The Rival

"The Rival" is the first episode of Season 6 of The Amazing World of Gumball. It is the 197th episode overall.

Synopsis
When Anais is a newborn baby, Gumball and Darwin become jealous of their new sibling, and spark a baby war.

Plot
The episode opens with a flashback four years before the show begins. The Watterson family is in a rush to drive to the hospital to deliver Anais. Nicole is enduring physical and emotional stress as a result of going into labor, while Richard attempts to console her. In the back of the car are 8-year-old Gumball and 6-year-old Darwin fantasizing about how having a baby sister would be wonderful for them; one such example of an improvement to their lives would be having an extra playmate. Nicole is about to give birth very soon, so Richard needs to park, but since time is running short, he decides to drive directly through the hospital. The car then rushes into the emergency room, and when the vehicle exits from the other side, Anais had been born.

On the way back home, Gumball and Darwin are overcome with joy as they meet their newborn sister for the first time. Anais, at first, appears to be cheerful and innocent, but then pulls a sinister face and proceeds to throw the boys out of the car where they land in wet concrete.

Later, they return home and start wondering why Anais had suddenly become hostile as a nature documentary plays on television. The narrator discusses how newly hatched baby eagles would roll their unhatched siblings off the nest. Gumball remarks that babies are born innocent, yet the narrator continues with how baby sharks would attack each other before they were even born, much to the boys' horror. Darwin suggests that Anais may be scared, and that they should show her how much they love her.

The boys go upstairs to see their baby sister drawing a picture in her playpen. Anais shows them her drawing of their parents as the boys point to who is who in the picture. When they ask where they are, she points to the flowers; however, Anais soon makes clear that Gumball and Darwin are not the flowers, but rather their skeletons buried underneath the flowers.

Gumball and Darwin then propose a game of hide-and-seek, to which Anais agrees. In the backyard, the Watterson children play the game, with Gumball and Darwin doing the counting. When they uncover their eyes after they have finished counting, they somehow find themselves on the expressway, and they narrowly avoid getting run over by a truck.

Anais is in the process of tearing up her papers and toys when her brothers arrive back home. Gumball declares that she will "go back to where she came from," much to Darwin's shock. Darwin observes that she has vandalized her playpen by writing "NO ONE LOVES YOU -Gumball and Darwin" with surprisingly decent penmanship. Gumball proclaims that he would never write like that, hence Anais revises her handwriting with misspellings to replicate what would be Gumball's handwriting. Darwin questions what is going on as Anais rehearses her crying before successfully making herself do so. The boys realize that she had set up a trap, what with the torn up toys, vandalism on her playpen, and her loud crying. Before they could escape, they are caught by an angry Nicole and Richard, who are led to believe that the boys were mistreating their sister.

At the dining table, the boys deny being jealous of the new baby; Gumball proposes having another family adopt Anais. Nicole explains that the boys may no longer be the "babies of the house," but it does not mean that she or Richard would love them any less. While the parents and the boys have a group hug, Anais watches them from her playpen in the living room where she then declares war.

Gumball and Darwin are now in their bedroom saying that they are the problem, not their newborn sister; therefore, they start playing another game. At this point, 'Peek-a-boo' is what they are playing. On the first attempt, Anais is bored with the boys' effort to entertain her, and on the second attempt, the boys realize that a candle bound to fire extinguishers has replaced Anais, to which the bomb-like contraption explodes in their faces.

The war continues on. Such acts of war include Darwin getting trapped in his fishbowl with an anvil sitting on top of a pile of bricks and a piece of cardboard. At first, Darwin somehow believes he is going to drown; however, remembering he's a fish, begins to not care about his dilemma. Next, Gumball is attempting to take a bath when his sister turns up the water temperature to the point of a floating rubber duck visibly melting quickly, and before Gumball can enter the water, the heat turns the tub into a geyser and the water instantaneously evaporates. Then, Darwin is shown to be playing outside with a toy car and a doll; however, Gumball rushes to Darwin just in time to save him from being harmed by the rigged toy car, which explodes.

Later, Gumball and Darwin are eating cereal when they catch a glimpse of Anais staring at them with a sinister glare. This terrifies them, causing them to do a spit-take. Gumball asks Darwin what he thinks she could have done to their breakfast. Darwin states that even though the food has been untampered, it has enough sugar to do harm to one's arteries in a couple of spoonfuls. Overcome with anxiety, Gumball begins to hyperventilate, but Anais is quick to provide a paper bag for him to breathe into. Snatching the paper bag, Gumball is about to exhale into it when Darwin stops him and reminds him to think twice before trusting their baby sister. Upon further inspection, a swarm of bees emerge from inside of the bag and relentlessly sting the feline.

Gumball begins to cry, giving up on his attempts to befriend their sister, and when Darwin begins to think that there's nothing to be done in retaliation, the sight of Anais sucking on her own foot when she snaps out of her sinister demeanor leads to a critical reminder: Anais is still an infant.

