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"Bloooo" is the eighth/thirteenth episode of Season 1 of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. It's the eighth/thirteenth episode, overall.
Plot[]
SPOILER: Plot details follow.
Mac and Bloo are playing in the mud during a thunderstorm, and both quickly develop cases of the flu. After seeing that Mac appears to be developing a fever, Frankie gives Mac a ride back home while Bloo, Wilt, Eduardo, and Coco prepare to watch a late-night horror film, but Bloo's flu gets worse, and he goes to bed. Meanwhile, Frankie drops Mac off at his home, and during her drive back to Foster's, she swerves off the road trying to avoid hitting a large figure with a hook on his left hand. Frankie gets out to investigate, but doesn't find anyone (unbeknownst to her, the figure's hook is now on the bus' rear bumper).
Back at the house, Wilt and Eduardo are beginning to believe the ghost in the film is real, and both get startled when the window behind them blows open. In a state of panic, they barricade all the windows and doors of the house, with Wilt dropping the keys out a window. Frankie returns but slips up and loses her key in the mud. When she searches for it, she finds the keys Wilt threw out. Wilt and Eduardo try to go back to their room, but encounter what they believe is a ghost in the corridor (actually Coco wearing a sheet) and flee. Whilst hiding in their room, they see and hear what they believe is another ghost (actually a very pale Bloo).
Outside, Frankie finally manages to unlock the front door with the right key but cannot get inside because the door is barricaded. Back inside, Wilt, Eduardo, and Coco plan to catch the "ghost" themselves, using a vacuum cleaner laid by Coco. Whilst sneaking through the house looking for the "ghost", they encounter Bloo again and begin chasing him. Meanwhile, Frankie is still outside trying to get back in, and whilst looking for a way back inside she sees the silhouette of the figure she almost hit earlier and runs away screaming. Wilt, Eduardo and Coco eventually corner Bloo and attempt to capture him using the vacuum cleaner, but Eduardo accidentally activates the blow function, sending Bloo up into the air. Bloo grabs hold of a chandelier, but eventually loses his grip and falls to the ground, where he is caught in a potato sack Eduardo was carrying.
In the foyer, the group is confronted by Mr. Herriman, who has been investigating the disturbances and demands to know what is going on, with Coco explaining that they have caught a "ghost". Just as Mr. Herriman claims ghosts don't exist, Frankie rams the front door with the bus in a last-ditch attempt to get inside, and in doing so covers the group in plaster. Frankie gets out of the bus gibbering about a monster, and, upon seeing the group covered in plaster, screams that they're ghosts and faints. The figure outside pushes the bus further into the house and retrieves his hook. In a deep, sinister voice he claims he's been trying to get his hands on them all day, which causes the rest of the group to faint. However, the figure clears his throat and reveals himself to be an imaginary friend looking for a home. Bloo gets out of the sack and confirms they take in imaginary friends, with his pale colour scaring the friend and causing him to flee.
The episode ends with a confused Bloo sneezing at the camera, whilst a montage of the characters screaming is played over the end credits.
Running gags[]
- Bloo's reflection talking to the actual Bloo.
- Wilt saying "Gesundheit" whenever Mac or Bloo sneeze, no matter where they are.
- Coco laying something when they need it, but Wilt being displeased with the quality (popcorn with no butter, the vacuum cleaner).
- Everyone calling Bloo a ghost.
Spoilers end here.
Trivia[]
- This is the first time Frankie gets locked out of the house, the other times being "The Big Cheese" (and its retelling "The Little Peas"), and "Fools and Regulations".
- This is the last episode to premiere in 2004 before the series' first hiatus.
- Despite this being the last episode of Season 1, according to the production code, this is the 8th episode made, as Frankie still has strings of hair hanging over her ears, as an earlier update of her without the strings appeared in "World Wide Wabbit" (listed as the 10th episode made), which became official in "Who Let the Dogs In?" (listed as the 13th made).
- The music that the different-colored Bloos in the mirror play is later played in the video of the two chimps dancing that Mac, Wilt, Eduardo, and Coco watch in "Bloo Tube".
- Bloo's flu causes him to become pale and completely white in this episode, yet he got ill in "The Bloo Superdude and the Great Creator of Everything's Awesome Ceremony of Fun That He's Not Invited To" and retained his usual color. It's likely that Bloo's flu in this episode was a more aggressive strain, evident by the fact that he was out playing in the mud while it rained.
- Mac is only seen at the beginning of the episode.
- When Eduardo smashes through the walls, a crash sound effect from Thomas & Friends is used.
Cultural references[]
- When the group plans to capture the "ghost", Coco picks up the phone and Wilt asks, "Who you gonna call?" and Coco replies "Co-Coco" (Ghostbusters). Wilt replies that "they've been out of business for years", a reference to the fact that the last Ghostbusters movie at the time of the episode's release was released in 1989.
- The vacuum cleaner that Wilt, Eduardo, and Coco use to catch the "ghost" is a reference to the Poltergust 3000 from the 2001 Nintendo GameCube game, Luigi's Mansion.
- The look of the hook-handed friend who menacingly follows Frankie is inspired by the Fisherman killer from I Know What You Did Last Summer.
- Whenever the hook-handed friend is encountered, a synthesizer riff plays. The riff is quite similar to the one that plays in A Nightmare on Elm Street whenever Freddy Krueger shows up.
- Three Star Wars references are made in this episode:
- Wilt references Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace when he says, "If we're gonna save our friends from this phantom menace, we're gonna have to do it ourselves."
- When Wilt, Eduardo and Coco are running towards Bloo, his reflection tells him "Run, Bloo! Run!" This parodies the scene in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope where Obi-Wan's ghost tells Luke "Run, Luke! Run!"
- When Bloo hangs from the chandelier, Wilt says "We have you now!" This is similar to when Darth Vader says, "I have you now." in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope when he finally locks onto Luke Skywalker.
- The ghost costume Coco used to prank Eduardo and Wilt is a reference to the ghost costumes from It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
Goofs[]
- The imaginary friend didn't retrieve his hook from the back of the bus until the end of the episode, yet when Frankie sees him outside the house, he appears to have his hook.
- At one point, when Frankie is trying to get back in the house, she's seen holding the keys in her hands, but when she looks to make sure no one is behind her in the next shot, she is holding them in her shirt.
- YouTube mistakenly has the episode's air date wrong: Instead of being on October 22, 2004, it is listed as September 17, 2004.
- Hulu misspelled this episode as "Blooooo", adding an extra "o".