The Void

"The Void" is the twelfth episode of Season 3 in The Amazing World of Gumball. It is the eighty-eighth overall.

Synopsis
When Gumball, Darwin, and Mr. Small investigate a missing classmate, they discover a far greater mystery...the Void and the mistakes of Elmore.

Plot
Gumball and Darwin are at the school stadium, watching cheerleaders practice. When the cheerleaders form a pyrmaid, they collapse, injure themselves, and explode. Afterwards, the boys wonder whether the cheerleaders are missing something. Suddenly Mr. Small shows up, wearing a tin foil hat, and claims there is a conspiracy of things going missing in Elmore. He then advises them to "look for what's not there, look for what doesn't make sense."

As Darwin puts his book in his locker, he feels that something is missing. He notices there are lockers 115 and 117, but no 116. The boys conclude that someone is missing, so they refer to the school yearbook for clues. There they find pictures that show evidence of that "someone" has been erased from this world. After a bit of effort to remember, Gumball realizes the missing person is Molly.

Soon the boys ask their classmates if anyone remembers Molly, but no one else does. They then get Mr. Small (who gives them a couple of tin foil hats) to investigate Molly's disappearance further, starting with the missing locker. Mr. Small advises Gumball to look closely (both literally and figuratively) and he discovers a photograph of Molly with him and Darwin standing in front of her treehouse, tucked away in the gap where locker number 116 used to be.

Next they set off to visit Molly's treehouse. While walking, Mr. Small discusses how Elmore is not a normal place, and how it sometimes makes mistakes. He trips, and the boys discover her treehouse too is missing, as well as a gap where "the world folded in on itself." They pry the gap open, and they all get sucked into the Void.

Inside, they behold every mistake the world has made, such as jorts, LaserDisc, and the mullet. Gumball and Darwin set off to find Molly, while Mr. Small searches for Janice. Inside her treehouse, they find Molly frozen in time. Gumball pokes her, and she unfreezes. She apparently does not remember being sucked into the Void, and acts as though she has seen the boys just yesterday. She wonders what happened to her, and the boys speculate it is because she is "boring." Nonetheless, the trio get out the treehouse, and are horrified to find the gap fast shrinking.

They rush toward the closing gap, and meet up with Mr. Small. He manages to find Janice—who turns out to be a van. They board the van and struggle to start the engine. Eventually, the van starts up, and they propel through the gap just in time.

Outside, they all celebrate for Molly being rescued, and both Gumball and Mr. Small exclaim that they should inform others of the Void's existence. However, the Void soon sucks in their tin foil hats, along with their memories.

Main Characters

 * Gumball
 * Darwin
 * Mr. Small
 * Molly

Minor Characters

 * Penny
 * Leslie
 * Carmen
 * Teri
 * Sarah
 * Carrie
 * Banana Joe
 * Alan
 * Rob
 * Principal Brown (picture)
 * Ocho (yearbook)
 * Masami
 * Hector
 * Anton
 * Tina
 * Anais (cameo)
 * Nicole (cameo, outline head)
 * Dodos

Trivia

 * This episode was originally titled "The Hole."
 * This is Molly's first major role.
 * Although Nicole doesn't appear in this episode, the outline of her head can be seen in the Void as Mr. Small is jumping around.

Continuity

 * This also counts as Mr. Small's fourth major role. The other three were at "The Painting," "The Sock," and "The Gripes."
 * Multiple things from previous episodes/scrapped content can be seen in the background of the Void:
 * Character models from How to Ratatwang Your Panda - they were first seen in "The Treasure."
 * Darwin's original CGI design.
 * Scrapped concepts for The Wattersons' house.
 * Rob reappears, although he was in the Void and was never noticed.
 * This is the first episode where Sarah is seen as part of the cheerleaders.

Cultural References

 * The paperclip is styled after Clippy, the mascot for Microsoft Office Assistant.
 * The tinfoil hats worn in the episode are associated with conspiracy theories, due to the belief that the hats prevent mind control by governments, spies, or paranormal beings that make use of extrasensory perception.
 * Primarily they heavily resemble the tinfoil hats in Signs.
 * The zeppelin that caught on fire is a reference to the Hindenburg disaster, where a passenger airship caught fire in a similar manner.
 * The frog standing in the way of Mr. Small's van resembles the Crazy Frog.
 * While Mr. Small searches for his van, a ventilation tube from the Titanic is seen in the background.
 * Gumball and Darwin using hairspray cans to fly through the void is similar to a similar scene from WALL-E where the title character flies through space with a fire extinguisher.
 * When Gumball and Darwin, run into a meditating Mr. Small, he looks like Dhalsim from the Street Fighter series.

Goofs/Errors

 * When Darwin gets mad at Gumball, his eyelashes go missing.
 * At the end of the episode, Gumball, Darwin, Mr. Small, and Molly lose their memory of what happened. However, Molly was not wearing a tinfoil hat. It is unknown if she can remember the adventure she had with the boys or not.
 * Although Molly was erased from the photos she appeared in, she appeared in photos in 3 episodes which aired after she disappeared, and before she was rescued.
 * In "The Nobody" Rob is seen raising his hands, however, in this episode he is seen standing normally.