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This episode is the worst example of a growing trend since the absence of Michael: exaggerating the characters' personalities for the sake of creating conflict. I was fine with this in prior episodes, because the show needs some way to produce drama, but in this case it borders on character assassination. I'm talking specifically about Pam and Dwight. Maybe it's because Pam is pregnant, but either way she is absurdly unlikeable in this episode. She's unnecessarily paranoid and goes to extreme lengths to prove something that isn't that big of a deal anyway.

Dwight's character isn't butchered as severely, but it's still pretty bad. There are some funny moments with him like when he is brutally honest about Pam's appearance, but there are some moments when he goes way too far. Grabbing Jim's crotch was just ridiculous and out of character. Dwight is not the type to physically assault someone in that way, and it feels like the writers don't understand his character anymore.

Setting aside the poor character writing, the plot is resolved weakly as well. You would think that this storyline would end in a satisfying way, but then Pam never finds out the truth cause Jim has high blood pressure. This just feels like a copout and prevents anything interesting from happening. For example, Jim could've admitted the truth and apologized, which would lead to Pam apologizing for being so overdramatic. But instead none of this happens and the episode just... ends.

The B plot is also pretty forgettable, considering I almost forgot to write about it in my review. I get what they were going for, but it feels too dragged out. We didn't need multiple scenes showing that the Zits were being overshadowed by Robert California, only one scene was enough. This whole subplot felt pointless for most of it until the very end. The scene where Andy, Darryl, and Kevin abandon the others and start playing together was sweet, but the payoff wasn't worth it. Overall, this was simply a bad episode and a troubling sign of what's to come for this season. Please keep the characters in line with their personalities!

The Dylan plotline, the Irving plotline, the Mark plotline (innie and outie)... everything about this episode is top tier. There's so much to talk about here, lots of incredibly thought provoking scenes.

For one, it's so interesting that Dylan's wife prefers him on the inside than on the outside. It's tragic that Dylan will never be able to live with his wife, that line was a gut punch. I wonder what will happen when Dylan inevitably loses this privilege, and it sucks that he's slowly losing his friendships due to wanting to keep seeing his wife.

Irving's dinner with Burt was just as fascinating. This whole episode has a theme of innies being separate people from their outies, and we can see that clearly through Burt who is a completely different person. I love how this episode subverts your expectations because you originally think there's going to be tension between Fields and Irving, but then the conflict comes from Burt. Fields is definitely used to being hurt by his husband and has accepted it at this point, it's crazy that Burt cheated on him before he was severed. Also adored the discussion of whether innies can go to heaven separately, and how both of them have somehow accepted that outie Burt is going to hell.

The reintegration scenes are also a highlight of the episode. They're so surreal and do a great job of capturing the feeling of uncertainty that both Marks must be feeling. There's an incredible sense of weight to Mark's decisions, you get the feeling that reintegration is just as dangerous as they say, since you're literally experiencing it from Mark's perspective. It was a great writing decision for him to change his mind after meeting Helly and seeing how little she cares about his wife. I also thought the way they handled innie Mark confessing the truth to Helly was perfect. It was devastating to see Helly slowly realize what Mark is telling her. It's realistic that she would want space at first, but I like that she came to the conclusion that her outie is the problem, not Mark. You can't really blame him tbh, she was so convincing as Helly.

Overall, this is another incredible episode that completely flew by. This is slow burn done right. You can tell the show is peak when the slower scenes are equally as compelling as the more important ones. What a show!

I'm super conflicted. The first episode, Just One Bite, is one of the best episodes of the series, so it's tragic to see it paired up with by far the worst episode in seasons 1-3, The Bully.

I could go on forever about what makes Just One Bite so great. On my rewatch of the show, I've noticed that season 3 really steps up the creativity of the visual gags, but this episode is the perfect demonstration of that. For example, in the montage of Spongebob trying to get Squidward to eat a Krabby Patty, not only are the locations of each montage scene fresh, but Spongebob's appearance also changes with the location. It's a subtle detail but it really goes to show the genius of the visual comedy.

The plot is also hilarious because we get to see a side of Squidward we've never seen before. His usual uncaring, pessimistic self is contrasted with someone who will do anything to eat a Krabby Patty. The premise alone is funny enough, but the way Squidward's desperation is shown, especially through all the exaggerated facial expressions, really elevates the comedy.

I completely forgot how many iconic moments are stuffed into this single episode, it's almost unbelievable. Listing all them off would be impossible. Sadly this episode is about a minute shorter than average because of a deleted scene. I wish it could've been longer, but overall this is such a great episode.

Then we get to the Bully... there are so many reasons why this episode sucks, but I'll get into the basics first, the plot. The whole episode consists of Spongebob being scared by the bully in various ways, which gets pretty old after a while. Normally a repetitive spongebob episode would make up for this with lots of creativity, but this episode is surprisingly lacking in jokes. As a result, it's kind of a slog to get through. The only hilarious moment is the iconic "how many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man?"

Next I'll get into the treatment of the characters. Spongebob himself is fine, and he seems to be the only rational character in the entire city. The bully character is laughably shallow, who has no reason to want to beat up Spongebob. He's not interesting at all and super unrealistic. Ms. Puff is just stupid, because she dismisses Spongebob's complaints and believes the abuser instead. There's no way she would be so naive to believe the bully just wanted to be his friend. Another questionable scene is when Spongebob calls Patrick for help and for some reason the bully is at his house. This just seemed like a lazy way to remove Patrick from the plot.

Another reason why I hate this episode is the terrible messages it sends to kids. It feels borderline irresponsible to give kids the impression that bullies will stop at nothing to beat them up, and there's no one who can help them. If I were a kid who was getting bullied as a kid, this episode would have petrified me and made me remain silent about how I'm being treated. Cause who knows, maybe my parents would have invited the bully over for dinner! Another dangerous message is the ending. So it turns out that this whole time, Spongebob's fears were irrational because the bully can't hurt him! I'm sorry what??? This episode is sending the message to kids that their fears over bullies are imagined, and in reality there's nothing to be afraid of. This is probably the worst way they could have handled the ending. I'm shocked at how bad an old spongebob episode is. Before this episode, the show had been consistently great. Sorry Just one Bite, but I can't rate this episode highly because of how awful the second half is.