Spongebob's home, the autumn of 2010….
"Gary!" Spongebob, who was in his underwear mind you, gasped as he saw Puffy Fluffy, in his humongous, jagged-toothed snakehead form, about to devourer a helpless Gary, who was trapped between two of the former's innumerous prehensile tongues, which all sported lamprey mouths. It really makes it a pity that this awesome monster design was wasted on this garbage fire of an episode.
Spongebob walked up to the beast, waggling his finger. "You put Fluffy down right now! Bad boy, Gary!"
Gary was nothing if not utterly dumbfounded by this. It even made him forget that he was about to be eaten and digested. Just what in Neptune's name was wrong with the sponge? Even on his worst days, Spongebob wasn't this stupid and blind to reality.
"Bad! Bad! Bad boy! Bad! Bad Gary! Bad!" Spongebob continued to idiotically scold the snail.
Even Puffy Fluffy couldn't help but pause from the utter absurdity of the situation and glance down at Spongebob.
Somehow, defying all logic, Spongebob acted as if Fluffy was still in his cute nudibranch form (which are not fish in real life, but types of sea snails, missed opportunity there), which he had used to deceive the yellow idiot. His plan had been very simple, pose as a harmless pet, eat the snail while Spongebob wasn't looking and later eat Spongebob himself. But somehow, a wrench was thrown into that stupendously simple plan.
"Bad! Bad! Bad boy! Bad! Bad Gary! Bad!"
"Meow! Meow! Meow!" Gary asked the snakehead in a muffled tone. Surely he must have put Spongebob under some kind of mind spell?
"Rawr. Rawr. Rawr." Fluffy shrugged, just as confused as the snail. He was capable of rapid metamorphosis, but he had no mind powers.
"Bad! Bad! Bad boy! Bad! Bad Gary! Bad! This is not the way to treat your fellow pet!"
Fluffy shrugged again, might as well finish what he had started, since the snail was out of the bag. He dropped Gary, never eat a snail before eating another soft-bodied invertebrate, otherwise, the shell would give you indigestion, and leaned down at Spongebob, roaring and preparing one of his tongues to strike.
"Oh, hello. Are you a friend of Fluffy?" Spongebob smiled at it. But before it was by-by for Spongebob, the doorbell rang.
"Oh, just a second, Fluffy, you can introduce me to your new friend in a jiffy." Spongebob happily skipped to the door, leaving the bloodthirsty snakehead even more baffled.
Spongebob opened the door to find….Squidward, grouchy as usual and holding a brain for some reason.
"Squidward! What a nice surprise!"
Squidward examined Spongebob with a scrutinizing glare. Did the idiot realize he was standing in nothing but his underwear?
"Would you please stop leaving your brain on my front lawn? If you can't keep it in, plug in those head holes of yours already!"
"Uhhh…I never saw this type of animal?" the literally brainless Spongebob cooed over his own brain and stroked it. "Hello there little guy, would you like to join Gary and Puffy Fluffy?"
"Who's Puffy Fluffy?" Squidward asked.
"Grrrrrrrrrrr…"
Hearing that, he glanced past Spongebob and into the living room and his jaw promptly dropped, his face paled and his pupils shrank into tiny dots.
"Squidward, what's wrong? You wanna meet Puffy Fluffy?" Spongebob asked obliviously as the octopus slowly gave him the brain, slowly took a few steps back and slowly closed the door. After doing that, Squidward screamed like there was no tomorrow and ran as fast as his four legs could carry him.
"Well that was weird?" Spongebob said to himself, oblivious to the angry snakehead standing right behind him. Fluffy prepared to strike.
Spongebob looked at his brain and continued petting it. "Now what should I call you?"
Covered in saliva, Gary got up and saw what was about to happen. He jumped and pushed Spongebob out of the way, making Fluffy's tongue miss them by a hair.
Spongebob lost his mind and it was sent flying across the air, before falling back into Spongebob's head through one of its many holes.
Spongebob stood up, rubbing his head. "Whh…what happened?" he asked in a more lucid tone. Then a second later. "Flapping Flotsam! What's that!" he screamed in terror and pointed at the monster in his living room.
And another second later, he was seized by one of Puffy Fluffy's lamprey tongues, which coiled around him like a boa constrictor and the beast was ready to devourer him.
He tried to grab Gary too, but the snail slithered away, barely dodging the tongue before coming back with his trusty lasso and cowboy hat as dramatic western music started playing. Swinging his lasso, he flogged Fluffy in the face, forcing him to drop Spongebob. He then lassoed Fluffy's menagerie of tongues together and pulled on them, making the behemoth roar in pain. This made Puffy Fluffy break through the house and run off into the distance. Apparently, the 12-foot dagger-toothed monstrosity was a bit of a wimp?
Gary was surprised at how easy that was, but he nonetheless grinned proudly as he watched the fiend run for the hills like a coward.
Cue bubble transition….
Spongebob was wearing a spiked collar attached to a chain which in turn was attached to a doghouse. Gary was in front of him, giving him a very stern look.
"Awww…do I really have to sleep here for the night?" Spongebob pleaded. "I promise I'll be more careful and not lose my brain again."
"Meow! Meow! Meow!" Gary retorted sternly.
Spongebob slumped as all joy drained from his face. "Yes, I'll think about my actions and how they have consequences."
"Meow. Meow." Gary added.
"What? No supper?" Spongebob cried. "But! But!" Gary's scolding glare shut him down.
"Yes, Gary…" Spongebob turned around dejectedly, hunkered down into the doghouse and started shaking and whimpering. Not crying though, he was whimpering like a dog, complete with sad puppy dog eyes.
Gary shook his head. Spongebob could be such a handful, but anyone knows that taking care of your pet is never easy. Hopefully, this time-out would finally teach the dunderhead a valuable lesson.
Suddenly, the ground started trembling and Gary and Spongebob saw a massive old-timey warship with huge sails and equally huge canons appear in front of their pineapple home.
On it were Mr. Krabs, wearing a captain coat and tricorn hat with a skull and crossbones logo and wielding a sword, Sandy, wearing a black tank top, cargo pants and combat boots and carrying a huge plasma gun, and cowering behind them was Squidward, wearing a striped pirate shirt and a bandana, and hugging a harpoon gun.
"Argh! Where be that scurvy sea monster that ye said would eat us all, Mr. Squidward!" Mr. Krabs roared, ready for combat. He hadn't gutted a sea monster since his glory days at the Navy.
"Yall be avenged, Spongebob!" Sandy screamed and raised her fist.
"It's here somewhere, sir…" Squidward's quivering tentacle pointed at Spongebob's house. The three looked down, only to find Gary along with Spongebob, the latter on a leash and in a doghouse. They could do nothing but stare blankly at the bizarre sight.
"Hey there, guys!" Spongebob waved happily.
Spongebob frequently loses his brain because his head is literally full of holes? That makes too much sense! Perhaps that's why his personality tends to fluctuate so much in the post-Hillenburg era between his original personality and super-flanderized, oblivious-to-everything Spongebob?
I mean really, Spongebob's depiction in this episode is downright satirical, like some joke animation you would show people to teach them about the concept of "flanderazation". Not since "Good Neighbors" have I seen an episode that so blatantly and shamelessly ignored the main protagonist's characterization just to make its asinine plot work. If there is one thing you can thank "A Pal for Gary" for, it is how it might have unintentionally stopped Spongebob's descent into flanderzation, since in that episode, his obliviousness had hit rock bottom and there was nowhere to go but up from then on. It was a slow journey, but by Season 9B, we finally got semi-sensible Spongebob back to some extent XD