Rats. (5)

"**Rats. (5)**" is the first episode of season 3.

## Plot

Three years after Doctor Labcoat wiped out the entire human populace of New York City, called "Green Day", two Army personnel based out of New Jersey assigned two soldiers to oversee the city that people can't go into via video feed. The animals of New York City turned it into little kingdoms: Rat Town, Ye Olde Horseburg, Squirrel Square, Dog Centre, GrabbagVille, Pigeon Heights and The Democratic People's Republic of Kitty City. The two rats, Phil Jr. and Mike, go on a *Dude, Where's My Car?*-like quest and encounter multiple species and terrors along the way.

## Characters

* Mike (Rat)
* Phil Jr
* Principal Leif
* Rat Andy Dick
* The General
* The Lieutenant
* Tia
* Lillie
* Ruber Driver
* Private Matarese
* Private Luciano
* Rat Bob Balaban
* Waitress 1
* Waitress 2
* Phil (Cat)
* Mike (Cat)
* Phil (Horse)
* Phil (Gecko)
* Mike (Gecko)
* Yumi
* Toaster

## Trivia

* From this episode and onward, a new intro is displayed throughout season three.
	+ "Rats. (3)" is technically the only first episode that didn't feature the intro in their respective season.
* "Rats. (1)", "Rats. (3)", and "Rats. (5)" all feature the characters of the rats Phil and Mike.
* This is the third episode where live footage is used. Followed by "Dogs." and "Humans."
	+ From this point onward, live footage will be featured throughout the third season.
* The lieutenant stated they build their government base in New Jersey to prevent another Green Day, and tax incentives.
* The events are set three years after Dog. where Dr. Labcoat wiped out humanity, and the day where the Green Bomb went off was dub "Green Day".
	+ "Green Day" is a reference to the American rock band as the lieutenant claimed that the day has no affiliation with Billie Joe, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool who they happen to be members of the band.
* The fourth wall was broken a couple of times:
	+ When the General took notice of one of the rooms, it has the title of the TV show.
	+ When Privates Matarese and Luciano are about to monitor the rats, the former requested the latter to be quiet as "this is how the episode starts now".
	+ When Phil Jr. doesn't see Mike's car, he goes on a "copyright-free question" with Mike going "Bro, where's my vehicle?", referencing the film *Dude, Where's My Car?*, and also references copyright infringement.
	+ Mike and Phil Jr. calls out to one of the lizards comparing to Reptar of being a "concept within another cartoon" and a "fictional character inside a fictional universe" respectively, which ironically would be an indirect reference to Phil Jr. himself and the other characters in a TV show.
	+ In Toys Is We, when Mike declaring wanting to go home after Phil Jr. popped his yo-yo, Phil Jr. later responded "Classic *Animals*."
	+ Bob Balaban pops up and speaks to the audience about wanting something more so he sang during the end credits and even appeared in the credits, and even one of the waitresses sang in his song. The lyrics even references "season tres" as in the show's third season as well as the event of the human race being extinct from "Dog."
* When Mike suggested doing "walk the dog" with his yo-yo, Phil Jr prevented him from doing it as that phrase is racist towards dogs, so the phrase for it would now be "stroll the cylinder".
* The episode is a reference to the American comedy film, *Dude, Where's My Car?*.
* When Privates Matarese and Luciano showed the General of monitoring the animals, there are two squirrels that resemble Mike (Squirrel) and April, and two that one resembles Mike (Mafia Cat) and one that is almost identical to Johnny.
* Tia and Lillie mentioned kissing Loren Bouchard and the show *Bob's Burgers*. Phil Jr. stated he is a fan of the show and has a pink bunny hat that references one of the characters, Louise Belcher, who wears it.
* When Tia and Lillie recalled Phil and Mike butt-chugging 24 bottles of rosé and holding hands while saying "It's like we're married!", and Phil kissing Mike when they were being chased by cats, a crocodile, and a tarantula is probably a callback to "Dog." where Auntie May considers Phil a homo and accuses Mike of being gay with him.
* Ruber is a parody of Uber.
* Mike stated Principal Leif is divorced.
* Balabans references a real-life cafe.
* This is the second time the characters of Phil and Mike of different species are seen, as with Phil Jr, Mike (Rat), Phil (Cat), and Mike (Cat), though they didn't interact with each other.
	+ The Phil and Mike characters appeared together at the end of "Dog.", though this only occurred of doing the performance.
* When Mike tried to speak cat and snake, the captions translated to "basically the n-word", referencing a slur that is offensive to African-Americans.
* When Mike tried to speak spider, the captions translated to "Bill Cosby innocent".
* When Phil Jr suggests Mike to "stroll the cylinder" to distract the cats, Mike mistook it for *Gleaming the Cube*.
* Phil Jr. and Mike mention Scottie Pippen.
* Phil Jr. and Mike mistaking the snake and crocodile for dinosaurs may be a possible reference to the *Jurassic Park* franchise.
* When smoking marijuana, Phil Jr. hallucinates Mike as Remy from Pixar's film, *Ratatouille*, while also mentioning he looks like Patton Oswalt, to which he happens to be the voice of Remy.
* Phil Jr compares one of the lizards to Reptar from *Rugrats*.
* The lizards have a DVD of Simon Birch. Unlike the real film cover, it has another label that reads "Move over Austin powers Birch is in town!".
* The lizards have an arcade machine that reads *The Simpsons*.
* Mike has a backup phone to find his first one, and, apparently, also revealed he is a drug dealer.
* Phil Jr claimed he'd seen God and referring to as She.
* Toys Is We is based off on Toys "R" Us.
* Phil Jr wonders about getting a mask from the film *The Mask* while also mentioning Jim Carrey. Adam Sandler is also mentioned. At the end, Phil Jr and Mike get into an argument about who is the best comedian actor which they would later take to trial.
* On one of the shelves at Toys Is We, there is a bird that would appear later.
* In Phil Jr's fantasy, he imagines himself popping out his yo-yo and swings across with Mike to safety is a reference to Marvel superhero, Spiderman.
	+ Also, in the fantasy, Mike mentions Phil Jr having no father.
* When driving the crafted car the GrabbagVille animals made, Phil Jr. runs over a toaster.
* It's revealed Principal Leif's first name is Terry.
* Phil Jr stated he doesn't see the appeal Jason Sudeikis, finds Marvel movies entertaining, and finds Netflix an uncurated mess. He and Mike also mentioned *Futurama*.
* Bob Balaban mentions being in *Seinfeld*, *Close Encounters*, and *Girls*, and has a picture of himself shaking hands with Wes Anderson and Christopher Guest and stated he's been in their camps based off on them.
* When Phil and Mike were thrown out of Balaban's backdoor, a graffiti writing of "RIP FINK" is seen on the wall, again referencing "Rats. (1)".
* When the angry mob were going after Phil Jr and Mike, the former commented being like a "Jumanji-like rumbling".
* When surrounded by the angry mob, Tia and Lillie were next to each other. In the next scene, they swap places.