In Places for the Eclipse!

**"In Places for the Eclipse!"** is the twenty-ninth episode of the first season of *Sammy & Co*. It premiered on February 29, 2016, on Netflix.

## Synopsis

The children get excited about an upcoming solar eclipse and decide Leonard's aquarium is the ideal place to see it. But is there room for everyone?

## Plot

The episode opens at the island where the seagulls are in the water and they're about to catch a fish. John, in particular, notices that he suddenly has a desire to eat a reef inhabitant despite his promise to Sammy that he isn't supposed to. When John looks down and sees a school of Moorish idols swimming backward in the water, he wonders out loud what's happening to himself and everyone around him, unaware that an astronomical event is about to happen above him.

At the shell school, the students are bewildered when they see Annabel start changing colors out of controllably as well as squirting ink at Babbles without meaning to. Ricky, who's strangely behaving very normally, notices that his classmates have been acting strange lately without any reason. Pipo starts stuttering and hiccuping, Babbles can't control his static electricity powers, Lulu can't control his pincers, Glitz feels very cold, and Crudd feels very hot. Just then, an alarm siren goes off three times which alerts everyone in the village to meet up at the palaver tree right away.

At the palaver tree, Sammy is holding a meeting and he calmly tells everyone that the reason that if they're feeling a little out of whack lately, it's because of the solar eclipse that is about to happen later that day. Sammy informs them that he already experienced one a very long time ago and explains to the villagers that it is when the sun goes into hiding in the middle of the day and disturbs the behavior of animals. However, the only ones he knows who isn't affected by the eclipse are sea turtles thanks to their shells. When Babbles hears that Sammy and Shelly have both experienced the eclipse together and he mentions that it's "one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in [his] life”, he imagines himself and Ella watching the solar eclipse together and experience the same thing Sammy and Shelly have experienced. Sammy informs the villagers that if they want to watch the eclipse, they must protect their eyes with some seaweed because of the light from the sun.

At the outskirts of the reef village, the Rockfish are searching for seaweed to cover their eyes for the eclipse. Just then, Glitz and Crudd both get distracted by a swarm of jellyfish with different colors swimming by. But while his friends are distracted, Babbles tells them he's going to leave them alone while he gets back to the village.

Back at the village, Babbles hides behind a rock and spies on Annabel and Ella both searching for a seaweed. He sees the eclipse as an opportunity for him to be alone with Ella in the hope the two would become a couple while watching the eclipse. After rehearsing what he's going to say to her, Babbles swims out of his hiding place to ask Ella out as a date. However, Ricky suddenly arrives and ruins his Babbles' plan when he asks Ella first. He suggests the two of them should go watch the eclipse together from the island overlooking the reef because of the incredible view. However, Annabel points out that she and Pipo can't go on dry land and reminds Ricky that they are all going to watch the eclipse together. Ricky apologizes to Pipo and Annabel for forgetting them since he wants to spend time alone with Ella, so he agrees with Ella that it'll be a lot more fun for the four of them to watch it all together. The kids all swim up to the surface to take a look at the sky when Annabel notices that the moon is covering the sun. There, they notice the seagulls above them are all flying and squawking in the sky which makes the four all realize that the seagulls are also affected by the eclipse. To make matters, John is also affected that he reverts back to his old eating habits. When he looks down and sees the kids above the surface, he swoops down to grab them, but the kids all swim down. The four kids didn't warn Babbles in time about the seagulls when he swims up to the surface to join them. So when Babbles appears out of the surface, he nearly gets himself becoming John's food if Annabel didn't grab Babbles right away and swims back down to the reef.

Since John won't be able to protect the kids because he's under the influence of the eclipse so there's no way for the kids to watch the eclipse from above the surface, Ricky tells his friends and Babbles that he'll find a better place for them to watch the eclipse together. As soon as Ricky and his friends all swim away from Babbles, the scorpionfish knows that he has to find a solution before they do because once he does, then he believes Ella won't be able to resist him anymore if he helps her and her friends. When he sees two crabs nearby, it gives him an idea and he swims to Leonard's aquarium.

