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SpongeBob and his pals have lived at the bottom of the ocean floor for their entire lives. That is all they’ve known their whole lives. However, that’s not the case for their land squirrel friend, Sandy Cheeks, who recently moved to her Treedome at the bottom of the ocean (Read Tea at the Treedome Guide for more on this). Naturally, she is bound to get homesick sooner or later. And in Episode 18 of Season 1, titled “Texas,” we see how she manages to deal with her longingness for her home up in the land above. In this SpongeBob Texas Guide, we’ve broken down the critical parts of the episode to determine what caused Sandy to become homesick for Texas and how she tries to deal with it.
Bottom Line Up Front:
This episode involves Sandy feeling homesick for Texas as she decides she no longer wishes to stay on the ocean floor. SpongeBob and friends help her realize that she’s surrounded by friends who care deeply for her and that if she’s ever feeling homesick, they’re willing to go the extra mile to bring Texas to the bottom of the Ocean (metaphorically speaking). Sandy decides to stay as she realizes that home is where you’re surrounded by love and that the ocean floor is now truly her home.
Why Sandy Feels Homesick
The episode begins with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy at the underwater lagoon having a fun time making miniature homes out of the sand. We see SpongeBob has made his pineapple house next to Patrick’s rock house
Sandy, on the other hand, has a pile of sand in front of her. SpongeBob and Patrick wonder what it is as Sandy karate-chops it to reveal an unfamiliar shape. The two ask what it is as Sandy says, “Can’t ya see? It’s Texas!”.
“Texas? What’s a Texas?” enquires a curious SpongeBob. Soon though, a wave rolls over, destroying Sandy’s rendition of her home state.
Sandy, visibly upset, says that it’s nothing more than a memory. SpongeBob disregards all that and offers to make her a Treedome, Sandy’s current place of residence.
A gloomy Sandy says that she is no longer in the mood to make sandcastles and starts to leave.
This is a somber and pivotal moment for Sandy during her time at the bottom of the Ocean. It has been gradually building from episode 1 since, as a viewer, we understand the innate contradiction of a land squirrel making her home on the ocean floor.
As a viewer, I could personally relate to how Sandy was feeling at the time. Despite being in the dreamiest of locations with the nicest of people and doing everything that you love, it can be extremely daunting when one yearns for home and the feeling of familiarity.
SpongeBob senses that something is awry and is very worried for his friend, so he cuts her off and tries to initiate a karate face-off to cheer her up. But Sandy isn’t in the mood for karate.
SpongeBob thinks Sandy is merely being deceptive to land a sneak attack. So he turns his back to her with the intent to counter her next move. Sandy walks off, and SpongeBob mistakenly suplexes a shark enjoying his time at the beach and gets his face punched in.
SpongeBob then tries a variety of activities to help Sandy get out of her gloomy state;
- He gets his surfboard, yelling, “Surf’s up, Sandy!”
- He brings out his jellyfish catching net and starts chasing jellyfish
- Patrick follows suit and is seen chasing jellyfish with a net of his own
- SpongeBob and Patrick catch a jellyfish and bring it to Sandy
It’s quite endearing to see SpongeBob trying his absolute best to cheer Sandy up, despite not having an inkling of an idea what she is going through. Sandy is uninterested in any of SpongeBob’s activities as she tells him and Patrick that she doesn’t want to build sandcastles, play karate or eat jellyfish.
A bemused SpongeBob tells her that they don’t eat the jellyfish; they just catch them and then let them go.
As the jellyfish floats away, SpongeBob encourages the jellyfish to go back home;
“Go on, go back home where you belong. Run along back to your friends and family. I know they miss you as much as you miss them. Hurry before they forget you and leave you behind. Remember: There’s no place like home.”
This seems to affect Sandy immensely as she first begins to well up and then, soon after, starts bawling her eyes out. So much so that her tears fill up her entire helmet as she gurgles and wails incessantly.
Sandy’s Ode to Texas
SpongeBob asks Sandy why she’s crying. At first, Sandy lies to him, saying her helmet merely sprung a leak. SpongeBob buys none of it. Sandy then admits that she might be feeling a little homesick.
SpongeBob starts pondering over the word ‘homesick,’ clearly not understanding the situation.
