Imagination Companions, A Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Wiki
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"The Trouble With Scribbles" is the fifth episode in the first season of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

Plot[]


SPOILER: Plot details follow.


The residents of Foster's are cleaning the place, be it the floors, the windows and every room of the house. All Bloo is doing is spraying air freshener, which Frankie and Mac state is not cleaning. He claims he is cleaning the air but is told to freshen someplace else. He obliges but states that they better not come running to him if the air gets dirty. Bloo stumbles across a closed door, and when he reaches the doorknob, he is stopped by Frankie and is told that the door must not be opened. Otherwise, it would cause trouble. The desire to open the door stays in Bloo's mind, and he tries to find out what is behind the door by asking the other friends. At the end of the day, no one has been able to help him, and Mac tries to get him just not to think about it.

Bloo wakes up in the middle of the night and rushes to the secret door, and when he opens it, he is bombarded with a bunch of scribbles, which flood the entire house. Mr. Herriman was distraught by the fact that the scribbles were released, and he talked about how Frankie opened the door once when she was a child. When Mac arrives, he realizes that Bloo opened the door, but when Mac sees that the scribbles have rights like everyone else, he decides that releasing them is the right thing to do.

As the rest of the Foster's residents are trying to put the scribbles back in the door, Mac runs around releasing the scribbles, as a means to achieve scribble liberty. Bloo and Mac aid each other in coming up with a plan to make the scribbles remain outside the secret door. The scribbles can do skills that the residents of Foster's do not like doing, and thus, they begin to do all of the chores. Mac realizes later that all of the other friends have become lazy, and even Frankie wasn't doing anything. Mr. Herriman, upset that the scribbles organized his office without his permission, stormed off and ran into Mac.

Scribbles

Coco relaxing herself

Mr. Herriman decides to get people to adopt all of the scribbles so that Foster's will return back to the way it once was. After all the scribbles are adopted, only one remains. Frankie was hoping that it would be the toilet scrubbing scribble, but it turns out to be Bloo's beloved raspberry-blowing scribble. The episode ends with Bloo and the raspberry scribble exchanging raspberries, to the dismay of Frankie, Herriman, and Mac, and then Bloo blowing a raspberry at the viewer.

Running gags[]

  • Mr. Herriman talking about what it means to take the price for something and taking Bloo's money.
  • Wilt lying about himself, Eduardo and Coco not knowing anything about the secret door, and Eduardo admitting that they do.
    • This is followed by Wilt pushing Eduardo away and Coco running away from Bloo to avoid telling him what's behind the secret door.
  • Bloo asking the friends what's behind the secret door, and the friends running away or ignoring him.
  • Mac and Bloo running around the house, trying to free the Scribbles, and Frankie chasing them in an attempt to stop them.
  • Bloo snapping and his scribble blowing a raspberry.
  • Mac and someone getting into an argument saying they came up with the idea.
  • All the imaginary friends (and Frankie) being lazy because of the Scribbles.

Spoilers end here.


Characters present[]

Speaking:
Bloo, Cactina, Clumsy, Coco, Creaky Pete, Eduardo, Frankie Foster, Handy, Mac, Madame Foster, Mr. Herriman, Scribbles, Sloppy Moe, Wilt

Non-speaking:
Chester, Dusty, George Mucus, Iris, Jackie Khones, Jambalaya, Keystone Blop, Mabel Licorice, Moptop, Mr. Edmonton, Phineus B. Vurm, Pisgetti, Ringo Rango, Suckallupagus, Sunset Junction, Witch Itch

Trivia[]

  • The episode is similar to the later My Little Pony episode, "Swarm of the Century", which Craig's wife Lauren created, where Fluttershy encounters Parasprites.
  • Moral: Actions do have consequences.
  • Mac's reason for refusing to eat a piece of cake is because Mac doesn't eat sugar. This is later confirmed in season two.
  • Frankie opened the door in the fall of 1984, but "Bus the Two of Us" revealed that Frankie was born in 1984, meaning she would have been a baby when it happened. Madame Foster also looked like her current self. but "The Big Picture" showed that Madame Foster looked younger when Frankie was a little girl.
  • This episode marks the first appearances of Pisgetti, Handy, Clumsy, Suckallupagus, and Creaky Pete.

Cultural references[]

  • The title references the Star Trek episode "The Trouble With Tribbles". Both episodes deal with troublesome creatures that basically overrun a single space (the space station and the starship Enterprise in Star Trek and the home in Foster's).
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