Fool's Gold

**Fool's Gold** is the ninth episode of the second series, and the forty-seventh episode of *The Casagrandes*.

## Plot

When they find a treasure map, the Casagrandes go on a wild search for Pancho Villa's gold.

## Synopsis

In the mercado's stock room, Hector, Carlos, CJ, and Carl are cleaning up. During their cleaning, a message in a bottle falls from a high shelf. Upon taking the paper out, the message reads:

*You found my letter - what a pleasure!*
*Keep reading to find my treasure!*
*Solve this ridden, then solve three more,*
*find the next letter lighting up the shore.*
*-Pancho Villa*
Seeing it's from Pancho Villa, Carlos elaborates that he was one of the most famous generals in the Mexican Revolution, and brings up the legend that he has a treasure hidden and that no one has ever found it. Realizing that they have the clue to find it, the four decide to go look for it. Taking another look at the clue, they deduce that the first clue is at the lighthouse, and proceed to head there, but not before Hector tells them to keep this adventure to themselves.

Arriving to the lighthouse, the boys discover the clue at the very top. Hector opts to get it after Carlos reminds him that the treasure is estimated to be worth 3.2 million dollars. Scaling the tall lighthouse, Hector is suddenly attacked by pigeons upon reaching the top, preventing him from grabbing the clue. Carl manages to drive them away by saying that an old man nearby has bread, and Hector successfully grabs the clue. After reaching the bottom, the next clue reads:

*At the market with the old fishmonger,*
*you'll have to prove no one's stronger.*
Carl immediately figures that the next clue is at the fish market, and quickly head there, while almost nearly slipping the information in front of Vito, Big Tony and Little Sal.

Arriving to the fish market, the boys discover the clue in a tank house a boxing squid (quite literally). When Carl realizes that the boxing squid is challenging Carlos, the squid suddenly grabs Carlos and begins to fight him. As the squid's ink turns the water black, Maybelle suddenly arrives and asks what's going on. The three quickly drive her away by saying that there's a special offer on salmon on the other side of the market, and the second she leaves, Carlos rises up, holding the letter. After taking out the letter, it reads:

*No need for horse or hay today,*
*just ride the oldest hidden railway.*
Carl figures that it must mean the subway, and he knows exactly railway is the oldest.

In the subway, Carl manages to find the next clue in a tight wall crevice. Since he's the smallest, he proceeds to get it. However, the clue is stuck to a slice of pizza, and as he tries to pull it out, he's suddenly attack by a pack of rats, who want the pizza. After a brief scuffle, the rats take the pizza, and Carl successfully gets the clue. However, before they can read it, Stanley drops by, and greets them. After lying to him by saying that they're just touring the subway, and after the train starts departing without him, Hector reads the final clue:

*The last letter has been found,*
*to claim your treasure you must monkey around.*
Seeing that the clue is referring to the zoo, the four immediately head there, but not before Hector texts Rosa, saying that they found treasure and that they're heading to the zoo to retrieve it.

At the Great Lakes City Zoo, the four boys are trying to find the monkey habitat, when suddenly, Sergio arrives and says the treasure is his. Realizing that he found out, the boys attempt to race to the monkey habitat, but soon discover that everyone they met on their adventure has found out. After getting a ride on Bitsy the elephant, they arrive to the monkey habitat, where Sergio, Vito, Maybelle, Stanley, Becca, Par, Mrs. Kernicky and Mr. Scully are digging to find the treasure. Realizing that everyone knows about the treasure now, they question how it happened. Vito then brings up that Hector informed them, and Hector tries to defend himself by saying that he only texted Rosa. Upon closer inspection, it turns out that Hector informed everyone *but* Rosa. Immediately afterwards, the four begin to dig with the others, and when CJ finds a chest, everyone fights for it. However, during the fight, the gold suddenly flies out and Bitsy eats it all. With the treasure gone, everyone realizes that they let their greed get in the way and state that they should've shared. Suddenly, Bitsy coughs up the gold, and upon closer inspection, it turns out that they were simply chocolate gold coins, and the wrappers are actually coupons, which read:

*Congratulations, you found the golden treasure.*
*Here's 30% off for your dining pleasure.*
*Sincerely, Pancho Villa's Tacos*
This discovery causes everyone to get angry at Hector, since he led them on a wild goose chase around town all for coupons and not real gold. Hector sheepishly remembers now that Pancho Villa's Tacos was the restaurant he and Rosa had their first date, and that the first clue they found was simply a souvenir that he eventually forgot about after so long. Regardless, the crowd demands him to make up for all their troubles by buying tacos, but when Hector refuses, saying that it's too expensive (even with 30% off), Bitsy threatens him into relenting, and he agrees to buy tacos for everyone (but not before taking the coupons).

## Cast

* Ruben Garfias as Hector
* Carlos Alazraqui as Carlos / Sergio / Vito
* Jared Kozak as CJ
* Alex Cazares as Carl
* Dee Bradley Baker as Old Man / Bitsy
* Lauri Fraser as Mrs. Kernicky
* Telma Hopkins as Maybelle
* Ken Jeong as Stanley
* Sean Kenin as Big Tony / Little Sal
* Phil LaMarr as Mr. Scully
* Sunil Malhotra as Par

Becca has no lines in the episode. Although listed in the credits, Mr. Scully has no lines in this episode.

## Trivia

* This along with "Flight Plan" marks the first time where Ronnie Anne is absent from both segments.
* The premise of the episode is similar to the *Loud House* episode "It's a Loud, Loud, Loud, Loud, House" where someone finds a map to a hidden treasure and began to search for it and started fighting with others to obtain it. The only major difference is in that episode they found money, while this one there was only coupons to a restaurant.
* This episode marks the first time it focuses on the Casagrande men (excluding Bobby and Carlitos).
* Carlos is revealed to be afraid of spiders.
* Vito is revealed to have once owned a (male) goldfish, but he can't remember his name.
* This episode reveals that the contacts on Hector's cell phone are Rosa, Vito, the Chang parents, Sergio, Maybelle, and Par.
* **Irony**:
	+ Hector told CJ and Carl to not let anyone know about the treasure, but he ended up informing everyone himself.
	+ Hector pretended there was gold, however he forgot he was pretending and so genuinely thought there was gold.
* **Cartoon physics**:
	+ Stanley drove out from one of the porta-potties in a streetcar, which is shown to be much bigger than porta-potties themselves.
		- Also Bitsy managed to fit in one of the porta-potties, despite being bigger.
	+ **Possible**: Animals do not use porta-potties. However, the sloth may have wandered into the porta-potty out of curiosity rather than to use it.

## References

* ***Fool's Gold*** - The title of this episode is a reference to the mineral iron pyrite, which is often nicknamed "fool's gold" due of its brass-yellow hue giving it the appearance of gold.