The Plan

"The Plan" is the thirty-eighth episode of season two of The Amazing World of Gumball. It is the seventy-fourth overall.

Synopsis
The Watterson kids come up with a fool-proof plan to save Nicole, but is it Gumball-proof?

Plot
Gumball, Darwin, and Anais are going through the trash when they discover several gifts and a strange letter to Nicole from a man named Daniel Lennard. The children are convinced that Daniel Lennard is out to steal their mom. Nicole appears and demands they stop going through the trash (using her fingers as eyebrows because she would have a wrinkled face if she frowned every time the kids did something wrong).

Gumball formulates a desperate and far-fetched plan to convince Daniel Lennard to leave their mom alone. The episode's entire plot occurs in the kids' detailed walkthrough of their plan. In the first part of the plan, Darwin attempts to call Nicole and trick her into leaving the house. He fails several times and ends up using a payphone and pre-written notes. When Nicole leaves for work, Gumball sneaks in and accesses her computer, but must constantly rewrite it to fix errors like using dialouge such as "mega-important, dude," signing the email from "Gumball" then "Mom" and writing the wrong subject.

After the trio's planned lunch, they attempt to sneak past their father, who keeps catching them because of the smell of the burritos' sauce they had. They eventually have to eat their lunch without the sauce, and rush to the park where they have planned to meet Daniel Lennard. It takes five hours for Anais to make it to the park (due to her small legs), but Gumball had planned ahead and told Daniel Lennard to meet them at a delayed time. Although Darwin is convinced the gate to the park is locked (and puts Gumball through the trouble of climbing over), it is actually open, and the trio go inside.

When they meet Daniel Lennard (an imagined version), he surprisingly is aware that they were tricking him. He chases Darwin and Anais, and when Darwin asks how he knew their plan, he says that they put "Fake Email to Daniel Lennard" in the subject line of the email. Gumball, to his annoyance, sends himself back in time through the plan to convince himself to correct the subject line. Past Gumball refuses, though, and begins to beat himself up to harm the future Gumball.

When Gumball finally rewrites the past, they carry out their plan, Gumball having to repeatedly go back in time to dodge attacks by Daniel Lennard. Finally, Gumball resists a taser attack by Daniel Lennard, and declares their plan foolproof. They return to the real world from their plan, only to barely get anywhere before discovering a billboard advertising "Daniel Lennard Anti-Aging Products," revealing Lennard to be nothing more than a cosmetics product.

Main Characters

 * Gumball
 * Darwin
 * Anais
 * Daniel Lennard

Minor characters

 * Nicole
 * Richard
 * The Hobo
 * Harold Wilson
 * Jackie Wilson
 * Gary
 * Librarian
 * Blue Dog
 * Neck Beard
 * Granny Jojo (mentioned)
 * Louie
 * Pink Squirrel

Trivia

 * In reality, Daniel Lennard is the vice president of Cartoon Network Development Studios Europe, the studio that develops the show and also executive producer together with Ben Bocquelet.
 * This episode marks the first appearance of Elmore Park.
 * It's possible that this episode replaced the concept of "The Rex" since Elmore Park was also shown on the storyboards.
 * This was the last episode of season two to be produced.

Continuity

 * This is the third time Darwin's head blows up, the first two were in "The Sock" and "The Meddler"
 * The Hobo is still wearing Gumball's clothes from "The Castle". He also uses the same animation from the episode.
 * This is the fourth episode Gumball changes color, the first three were in "The Ghost",  "The Party" and "The Flower."
 * Gumball licks the keyboard in the same fashion he did in "The Virus."
 * A picture of baby Gumball with Richard from "The Hero" can be seen in the background from the parents' room.
 * The face Anais made while struggling to run is the same face she made as Baby Anais "The Tape."

Cultural References

 * The Kupock The Barbarian action figure is a parody of Conan The Barbarian.
 * The action figure itself resembles a standard Masters of the Universe figure, right down to the posing of the hands (with Gumball's comment being a further reference).

Goofs/Errors

 * When Darwin shakes the Elmore Park gate, his right hand is in front of it.
 * When Gumball 's future self appears the marshmallow box is in front of the candy bag but when the scene zooms in to Gumball on the computer the bag is in front.
 * When Gumball is talking to his future self the bag is closer to the window than after the mousetrap hurt his hand
 * When Gumball talks to his future self there's no candy in the bag but when he starts eating, the bag is full of candy.
 * Anais is shown to be unable to run very fast in this episode, but in "The Quest" she was able to run as fast as Gumball.
 * When gumball put the keyboard to his mouth during The Virus he didn't get sick, but future gumball was shown to be sick.