The Choices

"The Choices" is the sixth episode of Season 5 of The Amazing World of Gumball. It is the 161st episode overall.

Synopsis
Nicole reminisces about how she met Richard during a family dinner.

Plot
Nicole is cooking and Gumball, Darwin, and Anais are yelling for food. Nicole cooks as fast as she can with Richard but he's no help. Soon the food starts to burn and cause's a fire. Nicole ends it but then Darwin sprays her with whipped cream.

About to freak out she starts to think about her life choices. Nicole as a young kid is in the car with her parents discussing her report card in which she got straight A's. She is getting to a Karate tournament but there to much traffic. So Nicole's parents tell her to run.

She runs as fast as she can passing cement road, Banana Bob, Harold Wilson, Mr. Small, and a group of criminals. She gets lost and finds Richard stuck in a tree stump. Then Nicole looks what would happen if she did the opposite. If she goes through the cement road she will win the Karate tournament, graduate college, become rich, become president, become overlord, then the people of Elmore will rebel against her and kill her.

So then she stops at Banana Bob. He sings a song and Nicole falls in love with him. But Bob will sing that song for the rest of their lives and Nicole will crack and turn crazy.

She instead stops by Harold who flirts with her and they fall in love. But Harold controls her. Nicole with a different face asks Harold about his food. Harold doesn't like and Nicole burns the house down and is arrested. She stops by Mr. Small who says to hug instead of medicine. Nicole dies. So she next stops by the criminals who ask her for a ride to the tournament on their motorcycle without a helmet. Nicole dies again.

So she stops by Richard. Richard is stuck in a log and He then gets unstuck. Nicole cries because she missed the Karate Tournament. Richard offers her a nut and Nicole takes it. They spend the rest of the day at the park happy. Richard is now a teenager and goes to Nicole's house with flowers. Nicole's dad rejects him and slams the door on him. Richard leaves. Now in their late teens, Nicole and Richard are about to kiss on top of a hill but the car rolls back on the hill and falls.

Later Nicole is mad at her parents and she leaves the house. Meanwhile Richard is kicked out of his house. They met each other and decide to live together. They are eating in a small apartment now in there young adults happy. Later they get the news that Nicole is pregnant. They marry and everyone is there except Nicole's parents. Nicole gets a little sad they kiss and get married.

Nicole then has Gumball and they are both happy. They buy a rundown house and start to fix it, when Gumball starts to walk. Gumball then gets Darwin. Then Nicole and Richard have a 3rd kid called Anias. But Anais corrects it to Anais. Now in the present they get a picture together. Then we return to where it began. Nicole about to freak out see's that this is the best path and starts to laugh. Nicole throws food and they have a food fight. The episode ends with the family laughing happy together.

Main Characters

 * Nicole
 * Richard

Supporting Characters

 * Gumball
 * Darwin
 * Anais
 * Banana Bob
 * Harold

Minor Characters

 * Mrs. Senicourt (debut)
 * Mr. Senicourt (debut)
 * Butterknife
 * Clown
 * Pantsbully
 * News Reporter
 * Cupcake Man
 * Carmen's Mother
 * Teapot
 * Cupcake Woman
 * Gary
 * Mr. Small
 * Steve
 * Marvin
 * Pink Gummy Bear
 * Sphere Citizens
 * Felicity
 * Mrs. Fitzgerald
 * Melted Cheese Guy
 * French Fry
 * Yellow Construction Man
 * Sailor
 * Hamburger Cop
 * Sal Left Thumb
 * Dolphin Man
 * Spray-Paint Bottle
 * Librarian
 * Jackie
 * Milk Guy
 * Jeff
 * Construction Men
 * Orange Guard
 * Mr. Pepperoni
 * Neck Beard
 * Hexagon Lady
 * Siciliana
 * Principal Brown
 * Carmen's father
 * Tobias
 * Doughnut Sheriff
 * Granny Jojo
 * Cowboy
 * Bandage Doctor
 * Karen
 * Mr. Robinson

Trivia

 * This episode reveals Nicole's maiden name is Senicourt. Nicole Bocquelet, Ben Bocquelet's real-life mother, shares the same maiden name.
 * This is the first time Anais is seen as a baby.

Continuity

 * Footage from "The Origins" and "The Origins: Part Two" is reused.
 * Principal Brown, Mr. Small, Jackie, Tobias and Carmen's father can be seen in their post-apocalyptic outfits from "The Pizza."
 * The butterfly effect is mentioned again. The first time was in "The Butterfly."
 * This is the fourth time we see Gumball as a baby, the other times were in "The Treasure," "The Hero" and "The Origins" (in pictures).
 * This is the second time we see Darwin as a baby. The first was in "The Origins."

Cultural References

 * Mr. Senicourt's facial expression, coat pattern and small size are reminiscent of Grumpy Cat (aka Tardar Sauce).
 * The scene where Banana Bob approaches Nicole in the basement is a reference to an iconic scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho where Lila Crane approaches Norma Bates' corpse before turning it around.
 * The music that plays in the background when Nicole imagines her tombstone is "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach.
 * Similarly to Carl and Ellie Fredrickson from Pixar's Up, a filmstrip-like montage of young Nicole and Richard's relationship between when they first met and the present day plays, completely instrumental with no dialogue, from when they were kids, to when they got married, to when they purchased a rundown house which they then fixed up together, to when they gave birth to a child.
 * Nicole's hair as a teenager has a slight resemblance to Ramona Flowers's many hairstyles from the Scott Pilgrim series.
 * The shirt Richard wore when Granny Jojo kicked him out of her house resembles the Snaggletooth logo from the popular metal band Motörhead.

Goofs/Errors

 * This episode has made many contradictions to past episodes:
 * Nicole's wedding dress appears to be different than the other wedding dress from "The Dress."
 * Nicole and Richard were married in the park instead of the church from "The Wand" and "The Ape."
 * Richard wasn't screaming during the wedding like in "The Wand."
 * In "The Treasure," Gumball was deformed as a baby, but in this episode he appears to be quite healthy as a baby.
 * In "The Hero," Gumball learns to walk in the backyard of the house but in this episode he learns in front yard of the house.
 * During the food fight at the end of the episode, Nicole disappears for a frame.