A Perfect Ocean

**"A Perfect Ocean"** is the thirty-eighth episode of the first season of *Sammy & Co*. It premiered on February 29, 2016, on Netflix.

## Synopsis

After being unfairly treated, Ella leaves the village dreaming of a perfect reef. But when her dream comes true, her nightmare begins!

## Plot

The episode opens at the shell school where the students are all waiting for Lulu to come back to the classroom when he left to give something to them. Crudd notices Ella is holding a shell in her flippers and asks her what she has, with Glitz wanting to have one. Ella is visibly annoyed at the two and informs them because they didn't show up to school on time, Lulu has to leave to get more of the shells for his students. But neither of the two scorpionfish care about her uptightness and Crudd steals the shell away from Ella. Ricky gets mad at the two for stealing Ella's shell away from her so he, Pipo, and Annabel all chase after them to get it back to her, despite Ella telling him that he should forget about it. This escalated into a huge brawl inside the classroom with the students all trying to steal back the shell. Ella tries to calm everybody down, but they didn't listen to her so Ella has no choice but to watch them. Just then, Lulu arrives and angrily see the chaos in the classroom. But because Ella has her shell back during the brawl, he mistakenly assumes Ella is the one who causes the brawl to happen so he unfairly punishes her.

Feeling angry for being punished despite she's only a bystander, Ella swims out of the school where she nearly gets run over by Alpha and Albert when they frantically swim past her. Shelly arrives at the school and asks her granddaughter what's the matter to which Ella says that she's been kicked out unfairly. Shelly tries to calm her down, but Ella continues making a big fuss about it so Shelly sends her home to let out some steam. Upon arriving home, Ella witnesses Sammy snacking on some seaweeds despite Shelly have told him that he shouldn't do so between meals. But when Sammy asks her if she won't tell Shelly on him, he inadvertently causes Ella to get angrily stress out even more so she swims out of her home.

Ella takes a stroll around the reef as she reflects on her personal problem with her fellow inhabitants. After what she's been through all day, she sees everyone as nothing but selfish, unfair, lying, and loud people. She wishes she would live in a world where everybody could listen to each other without screaming and respected all the rules because then everything would be so perfect for her. Just then, she sees someone swimming rapidly past her and she's surprised to see what she's assumed a little baby fish from the lower depths. But when she takes a closer to it, she finds out that it's actually a nautilus who swims out of the reef and makes Ella follow him, wondering where he's going.

Upon arriving at the outskirts of the reef, Ella sees the nautilus heading inside a cave so she curiously follows him inside. However, Ella is unaware that the nautilus has already gone out and he's watching her enter the cave. Just then, a portal suddenly activates and it sucks Ella in. As soon as Ella gets out of the portal, she swims out of the cave where everything around her looks exactly like the same as it is before.

Ella heads back to the reef, but upon arriving there, she encounters two black-and-white fish swimming together in a neat way and they both tell her that she doesn't "have the right of way". Ella is bewildered by what the two fish mean by that, so they inform her that since they're on her right, they're the ones who have it, to which Ella apologizes for nearly colliding into them. But when the fish both mention that she must be in a pair and "join [her] partner", Ella becomes more confused by their statements. She then notices that the crabs are walking in pairs and working very quietly while she's swimming past them, making her curious about the crabs' sudden change of demeanor from the last time she saw them. She then notices her "friends" and asks them if they find it bizarre that the crabs all work so quietly and all the fish swim in pairs while respecting the right of way which is something she never has seen before. But "Ricky" remarks about Ella the one who's being bizarre for asking the question as if it's a normal thing for him. Ella notices a number written on the young leatherback's shell and asks him what is that for. But the leatherback gets confused by Ella calling him with "Ricky" as if he's a doppelganger and asks her if she's trying to get him upset. Just then "Annabel" reminds them that someone is waiting for them at the playground and she and "Pipo" both swim away to avoid getting late. But before Ella can process what's happening, "Ricky" suddenly calls her "Lola" and tells her that she's coming with him "this time", confusing Ella even more.