SpongeBob and Patrick take a blindfolded Sandy to an unknown location. As he unwraps the blindfold, we see that they’ve merely taken her to her Treedome as the two cheer, “Welcome home!”.
This only leads to her crying even more violently than before as she rushes inside her Treedome and locks the airlock door behind her.
She tells them both to go away as she pulls on a lever, putting a metal covering over the entire Treedome.
The two wonder what’s wrong with her, as Patrick assumes that maybe it’s a ‘squirrel thing.’
We then see Sandy on top of her Treedome with a guitar in hand and a cowboy hat on her head. She tunes her guitar as she starts lamenting in the form of a song.
What she says through her music is;
- She wishes she was back in Texas
- The ocean is no place for a squirrel
- Texas is the prettiest place in the world
- Deep in her heart, she will always be a Texas girl
- She wants to go home
- She misses the wide-open skies of Texas
- She misses her 20 acres of land, having barbeques, and eating pecan pies
- All she can do is cry now since she’s so far away from Texas. She just wants to go back home.
Listening to her lament, we can see that the entire Bikini Bottom begins to cry in despair of the sheer sadness in her song collectively. Even the wild clams start howling in sorrow.
SpongeBob and Patrick, both wailing in grief, finally piece together that her squirrel friend is missing her home, Texas.
This is a very heartbreaking and dreary part of the episode, as it seems that Sandy’s longing for her past life back on the land above will surely lead her away from her underwater friends. Perhaps that is what the entirety of Bikini Bottom is truly mourning about. Not only is there empathetic sorrow of longingness, but also a palpable fear of loss. This leaves SpongeBob, and us, the viewers, livid with a knot of tension as to how Sandy would decide to cope with her melancholy.
The Farewell
Patrick suggests that they should bring Texas down to the ocean floor. SpongeBob lights up at the idea as he starts scheming a way to cheer up their friend.
The two hop and skip their way to Sandy’s Treedome, excited about the surprise that they have planned for her at the Krusty Krab.
Soon as they are about to knock on the airlock door, it is thrust open, and Sandy walks out carrying her luggage.
SpongeBob asks her what she’s doing with those bags as Sandy explains that she is headed back to Texas.
SpongeBob is in utter shock and disbelief.
“It’s time for this tumbleweed to tumble on back home,” as she begins to leave. SpongeBob starts panicking as she walks away from the surprise the two of them planned. Away from her life under the Ocean. Away from all her underwater friends.
He asks her if she would like one last Krabby Patty to lure her to the place of the surprise. She says that she’s tired of fish food.
He persists. He asks her if she would like to say goodbye to her friends one last time. She tells him that she just cannot do that. It would be too sad.
She goes to the edge of the road as a bus pulls up and climbs on board. The bus drives off with Sandy in it.
Dumb old Texas, What’s so Great About it Anyway?
SpongeBob stares at the floor, still in disbelief. He cannot fathom that his dear old squirrel friend is gone.
Patrick, too, is stunned at the turn of events.
“What’s so great about dumb old Texas,” he wonders aloud.
Soon as those words leave his mouth, we see the bus speed back to where the two were standing as its gates open to reveal a furious Sandy.
With boiling rage in her eyes, she dares Patrick to repeat what he just said about her homeland.
Patrick repeats his words, calling Texas dumb once more, albeit with absolute fear within his voice.
Sandy warns him never to take the name of Texas in vain. Nor Texans, for that matter.
This gets SpongeBob thinking.
SpongeBob’s Bright Idea
He starts mocking Texas. To her face. He thrusts his bottom at her face and starts making weird faces to insinuate that Texans are dumb in a blatant attempt to rile her up.
Sandy goes red with rage. She warns him to stop making fun of Texas.
SpongeBob is relentless. He tells Patrick that he’s Texas, and he starts exaggerating and making fun of her Texan accent. Patrick follows SpongeBob’s example and starts poking fun at the Texan accent as the two circle each other, yelling, “Howdy, Y’all!” and “Git a dog!”
SpongeBob starts singing in a Texan accent as he says that the stars above Texas must be dim as Texas is dumb and stupid.
He contorts his sponge body into the shape of Texas and asks Patrick to identify him. Patrick says he’s stupid. SpongeBob says no, he’s Texas, and Patrick asks what’s the difference!
