Phantasmo (episode)

"Phantasmo" is the second episode of Lilo & Stitch: The Series. It aired on September 27, 2003.
==Plot==
Lilo, Stitch, and their family enjoy dinner and games at Macki Macaw's until the animatronic bird falls off its perch and burns up. Jumba and Pleakley are oddly impressed by the lackluster performance. Despite the technical failure, Lilo enjoys the restaurant and wishes she could come more often. Lilo and Stitch play the claw game with Stitch's only quarter and are able to pull in an oyster. The machine holds onto the prize and Stitch shakes it until the trinket is released. Nani scolds the alien, but the employee allows them to keep it and leave.
Back at her house, Lilo must give Stitch a bath, but when Nani says the "b-word", Stitch flees from the tub. Stitch attempts to take refuge in Jumba's room, but Lilo easily discovers his hiding spot. She drags him to the bathroom and splashes him into the water. As she does so, the oyster shell, which contains a yellow experiment pod, is washed away into the hallway. Experiment 375 is washed into a corner and activated. Resembling a ghost, 375 begins causing trouble by entering objects, creating a mess in the kitchen.
Stitch rushes to the sounds in the kitchen, but after he catches Pleakley's dishes, the experiment causes him to fall, shattering them. Nani angrily sends Stitch to his room, but Lilo believes Stitch is telling the truth in his innocence. Nani says it's bedtime and they will discuss it the next day.
During the night, the ghost experiment sneaks into Lilo's room and enters her doll Scrump. Stitch follows Scrump out of the room into the living the room, but after finding nothing, he attempts to return to the room, only to be hit by the elevator platform.
A loud scream sets the morning into motion. Nani's face has been painted green, Jumba's experiment analyzer has been tampered with, and Pleakley's plant has gone missing. Lilo comes downstairs wondering where Stitch is. He is found in the living room holding a paintbrush in one hand and Pleakey's begonia in the other hand. Lilo believes her pet is innocent until she sees her broken record player nearby. A picture on the ground also displays Stitch scratching his foot with Nani's purple toothbrush, infuriating Nani more. She angrily tosses him outside, and orders that he cannot come inside until she returns home. As Lilo closes the door, Scrump laughs at Stitch's misfortune.
Lilo creates a cardboard doghouse for Stitch before she has to chain him to a tree. She warns him that he must be on his best behavior.
Inside, Lilo begins an Elvis movie marathon with Scrump. Through the window, Stitch notices Scrump messing with Lilo's movies. He detaches his chain and charges in to attack the doll. Lilo believes Stitch is trying to tear apart her movies, and, as he attacks Scrump once more, Jumba nets 626. Lilo still holds out hope that her alien is innocent and deserves a fair trial.
Jumba begins acting as judge and Pleakley attempts to prosecute Stitch. He gives the evidence for Stitch's guilt, but Lilo still claims 626 is not guilty. She questions Stitch whether he did any of the "crimes", but he replies he can only remember sleeping the whole time. Pleakley uses Stitch's violence towards Lilo's stuffed animals as incriminating evidence, and Scrump gives a sly look towards Stitch. He attacks the doll, just as Nani returns home. Jumba believes perhaps Stitch is reverting to his evil ways.
Jumba puts Stitch in a machine to scan him for evil qualities. He is left alone there, but as he examines the photograph, he sees Scrump in a mirror reflection, taking the picture.
Jumba and Pleakley watch an Elvis movie, but Lilo notices that her rag doll has gone missing. She finds it in Jumba's room, destroying Pleakley's plant. Experiment 375 exits Scrump and enters into a length of rope. He uses it to tie up Lilo, Jumba, and Pleakley, leaving them trapped. Jumba recognizes him, but the experiment soon reenters Scrump and holds a gun towards them. Soon, however, Stitch climbs through the window to free his family and find 375.
As they search downstairs, Pleakley attempts to hide upstairs, but his way is cut off by a vacuum cleaner controlled by Phantasmo. Stitch is unable to net 375 and Lilo is not able to trap him in a capsule, because Phantasmo can phase through objects. They pursue him through town, but are still unable to catch him. He soon begins chasing them in the buggy, but Nani picks Lilo and Stitch up in her jeep. The experiment chases them, but Lilo finally discovers that Phantasmo craves attention. Lilo begs Nani to lead him to the pizza restaurant, Macki Macaw's.
They lead him inside and he traps Stitch in the claw machine. Lilo is chased backstage by him, and he enters the broken animatronic. Lilo opens the curtains and when Phantasmo realizes he has an audience, he begins putting on a show. Nani apologizes to Stitch for counting him guilty. They promise to forgive her as long as she buys games and pizza. 375 happily rocks out and is pleased that he has all eyes on him.
==Goof==
*When the blue parrot (Macki Macaw and the Hammerheads) playing the squeezebox was first seen, the creators, for some reason, accidentally got the color of his talons wrong; blue instead of orange. This is fixed the next time he was seen.
==Trivia==
*Moral: Innocent until proven guilty.
*Macki Macaw's is an obvious parody of the real-life restaurant chain . Parodies of the chain are a very common trope in Western animation.
**The opening sequence showing the Macki Macaw animatronic catching fire from a malfunction would later prove prophetic within Disney as a whole; The Enchanted Tiki Room (Under New Management) would close for a similar reason when one of the two animatronic figures of Iago caught fire.
*This is one of the rare times Pleakley is seen wearing his military uniform from the original movie, the other times being in "Fibber" and "Sample".
*Pleakley mistakenly claims Stitch's toes to be purple, when they are actually black (at least in the show).
*This is one of three episodes where Stitch is treated like an actual dog, the other two being "Yapper" and "Bad Stitch".
*It is unknown how Stitch got out of Jumba's machine, though it is possible that either the machine released him after it did not detect any evil in him at all, or he was able to somehow free himself.
*Near the end of the episode, when Stitch looks excitedly at the money Nani gives him for games and pizza, the light reflections in Stitch's eyes temporarily become pupils.
===Experiment mentioned===
*Experiment 375: Phantasmo
Category:Lilo & Stitch episodes