The First Temple

"The First Temple" is the fourteenth episode of the second season of Amphibia, and the sixty-fourth episode overall.^[4]

It premiered on March 20, 2021.

Synopsis

Marcy, Anne, and the Plantars travel to an ancient temple that could hold the key to getting Anne and Marcy home, but only if they can survive the temple's deadly challenges!

Plot

Anne and the Plantars are enjoying the morning having chocolate pancakes, made from choco-bugs, when Sprig suddenly makes everything awkward by reminding everyone about the events two days prior. While Anne has forgiven Hop Pop about hiding the Calamity Box, they still find it difficult to discuss certain things with each other. Thankfully, this is broken up by the arrival of Marcy who announces that she has information on the first temple they must venture to to recharge the first Calamity Box gem. She explains that the temple is full of deadly traps and that no one has been able to surpass them. This actually excites Marcy, but Anne tells her that she has a habit of getting "lost in the zone" and tunes out everything else, endangering her safety. Marcy brushes this aside as they arrive at the temple, via her sparrow steed, and are surprised to find what looks like an outhouse nearby the place.

Upon entering, and after Anne and Hop Pop exchange an awkward conversation, the group end up in a large cube shaped room where Anne discovers what looks like a puzzle cube. Upon holding it, the barer gets encompassed in a magnetic bubble. She gives the box to Marcy who uses it to solve the puzzle. However, whenever she messes with it, it causes the room to turn and alter, harming Anne and the Plantars. Marcy manages to solve it and the door opens up with Marcy excitedly rushing into the next room and disregarding her friends' well being. The next room has a floor of colored tiles. The group quickly learn that the pink tiles are fire traps and blue tiles are spike traps. The green tiles are safe, but there is only two of them. Marcy jumps onto one and beckons someone else to hop on the other. Anne and Hop Pop both calmly argue with one another about who should jump on the green tile.

Hop Pop claims he should do it to redeem himself for harming Anne, who feels that she should do it as Hop Pop has suffered enough. As a result, Anne also believes that due to Hop Pop prioritizing Spring and Polly over her, she no longer sees herself as an honorary Plantar, to Hop Pop's fury. Anne forcibly jumps ahead of him and manages to land on the tile, opening the door to the next room. Anne and Hop Pop continue arguing, much more angrier than before, with Anne even stating that maybe she spoke too soon about forgiving Hop Pop, up until the next room which contains a chess-like game called flip wart. Marcy just so happens to be an expert at the game, but upon setting up the pieces, Polly falls through the floor and ends up as the actual flip wart piece on a bigger board. Realizing that they are to be the actual pieces, Sprig and Hop Pop are also transferred to the big board while Anne is transferred to the opposing side, much to everyone's shock. Marcy uses her skills to try and avoid harming her friends, but the game cheats and Anne ends up harming Hop Pop. Marcy is also too engrossed in the game to notice that her moves are only causing more pain to the others.

As Anne unwillingly chases Hop Pop across the board, Hop Pop accuses Anne of loving the pain she is inflicting on him, which Anne, horrified by his words, emphatically denies, insisting that despite still being mad at him she didn't want to hurt him. Hop Pop retorts that she's already hurting him by rubbing his mistake in and reminding him of it. He demands to know what he has to do for her to let it go. At this, Anne finally breaks down and shouts she doesn't know, which snaps Marcy out of her zone. While Anne has consciously forgiven Hop Pop after all, she also says she needs more time to put the whole conflict behind her, and sincerely wants to restore her relationship to the familial status it was before, but is clearly having a lot of trouble letting go of her hurt feelings. Hop Pop understands, apologizes for trying to rush the fullness of the reconciliation, and tells her to take as much time as she needs, concluding that for now, it would be enough to admit they still had issues to work through instead of pretending they didn't exist. Anne accepts this and adds that she would hug him at that moment were it not for the magical restraints.

Realizing that she has put her friends in danger, Marcy tries to forfeit and rushes the board before using Sprig as a projectile and destroying her own piece, ending the game. Marcy believes that she has lost her chance at recharging the gem, and the temple leads them out with glowing green arrows. However, the group discover that the arrows are leading them to the outhouse. It turns out that the outhouse is actually the recharging station and that Marcy learning humility was the test. Marcy places the gem on the pedestal and the green energy is recharged into it, with the green also draining from Marcy's eyes. The gem proceeds to point them in the direction to the next temple as the group plan to take a break for the time being before heading to their destination. Anne and Hop Pop are also on much better terms than before, promising to continue working on fully restoring their familial relationship.

Back in Newtopia, General Yunan tells King Andrias that political situations are worsening, the Toad Lords plan on meeting and Grime is still on the loose. Andrias gets a message that Marcy was successful in her mission, and he ominously leaves the throne room and a confused Yunan behind. He goes down a tunnel into a strange room where he informs someone that the prophecy is being undone and that "we will have our revenge"; the recipient is revealed to be a large multi-eyed creature.

