

"The Awareness"[1] is the twenty-seventh episode of Season 6 of The Amazing World of Gumball. It is the 223rd episode overall.

Synopsis

Gumball's plant-insensitivity causes tension between him and Leslie.

Plot



SPOILER AHEAD!

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The episode begins with Gumball and Darwin about to leave for school when the latter points out that the week that this episode takes place in most likely has a theme for their school. Gumball, exasperated from numerous theme weeks taking place at school, airs his grievances by recounting multiple weeks of restoring everything to normal after Cake Week (followed by cake crumbs week, ant week, how to get rid of ants week, anteaters week, and how to get rid of anteaters week.)

While trying to figure out what theme the week has this time, Darwin suggests that it is Technology Week only for Gumball to remind him that the theme was already done. The latter recounts the time where they participated in that theme and tried to socialize with Bobert; however, their attempts to participate comes off as misunderstanding and somewhat offensive to the robotic student (such as assuming he knew a vacuum cleaner, or walking robotically upstairs).

Back in the present, Gumball suggests that they have not done History Week only for Darwin to remind him that he did not participate. Darwin proves this by reflecting on the time where he was dressed as a pilgrim, but Gumball was still dressed as a panda from Endangered Species Week from the week prior. In his defense, he claimed that since his costume was a thing of the past, it technically was history and claims that pandas as a species are history. Darwin sees through this façade and asks if his brother forgot, to which he admits.

Darwin begins to become anxious after realizing that they forgot what that week's theme was. The scene cuts to Gumball and Darwin wearing a myriad of thematical costumes as they wait for the school bus; when Darwin begins to feel unsure about their attire, Gumball reassures him that they have every theme covered. When the boys get on the bus, however, they come to realize that the theme was Green Week. Rocky confirms this as he starts to drive to school and points out that he filled up the bus' gas tank with cod oil rather than diesel. Not too long after driving, the bus breaks down and Rocky realizes that he should have used sunflower oil in the engine and not cod oil.

The students begin their walk to school and just when Sarah is getting exhausted from the heat, Darwin compliments her earth-designed ice cream head by pointing out her supposed attention to detail. When he points out that the ice caps depicted in the design are melting, Sarah is quick to correct him by saying it was a hot day and sounds slightly offended by him pointing out a real world problem. Gumball then notices Tobias' green color and assumes the green theme to his body was an effort to participate in Green Week; however, he is quick to correct him by saying it is food poisoning, and vomits not too long afterwards leaving Gumball and Darwin disgusted as they walk away. To their surprise, the boys see Bobert standing on the sidewalk having not participated in the theme, but realize that he is installing updates. Teri walks by and explains that Bobert is always taking part in Green Week since he turns off every night, but takes ninety minutes to reboot every morning.

Darwin concludes that they are the only ones who have not participated, but Gumball is quick to reassure him that in his opinion there's nothing special about plants. He takes this further by coming up with a superhero scenario where the hero is named Tree Man (to the interest of Sarah, whom begins to take notes) rather than any other name that references an animal or an insect. When he calls plants pointless, Leslie gains the boys' attention and airs his grievances towards that remark. Trying to save face, Gumball quickly corrects himself and tells Leslie that he thinks plants are very important. After failing to convince Leslie that he thinks of plants in a positive manner and knows about them, Gumball laments on how his relationship with Leslie was damaged from his lack of knowledge on plants in general.

When Darwin tries to prove a point, Gumball is unable to properly recall ecosystems that have trees (for example, forgetting the name of the rainforest and calling it a big green thing.) When he recalls the rainforest, he is unable to determine whether the issue was that there was too much of it, or too little of it. Darwin informs his brother that in order to gain Leslie's forgiveness, he is going to have to become aware of plants and build knowledge on that awareness through research. Gumball agrees and the scene cuts to the library where they consult the librarian, about a book on the history of plant culture. Rather than providing a book, the Tree Librarian suggests coming to her lecture on plant history only for Gumball to decline the offer and opt to receive handwritten notes instead. When the Tree Librarian reveals a large stack of notes, Gumball asks if she has notes for the notes, but they are not any less complicated than the original notes. Exasperated, Gumball simply says that he wants a quick summary of just one word; the Tree Librarian summarizes it by saying "photosynthesis." Eventually she asks the boys to leave, but even though Gumball does not know the meaning of the word he just heard, he becomes more than willing to use it in front of Leslie to impress him.

The scene cuts to Leslie studying from a math textbook outside during his free time, but Gumball walks past him feigning a conversation with Darwin about photosynthesis. Leslie picks up on this when he is greeted by the blue cat and decides to test Gumball's knowledge about how photosynthesis works by saying it is more of a plant thing. Gumball continues to show off while trying to earn back Leslie's respect by saying that he does it out of respect for plant culture.

