Double Birthday

**"Double Birthday"** is the fifty-second episode and the season finale of the first season of *Sammy & Co*. It premiered on February 29, 2016, on Netflix.

## Synopsis

A huge party for Ricky and Ella’s eighth birthday is about to begin, but Ricky has gone missing, and a worried Ella must go find him.

## Plot

The episode begins at the reef village where the villagers are gathered up at the palaver tree to celebrate the eighth birthday of both Ricky and Ella. However, Ella, Pipo, and Annabel all notice that Ricky doesn't show up at his own party yet and they wonder why he did that. Annabel assumes Ricky is afraid of failing the shell ceremony which is when a turtle has his shell tested to see if it has become solid enough. Ella adds that if that's the case, then the turtle will be entrusted with responsibilities and they can do all kinds of new things, like going outside the reef on their own and hunting by themselves. Annabel inadvertently reveals to Sammy and Ray that the four of them have already done that multiple times before, but the two elderly turtles didn't mind since they allow the kids to go out of the reef without doing it in secret. Ella tells her grandfather that she and her friends are going to search for Ricky and they'll be back for the shell ceremony.

After searching all over the village, Ella assumes that Ricky has left the reef because of a little tradition the two shared. Since Ricky and Ella were born on the same day, they would always give each other birthday gifts and try to surprise one another. Ella remembers Ricky's riddle from the other day that her gift "will be very special and surprising [that] it'll be higher than ever before". Trying to solve Ricky's riddle, Ella predicts that her gift is situated outside the reef since he always tries to outdo himself. When the Rockfish all enter the exit, Annabel happily greets them and asks them if the trio happens to have seen Ricky by any chance. Glitz claims that they did and tells them they must hurry because "he was swimming real fast". After Ella and her friends, all swim out of the reef to search for Ricky, Babbles tells Glitz neither of them actually saw Ricky, to which Glitz scoffs off and reveals that she's only lying to Ella and her friends so she could send them on a wild goose chase, which she finds it funny.

Ella, Pipo, and Annabel all arrive on the outskirts of the reef village and notice Big Boss, Marco, and Philippe nearby. The three kids all overheard Big Boss telling his henchmen his latest scheme which is to sneak inside and take possession of the village during the birthday ceremony since "nobody will be paying any attention to the reef". Since the trio is all outside the reef, they decide to foil Big Boss's scheme on their way. The three kids all casually swim past Big Boss and his henchmen with Ella sarcastically remarking to Big Boss that he has such a great plan. Big Boss is surprised to see the kids outside of the reef that he mistakenly assumes his henchmen got the wrong date for Ella's birthday since he finds it strange how she and her friends are acting casually when they swim past them. Marco tries to tell Big Boss that it's the Rockfish who told them about the date, but Big Boss refuses to listen that he orders his henchmen to go back to his home with him to come up with another plan, completely unaware that it really is Ella's birthday.

While all of that is happening, it turns out that Ricky was on the island above the reef the entire time and he just finished his conversation to John about a plan of his. When Ricky dives back down to the reef to get to the party, he realizes that Ella isn't there and asks his guests where she is since he has a surprise for her. Sammy informs him that Ella, Pipo, and Annabel all happened to leave the party to search for him so Ricky decides to search for them now, thinking they can't be far from the party, and he leaves, thus delaying the ceremony even longer. After searching all over the reef as well as being ignored by the Rockfish when he's about to ask them, Ricky swims to Albert's den where he meets up with Alpha. He tells Alpha that it's his fault that the ceremony hasn't begun yet since he showed up late and it leads to Ella, Pipo, and Annabel all went off looking for him, so he's starting to feel like he's the one looking for them. Ricky asks Alpha to come with him to search for Ella and the others, to which Alpha agrees to help him find them. Alpha finds Ricky's friends' scents and he guides the young leatherback to the exit of the reef.

Meanwhile, the kids are at the shark's den because Ella assumes Ricky came all the way there for her birthday gift. But she then realizes that she leads her friends too far from the reef so she suggests to her friends that they should go back, thinking that Ricky has already returned to the village which ironically he was. But the kids all run into trouble when a frenzy of sharks all notice their presence at the den and they all start chasing after the three. A couple of miles away, Alpha is guiding Ricky to the direction of the shark's den while following the scents of Ricky's friends. Ricky expresses to the pilot fish that it's all his fault because he went overboard on his birthday gift for Ella that he assumes she wanted to compete with him by venturing out of the reef to find an incredible gift for him. Ricky remembers Ella's riddle from the other day that his gift "will be a whole lot faster than [him]". When Alpha announces that he has senses Ella and her friends have all headed towards the sharks' den, Ricky is mortified when he assumes Ella's riddle "faster than [his gift]" meant "fast like a shark", thinking that she went to find a shark's tooth for him.

Ricky and Alpha both arrive at the den to see Ella, Pipo, and Annabel all being chased by the sharks. Pipo and Ella both hide underneath Annabel and the latter immediately camouflages herself into the color of the ocean floor. One of the sharks doesn't see the trio so he swims away from them, allowing the three kids to head inside a rift to hide. Ricky and Alpha both follow the kids and the two groups are both happy to see each other again. Ricky asks Ella if she came to the den to find him a shark's tooth, to which she says she doesn't and she only came to look for him because she thought he's there. But before Ella could answer Ricky's question about what's really his birthday present, Pipo interrupts to remind the two that it's not really the time to discuss it yet since Alpha and the kids must find a way to get out of the den to go back to the reef for the ceremony.

