The Treasure

The Treasure is the tenth episode of season two of The Amazing World of Gumball.

Synopsis
Anais uncovers a secret that she's sure will lead her to the Wattersons's hidden family treasure.

Plot
The episode starts in the living room, where Richard is taking a nap. Richard, being a compulsive sleep talker, becomes a source of amusement for the kids. After poking fun at him for a bit, Nicole comes back from grocery shopping and scolds them for messing with their father. The kids help Nicole bring the groceries in, but are surprised at the high quality food she bought. Nicole explains that she probably took someone else's groceries, which causes the kids to wonder why they always get the cheapest things. Nicole is about to tell them the reason for their frugality, but catches herself, and disappears before saying anything else. The kids refuse to let this go, and complain about all the cheap stuff they have, like how their blender is a fan, and their MP3 player is a calculator with earphones. Anais suggests finding out what Nicole is hiding, but is interrupted by the phone ringing. She answers it, and a strange voice tells her not to delve into the secrets of the Watterson family, which piques her curiosity. She succeeds in tricking the voice into telling her where the first clue is: the attic. The trio decides to begin searching.

In the cluttered attic of the Watterson house, the trio ponders where to start searching. Anais happens upon a box, which Gumball is immediately defensive of. He lunges at the box, but is held back by Anais while Darwin opens it. Inside were a bunch of his baby pictures, and Gumball was a very ugly baby. Darwin and Anais crack up at the pictures, while Gumball counters with a photo of Darwin's messed up face. Now Darwin is angry, and pounces on Gumball, trying to get rid of the photo. While they struggle, they knock over a stack of boxes that blocked the window. The light seeps into the room, refracts off of a snow globe, and reveals a hollow spot on the chimney. Anais begins picking away at the strange brick, but it turns out the brick was a weak point on the chimney. As soon as Anais removes it, the chimney crumbles apart. Gumball and Darwin sarcastically congratulate Anais on her discovery of the Watterson family conspiracy: that someone was trying to steal the chimney. Anais throws the brick at the floor in anger, causing a floorboard to knock her out. After a while, she comes to, and the trio finds that under the floorboard were a bank statement and a key. The bank statement reveals that the Watterson's used to have a lot of savings, but at one point, a purchase was made to Stellar Corp. for $24,000, and ever since then, they've been poor. Gumball vaguely remembers seeing the key as an infant, but is unable to remember the context. The trio decides to hypnotize it out of him.

In the kids' bedroom, Darwin hypnotizes Gumball. He continually pushes him further and further back in his life, until he finally gets to the memory where he saw the key. Gumball was an infant, and Nicole hid a suitcase under her and Richard's wardrobe while telling Gumball not to tell anyone about it. Anais, delighted at this revelation, wants to get to that suitcase immediately. Unfortunately, a magnet drops into the room from the window and tries to snatch the key. Anais frantically tries to pull the key away from it and yells at the boys to help, but Gumball is still regressing further and further back into his life, until he starts reliving previous lives. At the end of the chain, he relives his life as a hypnotist, and hypnotizes Darwin. Darwin hypnotizes him back, and the two get locked in a duel. Anais, successful in getting the key back but ticked off that she had to do it alone, splashes water on the boys to snap them out of their hypnotization. She wants to get the suitcase, but the boys are tired and want to go to bed. Anais, not having any of that, splashes them again, causing the boys to agree reluctantly.

Then, at night, Gumball walks into his parents' room and wants to sleep with them, his excuse being that he had a bad dream. Nicole tells him he's too old to bed with his parents but Gumball, refusing to take no for an answer, begins flicking the lights on and off annoyingly. Nicole reluctantly agrees to let him stay.

He lies down in the middle of his parents and is about to make his way to the wardrobe but unfortunately, Richard grabs him in his sleep. Gumball shrugs it off, but Richard starts moving again, and starts pushing Gumball with his hands. Eventually, Richard just rolls over him, and Gumball has to worm his way out from under his dad's fat. Shaken from how traumatic that experience was, he continues on to the wardrobe and pulls out the box. He enthusiastically opens it, but is disappointed when all he finds us a receipt from Stellar Corporation and a shovel.

He goes back to his room to show the others what he has found. Darwin comes to the conclusion that Nicole spent $24,000 on a shovel. The boys, satisfied with this incomplete conclusion, decide to sleep for the night but Anais wants to push onward, arguing that great treasure awaits them. Considering how late it was, Gumball and Darwin flatly refuse, and Anais ends up having to drag them out of the house.

