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"Knine-to-Five Knuckles"[1] is the sixty-eighth episode in the Sonic Boom television series. It first aired on 25 February 2017 in the United States and on 9 April 2017 in France.
Synopsis
Knuckles is upset when he wins a lamp in a raffle and it dawns on him that he doesn't have a home in which to keep it. He sets out to rectify the problem by getting a job.
Appearances
Characters:
- Badniks
- Bee Bots (x2)
- Crab Bot (multiple)
- Motobug
- Scorpion Bot (multiple)
- Comedy Chimp
- Dave the Intern
- Diane Aardvark
- Dr. Eggman
- Fastidious Beaver
- Gunther
- Lady Goat
- Lady Walrus
- Leroy the Turtle
- Male Fennec
- Mike the Ox
- Mrs. Vandersnout
- Old Monkey
- Pierre (first appearance)
- Rabbit Girl
- Reindeer Girl
- Stratford
- Stunt Bears
- T.W. Barker
- Team Sonic
- Walrus Male
- Wild Cat
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Misc.:
Plot
At his show, Comedy Chimp tells his audience, Team Sonic among them, that he contacted Stuff Mart to give them all TVs, but they declined, so he was forced to hide a prize under one of their seats. They all look under, but it is Knuckles who finds the prize—a lamp (though he initially thinks it is a decoy until Sonic convinces him). The team leaves the studio with Knuckles wanting to take the "lamp party" someplace else, but the others decide to go home to get some sleep, leaving Knuckles alone. Knuckles decides that maybe he should have his own home so he can have a place to put his lamp. T.W. Barker overhears this and tells Knuckles that he is a real-estate agent that can find him a house, with Knuckles accepting his offer. The two enter Barker's house, but Knuckles quickly notices the place is incredibly run-down with a large hole in the roof. Despite this, Barker manages to convince him by stating his love of nature. Knuckles signs Barker's contract, and the dog leaves soon after; now the owner of the house, Knuckles plugs his lamp in, only for it not to work.
The next day, Knuckles calls the rest of Team Sonic over to help him figure out what is wrong with his lamp; Tails tells him he needs to pay the electric bill (though Amy notes the place looks better without lights). Knuckles decides to look for a job, first with Fastidious Beaver at the library (despite his inability to read), then with the Male Fennec at his store, where Knuckles attempts to pack too many things into a single box and ends up making a mess. He begins to clean it up, but Diane Aardvark passes by and praises it as art, inviting him to work at her ad agency; he accepts the offer.
Soon, Knuckles enters the ad agency, with Diane introducing him to her co-workers, Gunther and Pierre. Gunther takes Diane aside, criticizing her decision to hire someone like Knuckles, but Diane insists he is a visionary. Later, Knuckles meets up with the rest of Team Sonic, and Sonic tells him that he missed an epic Eggman battle, with Tails saying it had the perfect mix of new minions and past favorites and Sticks adding that it was their most action-packed battle yet. Despite his disappointment, Knuckles reminds them that he is now a working echidna with a job.
Back at the ad agency, Diane is impressed with Knuckles' (rudimentary) designs and rewards him with a bonus to his paycheck, much to Gunther's annoyance. Knuckles returns to his house, only to encounter T.W. Barker and his Stunt Bears, with Barker asking for his money; the echidna gives it to him, but Barker notices Knuckles has come up short and threatens to foreclose his house and his lamp. Knuckles frantically tells him he will get the money, with Barker telling him that he will face the consequences should he not have the money by next week. Forced to make more money, Knuckles ends up taking a second job at Meh Burger, with Dave quickly asserting himself as his boss.
Over the next few days, Knuckles works hard at both of his jobs, upset over missing out on fighting Eggman with the others and completely exhausted as Barker and his Stunt Bears steal his money. His friends soon take notice and, following Amy's advice, decides to quit his job at Meh Burger, but he notices Barker and his Stunt Bears threatening him in the background and decides to secretly go back on his word. Later, at the ad agency, Diane decides that they should all go out to celebrate their recent successes, but Knuckles declines, saying he has plans. As he leaves for Meh Burger, Eggman passes by in his Eggmobile, daring Sonic to catch him; his friends arrive and are happy he is off work, as they are in the middle of another battle. Knuckles lies and states that is indeed the case, but is soon forced to go to Meh Burger in the midst of the fight, where he is chided by Dave for being late. While working there, he soon notices to his shock that Diane, Gunther, and Pierre have arrived, Meh Burger being the place where they decided to go to celebrate.
