The Banana

The Banana is the sixth episode of Season 2 of The Amazing World of Gumball. it is the forty-second overall.

Synopsis
Gumball wants revenge when Banana Joe returns Darwin's pen chewed.

Plot
The episode begins with Mr. Small giving a boring lecture on the composition of happiness. The day comes to an end, and the students are dismissed. Banana Joe gives Darwin back his pen that he had borrowed. Gumball notices several bite marks on the pen and accuses Joe of biting the pen, who denies this. Unconvinced, Gumball swears to "exact justice" over the trivial act.

At lunchtime, Gumball goes up to Joe, and tells him that anything can be solved with a simple apology. Rather than apologizing for chewing the pen, he instead forgives Gumball for his accusations earlier. Gumball is agitated, and asks if he can borrow his tube of glue.

Back in the classroom, Gumball is fiercely piercing the tube of glue, to Darwin's confusion. He tells his brother that he is exacting justice, but Darwin still does not quite understand. In an attempt to help him comprehend what he is doing, Gumball smacks Darwin in the face with a ruler twice and asks what the proper response is. Darwin's answer is to pardon the offender, and though a more pleasant alternative, Gumball states it is not justice.

Joe returns to the classroom later that day and finds a note on his desk from Gumball and Darwin that thanks him for the glue. Moved by this gesture, he reciprocates by writing them a card to commemorate their friendship. As he is putting the finishing touches on his card, he finds that his hand is stuck to his tube of glue. Joe is undeterred by this, and continues to keep his spirits high, that is, until he accidentally pulls one of his eyes off.

The school nurse and Mr. Small give Joe medical attention at the nurse's office, unwrapping Joe's bandages afterwards. His eyes and mouth reattach to him with ease. Mr. Small advises Joe to be more careful because his tube of glue was badly punctured. Joe claims that the tube was not in such condition when he lent it to Gumball.

Meanwhile, Gumball and Darwin come across the classroom in the state that Joe left it in. Amidst the disorder is Darwin's torn homework. With no other suspect but Banana Joe, Darwin lividly breaks into his locker and begins biting his books and destroy his other possessions. Upon discovering an antique fountain pen, he begins to fiercely chew on it. Mr. Small's voice then speaks over the intercom and calls both of them to his office.

There, he explains to the kids that conflict can be resolved by reminding yourself that an enemy is like you but seen from another perspective, that all people have something in common, and that time is needed to reach an understanding. Darwin says nothing and loses his temper, beckoning Joe into a fight. Mr. Small is scared, and urgently requests that Joe give Darwin the new pen. He presents him the pen whilst regaling a story about his family's most prized possession - a fountain pen used by his great-grandfather Obadiah Banana to sign the registry when he first came to the country.

Joe holds this family heirloom dearly and would be enraged if it were to be violated in any way by anyone. Realizing this, an uneasiness sets on Gumball and Darwin. Mr. Small is touched by the boys' peaceful settlement and thanks them, letting Joe go and filling out a hall pass for Gumball and Darwin. He fumbles on spelling Gumball's name, tears the pass by mistake instead of adding an additional 'L' and decides to print another. The boys' waning patience with him starts to show, and Small suggests trying his new calming herbal tea. The adverse effects of the tea kick in and Small blanks out with slurred words, allowing the boys to leave without a pass.

Banana Joe is merrily walking down the school halls to his locker, whistling a cheerful tune along the way. In contrast, Gumball and Darwin are sprinting as fast as possible to get there before he does. On their way, they inadvertently set off several accidents: Rocky falling from a ladder, Miss Simian's "I LOVE MYSELF" mug falling on the floor, Alan popping from touching Carmen's spines, and Clayton being slammed by a door. Joe arrives at his locker and finds it open and his belongings vandalized, including the pen.

Gumball and Darwin arrive too late and try to walk away without diverting his attention to themselves. Joe senses their presence and angrily demands that they both turn around and face him. His eyes staring them down, he screams in a fit of rage and races towards them. He trips before hitting either of them, slamming into a water fountain and passing out with a large bruise covering his face.

The boys are both guilt-ridden over ruining his family's most prized possession and causing him additional distress for the rest of the day. In an effort to not appear to have been bullying him, they both decide to beat themselves up and lay on the floor alongside Joe. When he wakes up, Gumball tells him that he beat them both up and they both apologize about ruining the pen. Banana Joe easily accepts their apology. As the three get up on their feet, Gumball feels something weird and searches his pockets. To his surprise, he finds Darwin's pen. The pen Joe borrowed was his and he borrowed Darwin's, and that he chewed his own pen. Instead of hurting Gumball, Joe and Darwin both turn the other cheek and pat him.

Main Characters

 * Banana Joe
 * Gumball
 * Darwin

Supporting Characters

 * Mr. Small

Minor Characters

 * Alan
 * Carmen
 * Clayton
 * Leslie
 * Penny
 * Tobias
 * Bobert
 * Carrie
 * Rocky
 * Miss Simian
 * Tina
 * Idaho
 * Anton
 * Masami
 * Teri
 * Sarah (debut)
 * School Nurse
 * Gumball's Brain (mentioned)
 * Mushroom
 * 8-Bit Dog
 * Obadiah Banana (mentioned)
 * Box Squid

Trivia

 * Banana Joe and Mr. Small receive slight re-designs, continuing the re-design trend of Season 2.
 * The tune that Banana Joe whistles is the tune that plays in the title panel of the episode.
 * On his homework, Darwin gets questions 1, 3 and 4 wrong. For question one, his answer was "a lot" when it should have been 51. For question three, he mislabels a cylinder as a "toilet paper roll" and on question 4, he puts the $ sign at the wrong side of the number (2$ instead of $2).
 * In Mr. Small's office, the scene where Darwin yells "YO!" marks the first time Darwin was ever drawn with fingers.
 * Footage from this episode was bizarrely recycled in "The Move."

Cultural References

 * Banana Joe's whistle theme is a reference to the movie Kill Bill.
 * Darwin turning his other cheek to allow Gumball to slap him again is a direct reference to the phrase in Christian doctrine that refers to responding to aggressors without violence.

Goofs/Errors

 * When Gumball pulls Darwin's pen out of his pocket, the bruise on Banana Joe's face disappears.
 * Mr. Small shows Banana Joe the tube of glue that caused all of his pain in the nurse's office, but when Gumball and Darwin see the ripped up homework in the classroom, the tube of glue is still there.
 * Mr. Small's ponytail is missing in several scenes in the nurse's office.
 * In the first shot showing the students in Miss Simian's class, Banana Joe, Anton and Idaho are missing.
 * On the close up view of Mr. Small during his lesson, the pie chart is missing.
 * Darwin mentioned attacking Banana Joe with a mirror as one of the bad things they'd done to him, but Darwin only smashed the mirror in front of him then threw it away.
 * After Banana Joe reads the note Gumball left on his desk, the tube of glue disappears.

La Banana