The Box

"The Box" is the seventeeth episode of Season 5 of The Amazing World of Gumball. It is the 173rd episode overall.

Synopsis
The Wattersons receive an unmarked package in the mail. To distract themselves from the urge to open it they all take turns to imagine what it might contain.

Plot
The episode starts with Gumball noticing a package on their porch. He then asks if anyone ordered something online, to which everyone says no. Gumball wants to open the box, but Anais stops him, saying opening other people's mail is a crime. As such, the Wattersons come up with stories on what's inside the box.

Gumball says that there is a teleportation gun. In a story, he uses the teleportation device to complete certain tasks, such as taking out the garbage, using the restroom without getting off the couch, and being able to move without walking. However, concern arises when a face appears on his nose. The doctor explains the the device is causing a mutation in his DNA. Gumball questions if he is getting superpowers, to which the doctor replies saying there is a 99.9% chance of becoming a, "cyst-like pile of flesh with tongues where there shouldn't be tongues." However, Gumball says that means he has a 0.01% of getting superpowers. Gumball then decides to teleport with certain animals to give him superpowers: a bird for flight ability, a chameleon for invisibility, and a frog for super jump. Instead he can lay eggs of all three species. He then tries to teleport with something that doesn't lay eggs, a laser pointer for laser vision. Instead, his eyes became laser pointers. Darwin then suggests to get superpowers with animals that don't make him look like "that". Gumball then teleports with an animal he considers "super cool", a cockroach. Anais questions his choice, to which Gumball replies what he could do with the power of a nuclear-resistant parasite. Anais then says to repel girls even more.

Nicole then imagines that there is a big amount of money inside the box. The whole family replies how this helps: Nicole not having to worry about the end of the month, Gumball being able to ride a submarine to school, buying water for the submarine, and Richard calling himself retired instead of unemployed. All five get in the car. Nicole then explains that with the amount of money, it can belong to someone shady, and its most likely they send someone to retrieve it, which in this case is a hitman. The Wattersons become hunted, and are now on the run. The scene then shifts to them in a motel, hiding. However, the hitman finds them and is now chasing them once again. Anais then realizes there must be a tracking device in the money. Nicole then finds it and throws it off a cliff. The hitman, still following the device, drives over the cliff. The hitman crashes, then explains how the Wattersons will always be hunted and can never return back to their own lives. Nicole just replies that they are now millionaires. Hunted, fugitive millionaires.

Anais then replies that she agrees on one thing, whatever is in the box is evil. She says it's because of past events: Pandora's Box, The Lost Ark, The 6 Month Old Takeout Box In The Back Of The Fridge. Anais then depicts a zombie apocalypse. A clipboard man explains that it started 7 weeks earlier, society has collapsed, people are turning into zombies, and he doesn't know how the infection got out. 7 weeks earlier, there's a biohazard gun inside the box. Richard thinks this is a squirt gun, so he blasts it on the others, possibly starting the breakout.

Richard then says it might be something normal. However, he says stuff abnormal. He then depicts that there is a phone in the box. The person in the phone says, "Lazarus." It then flashes back to when a general says Richard is an ultimate weapon, and a secret code word will allow him to use the full capacity of his mind. They then put him under a false identity and say what his code word is. It then cuts back to the present. Richard's mission is to save the president as two people plan to kidnap him. Richard then uses his car to block a missile launched from a bazooka, uses the self-destruct phone to eliminate one of the thugs, and goes hand-to-hand combat on the other thug. He then rescues the president. A romantic scene is then carried out between Richard and the president, but Gumball interrupts before a they kiss. Gumball then explains that it would be cool, but Richard would still act dumb on some parts. It then shows that Richard doesn't hang up and the phone explodes on him, he is still in the car when the missile was fired, and a thug got the president. But Richard intervenes by kissing the thug and hurting the president. He is then knocked out by another thug. Richard then says they need to get the box to the right person because the president needs to be saved and kissed.

Darwin then says if it was just a box. Gumball replies how it would be a huge letdown. Darwin was about to break into song to how a box could be good for an imagination, but Gumball stops him saying it would still be a huge letdown.

The family then argues what they should do with the box. The box eventually ends up in the road. After multiple vehicles drive over it, a lightning bolt then strikes it, disintegrating the box.

Mr. Robinson then appears at the door, explaining he told the mailman to leave his mail at the Wattersons' if he wasn't home. Everyone replies with no. As Mr. Robinson was about to leave, Gumball asks what was in the box. He replies that they don't want to know, but Gumball says they actually want to know. Mr. Robinson then explains a whole story about his problem with his butt. He ends it by saying it was butt cream. Gumball says he was right about not wanting to know, ending the episode.

Main Characters

 * Gumball
 * Darwin
 * Anais
 * Nicole
 * Richard

Minor Characters

 * Blue Humanoid
 * Bandage Doctor
 * Hitman
 * Clipboard Men
 * Zombies
 * Gary
 * Karen (voice)
 * Neck Beard
 * Tobias
 * Earth
 * The Moon
 * Masked Crooks
 * The President
 * Larry
 * Blue Elephant
 * Dolphin Man
 * Hank
 * Mr. Robinson

Trivia

 * Gumball breaks the fourth wall by moving the screen when Darwin is about to imagine what is in the box.

Continuity

 * Larry can be seen driving the Fervidus Pizza scooter from "The Job."

Cultural References

 * The Wattersons imitate the sound effects of a lightsaber from the Star Wars franchise.
 * Gumball uses a portal gun from the Portal franchise.
 * Nicole's imagining of the box references the film No Country for Old Men.
 * The zombies dragging the Clipboard Man back references the 2007 horror film "REC."
 * Richard's codename, Lazarus, is in reference to the Biblical character of Lazarus of Bethany, who Jesus brings back to life in The Gospel of John. The name is frequently used in science fiction for characters who experience a similar restoration of life (in this case, the restoration of Richard's memory).
 * The scene also parodies movies like The Matrix and Total Recall.
 * The president in Richard's imagination resembles former U.S. president George H. W. Bush.