004b. Kitchen Sponge

[Jjs Goodman]

Release Date: March 4th, 2021

Where to Watch: Paramount+, Apple TV

Plot: SpongeBob helps Plankton at the Krusty Kanteen, leading to the development of a very familiar sandwich.

If you have Apple TV, you can already watch this.

[4EverGreen]

So this episode, if anything, does make a VERY valid attempt to legitimize and canonize Sandy's stay at Camp Coral, in spite of the fact that she supposedly doesn't meet Spongebob until the ORIGINAL show! In spoilers for those who want to find out on their own!

Spoiler

Young Sandy was sent to Camp Coral by FUTURE/PRESENT Day Sandy, in order to set up a stable time loop, to ensure that Plankton DOESN'T get his hands on the Krabby Patty Formula, or that the Krabby Patty Formula doesn't originate EARLIER than it's supposed to! By being sent here, and by 'Accidentally' inventing a Self-Starting Fire to destroy the only COPY of the Krabby Patty Formula, Sandy has just ensured that the Krabby Patty Formula will be discovered WHEN it's supposed to be, and that Plankton can't get his hands on it! And this is technically a guess, but I'm just going to say that Sandy uses some kind of Amnesia Ray on everyone at Camp Coral by the END of this spin-off series, so that they all forget about having met her before when she was a kid! So in other words, to quote a "Family Guy" cutaway gag: "See? We had a plan for that all along." 

Spoiler aside, I'd have to give this episode a 9.4 out of 10, if for no other reason, they incorporated the traditional animation of "Spongebob Squarepants" at the end as a nice Call-Forward. Enough said, true believers!