At the playground, Ella tells the alternate counterpart of her friends that she's not "Lola" since she's from a different reef and they must've been mistaking her for someone else. Just then, the four kids look up and see the real Lola being scold by a crab for disrespecting the speed limit. As soon as the crab left, Lola swims back to her friends and tells them it took her hours to clean up the reserve as her punishment, but when she sees Ella, she doesn't look very surprised to see her alternate self but rather happy that she won't let herself get caught next time because of her lookalike. Ella concludes that she's in an alternate universe after going through the portal in the cave earlier. When Lola asks her who she is, she introduces herself as Ella to her alternate self and her friends. The doppelgangers all notice that while Ella looks a lot like Lola in terms of appearance, Ella doesn't have an identification number on her shell unlike her alternate self, which Lola calls her "lucky" for not having one. But then the doppelgangers all realize that because of Ella's presence in the playground, the kids are an odd number which Annabel's counterpart starts to panic. Ella asks why it's a deal and the kids, except Lola, all explain that it's the law of nature for everyone to be in an even number and they find it horrible for someone to swim, eat, and play alone. Lola finds the rules to be completely silly for anyone to follow all their life, but Ella sees it as a good thing since she lives to follow the rules. Lola, realizing that Ella is the exact opposite of herself despite being her lookalike, declares to her friends that since Ella is so perfect, she can be her replacement and Lola has enough of living in the world where everyone must follow all the nature's rules. Before she swims away to get out of the reef to go off on an adventure, the young rebellious juvenile green turtle wishes her counterpart "good luck" and tells her that she needs it during her stay.

Later, Ella explains to the "Perfect Universe" counterpart of friends how she gets to their world after following a nautilus to a portal located in her world's cave from the outskirt of the reef. Since there's never a rule stating that a person's counterpart from another world can't visit their world, the kids all welcome Ella with open arms, especially since she's much nicer than Lola. Glitz's counterpart even invites her to take part in a game they're going to play with a coin, which is something Ella takes notice since her world's Glitz and Crudd would never hang out with her and her friends. This makes her so delighted to know that the scorpionfish are much nicer than the ones from her world and after what she has been through in her world earlier, she wants to stay in the new perfect reef forever to be free from her troubles. But before she can throw the coin to start the game, her parallel friends all stop her and inform her that she should never throw the coin during their game since it would cause it to fly somewhere. So instead of playing the coin toss like in her world, Ella ends up playing the coin pass which is a game where she must pass the coin to her friends.

Ella has a great time during her stay at the parallel world's reef village since she finds it as a much better and more perfect place she always wants to imagine for her world. When she attends the parallel world's shell school in Lola's place, she likes how her new classmates are all eager to listen and participate during class. She also gets to meet Sammy's counterpart who is surprisingly friends with Big Boss's counterpart which is something her world's Sammy and Big Boss would never be. But as time went on though, Ella begins to regret staying in the parallel world as well as understanding why Lola doesn't enjoy living in the reef. Because everyone is strictly following the many nature's rules and they refuse to break any of them, Ella gets bored since there isn't anything different around her since everything is way too overly perfect for her.

When she plays the "coin pass" again, she expresses to her new friends her boredom during her stay so she's going back to her world to get back to her normal life. But her complaint has been spread throughout the reef that Sammy's counterpart hosts a meeting with the other villagers about the situation. Sammy's counterpart asks Ella if she really wants to upset the entire equilibrium of the reef by leaving it to get back to her world. Ella tries to tell her grandfather's counterpart that she didn't mean to, but Sammy's counterpart didn't let her finish and he writes a number on her shell by using a piece of chalk, thus officially making Ella the newest member of the parallel world's reef, much to everyone's happiness about everything will never change again before they start chanting how "perfect" it is. Ella, on the other hand, now gets why Lola wishes her good luck and that she really needs it earlier because while the parallel world is a perfect happy utopia like she always envisions, Ella learns that she must always be careful what she wishes for.

Later, Ella tries to do whatever she can to escape out of the reef to get to the portal so she could return to her world. When the kids are all playing the "coin pass" game again, she first tries to distract them by pointing out a "shooting starfish" so she can swim out of the playground as fast as possible, but only to get caught by Annabel's counterpart. Next, she hides underneath a seaweed, but her attempt to sneak out fail when Ricky's counterpart finds her. Luckily on her third try, she alerts all her friends to freeze where they are which gives her an opportunity to get out of the playground.

But then Ella gets tailed by Lola's friends after they realize that she's trying to escape, so she starts swimming away as fast as possible and get past the doppelgangers of Albert and Alpha, which manages to buy her enough time since Lola's friends all have to stop and wait for the doppelgangers of Albert and Alpha to get out of their way.

