The Real Thomas

"**The Real Thomas"** is the eighth episode in Season 6 (and the one-hundred and sixty-first episode overall) of *Pickle and Peanut*. It first aired on November 20, 2019. This episode is a half-hour special.

## Synopsis

Thinking he is up to something, Pickle sets out to find out who the real Thomas is.

## Plot

Late one night at Pickle's house, Pickle is woken up by his grumbling stomach. Heating up a pizza pouch in the kitchen, he hears rustling sounds and an inaudible argument being exchanged just outside the house. When he goes to investigate, he sees the shape of Thomas in a ninja outfit fighting an agent in a suit, witnessing Thomas defeat the man. Pickle approaches Thomas about this, who feigns ignorance. As Pickle keeps questioning, Thomas knocks him out with a neck press (the same method he used to knock out the agent).

Pickle is woken up in his own bed by Peanut the next morning, remembering what he witnessed the night before after a brief after sleep drowse. During the morning staff meeting, Benson announces that the staff’s only jobs are to stay out of his way while he shows his date, a preschool teacher named Natalie, around the park. (This leads to a humorous exchange about what happened to Audrey, no one remembering her break-up with Benson.) Pickle, desperately trying to get a word in about Thomas, finally is able explain what he saw that night. Though they don't believe him, he takes them to the site of the attack, but they are still unconvinced. When Thomas arrives, acting his normal self. Pickle pounces on the duffel bag Thomas had with him that night, but it proves to be just full of laundry. Pickle nevertheless remains undeterred and sets out to find the truth about Thomas.

Spying on him, Pickle follows Thomas to a lone sprinkler, where he takes a call from "Mom"; Pickle distinctly hears Thomas say the word "Russian" before he departs. Investigating the sprinkler, Pickle finds Russian writing etched into its head. He takes his evidence to Peanut, Hi Fives, and Muscle Man. (Noticing Benson with Natalie, Pickle comments disbelievingly, "He actually had a date.") The still skeptical three are finally convinced after Muscle Man goes to a cabinet for chips and the suited man whom Thomas defeated (a CIA agent) falls out of it on top of him. At that instant, two Russian-accented men arrive looking for Thomas, claiming to be reviewers from the "American Intern Society of America." Pickle and Peanut set off to find Benson while Muscle Man and High Fives stay to stall the men.

Pickle and Peanut make their way to the AV room. Inside, they find a secret room full of high tech equipment, along with Skips and Pops tied up. When they go to free them, Benson is heard just outside flirting with Natalie, only to be handcuffed and thrown inside. As they wonder what to do, Natalie walks into the room with a dramatic slow clap, revealing herself to be a Russian spy by the name of "Natalia." She asserts that one of their own was working under their nose for the past two years; Benson, ever more confused, questions who it was, and, on cue, Natalia reveals "Nikolai" – Thomas, who reveals himself as a Russian spy as well.

Nikolai (as he is known for the rest of the episode) explains how he became a Russian spy. One winter in Kiev, the child Nikolai was abandoned by his parents; he was quickly adopted by government officials and declared property of the State. Raised by the K.G.B., he was trained to be a ruthless elite agent, pledging loyalty only to Mother Russia. Years later, the K.G.B. farmed Thomas out to the "Ministry of Medo-Management” (or MOMM), an organization dedicated to park research and espionage, struggling to modernize the outdated Russian parks which make Russia a laughingstock for the world. To that end, General Romanoff assigns Nikolai and Natalia to Operation Park Lift, in which they are to infiltrate U.S. parks. The pair obtains fake identities and profiles to avoid suspicion, enters the U.S. with no resistance, and complete the various phases of the operation, while also eliminating potential threats. When Skips questions how Nikolai successfully managed to carry out all of his spying activities without anyone even noticing, Nikolai explains that, since an intern was considered so negligible a person, it proved the perfect cover for him to implement his plans. Pickle and Peanut plead with "Thomas," asking him how he could betray his friends, to which he tells them it's his job. Natalia announces their new orders from Romanoff and they depart, taking the park crew hostage.