Knuckles is soon forced to keep up all three of his jobs at once, switching between not wearing clothes and his Meh Burger shirt constantly while assisting Team Sonic with Eggman's robots, showing off for the ad agency, and cleaning up and making food for Meh Burger. He eventually gets mixed up, giving Eggman the fries meant for his co-workers at the ad agency (with the evil scientist complaining about a lack of ketchup before Sonic knocks him away) and tossing Gunther into a cup display, mistaking him for Eggman. Diane becomes upset over Knuckles attacking Gunther, and Dave becomes upset over tossing him into the cup display and assaulting a customer (though he does not make as big a deal out of the latter). Despite Knuckles' apology, the two simultaneously fire him on the spot.
An upset Knuckles returns to his friends, with Amy scolding him for lying about quitting one of his jobs; as they go to his house, Knuckles explains to them that Barker was strong-arming him the whole time. Once they enter the house, Barker is yet again lying in wait, stating Knuckles has violated his non-disclosure agreement. Amy snatches the contract from him, looking it over and saying the agreement is incredibly unfair to Knuckles. She then tells him that despite seeming like "the girly one", she carries a big hammer and never forgets. Ignoring Tails nervously telling her to stand down, she goes on to tell him what she does to her enemies and warns him not to cross her or mess with her friends before going into a growling and snarling fit, forcing her friends to hold her back; this is enough to scare Barker into freeing Knuckles from the contract and running off, with his Stunt Bears soon following when Amy scares them off as well.
Because of this, Knuckles is unable to keep his house, but he says he likes being a nomad and that he just wanted a place to keep his lamp. Tails offers to let him keep it at his workshop, where the echidna can visit it at any time. Later, Knuckles has relocated his lamp to the workshop, where he tells it good night before turning it off and going to sleep.
Continuity
- Knuckles states that he cannot read, a characteristic of his which he revealed back in "My Fair Sticksy".
Regional differences
- In the French version, no music is heard when Amy roars at Barker.
Title in other languages
| Language | Title | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| French | L'employé Knuckles | The employee Knuckles |
Trivia
- Nine days before this episode aired on Boomerang, Bill Freiberger released the title card for this episode on Twitter as a teaser.[3]
- The title of this episode is a parody of the title for the 1980 comedy film 9 to 5.
- The DJ seen at the beginning of this episode uses the same character model as Swifty the Shrew.
- In this episode, three characters were given significant redesigns:
- Gunther had his fur color changed from jasmine to amaranth pink, his facial markings have been removed, and he has lost his glasses. His jacket has also been changed from blue to purple, his flat cap is now teal instead of a checkered blue and blue-grey, and his red shoes have become teal as well. He also now wears a white and red scarf.
- Stunt Bear No. 1 has lost its circus attire and it has no longer beige fur around its muzzle.
- Stunt Bear No. 2 has lost its circus attire and has now brown fur all over its body instead of grey fur (making it identical to Stunt Bear No. 1 in appearance).
- When T.W. Barker says "You love nature, right?", followed by Knuckles replying "That's what it says in my character description" (thereby breaking the fourth wall), is a reference to Knuckles' character profile on the official Sonic Boom website which states that Knuckles loves nature.
- Knuckles' discussion with Fastidious Beaver about the pronunciation of "library" is very similar to the same discussion they had in "Mayor Knuckles".
- Tails' description of one of the battles Team Sonic had in this episode (which he describes as a "perfect blend of new minions and classics favorites from the years past") might be a callback to the fans' demands for more long-time favorites from the Sonic the Hedgehog series and its medias to appear in the Sonic Boom franchise.
- The part where T.W. Barker says "You seem to be a little short", followed by Knuckles saying "That's not what the fans say'", is a reference to the fans' negative reaction to Knuckles' size change for the Sonic Boom franchise.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sonic Boom: Knine-to-Five Knuckles. Zap2it.com. Retrieved on 2 February 2017.
- ↑ Tous les Programmes (French). Canal J. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved on 28 March 2017.
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (16 February 2017). Retrieved on 28 February 2017. "Bill Freiberger: A #sonicboom preview for next Saturday on Boomerang: 216 "Knine-To-Five Knuckles" written by Benoit Grenier."
