The Phone

"The Phone" is the seventh episode of Season 2 of The Amazing World of Gumball. It is the forty-third overall.

Synopsis
Darwin becomes addicted to Gumball's new cell phone.

Plot
Gumball is destroying several household items with a golf club, assuming that everything he needs is in his new cell phone. He immediately develops an attachment towards his new phone, but Darwin doesn't see much point into it. The phone is an old fashioned brick model with none of the destroyed items' features, but Gumball doesn't seem to care.

At the bus stop, Darwin shares the phone number with Ocho, the 8-bit spider known for his outbursts of anger. With this in mind, Gumball warns Darwin about freely sharing the number with anyone.

Gumball's fixation over the phone vanishes after receiving no calls. He gives the phone to Darwin, who instantly gets a call from Ocho.

After school, Gumball and Darwin are at their house, reaching the final boss of a Space Invaders-styled video game. They attempt a combo breaker to beat the game, but lose when Darwin's concentration breaks and answers a call on the phone.

The following morning, Darwin's phone is confiscated by Mr. Small in the library. After much beseeching, Gumball reluctantly sneaks into Mr. Small's office to retrieve the phone, accidentally knocking off a candle from the desk, and igniting the curtains. He retrieves the phone, and is slightly charred.

Darwin's obsession comes to a head, when Gumball confronts him about it at home. He offends the caller on the other line and, to his dismay, is told by Darwin that he spoke to Ocho. Gumball offends the spider even further through the phone's predictive text function. The two try to run away, but Ocho has already arrived outside the house.

As Gumball and Darwin hurry outside, Ocho bombards them in a Space Invaders fashion, pixelating everything in sight before they disintegrate. One of his shots lands on Darwin, apparently killing him. Gumball laments his loss, only to find that Darwin has come back with two more lives left. Taking a trash can lid each, they combat Ocho's tantrum by deflecting his bombs back at him. One shot hits, but the duo's initial respite is cut short when Darwin drops his guard, and accidentally directs a shot towards Gumball. He re-spawns again, and the two argue, allowing Ocho to land another shot on them. With one life remaining, they take cover, and Gumball drops the phone midway. Darwin runs over to retrieve it, but it is destroyed by Ocho's shot, enraging him. The two attempt a combo breaker on Ocho, but miss their mark, and instead hit his mother, who calms Ocho down and takes him home.

Gumball and Darwin are then seen repairing the damages caused to the house by Ocho. Darwin has not overcome his addiction, however, evidenced when he accidentally knocks himself out by answering a brick after Gumball imitates a vibrating phone.

Main Characters

 * Gumball
 * Darwin
 * Ocho

Minor Characters

 * Bobert
 * Ocho's mother (debut)
 * Mr. Small
 * Rocky
 * Teri
 * Carmen
 * Penny
 * Tobias
 * Gary

Trivia

 * This is the first time Ocho speaks.
 * "01110000011011110110111101110000" does indeed spell "poop" in binary code.
 * On the Cartoon Network Anything app, there is a game based on this episode.

Continuity

 * This was the second major appearance of Ocho; the first was in "The Club."
 * This was the sixth time that no other Watterson family members apart from Gumball and Darwin appear. The first was in "The Pressure," the second was in "The Picnic," the third was in "The Colossus," the fourth was in "The Flower," and the fifth was in "The Banana."

Cultural References

 * The game that Gumball and Darwin play is a reference to Space Invaders, the classic 8-bit arcade game. This coordinates with the climax, due to Ocho appearing similar to an alien from the game, also because Ocho mimics the same actions of that of a Space Invaders alien.
 * Gumball and Darwin's phone seems to resemble early cell phone models, particularly Motorola's DynaTAC series, which were often nicknamed "brick phones," due to their size and weight.
 * Gumball and Darwin's "Combo Breaker" is a reference to the 1994 arcade, Super Nintendo, and Game Boy fighting game, Killer Instinct.
 * Darwin's phone's key clacking sounds similar to that of Apple's iOS products.

Goofs/Errors

 * When Darwin is talking to Ocho, Darwin's mouth disappears for a split second.
 * When Gumball grabs the xylophone sticks from Teri, Gumball grabs them without touching them and when he's holding them, their tips change color.

El Teléfono