The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Pact

"Well if I go down, I'm taking you with me." "Yeah? Well, if you do take me with you, I'm gonna sit in the back and complain the whole way and keep asking you if we're there yet."

Well, those plot synopses are a bit annoying, aren't they?

Before we discuss anything else, I think it's something incredibly important to address how misleading they are, because all they've done is cause mismatched expectations to emerge, and in this instance, they've helped sink this episode's reception to some extent. And I understand why: it advertises Penny playing a larger role on the front box, but her character is only utilized as much as necessary (that is to say for roughly five seconds of screentime). Even if it's difficult, I don't think we can hold this episode's disregard for the character against it: that was never the direction the show was trying to take.

There's a lot to be said about how Penny just isn't on the writers' minds, and that's a problem in and of itself for sure. But we can't chalk this as a failure merely because some idiot watched two minutes of the episode, assumed it was going to do something else, and haphazardly wrote a rough description. Simply put, you can't evaluate an episode on the basis of that which it wasn't trying to do.

With that being said, though, "The Pact" certainly wasn't anything special, and though it was far from an abject failure, it came across as a rather scattershot effort. Let's chalk it under that "pleasant but forgettable" category.

The issue, for what it's worth, doesn't lay in the concept. Basically, Principal Brown and Gumball decide to help each other out by informing one another's significant others about some off-putting characteristic they have, but the episode takes a shift when Brown refuses to take part in his side of the alliance, causing the two to butt heads and, as the episode intensifies, vouch for the other's ultimate downfall. Where the episode shines is in following Season 6's pattern of exploring the show's more underutilized cast, with Brown coming across as particularly delightful to watch.

It's weird to think that he hasn't played a larger role in the show since "The Fraud," but he's a character who's consistently memorable with every appearance he makes. There's just something great about his character: he's a school principal who repeatedly compromises his own integrity and tries to cover it up while only further digging his own grave. Nothing particularly new is explored here, but he's always a joy to watch in what deadpan strangeness he offers across every appearance, and this episode, wherein he manipulates Gumball, yields the most incriminating, callous thing he's done yet. As antagonistic as he is, though, he's just woefully incompetent and melodramatic–his greatest strength.

The issue with the episode is just that it never really goes all out. That's a dumb complaint to have about any show, granted, but everything about "The Pact" felt very cozy and workmanlike. I can attribute part of that to the episode's structure, which is scattershot to say the least; instead of committing to one particular direction, it started up new ideas and sequences without cleanly finishing them, leaving the episode in a strange and constant state of flux that never really worked out.

For what it's worth, I didn't mind the backpeddle out of the whole "pact" thing; more than anything else, that was the show throwing the audience a diversion before revealing its true intention, and I always enjoy some fun audience trickery. The issue is more what happened afterwards, with "The Pact" jumping around through a series of gag-oriented sequences that never get properly realized. There's just too much meat to each of them, but the fact that they get explored briefly means the show doesn't have the chance to make any enjoyably distinct. 

For instance, the brief horror movie-esque sequence has some fun with its intensifying repetition, but it fizzles out rather quickly and feels like a detour from what the episode is aiming for, while other sequences, like Gumball and Brown wrecking Brown's office through aggressive intimidation tactics is so oddly-placed and long that it almost detracts. "The Pact," ultimately, is an episode whose individual scenes never equate to the sum of its parts. Strong in isolation, perhaps, but it doesn't ultimately create a greater whole.

At the very least, the episode ends rather nicely and in expected Gumball fashion, with Gumball turning on the school's intercom to make Brown's acts against him known while accidentally sealing both's fates by revealing their original plan. It's a nice punch to follow up an enjoyable but ultimately wobbly experience, but hey, no show's perfect.

Notes and Quotes:

-Gumball singing "Without You" at the beginning was a nice continuity nod to start the episode off with, as is Brown's questionable criminality in briefly plotting to kill off Penny and Miss Simian. I love the guy, but he's all over the place.

-The sequence showing Miss Simian's bad breath and its detrimental effects on everyone around her was a bit too straightforward, but you have to admire that vertical pan as the breath ravages through  Banana Joe, Bobert, Leslie, and Gumball. This show is so lovingly cinematic sometimes.

-I'll have you know that I actually penned an idea entirely identical to the ransom brick sequence last year, so watching it play out in the show was a slight trip. They probably handled it a lot better.

-"I got the muscle mass of a J-rock singer."

-Darwin makes an expectedly self-aware one second appearance as a disdainful decoy for Gumball, but the show pulls it off so well that it's hard to be too angry about it.

FINAL GRADE: C+. I don't think "The Pact" is a bad episode, and it's worth noting that nothing truly fell flat. The issue is that very little rose to the challenge. It explores an interesting premise without the strong focus the show usually has, so while I can appreciate what it does and a lot of the smaller touches, when looked at on the basis of being a complete product, it feels a bit lackluster. Nothing wrong with an average episode here and there, though, and with "The Shippening" around the corner, you can't say the show's not pushing as steadily as always.

For the last Gumball review of "The Anybody," CLICK HERE.