My Invisible Friend

**"My Invisible Friend"** is the first segment of the nineteenth episode of the first season of *Hamster & Gretel*, and the thirty-sixth episode overall. It is paired with "The Bitter Sitter" and premiered on Disney Channel on March 11, 2023.

During a failed attempt to catch the Rat Burglar, Gretel has accidentally become invisible, which is problematic as she promised Bailey to be at the Spelling Bee finals for support, who becomes suspicious of her disappearances.

## Plot

Bailey is extremely nervous about competing in an upcoming spelling bee against a boy named Xavier, who she lost to repeatedly in prior competitions. She relies on Gretel to provide emotional support, only for her to abruptly leave when Kevin notifies her about the villain Rat Burglar. The ensuing battle then leads to Gretel being covered in invisible ink, turning her invisible. Kevin races to find a remedy so Gretel can help Bailey while Hamster and Fred travel to the town of Brookville to see if the producer of the ink, the Hardy Har-Har Novelty Company, has a cure for it.

At the spelling bee, Gretel learns that Rat Burglar is Xavier's mother and that she plans to turn herself invisible and help Xavier win the spelling bee. This leads to a second battle, with Gretel gaining an advantage by the Rat Burglar giving herself away by talking. Hamster and Fred intervene by using a hexavalent lamp they received from Mr. Hardy, owner of the Hardy Har-Har Novelty Company, to expose Rat Burglar's presence to the audience, disqualifying Xavier. When the invisible ink wears off, Gretel attempts to apologize to Bailey, who won the spelling bee, for her failure to show up, but Bailey is upset about Gretel's supposed betrayal. Gretel is then forced to reveal her superhero identity to Bailey while saving her from being hit by scaffolding that had been damaged during the battle. Bailey immediately faints afterward.

## Cast and characters

* Meli Povenmire as Gretel Grant-Gomez
* Michael Cimino as Kevin Grant-Gomez
* Beck Bennett as Hamster
* Priah Ferguson as Bailey Carter
* Joey King as Fred Grant
* Brock Powell as Xavier, Mr. Hardy
* Rachel Dratch as Helen/Rat Burglar
* Keith Ferguson as Principal Funderberk
* Michael-Leon Wooley as Roman Carter (Non-speaking)
* Debra Wilson as Michelle Carter (Non-speaking)

## Transcript

*Click here to read the full transcript of **"My Invisible Friend"**.*

## Background information

### Trivia

* As of this episode, Bailey now knows that her best friend Gretel is the same person as the superhero Gretel. This is the second time someone has discover Gretel's hero identity; the first is her grandmother in "Abuelita's World".
	+ Both times, she was exposed as a result of trying to save someone from getting crushed by a heavy metal object from above.
* "My Invisible Friend" and "The Bitter Sitter" share a couple similarities with *The Ghost and Molly McGee* episodes "Scratch the Surface" and "The Friend-Off"; Both pairs of episodes feature a latter episode that directly follow up after a former episode, and both involve the main character's best friend discovering the main character's huge secret that is also the premise of their respective series, at the end of the former episode, with the latter episode having the best friend deal with the new revelation. Both pairs are also put near a midway point of a season (or in *Hamster & Gretel's* case, near 2/3rd of a season).
	+ Both former episodes end on a cliffhanger with having the main character's best friend fainted after they reveal their secret to them, and the latter episodes both begin with the BFF's waking up from where they left off.

### Allusions

* ***The Invisible Man*** - One attempt to make Gretel visible during the song You Can't See Me is by wrapping her in bandages; this is similar to Griffin, the titular Invisible Man from this 1897 H. G. Wells novel, who is introduced in the story as a stranger wrapped in bandages after making himself invisible.

### Errors

* During the scene at Hardy-Har-Har's Novelty Company, at one point, Fred's pants are mistakenly colored as grey as opposed to their usual black.
* When Fred is on the phone with Gretel, her bottom half isn't colored in.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.dgepress.com/disneybrandedtelevision/shows/hamster-gretel/episodes/my-invisible-friend-the-bitter-sitter/
2. ↑ https://twitter.com/disneytvanews/status/1623357532424048641