Cast

• Brenda Song as Anne Boonchuy
• Justin Felbinger as Sprig Plantar
• Bill Farmer as Hop Pop Plantar
• Amanda Leighton as Polly Plantar
• Haley Tju as Marcy Wu
• Zehra Fazal as General Yunan
• Keith David as King Andrias

Additional voices

• Dee Bradley Baker as Bessie, Joe Sparrow, & News Anchor

Non-speaking cameo

• Sasha Waybright (flashback)
• Cheyenne (flashback)
• Lady Olivia
• The Core (debut)

Other Characters

• Shadowfish
• King Aldrich (statue)

Title in other languages

Language	Title	Translation	Notes
Bulgarian	Първият храм	The First Temple
German	Der erste Tempel	The first temple
Italian	Il Primo Tempio	The First Temple
Japanese	一つ目の神殿	First Temple
Dutch	De Eerste Tempel	The First Tempte
European Portuguese	O Primeiro Templo	The First Temple
Polish	Pierwsza Świątynia	The First Temple
Russian	Первый храм	The First Temple
Thai	วิหารแรก
Vietnamese	Ngôi Đền Thứ Nhất	The First Temple

Transcript

Gallery

Click here to view the gallery.

Trivia

• Viewership: This episode was watched by 0.34 million viewers on its premiere.^[2]
• This is the third of the four 22-minute specials in Season 2, and the fourth of the series.
• This is the third episode to not play the theme song, the first two to not play the theme song were "Toad Tax"/"Prison Break" and "Reunion", both from the first season. Thus, this is the first episode from the second season to not play the theme song.
• The music playing when Joe Sparrow is dancing to Bessie is an edited version of "Sylvia BAE" from "Hop Pop and Lock."
• When Anne, Marcy, and the Plantars enter the temple, the mural of both the girls and Sasha fighting the toad monster from the theme song can be seen.
• General Yunan appears with King Andrias and Lady Olivia for the first time.
• Marcy's Theme is used a total of 23 times throughout the episode.
• This episode marks the first appearance of the Core.
  • This also marks the Core's only non-speaking appearance and its only appearance in Season 2.
• This is the second of four full-length episodes to not use an alternate credits sequence, following "Marcy at the Gates" and followed by "The New Normal" and "Escape to Amphibia".
  • This is the only fourteenth episode of a season to not use an alternate credits sequence.

Revelations and significant events

• Marcy solves the challenges of the first temple and recharges the first gemstone.
  • When Marcy recharges the first gemstone, the green color from her eyes drains.
• Yunan reveals an uprising in the Valley (the insurrection Grime suggested at the end of "Toadcatcher") and some Toad leaders known as Toad Lords. This would later be followed up in "Barrel's Warhammer".
  • She attempts to inform Andrias that Sasha is working with Grime, but is dismissed before she can do so.
• The ending reveals that King Andrias is working for a mysterious entity that lives underneath Newtopia.
  • He also reveals there is some sort of prophecy and is plotting revenge.

Continuity

• At the beginning of the episode, Sprig quickly resumes the events that occurred in the last episode.
  • Along with the episode Hop Pop and Anne are still having awkward moments due to the events of the said episode.
• The game Flipwart, which Grime mentioned in "Reunion" and which appeared at the end of "Marcy at the Gates", gets explained and played in this episode.
• While setting up the Flipwart game, Marcy asks Anne, "You wanna get home, right?" instead of "We wanna get home, right?", implying that Marcy does not want to go back to Earth. This foreshadows Marcy's true intentions with the Calamity Box that would be exposed at the end of the season.
• Anne and the Plantars agree to a break before going to the second temple, thus explaining the two-episode gap between this and "The Second Temple" as opposed to the one-episode gap between "The Second Temple" and "The Third Temple".

Production notes

• This was the last episode to be produced in 2020.
• Marcy's sparrow's name, Joe Sparrow, is a reference to the crew member with the same name.
• This is the only episode featuring the Core to not use an alternate credits sequence.
• This is the last episode to credit Zehra Fazal in a standard credits sequence.

Allusions

• Planet Earth - Joe Sparrow performs a mating dance in front of Bessie, similar to birds-of-paradise, which first got people's attention in this BBC docuseries and have since been featured in similar docuseries.
• SpongeBob SquarePants - During a brief moment, a card with a similar style to the time transitions cards appears.
• Peter Pan - During Anne's flashback, she and Sasha are in a Peter Pan play, with Anne as the titular main character and Sasha as Captain Hook.
• Flappy Bird - In the same flashback, the game Marcy is playing is based on Flappy Bird, a game well known for causing problems to those who've played.
• Nintendo Switch - The device Marcy was playing Flappy Bird on has the same default color of her game console.
• Hellraiser - The puzzle box in the first room bears a resemblance to the Lament Configuration.
• The Queen's Gambit - The art drawn by Cassie Zwart is a reference to a similar Netflix promotional poster to Queen's gambit.
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer/Philosopher's Stone - The game Flipwart is played out on a giant chessboard, just like in the first Harry Potter book/movie. But there are differences.
  • Harry, Ron, and Hermione plays as Black Bishop, Black Knight, and Black Queen's rook. While Sprig plays white Pawn, Polly plays as White Rook, Hop Pop as White Bishop, and Anne as black Heron Knight.
  • Both featured destroyed stones as montage hits.
  • Marcy calls out the moves on the top while Ron calls the moves in the board,
  • Harry, Ron, and Hermione wins by checkmate, While Marcy forfeits the game but failed due to trigger of security which they made through.

Errors

• When Marcy is solving the first challenge, she doesn't have her fingerless gloves.

Videos

Final Temple Flipwart - Amphibia - Disney Animation

References