ONE
Spongebob heads down the road to Sandy’s treedome and knocks at the airlock door.
TWO
A rocket ship emerges from a launch hole outside the dome.
Of course it does. Classic.
THREE
From an upper window of the rocket Sandy calls out, “Howdy!”
FOUR
She’s on her way to the moon. Spongebob, naturally, wants to go with her. After a back and forth, Sandy agrees. She demonstrates her harvester gun, which shoots a netting that bags her target. Spongebob wants to capture aliens. In a perfect Sandy moment, she says she’s already been to the moon and there are no aliens.
We all want to grow up to be Sandy.
SWITCH
Nighttime, but Spongebob’s too excited to stay asleep.
FIVE
And . . . it’s Patrick bringing Spongebob a midnight present. Alien repellent! Spray it on the windows.
(How many Fives involve Patrick subverting Spongebob’s goal? Someday I’ll check.)
They end up in the rocket ship. They inadvertently launch (lol, of course). They slingshot around the moon (which is hilariously smaller than the rocket) and return underwater.
Meanwhile, Sandy has awakened.
SIX
In a jet pack, Sandy bursts up to the moon. Sandy, doing astonishing things as if they’re normal, might be the Three/Six mirror.
Spongebob and Patrick, wearing space suits with bubble face plates, exit the rocket and assume they’ve landed on the moon. People in astronaut gear preparing to explore might be the Three/Six mirror. The juxtaposition of Sandy, who breathes air, living underwater in a suit while preparing to go into the vacuum of space, with Spongebob and Patrick, who breathe water but wear a suit while underwater because they think they’re in space, is somehow this Three/Six moment.
It’s a complicated beat, but it’s intuitively there. It’s mysteriously beautiful.
SEVEN
Net harvesters at the ready, Spongebob and Patrick decide to go alien hunting.
EIGHT
And mayhem ensues. They capture pretty much the whole of Bikini Bottom and shove them into the cargo hold. Mrs. Puff ends up in there, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, and even Sandy, too.
NINE
They blast off and the rocket crashes on the moon. The End.
Heh. It’s a self-contained episode that kinda, sorta, makes no sense. Or, even less sense than Spongebob usually makes.