Spike (episode)

"Spike" is the fortieth episode of Lilo & Stitch: The Series and the debut episode of the show's second season. It aired on November 5, 2004.
==Plot==
Out in Kokaua Town, an event featuring media personality, Dr. Gladys Okra, is taking place. Dr. Okra is prepared to speak, but her assistant accidentally spills a water bottle meant for her onto the ground. The water spills out, landing on an experiment pod. The experiment activates, and shoots his sharp quills at Dr. Okra and her assistant. After a moment, the two of them stumble onto the stage, speaking gibberish and flailing around. 
While that is happening, class at the hula school finishes up for the day. Moses tells the girls before they leave about the upcoming "Ohana-Rama" family trivia contest. The grand prize is a new computer and encyclopedias on DVD. Lilo wants to beat Mertle, who brags about her intelligence and how her family wins the contest every year. Lilo states that her family can win, especially with the ultra-intelligent Stitch with her. Mertle mocks Lilo, saying that if her dog is smarter than her, the rest of her family has no chance at winning. This makes Lilo feel less confident, but still determined to win, so she and Stitch head home to strategize.
At the house, Jumba has made an "evil-liminator," to instantly make a bad experiment turn good. He shows Pleakley the machine, and tests it on Experiment 110, who annoys his victims with non-stop chatter. But, the machine explodes, and 110 continues to chatter. Pleakley suggests another method to rehabilitate experiments based on Dr. Okra's TV show, involving hugging and talking about feelings. At that point, Lilo and Stitch come home and bring Jumba and Pleakley to the museum for trivia training. Once there, Lilo explains that she won't be participating, and needs alien geniuses to make up for her "dopey, Earth girl" brain. But, while everyone is inspecting different exhibits for information, Experiment 319 arrives, terrorizing the people and shooting his quills. He even manages to hit Jumba. Stitch removes the ribs from a whale skeleton exhibit, and uses them to trap the experiment. But, Stitch neglected to restrain the experiment's tail, which pokes him with some quills. Stitch staggers over to Lilo and babbles.
Back at home, Jumba explains what 319, now named "Spike", does. His quills contain a venom that makes people 99% stupid and 1% clever. He says that he isn't immune to Spike's quills, but he is so intelligent that even having only 1% of his brain function means he won't act silly like the rest of Spike's victims. While this is happening, Stitch gets himself caught in the curtains, then has trouble figuring out how the mirror works. Jumba states that Stitch will be back to normal in 48 hours. But, since the Ohana-Rama is the following day, Lilo takes Stitch out to try and make him smart again. Jumba then says he will rebuild the evil-liminator to make Spike good. But Pleakley intervenes, not wanting Spike to be blown up. He suggests using the Dr. Okra method.
Pleakley invites a group of experiments to the house, and starts a therapy group called Evil Attitude Re-modification & Wayward Anger Extraction (or "E.A.R.W.A.X.") to rehabilitate experiments. Fibber is there to ensure that everyone in the group is honest. Pleakley asks if anyone has anything to share. Nosy goes first, but just blurts some gossip about Pleakley. Bonnie "shares" that she is bored and is too smart for therapy. Fibber buzzes at this, which makes her mad. Pleakley tries getting the group back on track, but Slushy throwing a snowball which accidentally hits Splodyhead causes the experiments to start a free-for-all, which accidentally releases Spike from his capsule, causing him to chase the other experiments around. Pleakley has had enough, saying that they should, and will, start hugging and crying. Pleakley runs out of the room, and comes back in a suit of metal armor. He approaches Spike, reassuring that he isn't a monster, and scoops him up in a hug. Spike tries resisting, but eventually starts to cry and hug Pleakley back. The other experiments are touched by this and hug each other.
Meanwhile, Lilo does everything she can to make Stitch smart again, using flashcards, basic math, and even an Elvis CD. But this fails, so she, Jumba and Pleakley must compete without Stitch. Lilo doubts that she is smart enough to beat Mertle and her family.
The following evening, at the Ohana-Rama, Lilo, Jumba, and Pleakley are facing off against Mertle, her mother, and her aunt. Lilo is still doubtful of their chances. The first part of the final round does not go well, as Lilo and Jumba answer questions incorrectly, and the Edmonds family is in the lead. After Jumba has a meltdown after missing a question, Moses suggests everyone take a break. Lilo walks over to Stitch and Spike who are in the audience. She gripes about losing the contest, and Spike tries to hug her to cheer her up. Lilo refuses, because he is still harmful to touch despite him being good now. She suggest Spike hug Mertle instead, and Pleakley scolds her, saying that making Mertle dumber would be cheating. While that is happening, Stitch managed to get a CD stuck onto his nose. He manages to pull it free, sending the disc flying back behind the contest stage. He, Lilo, and Spike go after it. Before they can leave, they notice Teresa backstage, sitting with an open laptop. She is speaking into a microphone. Lilo checks in front of the stage, and sees there is an earpiece in Mertle's ear. Teresa has been giving Mertle the answers to the trivia questions. Lilo gets angry, but tells Spike to give Teresa a hug. He eagerly does so, pricking Teresa with his quills.
