Checkers (episode)

"Checkers" is the forty-sixth episode of Lilo & Stitch: The Series. It aired on March 4, 2005.
==Plot==
Lilo and Stitch are out in the garden playing in the mud with Digger, Yin, and Backhoe, until they get into trouble with Nani and Pleakley for filling the fridge and the oven with mud, turning the living room furniture upside down, and making a mummy kitchen scarecrow out of Pleakley's spoon collection. Both of them end up getting grounded. Meanwhile, 625 has gotten a pet cockroach named Jimmy, much to Gantu's disgust. Just then, the experiment pod container reports that Experiment 029 has been activated, designed to crown people, giving them the power of command over all living creatures. So, Gantu heads out to capture it.
The next day, the hula school is deciding on float designs for the Coconut Queen Festival parade. Lilo's idea gets rejected due to being too scary despite being the chairman of this year's float committee and Moses chooses Mertle's idea, a princess castle, and tells Lilo that it's important as a leader to hear other people's ideas instead of just telling them what to do. Lilo walks sadly home with Stitch when they spot Gantu chasing after Experiment 029. They take 029 from Gantu, outmaneuver him, and escape home. After Lilo looks up 029, he sits on her head and makes her queen, and everyone, except Stitch, suddenly worships and obeys her under hypnotic control. Lilo calls him Checkers and starts to take advantage of being queen, but eventually decides to step down after Mertle and the hula girls arrest many "troublemakers" for defying her. Checkers comes down from her head, but just before she can figure out his one true place, Gantu arrives and grabs Checkers. After putting him on his head, Gantu becomes king over everyone, including Lilo.
Since Stitch and 625 are immune to Checkers' hypnotic effect, they rally together an army of other experiments to overthrow Gantu for the sake of everyone's freedom. King Gantu resides in the Birds of Paradise Hotel, which he is using as a palace. Stitch and his cousins attack Gantu and rescue Lilo. Holio tries to suck Checkers off Gantu's head, but instead sucks off his clothes. 625 sends his pet cockroach Jimmy to creep up on him. In his panic, Checkers falls off Gantu's head. He quickly puts him back on his head, but mistakes Elastico. Free of his control, Gantu's ex-servants revolt against him and kick him out. Afterwards, Lilo and the Experiments help rebuild the float, using everyone's ideas and make Nani the Coconut Queen.
As for Gantu, he is forced to clean the ship's bathroom as punishment while being bossed around by Dr. Hämsterviel and 625.
==Cast==
*Daveigh Chase as Lilo Pelekai
*Chris Sanders as Stitch
*David Ogden Stiers as Jumba Jookiba
*Kevin McDonald as Pleakley
*Tia Carrere as Nani Pelekai
*Kevin Michael Richardson as Gantu
*Rob Paulsen as 625
*Jeff Bennett as Dr. Hämsterviel
*Liliana Mumy as Mertle Edmonds
*Lili Ishida as Yuki
*Jillian Henry as Elena
*Kali Whitehurst as Teresa
*Kunewa Mook as Moses Puloki
==Gallery==
==Goofs==
*When Queen Lilo puts Nani under Checkers' hypnotic control, as the former makes her first decree, Nani's long pants appear to be miscolored blue like her tank top, instead of light brown like in the rest of the episode.
*Spooky transformed into Gantu when Stitch and Reuben were recruiting him in a rebellion against the ex-captain; though technically, he never met or faced Gantu before in his debut episode.
**Additionally, Spooky's eyes were not glowing green during the transformation.
*Backhoe appeared on the boat, but then disappeared.
*Holio is seen with a stumpy tail when he and the other experiments jump ashore.
*When the experiments rebel against Gantu, Deforestator has a third leg and Elastico's tail is in the wrong place.
*Reuben appears with the other experiments when they all volunteer to help rebuild the float, but when they are actually fixing it, he disappears.
==Trivia==
*Moral: You can't have your way all the time, and with great power comes great responsibility. 
*We learn in this episode that Stitch doesn't like eating broccoli, hence why he doesn't finish his vegetables at dinner, which consequently gets him grounded by Nani for it.
**However, in "Sinker", Stitch ate a stack of sliced carrots without expressing any disgust, which would contradict his dislike of vegetables.
*Gantu is apparently a good chef, as he was seen cooking pasta.
**Ironically, in "Finder", Reuben ridiculed Gantu's ability to make sandwiches.
*Reuben has a pet cockroach named Jimmy.
*Gantu is revealed to hate insects and attempted to kill Jimmy upon first seeing him.
*This is one of the only two episodes where Yin appears without Yang, the other being "Shoe".
*The scene where the experiments sailed to fight Gantu reminisces the famous painting Washington Crossing the Delaware, which depicted George Washington and his men crossing the Delaware River during the Revolutionary War.
*This is the second time in the series Gantu is stripped down to his underwear by an experiment (in this case, Holio), the first time being in the episode "627", where he was stripped down by Deforestator.
**Unlike the episode "627", where Gantu was shown wearing boxers, here he is instead shown wearing bloomers.
===Experiments mentioned===
*Experiment 029: Checkers
*Experiment 040: Backhoe
*Experiment 177: Clip
*Experiment 221: Sparky
*Experiment 300: Spooky
*Experiment 345: Elastico
*Experiment 501: Yin
*Experiment 513: Richter
*Experiment 515: Deforestator
*Experiment 520: Cannonball
*Experiment 529: Digger
*Experiment 601: Kixx
*Experiment 606: Holio
*Experiment 625: Reuben
Category:Lilo & Stitch episodes