The Thing in the Box is an episode from the seventh season of Garfield and Friends.
Synopsis
When a package arrives for Bo, the contents thereof becomes a hot topic among the barnyard animals, since they'll have to wait until Bo shows up to open it.
Plot
The episode begins with Orson and Roy fetching letters; Roy has taken a wheelbarrow with himself, since he's expecting plenty of fan mail addressed to him. Instead of an avalanche of letters, the rooster only gets one letter from his mother. At the same time, Orson has received a book worth 97 US dollars, while Booker and Sheldon find a package with holes, addressed to Bo.
Presence of the package causes Wade to fear the possible living content inside it. Orson prevents Roy from opening the package, since it's not his mail. Chicks agree with Orson, while Wade imagines a mail order monster hidden beneath walls of the box. Birds declare themselves not being curious about content of the box, which doesn't prevent them from surrounding Orson to intercept Bo's mail. Orson declares, that Bo will open the package, when he's back, which is supposed to end the discussion about package's content.
Orson decides to keep Bo's mail near his mud puddle for the night. Before going to sleep, he's also wondering, what could be inside the box. Booker and Sheldon can't sleep, so they imagine the possible content of the package, with ideas varying from wolf creature and (small) giant monster robot to purple octopus creature, the latter idea causing the chicks to fear. Roy is also suffering from insomnia, with imaginations not varying much from those younger chicks have - the rooster believes, that content of Bo's package is from the outer space and it devours earth, especially trees, farm houses and vehicles to have itself grow. Amount of imagined threats causes Roy to stop the package, before it's too late to save the world. Wade has the most unusual imaginations of the package monster - the duck admits in tears, that regardless what exactly is in the box, he's afraid of that being.
All the mentioned above get panicked and they frantically rush to check, what exactly has been mailed to Bo. Orson falls down, while defending the package from frightened birds, but he doesn't allow them opening the package, until Bo appears in the middle of the night. Wade is so terrified, that he hides his head in the ground, while Bo is removing the top of the box.
Finally, it turns out that Nermal has been delivered to Bo. According to "The World's Cutest Kitten's " explanation, Garfield was planning to send him to Abu Dhabi as usual, but since he didn't have enough bills, he had to send Nermal to another segment of the cartoon. When asked by Wade, what would he do, Nermal performs most of the tricks Garfield finds annoying; Orson and the rest of farm animals don't seem impressed by those tricks either.
After short discussion, Nermal gets returned to sender with note, that U.S. Acres animals would rather have a monster mailed to them than Nermal. According to Garfield, it's been eighth time this month he tried to get rid off Nermal. So, he leaves package with the kitten in the waste basket.
Major Characters
Minor Characters
- Roy's Mother (mentioned)
- Imagined Creatures
- Lanolin Sheep
- Garfield
- Herman Post
Trivia
- Nermal and Garfield both make guest appearances in this episode.
- Booker and Sheldon have a blue football flag displayed in their bedroom, with "Peck" written on it.
- Roy has a photograph of a busty hen with light purple eyeshadow close to his bed.
- Wade is shown not to have his own house in this episode - he sleeps on a haystack in the barn, with cows as neighbors.
- In this episode, Garfield and Nermal talk as usual (without moving lips), contrasting with the U.S. Acres cast, (who do move their lips).
Cultural References
- In the scene where the imagined-by-Roy package monster attacks the big city, the creature is disturbed by a plane that resembles World War 1 aircraft.
Gallery
The episode gallery can be seen here.