The Great Patty Caper

Plot summary

At the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob goes into the freezer to get Krabby Patties, only to discover that none are left. He and Mr. Krabs try to make more, but cannot decide on the recipe. Mr. Krabs gives SpongeBob the key to the vault in which the recipe is hidden, and he and Patrick board a train to the bank for the safe deposit box. Eventually, the key to the box is stolen and SpongeBob and Patrick must find the culprit. Just then, Plankton walks up and Patrick searches him, but finds him clean. The duo stops the train to find the suspect responsible for stealing the key. A nanny and her baby are searched, only to find a stolen jewel that was stolen by triplets. The next suspect, a butler, is revealed to be a thief named Orin J. Ruffy who stole $75,000 worth of ham sandwiches.

SpongeBob cries hopelessly but soon finds Patrick having the key; in fact, he finds it while he cleans SpongeBob's pants. They go back into the train and are on their way to the bank. Eventually, Plankton bats them out of a window and they must chase the train. It is revealed that Plankton has the key. SpongeBob morphs himself into a hang glider and he and Patrick fly back onto the train to pursue him. Once they return, SpongeBob and Patrick chase Plankton. But, Plankton disconnects the cars of the train, leaving SpongeBob and Patrick in the front car. SpongeBob and Patrick try to stop the train but Patrick stupidly breaks the brake of the train causing the train to go out of control. He makes several (but stupid) futile attempts to stop the train, including putting a heavy boulder on the tracks. This only causes the train to flip and move forward while some of the wheels are off the track. The two manage to bring all wheels back in place when they stop in front of a retirement home. Then, Patrick stupidly breaks the throttle. Meanwhile, Plankton is seen trying to steal the formula by Mr. Krabs. However, he still escapes with it, but the train come into the bank and stops Plankton before he could leave. Plankton's plan fails again, and Mr. Krabs has to pay the damage to the bank with his bank account. 75 years later, SpongeBob, shown as an elderly, finishes the story of the "Great Train Caper". His grandson responds with a cheer in excitement over his video game.

Production

"The Great Patty Caper" was written by Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas, Steven Banks and Dani Michaeli, with supervising director, Alan Smart and Tom Yasumi serving as animation directors. Alexander and Cervas also functioned as storyboard directors. The episode originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on November 11, 2010, with a TV-Y7 parental rating.

The episode was branded by Nickelodeon as a television special called "Mystery with a Twistery" in which:

"Mr. Krabs sends the Krabby Patty recipe to a far away vault for safe keeping so that Plankton can’t get to it. But when Mr. Krabs forgets the recipe himself he gives SpongeBob the key to the vault and sends him on a journey across the ocean to retrieve it. Things go bad when the key goes missing aboard the Oceanic Express train and SpongeBob must identify the culprit and get the key back before the Krabby Patty recipe is missing forever!"

"The Great Patty Caper" was released on a DVD compilation of the same name on March 8, 2011 by Paramount Home Entertainment. The DVD includes the episode itself, "Growth Spout", "Stuck in the Wringer", "Someone's in the Kitchen With Sandy", "The Inside Job", "Greasy Buffoons", and the "Model Sponge". On December 6, 2011, "The Great Patty Caper" was released on the SpongeBob SquarePants: The Complete 7th Season DVD, alongside all episodes of the seventh season. It also became available on the SpongeBob SquarePants: The First 100 Episodes DVD on September 22, 2009, together with all the episodes of seasons one through five.

Reception

Upon release, "The Great Patty Caper" ranked as basic cable's top entertainment telecast for its release week with total viewers, drawing 6.1 million viewers. The episode also ranked as the week's number-one telecast with kids 2-11 on broadcast and basic cable. The premiere ranked as the top program for Thursday, November 11, night with all children and tween demographics, posting double- and triple-digit gains for Nickelodeon. The special also averaged 1.4/1.6 million in the adults demographics ranging from 18-49, drawing more adult viewers than TBS' Conan for the night. The episode had a total of 6.6 million viewers (+122%), making it as the year's top animated telecast with kids 2-11.

The episode received mostly positive reviews. Nancy Basile of About.com gave the episode a 3.5 out of 5 rating, saying "'The Great Patty Caper' would have been better at regular episode length rather than stretching it to a special. With some of the slower, duller parts edited out, the whole episode would come off as clever, slick and fast-paced funny." Sandy Angulo Chen of Common Sense Media gave the episode 3/5 stars and wrote "There's still no hidden educational purpose to the series, but it does expose kids to plot structure, character development, predictability, and the various ways that humor is used in a story."

Paul Mavis of DVD Talk positively reacted to the episode and said the episode "is certainly one of the more energetic entries I've seen from the series in some time." Mavis added "'The Great Patty Caper' picks up a good head of steam to a satisfying conclusion (SpongeBob as an old geezer is also foolproof)," but was disappointed "that someone didn't exploit the obvious Agatha Christie Murder on the Orient Express-flavored train sequence by having SpongeBob adorned as Poirot or even Miss Marple as he went about his inept sleuthing (SpongeBob in drag is always a solid winner)."

Marty Shaw of BSC Kids, on the ratings, said "SpongeBob SquarePants has been on the air since 1999 and the November 11th episode was the eight show of the eight season. What exactly does that mean? With 6.102 million viewers watching, it means that the adventures of SpongeBob SquarePants never get old." Billy Gil of the Home Media Magazine said "'The Great Patty Caper' is one of the better SpongeBob episodes in recent memory[...]" Roy Hrab of DVD Verdict was not positive towards the DVD and said "Wow, this is probably the most boring set of SpongeBob episodes I've ever seen."