Later that night, Anais is drawing when she turns around and sees an open box. Delighted, she crawls towards the box and enters just as Gumball releases the flap, trapping her inside. Gumball begins to boast about how she fell for his trap, laughs, and then the boys carry the box to a dog food factory, intending to pass off the infant as unlabeled meat; however, when the box is lifted, Anais falls out and remains in the crib unbeknownst to her older brothers.

The cardboard box is now sitting in the middle of the street in front of the boys' house as the two of them watch from inside. Gumball explains to Darwin that this is to cause Anais to start getting scared enough to supposedly "melt her heart a little", which technically counts as psychological torture. Darwin then points out that a trashman had come to the neighborhood street to collect that night's trash, the cardboard box being amongst the objects thrown into the back of the trash truck, much to the boys' horror.

Gumball and Darwin chase down the trash truck while dragging one another (quite literally) and taking turns fainting. The two of them then spot a conveyor belt that leads to a crusher with the box being sent towards it. Still assuming that Anais is in the box, Gumball hops onto the belt and sprints toward it. He manages to reach it and push it out of the way only for him to be crushed instead. After finding that he survived unscathed, he finds that the box is headed towards a grinder, but thanks to Darwin's control, it is diverted to another path.

Gumball finds himself on another conveyor belt after dropping from the hole created by Darwin, and notices a large circular saw in the middle of the path to slice garbage. Gumball runs towards the empty box and saves it from being sliced, almost getting sliced himself. After saving the box and managing to remain unharmed so far, he laments the oncoming pit of fire that awaits him, and feels remorse at his moral standards whilst falling into the flames before a mechanical claw descends to save him, which of course is operated by Darwin. After saving his brother, he drops the feline beside the pit, now on the outside.

Gumball and Darwin hug the box, apologizing to Anais (who they still think is inside), but they realize it was empty upon opening it. They look down from the edge of the pit and start fearing the worst when a sinister Anais sneaks up behind them. She intends to kill them by pushing the both of them into the inferno, but they turn around and are overcome with relief as they embrace their infant sister. Anais finally warms up to her brothers, evident by her returning her older brothers' love by hugging them. She then speaks her first words, "Gumball did it", alerting their angry parents to their presence whilst the infant laughs.

Main Characters

 * Gumball
 * Darwin
 * Anais

Supporting Characters

 * Nicole
 * Richard

Minor Characters

 * Apple Kid
 * Debbie
 * Bandage Doctor (voice)
 * Hank
 * Dolphin Man
 * Flight Attendant
 * Baby Eagle

Trivia

 * The fourth wall is broken when Gumball is crushed by the crusher in the Junkyard and he says "I guess there is an advantage to being "2D" referring to how he is a 2D-character in the show.

Continuity

 * This is the third time Anais is seen as a baby. The first two were in "The Choices," and "The List."
 * This is the second time Gumball is almost killed at the Junkyard, the first was in "The Hero" (although it is technically the first time seeing as this episode takes place 4 years before the rest of the show.)
 * Darwin referring to Richard and Nicole as Mr. Dad and Mrs. Mom is a reference to when he was still adjusting to the fact that they're his new family now.
 * Richard driving through the hospital is a reference to "The Money", when he flashes back to driving through the convenience store.

Cultural References

 * When Gumball was thinking about protecting Anais from the Apple Kid, he referenced one of Homer Simpson’s catchphrases "Why You Little!"
 * The long hair that Gumball has in the princesses fantasy is a reference to Rapunzel's long hair from the fairy tale Rapunzel, whereas Darwin's resembles that of Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
 * The faces that Gumball and Darwin make when they watch baby sharks eating each other are very similar to the face Enel makes in One Piece when he learned his powers were ineffective against Monkey D. Luffy, or the one Perona makes in her fight against Usopp for the same reason.
 * The scene where Gumball tries to make it out of the dump before getting burnt by the incinerator and is saved by Darwin operating a large clawed crane is similar to how Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Bullseye, Slinky, the Potato Heads, Hamm, and Rex escaped the incinerator in Toy Story 3.
 * The face Anais makes throughout the episode may be a possible reference to Pennywise from the horror movie, It.
 * Anais' quote "This is war. War does not determine who is right, only who is left!" is a direct reference to the quote made by philosopher Bertrand Russell.
 * Before attempting to push Gumball and Darwin into the incinerator, Anais states "Peek-a-bye! Time to fly the nest!" which may be a subtle reference to Pennywise's famous quote "Time to float."

Goofs/Errors

 * The nature documentary talks about baby eagles pushing their unhatched siblings out of the nest due to competition, though in reality only the common cuckoo is known to exhibit this behaviour, and even then towards birds of other species within whose nests the cuckoo's mother lays it. Although, bald eagle hatchlings are still naturally very competetive against each other, yet they don't try to kill their siblings.
 * This episode contradicts the events that happened from "The Choices," where Anais rewrote her name correctly with Nicole and Richard in their current series appearance, even though Gumball and Darwin are still in their same younger selves.
 * Anais was able to draw Richard and Nicole in their current outfits albeit the fact that Anais has only ever seen them in their old outfits the moment that she was born.