Amphibia Review: Scavenger Hunt / The Plantars Check In

"C'mon team, it's PUZZLE TIME!"

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In light of last week’s Marcy extravaganza, I was naturally very curious to see the sort of road that Amphibia would take following such a massive development—would the show barrel into the heavy subject matter that such a shift implies, or would it spend time getting comfortable with our newest addition to the cast? “Scavenger Hunt” and “The Plantars Check In” do a little bit of both, and although the Amphibia takes it pretty easy for this batch, it’s also the show excelling at what it does best, with great character work and sharp joke-writing galore.

“Scavenger Hunt” is a fairly standard way to follow up “Marcy at the Gates,” but it certainly works well. If that episode was intent on exploring the two characters’ new and transformed dynamic, with Marcy now being a respectable ranger for the royal guard and bearing a greater degree of autonomy, “Scavenger Hunt” dives into a pesky fragment of their relationship from back home: Anne’s inability to cope with feeling inferior to her friend’s astounding intelligence and puzzle-solving skills. Hop Pop and Polly fawning over Marcy at Anne's expense, too, only serves to aggravate those self-doubts.

There’s certainly a lot of Amphibia entries intent on examining Anne’s insecurities, and while I feel like this might not be the most original revelation for the character, it works in light of the context. If she’s not jealous of Marcy, she struggles to see her own value in the face of a task that feeds so strongly into her friend’s abilities, and I think it’s a very worthwhile concept to dive into. “Scavenger Hunt” proceeds to do that pretty well, too; while Anne struggles to solve the ominous riddles that the King puts her, Marcy, and Sprig up to the task of solving, she interacts with various townsfolk along the way, strikes up surprisingly personal conversations, and radiates a positive energy to them that she doesn’t recognize the value of.

Smartly, the episode keeps the effect of those powers under wraps, instead throwing false starts. Perhaps most problematically in Anne's quest to demonstrate her worth, she misconstrues one of the townsfolk's words of encouragement into BS’ing her way through a riddle and almost gets her, Marcy, and Sprig trapped in a sewer with a bloodthirsty crocodile for the episode's climax. The ultimate pay-off might be somewhat expected, admittedly, with the three characters that Anne befriended coming to her rescue, but it’s a nice way to elevate Amphibia’s “what goes around comes around” formula with a boost of personality. (Also, sidenote: isn’t Nicole Byer great? Gotta love Gertie and her gnacho stand. I don’t get paid to write reviews so I can get away with nerding out sometimes.)

Even if proceedings are centered rather squarely on Anne, it’s Marcy who walks away from things with a greater sense of expansion, making a point out of how she’s in equal awe Anne’s sociability. Even if Marcy otherwise anchors “Scavenger Hunt” in a way that solely operates to counter Anne’s attempts at reconciliation—constantly outsmarting her with solving the puzzles and showcasing her contributions to Newtopia, complete with giant, golden idol statue, with personal embarrassment—it’s an endearing moment that allows the episode to wring some heart and truth out of her character. I’m hoping that we’ll get to see more episodes with Marcy at the wheel as time goes on, since this episode plays it fairly safe with her in a supporting position, but she’s certainly proving her usefulness in the show’s narrative and, in the span of only two episodes, has made a delightful case for herself.

Combine that pleasant character work with a fun, tightly-written plot and some goofy side-business (code for “Hop Pop wearing a suit of armor that says ‘Best Burger Boy’ on it”), and you’ve got a solid Amphibia entry on your hands.

The ending reveals that the King’s riddle spells out an urgent “BRING ME THE PLANTARS,” and things nicely carry over to the next episode, “The Plantars Check In,” where we finally get properly acquainted with the king of Amphibia, King Andrias. We saw a faint glimpse of him in “Marcy at the Gates,” which set him up as something of a cryptic, ominous force with ulterior motives who knows more about Anne that he might let on, so for “The Plantars Check In” to reveal him to be… a shockingly gregarious jokester?! It’s a fantastic way to throw a wrench at our expectations and create, in his limited screentime, an even more complicated and interesting portrait of who he could be. (In layman’s terms: hype.) For now, though, King Andrias is merely a good-natured soul who presents our heroes with a royal credit card full of unlimited money and sends them on their way to the Hemisphere Hotel, the ritziest hotel in all of Newtopia.

Everything else about “The Plantars Check In” is, arguably, inconsequential, and while I can see how some fans would be somewhat ambivalent of that, I am fully here for it: this is as fine of a showcase for Amphibia’s comedic chops and masterful writing as you’ll ever find, turning what might otherwise be an inoffensive, lightweight romp into the rawest form of fun that the show can provide.

Most of that is indebted to Sprig, one of those elusive characters who can carry an episode and make the deed look entirely effortless. With Anne and the rest of his family too exhausted to indulge in the wonders of their new credit card, he sneaks it out of Hop Pop's pocket and spends the entire morning keying into the highest degree of hedonism that the hotel can offer—a world of ice cream sundaes, frivolous haircuts, and manic bug-accino overdoses. There’s no such thing as too much Sprig, and thank goodness for that; presenting him with all of these little, rapid-fire scenarios to bounce off of keeps the energy frenetic and infectious.

Smartly, the episode also gives him a character to bounce off of, with his actions playing out at the general expense of Bella, a dreary and neglected bellhop (voiced by the always-amazing Kristen Schaal) whose greatest aspiration is to see the top of the hotel’s indoor ferris wheel. She’s just waiting for her due even if, momentarily, being stuck attending to Sprig’s uncourteous actions and eating ice cube sandwiches has rendered her nihilistic and depressed—the perfect antagonist when the royal credit card literally falls into her hands.

With this being Amphibia, though, there’s gotta be some heart to the episode somewhere. Having their climactic chase sequence end atop the ferris wheel, where Bella finally gets a heavenly view of the city before realizing the errors of her ways, is a nice way to bring everything back to a sweetly human level. For Sprig to both save her life when she falls from the top of the wheel—using the power of a cup of bug-accino to sprint across the hotel and construct a pile of pillows and towels to cushion her fall—and then come to her defense when the hotel manager threatens to fire her for the free ride she took, also assures that for however spoiled Sprig has been over the course of “The Plantars Check In,” he still is who he is: a good-natured, empathetic individual who wants to do right.

Perhaps it’s telling that my two personal favorite Season 2 episodes up to this point, this one and “The Ballad of Hopediah Plantar,” put a spotlight squarely on one character operating in a new context while being able to epitomize what they stand for. With the show placing an emphasis on everyone around Anne more than ever, it’ll be exciting to see the fruit of Amphibia’s labor, but as it stands, Season 2 is wonderful.

FINAL GRADES:
"Scavenger Hunt": B+.
"The Plantars Check In": A.

Bonus fun fact: this entire review was written in the back-seat of a car traveling across the interstate and through Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and probably some other states that don't matter. I hope you enjoyed my suffering!

For my review of the last episode, “Marcy at the Gates,” CLICK HERE.

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