Synopsis

Olive and Otto must stop a number hog from stealing all the zeroes in the world before Otto turns 1 year old instead of 10 years old on his 10th birthday.^[1]

Olive's Random Slide

This...is what I had for lunch today.

Learning Goal

• Numbers & Counting: understanding place value.

Plot (contains episode spoilers)

The episode opens with Olive and Otto sitting at a dining room table with a woman in complete silence. Suddenly, the woman hiccups and a glass vase in the corner of the room shatters, causing everyone to jump. Olive informs the woman that she has exploding hiccups, and Otto pulls a glass of green glowing liquid out of his suit. He slides the glass across the table and assures the woman that the drink cures the ailment every time. She thanks the agents, and they exit behind a tapestry. Before the woman can drink the liquid, she hiccups once again, causing the glass to explode and sending the beverage everywhere. She mutters a quiet "Uh oh...", then hiccups once more, setting off a car alarm outside.

Olive and Otto return to Odd Squad headquarters via the tubes. They step into the tube lobby and are greeted by O'Brian (the tube operator). As they are walking through the hall, Otto pulls out an invitation and hands it to Olive, saying that his birthday is tomorrow. She reads it out loud: it states that Otto is turning 10. She questions her partner's age in disbelief, and he states that he's tall for 10. Olive fires back that she's short for 12, then says that she would be happy to attend his birthday party. After the exchange, the agents briefly pause in the Bullpen and survey the room. Olive remarks that it's a quiet day at the squad, and the camera pans to show that there are tons of odd creatures and happenings in the main office space. There is a shout from above, and the pair turns to see Ms. O (the head of the squad) loudly ordering them into her office. Otto remarks that their boss seems to be in a better mood than usual.

Olive and Otto step into Ms. O's office. She tells them that something very odd has happened, but Otto stops her and asks who the stranger is in the office, who is dressed in a colorful apron. Ms. O introduces him as Glenn, who's opening a new cupcake shop in town. Glenn steps forward and gushes that he plans on having one million, billion, trillion flavors to choose from, even ones with ketchup centers. After Ms. O dismisses him, she briefs the two agents on their new case. She shows a photo of the giant ball of gum in the town museum that is made up of 1,000 wads of chewed bubblegum. The ball has inexplicably shrunken down to one wad, and the sign has been changed as well. Otto ponders what has happened, and Olive has a hunch, but needs more evidence. The duo heads out to collect more evidence.

The agents whoosh through the tubes and arrive at Polly Graph's hot chocolate stand. The girl hands the agents their usual hot chocolate, then they ask her if she has any graphs that could help them with the case. Polly presents a bar graph showing how much money she made in the previous days, and points out that she hasn't made nearly as much that day, and she is never going to buy the pony that she has been trying to save up the money for. Olive observes that the price of Polly's hot chocolate has dropped, and points to the sign. Polly is appalled, and claims that the sign used to say 50 cents instead of just 5 cents. She asks what happened to the zero, and Olive informs her that zeros have been disappearing all over town. Otto cries out in anguish, but then backtracks and asks why that matters, since zero stands for nothing. Olive corrects him and says that zero only stands for nothing when it's by itself. She uses Polly's marshmallows as an example. Starting with 1000, Olive removes one zero and the group drops to 100 marshmallows. She removes a second zero, leaving 10 marshmallows, then drops that one, leaving only 1 marshmallow. Olive wonders out loud why the zeroes are disappearing while Otto contently munches on an armful of marshmallows he caught. Polly asks the boy if he's aware that he has to pay for the fluffy goods that he is consuming.

Back at HQ, Ms. O arrives at the conclusion that the zeroes are disappearing due to a number hog. To elaborate, she summons Oscar (a scientist at the squad). The bespectacled agent explains that a number hog uses so much of one number that they start sucking it up from other places. If the team doesn't find the number hog, he or she will use up all of the zeroes in the world. Otto begins to panic as he comes to the realization that if the number hog isn't found, he'll turn 1 instead of 10, and starts fearing that he is going to turn into a baby tomorrow. Olive promises her partner that they'll find the person responsible, even if they have to climb the highest mountains, or swim the deepest ocean, they will. Although, Oscar says they could use his number-hog-finder gadget to help locate the suspect instead.

The pair arrives at the location that the gadget leads them to (8 Main Street), and the agents are confused to find themselves in an empty lot. Otto says that it's over and thinks he is going to be in diapers tomorrow. It dawns on them that the directions are obviously missing zeroes because zeroes are disappearing, so they must figure out where to go by getting help from the math room. The math room draws up maps of the town and shows that 80 Main Street is the town lake, and 800 Main Street is the address of a cupcake shop. Olive remembers Glenn --the cupcake shop owner that they had met earlier-- and how he mentioned wanting to sell one million, billion, trillion different flavors. The math room generates the number and the agents are aghast at how many zeroes it contains. With the evidence in hand, they head to the cupcake shop to confront Glenn.

At the shop, Glenn admires a sign the length of the wall showing how many cupcake flavors his shop sells. He excitedly welcomes Olive and Otto as they burst through the front doors, but they don't share his enthusiasm. The agents accuse the man of being a number hog, and rip the sign from the wall, stomping all of the zeros off of it. As Olive stomps on the sign, the zeroes start returning around the town and the squad celebrates. Ms. O congratulates Olive and Otto via phone on a job well done. This also includes Otto's next age, where he is once again turning 10 tomorrow. Glenn apologizes to the duo and says that he had no idea that he was hogging the numbers and is embarrassed by the event. Olive assures him that it happens to everyone and that there are no hard feelings. The man wonders how he'll attract new customers without his sign, and Otto admits that he needs cake for his birthday party. Glenn is ecstatic over the idea.

The next day, many agents show up to Glenn's cupcake shop to celebrate Otto's birthday. Olive brings her partner a cupcake, then rushes off to get her own. While she's away, Oscar joins Otto at his table and says that he's glad to have the boy on the squad. He continues and says that Otto is "sooooo much better than Olive's last partner." Curious, Otto asks who Olive's last partner was and Oscar freezes then distracts him by pointing out that Agent Orson is going crazy with his cupcake. The distraction works, and while Otto looks away, Oscar ducks under the table. Otto turns back around and notices that Oscar has disappeared. Agent Orson giggles, and the episode ends.

Transcript

View the transcript for this episode here.

Trivia

• This is the first episode of Odd Squad.
• This episode took place on January 9, 2014 since it was a Thursday where Polly was making much less money than usual, and Otto's birthday is January 10th, as revealed in Best Seats in the House.
  • Otto's date of birth is January 10, 2004 and he celebrated his golden birthday.
• This episode is based on the plot of the original 2012 series pilot that was used to greenlight the show.
• In this episode, the agents borrow a phone to call Ms. O instead of using their badge phones, and Ms. O answers from a phone handed to her on a silver plate. This is one of the few times that such a thing occurs.
• This is the only episode where Otto is 9 years old.
• The title is a reference to the 1998 film, Zero Effect.
• Aside from the main four characters, the only recurring characters that appear in this episode are Polly, Math Room, Orson, and O’Brian.
• The giant ball of gum shrinks once again in the episode Training Day, but to 43 wads.

Gallery

References