Meanwhile, Muscle Man and Hi Fives are still stalling the men at the door, who lose patience and start to ram the door, until Muscle Man (in a classic cartoon manœuvre) opens it for them to rush inside, crash into the wall, and knock themselves out. Making their way through the park, Muscle Man and Fives find the crew being held hostage and are forced into a van. Nikolai digs into his duffel bag, reaching into a secret compartment to reveal a control pad with a detonator. As the driver plays the Russian national anthem, Nikolai initiates the countdown for Phase 8 of the Operation. On 1, the park explodes along the borders, freeing it from the surrounding terrain and showing the engine and some boosters Nikolai had installed over the two years to make the park aerodynamic. He uses the control pad to direct the now airborne park in the direction of the Russian border. Nikolai then tells the crew they're heading to Russia, and they will be slaves in a hard, labor camp. After finding out from Natalia they must both hop on the chopper, Nikolai ensures the crew they will be safe with the driver on the ground. However, unbeknownst to Nikolai, the van driver reveals he's going to drive them off the edge of the Park to a watery doom.

Meanwhile, at a UN conference of world leaders (mainly U.S. and Russian), President Davis of the U.S. and President Koshkov of Russia confront each other; just then U.S. Intelligence delivers urgent national security information to the President: radar has picked up the land formation of the park is heading straight to the Russian border! When President Davis asks the meaning of the situation, General McMurphy accuses the Russians are stealing a piece of the U.S, though President Koshkov denies his claim. President Davis is warned that if the land piece reaches Russian territory, the Russian military will claim it for themselves.

Back at the park, Pickle manages to cut his rope with one of the sprinklers Thomas installed, and unties the rest of the crew, to which the driver notices. Just in time, Muscle Man and Hi Fives appear with the cart and the crew manages to escape the van before he drives it off the edge. Now safe, the park crew follow the chopper by means of *Carmenita*.

On the chopper, Nikolai rants to Natalia how untreated he felt just for being an intern, to which Natalia tells him the park crew are dead, leaving him aghast. To his relief, however, they suddenly appear in the rear-view mirror. As Pickle, Peanut, and Benson make it on board, Natalia reveals that she intends to circumvent the US-Russia Nuclear Arms Treaty (in which Russia swore never to fire any missiles against the U.S.) by bringing chunks of U.S. territory directly to the Russian warheads and blowing them up.

Back at the U.N. conference, U.S and Russian relations worsen, causing alarm and outrage in all of the world leaders. Despite President Davis and his diplomats accusing Russian leader Koshkov of acts of aggression and violation of the Treaty, President Koshkov asserts that the Russians haven't actually fired any missiles; when President Davis then points out that the Russians only blowing up parts of their own territory, Koshkov responds "It's a big country."

Meanwhile, Nikolai, completely unaware of the ulterior motive behind the park operation, is horrified – he never intended to hurt anyone: Natalia responds coldly that the U.S. can use the ruins to rebuild the park again. Pickle tries to remind Thomas that even though he's a Russian spy, he was also their friend, to which Natalie reminds Nikolai of all the terrible things they have done to him, just because he was an intern. Nikolai finally expresses his anger to the guys for being so mistreated to the point he admits he didn't feel comfortable speaking around them. Pickle admits although they found him boring, he should recall the good times they've had together. Moved by this, Nikolai begins turning the park around, but Natalia stops him; they struggle, Natalia breaks free of Nikolai and goes for the control pad, but he manages to knock the chopper controls awry, causing it to swerve and Natalia to fall out the open hatch to her death (she is swallowed bodily by a whale). Pickle manages to catch the falling control pad, Nikolai saving him from falling as Pickle hits the override. The park is saved just in time, within millimeters of the tip of the missile. With the prevention of a conflict, the U.S. and the other world leaders rejoice as Koshkov and Russia are humiliated by the failure of their plan.

Back home, Benson offers Nikolai a job full-time at the park (something Benson had intended to do at the morning staff meeting), but Nikolai regretfully declines: he must go on the run now that he's a traitor to the U.S. **and** to Russia. Nikolai tells the crew that although he'll be in hiding for the rest of his life, this won't be the last they see of "Thomas." At this, he runs off into the sunset (just as he takes out a couple more agents) as the crew tearfully look on. Pickle ends the episode, saying "*Do svedanya* [Russian for "goodbye"], Nikolai; you'll always be 'Thomas' to us."