But when Ella gets out of the reef, she is terrified to see Lola has been captured by two barracudas. Luckily, the barracudas are also following the many nature's rules and they refuse to eat Lola until it's time for dinner. When Lola's friends have caught up with Ella and see Lola in danger, they know that they have to do something quick to rescue her from being eaten. Ella suggests Annabel's counterpart should empty her ink pouch, but the octopus refuses since they're not allowed to "get everything dirty". Ella then suggests the four should take the barracudas by surprise by charging at the same time, which the kids all agree if they have to do it under the supervision of one of the members of the village council. Ella, having enough of her friends strictly following the many nature's rules which prevent them from rescuing Lola, decides to start breaking them for the greater good. She declares to them that they're playing a new game and she'll be the one who sets the rules.

After telling them her plan, Ricky's counterpart swims to the barracudas and asks them a stupid question, which distracts the barracudas and allows Annabel's counterpart to squirts out ink at them. While the barracudas are still distracted, Pipo's counterpart and Ella both carry Lola to safety. As soon as the barracudas left, Lola thanks Ella for saving her life by letting herself break the rules to do so. Ella tells Lola that she was inspired by her friends from her world to guide her before admitting that she misses them. Since Ella rescues Lola, the latter knows it's time for her to return the favor by guiding her to the cave where the portal leading back to Ella's world. Ella says goodbye to Lola and her friends before she enters the cave to return back to her world.

After riding the portal, Ella is happy to see that she's back in the world where she belongs. She swims back to the reef and goes to the playground where her real friends are waiting for her. Annabel reveals to Ella that they get their shell back from the scorpionfish while Ella is gone. Ella, remembering her journey to the other world, erases the chalk number on her shell and thanking her friends, declaring them to be perfect.

## Characters

### Major characters

* Ella
* Ricky's "Perfect Universe" counterpart
* Pipo's "Perfect Universe" counterpart
* Annabel's "Perfect Universe" counterpart

### Minor characters

* Glitz
* Crudd
* Babbles
* Lulu
* Albert
* Alpha
* Shelly
* Sammy
* Unnamed nautilus
* Lola
* Mika
* Glitz's "Perfect Universe" counterpart
* Crudd's "Perfect Universe" counterpart
* Sammy's "Perfect Universe" counterpart
* Barracudas
* Lulu's "Perfect Universe" counterpart (background)
* Big Boss's "Perfect Universe" counterpart (background)
* Jimbo's "Perfect Universe" counterpart (background)
* Albert's "Perfect Universe" counterpart (background)
* Alpha's "Perfect Universe" counterpart (background)
* Sea snake's "Perfect Universe" counterpart (background)
* Aroun (background)
* Reef inhabitants

## Trivia

* In the French version, the episode is called "Un océan parfait".
* Despite this episode is the thirty-eighth to aired on TiJi like its US airing order, it's the forty-seventh episode to aired in France on M6.
* The episode is a take on the alternate/parallel universe genre that's seen in many science-fiction media.
* This is the only episode in which it features any fantasy element. In this case, this episode reveals the existence of a magical portal to an alternate world.
* As of this episode, Ella is the only known character other than the unnamed nautilus to have ever encountered any supernatural events after she travels through a portal from her world to an alternate universe.
* This episode reveals that Shelly has told Sammy that he shouldn't snack between meals, but Sammy tends to do so behind her back.
* Despite Jimbo and Big Boss both have a "Perfect Universe" counterpart makes an appearance, neither the main-universe counterpart appears in this episode.
* In this episode, Ella gets unfairly punished by Lulu and she gets kicked out of school for presumably causing the brawl in the classroom. Though, it's possible between the events of this episode and "The Lucky Charm", Ella's friends clear up the misunderstanding to Lulu since she's back attending school in other episodes.
* The way Pipo's "Perfect Universe" counterpart has a chipper personality is similar to when his main-universe pretended to be overly happy in "Happy Pipo".
* Because they only appear as minor characters, it's unknown what is the identification number for the doppelganger of Albert, Alpha, Jimbo, Sammy, Big Boss, and the sea snake.
* After they defeat the barracudas, Ella calls herself and the counterpart of her friends the "flipper-feet" which is a nickname the Rockfish from her world commonly refers to her and her friends.

### Errors

* At the beginning of the episode, there's five background fish in the classroom. However, the five fish all disappear and didn't appear again after the Rockfish stole Ella's shell, though it's likely they have all escaped from the brawl off-screen.
* Before Ricky's doppelganger distracts the barracudas, Ella's identification number is missing on her shell.

## References

1. ↑ https://instantwatcher.com/title/80042306
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/m6/03-02-2015/
3. ↑ https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/tiji/22-03-2015/
4. ↑ https://www.netflix.com/title/80042177