Outside the house, the trio discovers that someone had slashed their bikes' tires. Anais, refusing to give up, decides to go on foot toward the destination.

They end up at an empty mailbox in the middle of a cornfield. Gumball and Darwin are fed up with all the searching: Gumball starts yelling in exasperation, while Darwin beats the mailbox repeatedly with the shovel. Just when Gumball is about to rip up the last clue (the receipt), Anais notices that there's a map drawn on it. She snatches it away from him and plots their next move as Gumball and Darwin look at something in horror. Anais, caught up in the discovery, fails to notice the figure rapidly approaching their location. Gumball forces her attention towards it, and once she realizes the danger they're in, the trio frantically sprints through the cornfield and into the forest.

After crossing a shaky log bridge and nearly falling into the river, the group finds the crooked tree undoubtedly marked in the map. Darwin immediately starts digging while the other two watch him. In moments, he strikes a box and pulls it out. At this moment, the kids are confronted by their pursuer, who turns out to be Richard. He begs them not to open the box, offering to give them anything. Anais flippantly states that they want whatever's in the box. The trio giddily opens it, but are severely annoyed when all they find is another piece of paper. At this point, Richard finally reveals why the family is in the financial situation they are in now.

Twelve years ago, sometime after Gumball was born, Richard was surfing the internet. An advertisement for an "out of space investment opportunity for the future of your kids" was on his screen, and he immediately accepted its offer. Unfortunately, an important part of the page had not yet loaded when he clicked "yes". The rest of the page said the investment would be for his ninth generation of children (his kids' great great great great great great great grandchildrens' children). Richard tried to get the money back but Stellar Corperation was out of business and took the Watterson's savings with it. He was so ashamed of his blunder that he hid everything pertaining to the purchase - bank statements, receipts, the certificate for what he bought.

Gumball sarcastically remarks how interesting that story was, but, with exasperation, loudly demands what it was that cost them all that money. Anais is about to tell him, excited that she would be the one to solve the mystery, but of course, Nicole comes in and says it before she could. The "out of this world property investment" turned out to be a star. Anais cries in frustration at not being the one to close the case, and all the while Nicole looks smug. The family shares a tender moment, forgiving Richard for blowing all their money away and instead gazing at their bright, shiny star. Anais explains the science around stars, and how they are visible, even lightyears away. Darwin relates this to love, and Richard and Gumball expand on this. Unfortunately, right then, the star's light dies out. The family exchanges nervous looks, and the episode ends.

Characters

 * Gumball
 * Darwin
 * Anais
 * Nicole
 * Richard

Gallery
The gallery for "The Treasure" can be found here.

Trivia

 * This episode was first announced on this video on the offical Cartoon Network website.
 * This episode reveals what Gumball actually looked like when he was a baby.
 * Like "The Job", this episode begins with one of the Watterson parents having a nightmare; in this case, it is Richard.
 * The promo for this episode was put up on Cartoon Network's site over two weeks before its scheduled premiere date.
 * This episode premiered out of schedule - promos stated it would air Tuesday, October 30th, but it instead aired on the 25th, on one of the rerun slots.
 * In one of the flashback sequences, Richard can be seen wearing a Nirvana shirt.
 * The sound that played when the light shone on the chimney is an homage to the iconic sound in the Zelda games that plays when a secret is discovered.
 * The movie How to Ratatwang Your Panda is a parody of two Mockbuster's of Pixar and Dreamworks films, Ratatoing (Ratatouille) and The Little Panda Fighter (Kung Fu Panda), both made by Brazillian animation studio Video Brinquendo. The name also plays on How to Train Your Dragon, another Dreamworks film.
 * The DVD case for How to Ratatwang Your Panda carries a logo for Mic Graves Films..
 * The "buy a star" scheme is a parody of International Star Registry, a company where people can buy as gifts their own star named after someone.
 * Goof: In the scene where Gumball opens the box, he is wearing his pajamas. Then, when he shows Anais and Darwin what he had found, he has his sweater on (it switches again when he turns out the light and gets dragged outside).
 * Error: When Gumball, Anais and Darwin are in the attic, Anais gets a bruise after the accident, but her bruise is gone when she is in the bedroom with Gumball & Darwin.