Babbles watches Leonard having a conversation with Norbert and the scorpionfish is about to return back to the village to tell Ella, as well as her friends, his plan. Just then, Jimbo arrives and he is about to tell Babbles something, but he ignores him and swims away from him to look for Ricky and his friends. At the reef village, Ricky is drawing a diagram to his friends about his idea to watch the eclipse without the seagulls interfering with them. Right after explaining to his friends his idea, Babbles arrives and suggests to them that they should visit Leonard's aquarium as part of his plan.

When the five kids are on the outskirts of the village and they are hiding outside of the aquarium without Leonard seeing them, Babbles tells the kids that they should bring the aquarium up to the surface and with the aquarium's roof, they won't have to worry about the seagulls. However, Ricky points out that Leonard can't stand anyone being in his aquarium and he's uncertain how they could convince the stubborn crab to let them in his home. Babbles tells the four that he can deal with the situation, but after the kids enter the aquarium, Leonard immediately refuses to lend them his aquarium since he has overheard their conversation. He worries that the kids would mess everything up and get fin marks everywhere in his home. When Ricky suggests they should simply take everything out of the aquarium, Leonard again still refuses to let them do so. Ricky, knowing that the eclipse will be happening soon, convinces the stubborn crab that if he let them use your aquarium for the day, they'll promise to come back and guard it, along with Norbert as well, every time Leonard leaves the aquarium. Yet again, Leonard still refuses the offer since he doesn't want Norbert to be baby-sat by a child. But when Ricky suggests that Lulu should babysit Norbert instead since he's a very responsible teacher, Leonard finally accepts the offer.

While Ricky swims back to the reef village to get Lulu, he runs into Jimbo who is about to tell him something that he was about to say to Babbles earlier, but the blobfish gets ignored again. Once Ricky returns to the aquarium with Lulu, the lobster tells the crab that he'll teach Norbert if Leonard also lets Lulu in so he could watch the eclipse, which Leonard allows him to. Later that day, Jimbo arrives to tell the kids something important again, but only to get ignored yet again when Leonard refuses to let him into the aquarium and tells him there's no more vacancy.

Back at the reef village, Glitz and Crudd are looking for Babbles after they notice his absence earlier. When Jimbo gets back to the reef and grumpily remarks to himself that he wants the eclipse to be done and over with, Glitz asks him what's the matter. Jimbo reveals to them that Babbles and the others are "so obsessed by their idea of watching the eclipse from Leonard's aquarium", but before he can say what he wants to say yet again, Crudd interrupts him and the two scorpionfish both immediately swim away to get to Leonard's aquarium, completely ignoring Jimbo.

At Leonard's aquarium, Glitz and Crudd both arrive and they're angry at Babbles for wanting to see the eclipse behind their backs and with Ricky and his friends. Babbles, not wanting his friends to know that the reason he wants to watch the eclipse in the aquarium is that he wants to be with Ella, tells them that he was going to come to get them. But Leonard refuses to let Glitz and Crudd in because of how crowded the aquarium is now. Ricky, seeing it's an opportunity to get rid of Babbles, orders him to go with his friends somewhere else. However, Glitz points out that they haven't figure out a way to lift the aquarium up into the surface yet. With time is running out and Glitz suggests to them that she has a plan if they let her and Crudd in, Leonard is forced by the kids and Lulu to invite them into his aquarium to see the eclipse.

Outside of Big Boss's shipwreck, Ricky, Ella, and the Rockfish are all looking at the colored jellyfish swimming by. Glitz tells them that if they can attach the extremities of the aquarium to the jellyfish, they'll lift it up to the surface. Just then, Marco and Philippe both arrive and Philippe curiously asks the kids what they're doing. When Glitz asks the two moray eels for their help, Philippe reveals to the kids that he and his brother want to see the eclipse too. Since Marco and Philippe are both friendly enough to help them, the kids lead them to the aquarium after the two rounded up the jellyfish.

