It’s easy to get distracted at the beginning. The structure is a bit of a sleeper, but it’s there.
ONE
Spongebob and Patrick stand outside of “Glove World!” wearing . . . plastic gloves as hats.
TWO
Patrick eats an ice cream cone as they await the bus.
THREE
The bus arrives.
FOUR
Spongebob must yank to get his plastic glove balloon through the bus door. Frowning, the conductor taps the money machine. As Spongebob checks his pockets, the balloon swings back and forth, whipping into the conductor’s head. He asks Patrick for the money, and the balloon joke goes on and on, lol. The conductor finally just sends him to his seat.
Sitting side-by-side, Spongebob and Patrick review their Glove World! souvenirs. Spongebob has a flashlight (with a little glove on the end that lights up). He sticks it through a sponge hole, lighting up his head, and they chortle. Patrick has a glove for his glove action figure. (I don’t think I can even explain that.)
The bus continues on, and Patrick looks out the window. “You are now leaving Bikini Bottom,” says the road sign. Unconcerned, Patrick mentions the sign to Spongebob, who freaks out. “What’s wrong, Spongebob?” They’re on the wrong buuuu —- his words turn to a scream as they go over a straight drop down. Fighting the g-force, Spongebob clambers forward to the driver. His pants fling backward, hitting Patrick in the face. At the end of the drop, the bus calmly makes the ninety degree angle and stops. Everyone flies into the windshield with a splat. The conductor helps them off and drives away, stranding them.
A cock-eyed road sign says, “Rock Bottom”. The only light comes from a building: “Bus Station.” (The writing is so backward and twisted I had to pause the show to read it!) It’s weird here, Spongebob says. Even the soil looks different. He scoops up a handful and it talks back to him, lisping. Patrick says he wants to go home because he can’t tell the bathrooms apart.
SWITCH
Spongebob leaves Patrick and goes for a bus schedule. “Hey, Spongebob, the bus is here,” and we watch it drive away without him. He runs after as Patrick waves from the window.
FIVE
At the ninety degree incline, Spongebob can’t defeat gravity and falls back into the pit. He does a Grandpa Squarepants impersonation (?) and waits for the next bus.
He holds his balloon at the bus stop. When he notices that his shoe’s untied, he lets go of it. A bus comes up! It briefly pauses while Spongebob’s focused on his laces, and drives on.
Here he is, still waiting. A wind begins, blowing his glove hat and balloon. There it goes. (That balloon was destined to fly away, lol.) As he gives chase, another bus comes, lets out a passenger, and drives away before Spongebob can get there. He tries to talk to the passenger, but it blows a raspberry at him and runs after the balloon. Still calling after him, Spongebob misses another bus. He decides to be more vigilant.
It’s later and he still waits. A bit with a “Kandy” vending machine across the street goes on for a long time. Basically, any time he tries to eat, the bus comes while he’s distracted. (Just watch the episode, lol, because I tried to write it out and it’s way too visual for words.)
Eventually after many failures, he shakes the bus stop sign and yells. No more Mr. Nice Guy! Bubble-wipe.
Spongebob at the candy machine. No, it’s a cutout while the real Spongebob tries to catch the bus. Fail. Spongebob camouflaged as a bench. No, fail. He storms into the bus station office. Every fish standing in line is scary, and Spongebob goes forever to get to the back. He’s 329th. The fish ahead of him spits an egg on his head. When the line moves, the egg cracks and baby fish jump ahead of him. Spongebob sucks himself into his squarepants and has a screaming fit.
Cut to the clock as time passes. A voice says, “Next,” and Spongebob, the only one left, wakes up. The fish at the window, lisp-spitting, says it can’t understand Spongebob’s accent. So he spit-talks. The next bus is in five seconds.
SIX
And there it goes. That’s the last one until morning.
SEVEN
Out goes the “Closed” sign. Spongebob continues to spit-argue at the window. I’m not leaving this spot! The lights for the station go out.
EIGHT
Spongebob’s in the dark by himself. He turns on his glove light, which gives off a nice glow until it shorts out. Close on Spongebob as he declares, “This is advanced darkness.” A noise sends him running out of the station. His spot will be there tomorrow. He walks away from the noise, then runs, sweating. He crashes himself into the ninety degree road. The noise comes closer as he shivers. Eventually, though, a light reveals the fish passenger from earlier. (It has a glow stalk forehead, the source of the light.) It’s returning his balloon. Spongebob thanks him while complaining about being stuck. The fish ties the balloon around Spongebob’s wrist, then blows one of the fingers. As Spongebob complains, spit-talking at the fish, the balloon lifts him up. When he realizes — Balloon travel! — he thanks the fish.
NINE
Daytime at the drop off. Up comes Spongebob, and the balloon wafts him to his very own pineapple home. When he gently lands, the balloon pops. Just then, the bus goes by. From the window Patrick says, “Don’t worry, Spongebob, I’m coming back for you!” Bubble-wipe.
CRITICAL NOTES
Well, the structure is fairly straightforward. My only confusion was the Three. The bus is so obviously the Trouble. At the Eight, Spongebob finds (is given) a solution that circumvents the bus. With that in mind, the Six would be the end of the bus run for the day. Therefore, the Three is the beginning of the bus run, at least from Spongebob’s experience. If the initial arrival of the bus had been marked as a little more important or consequential, I would’ve been happier. A little ooh-aah moment, or a friendly pat, even a twinkle off the window — anything that took a beat at the Three — would’ve satisfied me. Glove World! is so weird, such a false flag as to the episode’s direction, that I believe we needed a stronger, more distinct Three.