Leslie continues to try to see through Gumball's facade when he further notes that the sun was up for a less amount of time than when the cat claimed to have photosynthesized, but the feline reasons with the flower by saying he had his own way of bypassing the requirements to have sunlight. Leslie suggests photosynthesizing that afternoon to see if Gumball was willing to prove that he knows about plants; after three minutes of standing in sunlight, Gumball's body begins to shrivel up from the heat. Leslie eventually leaves him alone to "photosynthesize." Gumball eventually breaks out of his shriveled up body as if he was a snake, which leaves Banana Joe horrified between the time he witnessed it up until being served dinner at home. Later that night, Gumball vents to Darwin, to the point of the latter's exhaustion, about how Leslie's successful attempts to get back at him went too far. When Darwin suggests going to sleep, he claims that he cannot get comfortable with third degree sunburns all over his body and has been shown to have been trying to get comfortable by sitting in Darwin's fishbowl with ice in it. Darwin eventually tries to reason with him that revenge was an obvious route for Leslie to take and tries to persuade his sunburned brother into forgiving the plant and moving on. Unfortunately, Gumball fails to see the true meaning behind Darwin's cryptic advice when he says to "draw a line under it."

The next day, Leslie is drinking from an orange juice carton when Gumball approaches him and reveals that for lunch, he plans on eating a bucket of soil to prove he knows about plant culture. When Leslie picks up on what Gumball is trying to accomplish, the plant refuses to be proven wrong and claims that eating soil is what plants do, but begins to regret saying that when he too is given a bucket of soil to eat. He attempts to get out of the situation by saying he already ate lunch, unfortunately Gumball was watching him for the last three hours and concludes that Leslie had no lunch. Seeing no other way out of it and not wanting to prove each other right, Gumball and Leslie eat a spoonful of the soil.

Leslie gets back at him by turning on a fire hose and explains that watering is vital for a plant's health and blasts Gumball with water with pressure that is so high that he gets blasted through a fence, down a street, through the pool room in the school and goes up the slide, interferes with a crime scene put together by the Doughnut Sheriff and two French fry officers, and interrupts a marathon by distracting a struggling runner into thinking that he will finish the race quicker with the high pressured water.

Back at school, Gumball dumps a box of bees into a classroom's window with Leslie inside. Leslie is far from welcoming of the bees' presence as they swarm him. The scene cuts to a forest where Leslie, covered in bee stings, throws bird seed at Gumball to attract hungry birds to peck at him. Gumball and Leslie are then seen underwater, with Leslie nearly drowning at the bottom of a lake as they converse about this being a plant thing.

Finally, Gumball and Leslie are shown skydiving without parachutes; this is where Gumball admits that he knows nothing about plants and the two of them finally work things out between them by pointing out that they saw through each other's facades. Upon apologizing, they become friends again and nearly fall to their deaths until Leslie sprouts seeds and floats the both of them safely towards the ground.

Leslie is still convinced that Gumball knows nothing about plants and suggests that he should go home to get milked. The episode ends with Gumball becoming offended at Leslie for such an idea.

Characters

Main Characters

Supporting Characters

Minor Characters

Trivia

This episode was scheduled to air on May 4 th , 2018 but was replaced by a rerun of Unikitty at the last minute. This episode, along with "The Stink," aired in multiple countries before it aired in the United States.

, 2018 but was replaced by a rerun of at the last minute. Bizarrely, the original synopsis for the episode mentions Elmore Junior High being overrun by vines. No such events occur in the episode.

This is the ninth episode not written by Ben Bocquelet. The first eight episodes were "The Vacation," "The Law," "The Potato," "The Line," "The Anybody," "The Founder," "The Intelligence," and "The Stink."

This episode confirms that Leslie is a Taraxacum pseudoroseum (In layman's terms, the pink dandelion) as shown when he sprouts dandelion seeds to save him and Gumball by floating towards the ground.

Continuity

This is Leslie's fourth major role. The others were "The Flower," "The Triangle," and "The Petals."

Gumball not knowing what the word "photosynthesis" means from "The Petals" is brought up again.

Cultural References

During the technology week flashback scene, Darwin is shown wearing an R2-D2 suit from the Star Wars franchise.

Goofs/Errors

When Darwin explains to Gumball that he was mistaken, his fin is unusually in the foreground on his body.

Other titles

Polski (Polish) : Świadomość (The Awareness)

: Świadomość (The Awareness) Български (Bulgarian) : Познанието (The Awareness)

: Познанието (The Awareness) Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese) : Nhận Thức (The Awareness)

: Nhận Thức (The Awareness) Português (Portuguese): A Consciência (The Awareness)