But right after Leonard yet again refuses to let any more sea creatures in, Glitz and Ricky both manage to convince him that if he doesn't let Marco and Philippe in, then there'll be no jellyfish to lift the aquarium up to see the eclipse, and no eclipse means no private lessons for Norbert. Once the jellyfish carry the aquarium up, Jimbo arrives to tell them something again, but only to get yet again ignored when Glitz demands him to go find somewhere else. This time, Jimbo has enough of being ignored by the kids all day so he leaves them alone without wanting to tell them what he's been trying to tell them. But as soon as Jimbo leaves, Glitz's plan has disaster fallen apart when she suddenly sneezes which causes herself to bump into Babbles who creates static electricity and accidentally shocks everyone inside the aquarium. To make matters worse, Annabel accidentally squirts out ink again, causing the ink to cover the inside of the aquarium and everyone to scream, which inadvertently scares all the jellyfish and they drop the aquarium and everyone inside down to the ocean floor.

Ironically, while everyone in the aquarium is suffering from the chaos, Jimbo arrives at the island and he watches the eclipse with Sammy, Shelly, Ray, and Rita together. Sammy tells Jimbo that "it's a real shame Ricky, Ella, and their friends couldn't enjoy it from this setting", which Jimbo remarks that it "serves them right" for not listening to him all day.

## Characters

### Major characters

* Ricky
* Ella
* Pipo
* Annabel
* Babbles
* Leonard

### Minor characters

* Lulu
* Glitz
* Crudd
* Jimbo
* Sammy
* Shelly
* John
* Philippe
* Marco (non-speaking)
* Ray (background)
* Rita (background)
* Paul (background)
* Ringo (background)
* George (background)
* Aroun (background)
* Mika (background)
* Jellyfish
* Reef inhabitants

## Trivia

* In the French version, the episode is called "En place pour l'éclipse".
* Despite this episode is the twenty-ninth to aired on TiJi like its US airing order, it's the forty-third episode to aired in France on M6.
* Nearly the entire episode has a lower saturation to give out a solar eclipse effect in the background. In the extended version of "Sammy's Reef", the clips from this episode that are used in the extended theme song are in its normal tone.
* Because the setting of the *Sammy & Co* TV series is confirmed to be located "a few nautical miles away from Dubai" and a solar eclipse is happening in this episode, it's likely this episode takes place on December 26, 2019, since a real-life solar eclipse has happened to be visible in Dubai and its surrounding area on that date.
	+ This most likely means that Sammy, Ray, and Shelly are all currently sixty years old in this episode since they're all born in 1959 as revealed in *A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures*. By extension, it also means that since Ricky and Ella are both currently seven years old, they were both born in around 2012 in *A Turtle's Tale 2: Sammy's Escape from Paradise* since they would later turn eight in "Double Birthday", which coincidentally is the release year for the sequel film.
	+ This also means the entirely of *Sammy & Co* takes place in both 2019 and 2020.
* According to Sammy, he and Shelly both have experienced a solar eclipse before in their life. It's likely they experienced one during their honeymoon in *A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures*.
* As stated by Sammy, the solar eclipse heavily disturbs the animals' behavior and would often revert them back to their natural instincts, but it won't affect the turtles due to their shells.
	+ Because of the eclipse, John has his appetite for turtles back and he almost eats Ricky, Ella, and their friends.
	+ Despite they appear in the episode, it's unknown how the eclipse affects Marco, Philippe, Jimbo, and Leonard.
* Despite Marco and Philippe both appear in this episode, Big Boss does not.
* At the beginning of the episode, John notices a school of Moorish idol swimming backward in the water due to the effects of the solar eclipse. In real life, most fish species can have the ability to swim backward.
* Ironically, if the kids all listen to Jimbo when he tries to explain to them that he and the adult turtles have already found a perfect place to watch the solar eclipse on the island, then the entire episode conflict wouldn't happen. This also means they, the Rockfish, Lulu, Leonard, Marco, and Philippe won't all be missing out of the eclipse since they were too busy suffering from the chaos near the end of the episode.

## References

1. ↑ https://instantwatcher.com/title/80042306
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/m6/23-12-2014/
3. ↑ https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/tiji/15-03-2015/
4. ↑ https://www.netflix.com/title/80042177