The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Slip

"Can't you just give it to me?" "Yeah, sure, I'll just give it to you! If rules and regulations mean nothing to you." "So I can have it?"

Despite the past few episodes creating a sort of midseason slump for Season 6, "The Slip," and the two episodes that followed it, are a step in the right direction, each delivering fantastic stories with a refreshing sense of confidence and direction. "The Slip," for my money, was the most successful of the three, taking a silly but pedestrian premise that you might find in any show and taking it to the sorts of extremes that only Gumball is really capable of.

The central premise at play here is that Richard needs to get his package delivered, but he accidentally misses its initial delivery, spiraling into a relentless quest to pry his package from a belligerent delivery man with ruffled feathers (pun unintended). While it could've easily been another forgettable Richard vehicle that made jokes at the character's expense, or otherwise give him some stipulation that causes his identity to misalign (see: "The Diet" or as early as "The Laziest"), "The Slip" was so successful because it was true to who Richard is as a character, and instead of modifying him, it plays out entirely indebted to his strengths and flaws, all without interrupting the pacing of the episode and making him the episode's greatest asset, culminating in a heroic speech dedicated to the lazy (even if they sort of choke in terms of reciprocating enthusiasm).

It also helps, of course, that Richard had a strong dynamic with all the other characters in the episode. While Gumball and Darwin don't do much throughout the episode, they help the episode's pacing by keeping everything moving along, as well as being a nice counterbalance to Richard's looseness by helping to point him in the right direction whenever his character reaches a mental stalemate. People could argue that they're just commentators who simply milk extraneous humor from each situation, but that Darwin ultimately helps fuel Richard's unrelenting spirit and Gumball ensures that Richard triumphs in the end puts them at least a bit higher than their role in other, similarly-minded installments of the show.

Perhaps the episode's second MVP, though, other than Richard, was his delivery guy antagonist, (let's just refer to him by his last name) Gruber. Beyond just being an irritating force throughout the whole episode, he's a beautifully-realized villain, complete with a condescending German accent, general pantomiming deficiencies, and openness to riddle interpretation, and all of those attributes make him a distinct, memorable addition to the episode. Creating characters like him that want to go past mere cliches is particularly difficult—go too far, for instance, and you create a comedic black hole like Harold—but Gruber just works because of how unnecessarily jerkish he is, even to the point of luring Richard into the desert with an ice cream truck just to ensure his package delivery is late, and spending an entire day laughing non-stop at his perceived victory.

All of these characters work together to enable the episode's most memorable beats. Sure, the culmination of this is a seamless (albeit technically imperfect) rendition of Loss, but quick moments like Richard pondering what the last piece of his puzzle will look like, attending the "Dad Wake Up Awards," and Gruber repeatedly saying he's not what he makes himself out to be (first Nicole, then a bunch of flowers) keep the episode light-hearted and joyous in its slowly-mounting insanity.

Lastly, there's the ending, with Gruber ultimately losing to Richard, who simply re-orders the same package instead of choosing to go to the package depot and retrieve the package he missed. Sure, it makes the escalation meaningless in that it doesn't amount to anything, but the way I see it, "The Slip" is performing a long, florious fake-out, and the anti-climax works out perfectly. The only way to win is to not play the game, after all, and seeing Richard on top, with a no-strings-attached victory, is a glorious, unequivocal win for the show.

You might not remember "The Slip" once the show's over, but it'll persist as a strong, forgotten entry whenever you choose to rewatch it, and that's not a bad legacy to hold.

Notes and Quotes:
-Apparently, there were some references to Die Hard throughout the episode, but I didn't really catch them due to my unfamiliarity with the franchise. Under any circumstance, the fact that the show was able to pull off referential humor without it being a detriment to the quality of the episode as a whole is quite the accomplishment, especially compared to other episodes that have made it their sole objective to just spout nods to other things.
-"Do you know where we'd be without rules and regulations?" "Right here but I'd have my package?" "Life would be like a giant cagefight, without the cage."
-"AAAHH! Nicole's got a disease that turns people's skin into misdelivery slips!"
-"We made it, and only 38 minutes late!"
-"Shhhhh..." "What's he doing?" "I think he's deflating."
-I liked the fact that Richard was such a good customer at the food truck that he goes on vacation with the owner's family. (In addition, while Gruber's bad pantomiming is usually more dramatic, I liked his subdued failure to mime zipping by imitating a fishing rod.)
-I'm not sure how to time when these reviews get posted because I'm incredibly busy in college right now, but expect at least one more by Sunday.

FINAL GRADE: A. Is A a high score? Yes. But "The Slip" is, quietly, an incredibly tight, hilarious episode that coordinates itself perfectly from start to finish. That's a win in my book, and it should be in yours, too. While, emblematic of a lot of Season 6, "The Slip" doesn't really try to experiment and instead stays true to Gumball's formula, it does so without ever just going on autopilot, instead finding fun ways to use all of its characters and create a lovable, worthwhile 11 minutes of entertainment.

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