The contest continues on, and Moses asks Mertle a question on Newton's Third Law of Motion. Mertle pauses to wait for Teresa's answer, then, says something silly. Moses says she is incorrect, then asks Lilo's team. Lilo answers correctly and Mertle seethes. The round continues with Lilo's team catching up. Moses then declares a lightning round; one member from each team answers questions as fast as they can. Mertle insists on doing it, despite her mother's protests. Lilo decides to do the lightning round for her family, more confident in herself now that Mertle can't cheat. Moses begins the lightning round, and both girls face off. Mertle gives silly answers, while Lilo answers everything correctly. The scores between the teams are tied, and Moses asks the final question: What is the Hawaiian word meaning "friendship?" Mertle admits that she doesn't know, and Lilo answers correctly: pilialoha. Lilo's team wins the contest, as well as the new computer and educational DVDs. Mertle storms out of the building, angry that she lost to Lilo. Spike notices her being upset, then goes to hug her, poking her with his quills and making her dumb.
Some time later, Pleakley is holding another E.A.R.W.A.X. session. When the experiments become too emotional, they go to hug the emotional support experiment, Spike, who is now wearing the suit of armor from earlier. Stitch is now back to normal, and asks Lilo where the new computer is. Lilo says she donated it to the community center, since her family is smart without it. Jumba smiles and says Lilo is almost as smart as he is.
==Goofs==
*In this episode, Bonnie is seen with six fangs (four on the top and two on the bottom), even though she normally has two fangs.
**Also in this episode, Disney+ closed captioning mistakenly shows Clyde to call her "Barney", probably mistranscribed due to his accent.
==Trivia==
*Moral: Everyone is smart in their own way.
**Side Moral: Cheaters never win.
*This episode first aired on the same day that The Incredibles premiered in theaters.
*Experiment 099 (Spot) was originally supposed to appear in this episode but was removed.
*Dr. Gladys Okra, Spike's first victim, bears a striking resemblance to Oprah Winfrey.
**Ironically, Pleakley used Okra's methods to rehabilitate Spike.
*When Jumba got pricked by Spike, he did not appear to be affected. However, he states that he is not immune to the effects of his creation, and that he does not act silly because even 1% of his intelligence is far superior to that of an average human being's intelligence.
**This is supported in "Babyfier", where, despite being turned into an infant, Jumba was able to figure out a cure to reverse the titular experient's powers.
*Only Spike, Fibber, Nosy, Bonnie, Clyde, Slushy, and Splodyhead were part of Pleakley's E.A.R.W.A.X. group, but in one scene, Yaarp can clearly be seen hiding under the couch.
*Nosy revealed that Pleakley secretly dyes his antenna green to match his skin because he is going prematurely orange.
*Nosy and Fibber were the only experiments that were not bored by Pleakley's therapy topics, with Nosy even showing great interest.
*At the Ohana-Rama, the last names of Lilo and Mertle's families (Pelekai and Edmonds) are not used, and they are instead referred to as "Lilo's Ohana" and "Mertle's Ohana", respectively. Additionally, Nani is the only Pelekai family member who doesn't compete in the contest for unknown reasons.
*This episode reiterates the humans' blindness to the aliens, which they believe do not exist, even though there were five aliens at the Ohana-Rama in plain sight. Regardless, Lilo should have known better than to answer "yes" to the alien question.
*It is implied that Mertle may be illiterate due to her secretly cheating and being unable to read the answers. Her intelligence/common sense is also in question, as she uses the silly answers given by Teresa when they don't match the question.
*This episode was confirmed by Jess Winfield to take place chronologically after "Snafu", considering the fact that Nosy, Fibber, Bonnie, and Clyde are present in Pleakley's E.A.R.W.A.X. group: Nosy and Fibber were imprisoned by Hämsterviel until Nosy was accidentally freed by Woops, which set the events for "Snafu", when Fibber himself was rescued from Gantu after the former was shipped from Hämsterviel due to Woops nearly blowing Hämsterviel's cover; Bonnie and Clyde were sentenced to 20 years of prison in their debut episode, but were paroled in "Snafu".
===Experiments mentioned===
*Experiment 032: Fibber
*Experiment 110: Squeak
*Experiment 149: Bonnie
*Experiment 150: Clyde
*Experiment 199: Nosy
*Experiment 319: Spike
*Experiment 523: Slushy
*Experiment 613: Yaarp
*Experiment 619: Splodyhead
==References==
Category:Lilo & Stitch episodes