Operation Friendship

**"Operation Friendship"** is the forty-eighth episode of the first season of *Sammy & Co*. It premiered on February 29, 2016, on Netflix.

## Synopsis

Leonard the Crab only has one friend: his garden gnome, Norbert. Ricky and Ella decide to show him how great it is to have real friends.

## Plot

The episode begins at the reef village where the students have finished their lesson for the day at the shell school so it's time for them to head home. But Ricky, Ella, Pipo, and Annabel all swim out of the school, they notice Leonard suddenly arrives at the village and he's holding Norbert on his pincers. This surprises everyone since Leonard normally "never sets his pincers out of his aquarium". Sammy curiously follow Leonard who's on his way to César's diving helmet. Sammy greets Leonard and welcomes him to the reef, but the crab rudely dismisses him and continues his journey while talking to Norbert who has a visible crack on his hat. Ray tells the kids that Leonard only speaks nicely to his little garden gnome while he couldn't care less about anybody else and he happens to always behave that way. Ricky remarks that Leonard is just being crabby, but Sammy tells him that his demeanor might always be like that is because Leonard is secretly unhappy inside. The kids observe Leonard pleading César to give him some seaweed glue to fix the crack on Norbert's hat, but César informs the crab that he's fresh out of it so Leonard has to stop by sometime next week to get the glue he needs.

The kids all follow Leonard back to his aquarium and spies on him talking to Norbert inside. Annabel remarks how strange it is that Norbert is Leonard's only friend and wonders if Norbert is actually really nice. Ricky points out to Annabel that Norbert is just a little statue and he's not a living being, but it is Leonard's anti-social behavior that makes him think Norbert really is alive hence why he would constantly talk to him. Ella feels bad for Leonard not having any friends and instead chooses to befriend an inanimate object because of his loneliness at his aquarium, so she suggests to her friends they should tell him the truth because of how sad Leonard is deep down. But Ricky declines her idea because Leonard would become even sadder if they tell him Norbert is not a living person. Ella agrees with Ricky, so she suggests they should instead help Leonard make friends with real people since they can't let Leonard go on with his anti-social behavior for the rest of his life. The kids all enter the aquarium and they explain to Leonard about needing real friends. However, the crab stubbornly refuses to make any other friends when he already has Norbert, claiming that "he's better than all of [them] put together". The kids all get out of the aquarium and head back to the reef because of their disappointment that Leonard would rather not make any more friends other than Norbert. Annabel remarks that Norbert holds a very important place in Leonard's life whether he's alive or not, which gives Ricky an idea that he and his friends are going to take Norbert's place since he's going to be "away on a little vacation" if it's for Leonard's own good.

Later at night, the kids all sneak into the aquarium and steal Norbert while Leonard is asleep. They then place Norbert safety inside a cave before they swim back to the reef to get some sleep. But unbeknownst to them, Big Boss, Marco, and Philippe are all hiding behind a large boulder nearby and they head inside the cave. Big Boss orders his henchmen to steal Norbert since he sees the "statue is just exactly what [they] need".

The next morning, the kids wake up to hear Leonard screaming in distress which can be heard all the way to their home. The kids all arrive to calm down Leonard when he finds out that Norbert has been "kidnapped". Ricky and Pipo assure him that "nobody took [his] Norbert" and he most likely "went away on vacation". Leonard, however, starts sobbing again because according to him, Norbert is just like him who "can't stand vacation" and wonders out loud Norbert left him. Ricky and Ella once again try to calm him down and offer him to come to the village with them to help him make lots of new friends until Norbert "comes back", but the stubborn crab still refuses and tells the kids that he's afraid of stepping foot outside his home so he decides to wait until Norbert returns back to him.

At the playground, the kids are all disappointed that their plan didn't go well as they thought. Ricky remarks that if "Leonard the Crab stays cooped up inside his aquarium, he has no chance of ever making any real friends". So Ella suggests that she and her friends should "live with him to prove to him how great it is to have real friends", then Leonard would forget about Norbert when the kids return him since the crab will be happy to be friends with real people for once. The kids all like the idea so they leave the playground so they can persuade Leonard.

After Ricky and Ella both asked for permission from Sammy to stay with Leonard for the night, which he allows them to since he knows they'll be safe inside his aquarium while under Leonard's care, the kids all head back to the outskirts of the reef and they manage to persuade Leonard into staying with him. However, Leonard gives them a condition that they can stay with him as long as they clean up his house since he wants everything to be nice "when Norbert comes back". And since he has the kids under his care, he expects them to obey by his rules without question, to which Ella assures him he "won't regret it". However, it is the kids themselves who all regret staying with Leonard for the night because of the stubborn crab's demanding orders. The four are all unable to have fun since they can't make any noise whenever Leonard is napping as well as being forbidden to play since Leonard sees playing as a "waste of time". The four are even forced to clean up all the mushroom decorations in the way Leonard wants it to be, raise their fin before speaking to him, and even have to eat seaweeds the same Leonard eats by slurping on them which the kids are unable to do since it's not the way they normally eat. When the kids question Leonard's rules since they find them "a little absurd", Leonard reminds them that they're staying at his property so they must do as he says and follows all his rules. He also tells them if they aren't happy at his aquarium, they don't have to stay with him and he claims that "Norbert never had any problem with [his] rules" at all, but he starts missing the garden gnome statue again after saying his name out loud so Leonard walks back to his rock den to go to bed early. The kids all agree with each other that it's impossible for them to handle living with Leonard for just one night because of the crab's bossiness. So they decide to get Norbert back to Leonard since he is "the only one who could ever put up with [Leonard]" since he's only a statue who doesn't need to do anything.

