gumball crosses to the other side of the road, 2 pedestrians get scared when they see his face.

Back at home, Gumball is outside doing skateboard tricks with Anais and Darwin while Nicole and Granny Jojo are inside talking about the kids's safety. When Gumball does another skateboard trick, the skateboard lands on his crotch. He gets angry with the skateboard, and throws it against the ground but the skateboard rebounds and hits his face, Anais's face, and Darwin's Face. After that, Nicole says that she's a terrible mother. Granny Jojo shows Nicole how to keep her children and Richard safe from danger. Granny Jojo tells her that the family needs Granny Jojo more.

When Granny Jojo goes downstairs, she tells Gumball to buy milk. When Gumball is outside, Granny Jojo chases after him through the whole neighborhood. Granny Jojo teaches Gumball it is not safe the moment they leave their house. She comes back inside seeing that Darwin is making a sandwich. When Granny Jojo shows Darwin how to cut a sandwich safely, her fake arm gets cut off. They both scream and Granny Jojo teaches Darwin that it is not safe when there's a knife around, then she chases Darwin away. Granny Jojo then taught Anais that no one is safe around windows when she helped Anais closed the window so forcefully it exploded like a flashbang. Granny Jojo then realized that her job to keeping the family safe is done when Richard was terrified of opening the door to the shed.

The family then starts eating, as it was the only thing they are not afraid to do after the tough lessons Granny Jojo taught them to keep them safe. Eventually, they all become fat and gain a clueless expression become exactly like Richard. Nicole then comes back, realizing that they have all become Richard, but Granny Jojo insisted that they are all safe. After Nicole found out that it was Granny Jojo's parenting that caused Richard's accident, changed the family's behavior, and the reason why Richard has no common sense. Granny Jojo raised him so he never needed to think so now he can hardly think at all. Nicole sends them out to buy milk. Granny Jojo then indirectly insulted her for not being a good mother, which caused Nicole to attack her, which Nicole then make her say that Nicole is a good mother. As the rest of the family leave the house, their diminished intelligence leads them to do even the simplest things dangerously, causing an accident in a crossroad, Granny Jojo and Nicole realized that they need to chase after them.

The family drove to the highway, not knowing how to stop the car. Granny Jojo and Nicole catch up to them and Nicole tells them to use their common sense to stop the car. However, their attempts to stop the car resulted into ripping off the roof of the car. Granny Jojo tries to stop the situation by jumping into their car, but Nicole catches her in and stop her from leaving the car. Nicole then accelerates and stops in front of them in the highway, encouraging them to remember and use what they have learned to stop the car. The family then flashes back to different situations, remembering the dos and don'ts of each situation. After they remembered how to stop the car, Richard hits the brakes hard, enough to stop the car inches away from Nicole. The family then laughs and pass out, due to the shock. Granny Jojo apologizes to Nicole, saying that she is indeed a good mother. After Nicole explains that it is alright to make mistakes if we learn from them, she passes out as well, ending the episode.

Main Characters

 * Nicole
 * Granny Jojo
 * Richard
 * Gumball
 * Darwin
 * Anais

Minor Characters

 * Bandage Doctor
 * Felicity Parham
 * Billy Parham
 * Blue Elephant
 * Principal Brown
 * Patrick
 * Jackie Wilson
 * Orange Security Guard
 * Newspaper Employee
 * Hank

Trivia

 * Granny Jojo gets a redesign in this episode.
 * One of the signs on the highway reads "Gaylord Springs Airport".
 * This is Granny Jojo's second major role. Her first was in "The Kiss".

Continuity

 * This episode marks Granny Jojo's first appearance in season 2, as well as her third appearance in the series overall.
 * This marks the second time Nicole is seen furious, with a flaming background and fire eyes. The first time was in "The Responsible".

Cultural References

 * Granny Jojo pretending to cut off her arm in order to teach Darwin a lesson is a reference to the Arrested Development episode "Pier Pressure" where George Bluth repeatedly hires a one-armed man named J. Walter Weatherman to pretend to lose his arm in order to teach the kids lessons.

Goofs/Errors

 * When Richard falls off of the roof, he is bombarded with tiles even though the roof is clearly covered with shingles.
 * Outside the hospital, Granny Jojo instructs Gumball to look right then left to see the nearest car first. However, in Elmore, vehicles drive on the right side making the left car nearest. This oversight is probably due to the show originating in the United Kingdom.
 * The Daisyland highway signs are all misspelled as "DIZZILAND"
 * The color of Granny Jojo's clothes changes to beige when she is in the car.
 * When Anais first spoke in the car, she had one narrow seat belt strapped to her. But when Anais speaks again, she has two seat belts: the narrow one and a slanted one.
 * When Granny Jojo jumps towards the Wattersons' car, the belt stretches with her but disappears when the scene slows down.
 * When Nicole tackles Granny Jojo, her pupils disappear.
 * When the scene goes in slow motion when Richard, Gumball, Darwin, and Anais are about to hit Nicole, Darwin has the same animation frame. Since the scene is in slow motion, this makes the error extremely easy to spot.
 * When Nicole watches the Watterson's car be driven away, the shadow of her head isn't seen.

La Autoridad