Back at the aforementioned ceremony, the villagers are all still waiting for the kids to come back. Having enough of playing the waiting game since Billy runs out of jokes to pass the time, Ray suggests they should dig into their meal since he assumes the kids will show up at any minute. Just then, Albert arrives and asks his friends if any one of them has seen Alpha since the shark noticed Alpha went off with Ricky looking for the kids, but he still hasn't come back yet. Sammy once again tries to assure them that Alpha and the kids would be at the ceremony in a few seconds. Babbles feels guilty for letting Glitz lie to Ella and her friends earlier so he shows up and reveals to everyone that he saw Alpha and the kids all leave the reef. This causes panic to the villagers that the party guests all get into formation and leave the reef to find them.

At the same time, the kids and Alpha are all still hiding from the sharks who're still at their den. Suddenly, the five all run into trouble when a giant squid arrives and he chases after them. But just as their situation doesn't get any worse, the sharks all notice the five, and the frenzy all charge to them. Knowing that she and her friends are all surrounded and there's nowhere out, she suggests to her friends that they should do the same trick from the time the four kids swam with the dolphins and since they don't have any other choice, the five all swim to the sharks and dodges them, causing the sharks to bite on the squid's tentacles and attack them. This allows the five to all escape from the den and heads back to the reef.

But when Alpha and the kids all return to the palaver tree, they're all surprised to see that the birthday ceremony is almost completely deserted. Luckily, they all see Jimbo is still there and wakes him up from his nap. Jimbo reveals to Alpha and the kids that the rest of the party guests have gone off looking for them after waiting for them for too long. But before the kids once again leave the reef to search for them, the villagers all return just in time and the kids are happily reunited with their respective relatives. The shell ceremony begins and Ricky and Ella are both about to get their shell tested for its solidity. Ella is the first to test her shell and she's happy to know that she passed it. Ricky is next and he's nervous at first, but Ella assures him that he'll be okay. Ella is right since Ricky is also able to pass the shell solidity and he's proud of it. Later that day, while the villagers are still having fun at the party, Ella swims to Lulu who's outside the shell school to give thanks to him for all his teaching to her. Ricky then arrives and tells Ella that it's time for their presents to each other.

The two birthday turtles both head up to the island where John happened to arrive and he reveals to them their presents. It turns out that Ricky and Ella both ironically offered each other the exact same gift without even knowing it, which is a ride on John's back above the island. John informs the two that Ricky came by to ask him just after Ella did so the seagull has to pretend she never did to keep it a surprise to him. Ricky and Ella both get onto John's back and the two turtles both wish each other a happy birthday while they're both happily riding on their seagull friend who's flying above the island, ending both the episode and the season finale.

## Characters

### Major characters

* Ricky
* Ella
* Pipo
* Annabel
* Alpha
* Sharks (antagonists)
* Giant squid (antagonist)

### Minor characters

* Sammy
* Ray
* Billy
* Jimbo
* Margaret
* Lulu
* Glitz
* Crudd
* Babbles
* Big Boss
* Marco
* Philippe
* Albert
* John
* Arthur
* Mika
* Shelly (background)
* Rita (background)
* César (background)
* Aroun (background)
* Dolphins (flashback)
* Crabs
* Reef inhabitants

## Trivia

* In the French version, the episode is called "Double anniversaire".
* Despite this episode is the fifty-second to aired on TiJi like its US airing order, it's the forty-fifth episode to aired in France on M6. And thus, it isn't released as the final episode of Season 1 on M6.
* Ricky assumes that Ella and her friends all went to the sharks' den to find a shark's tooth for Ricky's birthday present. This is a callback to the very first episode of the series "The Shark's Tooth" when Glitz challenged Ricky that whoever brings a shark's tooth back to the reef will determine who's the bravest of the ocean.
* A flashback from "A Pretend Fight" is seen when Ella asks her friends about the time they swam with the dolphins.
* This episode reveals that when a sea turtle celebrates their eighth birthday, there'll be a shell ceremony to test if their shell has become solid enough. The shell ceremony is an equivalent of many rites of passage ceremonies/rituals that are customs in human society.
* Ricky and Ella both celebrate their eighth birthday together. Because of this, they were at the age of seven throughout the entirety of the first season before this episode.
* This episode takes place almost exactly eight years after the events of *A Turtle's Tale 2: Sammy's Escape from Paradise*. This also means John has kept his promise to Sammy and Ray to never eat their friends for eight years.
* It's implied Ricky has overcome his fear of heights since he is able to stay calm while riding on John at the end of the episode.
* This is the fourth episode in which Ricky, Ella, Pipo, and Annabel are attacked by one or more giant squids after "Like a Grownup", "The Alpha Mystery", and "The Lucky Charm".

## References

1. ↑ https://instantwatcher.com/title/80042306
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/m6/24-12-2014/
3. ↑ https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/tiji/18-04-2015/
4. ↑ https://www.netflix.com/title/80042177