But when the kids head back to the cave where they kept Norbert in, they are surprised to see the statue is not why he's supposed to be and they conclude Norbert has been "kidnapped" for real. The kids swim inside the cave to find any clues to Norbert's whereabouts and they find a trail of crack pieces of Norbert's hat. The kids all follow the trail to Big Boss's shipwreck where they find Norbert on top of the shipwreck's mast. The kids all carry Norbert so they could sneak out of the shipwreck without waking up a sleeping Big Boss. But Leonard suddenly arrives and accidentally ruin their stealth plan by shouting very loud in relief about seeing Norbert again. He explains very loud to the kids that he worries about them after he woke up and saw that the four are all missing in his aquarium so he panicked and started searching for them since he's the adult and he is responsible to watch over the four kids during their stay at his home. Leonard tells Norbert that it "took a lot of courage for [himself] to come out of the aquarium" alone so he could come to rescue him and he's glad to see Norbert and the kids are all okay.

But before Leonard and the kids all walk to the aquarium to get through the rest of the night, Big Boss, Marco, and Philippe all show up after Leonard accidentally wakes them up with his outburst. Big Boss orders his henchmen to steal back Norbert for him, and the moray eels all grab onto the statue, but the kids and Leonard all hold Norbert back. When Leonard demands to know why Big Boss wants Norbert, the tyrannical seahorse tells him that he needs Norbert since he sees the statue can help him "scares away overly curious fish from approaching" his shipwreck. Everyone in the tug-of-war accidentally launches Norbert up during their fight, so Big Boss orders his moray eels to catch Norbert so they could tie him to the hull of the ship to make him into Big Boss's scare-fish. The kids are about to swim up to get Norbert first, but Philippe appears in front of them and block their ways. Just when the kids thought they're all caught, Norbert, by sheer coincidence, falls back down and bounces himself onto both Marco's and Philippe's heads which knocks the two moray eels out cold since Marco and Philippe happened to stand at the exact spot where Norbert is going to fall back down. Norbert lands on Leonard's pincers and the crab is proud to see his statue "helps" knock out their enemies for him and the kids. While Leonard and the kids all head back to the aquarium, Big Boss angrily asks his unconscious henchmen which one of them should he tie to the hull of the ship to be his replacement scare-fish.

When the kids and Leonard all return to the aquarium, they apply a bit of seaweed glue to Norbert's cracked hat and fixes him for the crab. But when Ella mentions that it's thanks to his friends, Leonard claims that Norbert is getting tired and he orders them to get out of the aquarium so he could spend time with the statue. But after the kids all swim out of the aquarium, Leonard, feeling touched by the kids bravely coming all the way to Big Boss's shipwreck to rescue Norbert for him, secretly thanks them and calls them his friends, which he says it to himself to avoid showing his soft side in front of the kids. While the kids are swimming back to the reef village, Pipo remarks that it's as if Norbert actually swam all by himself to save them by knocking Marco and Philippe out earlier. He wonders out loud if Norbert is really alive after all, but Annabel reminds him that Norbert is just a statue and the way he knocks out Marco and Philippe is likely a coincidence when he falls onto their heads, much to the kids' amusement.

## Characters

### Major characters

* Ricky
* Ella
* Pipo
* Annabel
* Leonard
* Big Boss (antagonist)
* Marco (antagonist)
* Philippe (antagonist)

### Minor characters

* Sammy
* Ray
* César
* Aroun
* Mika
* Lobster (background)
* Reef inhabitants

## Trivia

* In the French version, the episode is called "Opération amitié".
* Despite this episode is the forty-eighth to aired on TiJi like its US airing order, it's the thirtieth episode to aired in France on M6.
* In this episode, Big Boss has no intention to take over the reef by stealing Norbert. Instead, he took Norbert to use him as a scare-fish so he could stop having any curious sea creatures arriving at his property. A "scare-fish" is an underwater equivalent of a scarecrow.
* A lobster from André's lobster colony can be seen sleeping while the kids are searching for Norbert.
* This is the second episode in which Leonard visits the reef village after "Fortune and Fib Telling".
* This episode reveals that because of Leonard's anti-social behavior and aggressiveness to anyone trespassing on his property, he doesn't have any real friends before he finally accepts his friendship with Ricky and his friends at the end of the episode.

### Errors

* According to the inhabitants of the reef, Leonard "never sets his pincers out of his aquarium". However, Leonard actually visited the reef once before in "Fortune and Fib Telling".
* Despite this episode takes place after "Sweet Scorpfish" which was when the kids all met Leonard, the crack that Leonard accidentally smashed isn't visible on the aquarium glass. It's also very unlikely for Leonard to fix the crack all by himself.

## References

1. ↑ https://instantwatcher.com/title/80042306
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/m6/26-11-2014/
3. ↑ https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/tiji/29-03-2015/
4. ↑ https://www.netflix.com/title/80042177