So, What Does Sandy Do Upon Hearing All This Blasphemy?
By this point in time, Sandy is seething with pure rage. She is steaming with fury as she drops her bags to the ground and squares up in front of the two, still mocking her motherland.
She warns them one final time. She orders the two of them to apologize, lest there be consequences.
“Y’all best apologize, or I’ll be on you like ugly on an Ape.”
SpongeBob tells her that she’ll have to catch the two of them first as they sprint away quickly.
They soon start commending themselves for a well-done job as they make a beeline toward Krusty Krab.
Patrick is still leaving nothing to chance as he shouts insults towards Texas as he is sprinting away. A worried SpongeBob asks Patrick to cool it. Patrick dismisses SpongeBob, claiming that Texans are slowpokes.
To his astonishment, he looks back to see Sandy sprinting faster than any sea critter ever could fuelled by rage and a sense of showing Patrick what Texans are truly capable of.
She catches up to them instantly, destroying all that comes in her path.
She catches Patrick with her lasso in mere moments and drags him all the way back. All we can see is an explosion go off in the distance as fear grips the very soul of SpongeBob, who is now running for his life.
He nervously tries to hide behind a sea plant but to no avail, as Sandy karate chops the plant and SpongeBob clean in two.
SpongeBob expends all he has left in the tank with one final burst of energy and dives toward the Krusty Krab as Sandy’s lasso extends towards him.
He manages to grab hold of the door with just a finger as he gets caught in Sandy’s lasso and is pulled towards her. He manages to keep his grip on the door as the rope is pulling him and eventually manages to rip open the entire front side of the restaurant.
Happy Texas!
As the front of the Krusty Krab is ripped apart, we can see all of Sandy’s friends gathered inside, with a banner that says ‘Happy Texas’ behind them. We can see the Flag of Texas hoisted up on the wall to their right.
“Howdy, Y’all!” everyone says in unison.
Sandy is visibly confused by this turn of events as she asks what’s happening.
SpongeBob tells her that it’s a party, a little slice of Texas, to help Sandy feel right at home.
SpongeBob has a bunch of activities planned for her, straight from her hometown;
- Squaredancing (Someone is holding a square and grooving)
- Giant Barbeques (Squidward is seen holding a large metallic ‘Q’ with barbs sticking out of it)
- Homemade pecan pie (Pearl misinterprets it as ‘pea-can pie’, and serves up some peas in a can!)
- Ten Gallon Hats (SpongeBob and Patrick put on large jugs of water over their heads)
Sandy falls to the ground with tears in her eyes yet again as her helmet refills with her tears. But this time around, it’s tears of laughter and sheer joy.
She tells SpongeBob that she appreciates immensely what he and the gang are doing for her. She further explains that home isn’t about pecan pies and barbeques. Home is where you’re surrounded by people that care for you.
This, to me, is the critical juncture where a switch is flipped in Sandy’s mind, and she realizes how deeply her friends care for her and how grateful she is for each one of them. Despite knowing nothing about the land above water, these underwater critters made a beautiful and heartwarming attempt to figure out Texan activities to help Sandy feel closer to home.
We then see all her friends surround her, showering her with affection. She instantly realizes the folly behind her thinking. She has been surrounded by friends, who at this point are more like family, all along. She has been home all this while and yet didn’t see it.
She declares loudly that she’s staying, and the crowd erupts cheering for her!
The episode closes with Patrick calling Texas dumb one final time as we hear Sandy’s rage begin to creep up again.
Conclusion
I absolutely love this episode. It represents the glumness and fear of moving to a new location, being around new people, making new friends, and the strangeness of it all. What helps Sandy cope with all of it is realizing that at the end of the day, home is where the heart is. And her heart lies with all the wonderful underwater critters she calls her friends and the beautiful trench she calls home. This episode is a must-watch!
FAQs
Answer: In Episode 18a of Season 1, SpongeBob turns himself into the shape of Texas to compel an enraged Sandy Cheeks to chase after him to the Krusty Krab.
Answer: Sandy is from the state of Texas and exhibits many characteristics of a typical cowgirl.
Answer : Sandy sings ‘The Texas Song,’ which is her rendition of Hank Williams’ “Long Gone Lonesome Blues.