Time Trap!

"Time Trap!" (originally titled "Erased!"^[1]) is the twenty-second episode of the sixth season, the two-hundred-sixty-eighth episode, and the thirteenth full-length episode of The Loud House.

Plot[]

When the kids break Mom and Dad's priceless vase, they decide the only thing to do is go back in time to their wedding day, and prevent them from ever receiving it.

Synopsis[]

Act I[]

In the living room, Lori has set up an indoor golf course, with Lincoln being her caddy, Lynn supplying obstacles and the remaining sisters watching as spectators. After getting herself ready, Lori swings her club at the ball, where it begins to ricochet off the furniture. After ricocheting off a table holding a vase (where it begins to wobble), the ball lands near the "hole", and everyone cheers when it goes in, but at that very second, the vase from the table falls over and breaks in half. Because of this, everyone blames each other for the accident, but Lincoln tells them that they need to figure out how to fix it, as this is not the first time they broke it. It turns out that the vase was a gift Rita and Lynn Sr. got on their wedding day, and every time the siblings broke it, they would get grounded for increasingly longer periods of time. As the siblings complain that the vase gives them nothing but trouble, Lola wishes they could go back in time to the wedding and prevent them from ever getting it in the first place. This comment causes Lisa and Todd to get an idea.

Two minutes later, Lisa reveals to her siblings that, because she was able to create time travel,^[2] she has devised a plan to go back in time to their parents' wedding day to prevent them from getting the vase. When Lynn points out that altering the past can create disruptions in the space-time continuum, Lisa explains that she has a second plan: she would replace the vase with a mundane toaster. She also reveals that, because she doesn't want the siblings to disrupt the past, she plans to go alone, much to their chagrin. Seven minutes later, the siblings arrive to the garage to see that Lisa has converted Vanzilla into a time machine. Upon activating the time machine, Lisa jumps in, Todd gives her the toaster, and she drives back in time.

Upon arriving to the past, Lisa discovers that the siblings have tagged along anyway (as they jumped in the van while she wasn't looking). Entering the banquet hall where the wedding reception is being held, the siblings spot the table with all the gifts and attempt to sift through them to find the vase. Unfortunately, the siblings couldn't help but explore the wedding, inadvertently causing trouble like Leni spilling her kale juice on her future mother's wedding dress, Luna suggesting to a young Chunk to play rock music instead of a synthetic ballad, Luan pulling a prank on a nun, and Lola making the flower girls cry after complaining how they're doing their task wrong. Lynn successfully finds the vase, and Lisa proceeds to put the toaster in the pile. Lynn gathers the remaining siblings, but they spot Lily waddling over the table with the wedding cake. The siblings manage to stop her, but they accidentally yank the tablecloth, causing the cake to fly right into Rita and Lynn Sr. As a result, the wedding is a complete disaster, and the siblings quickly leave. The siblings jump into and zip off in Vanzilla. Unbeknownst to them, their leave is witnessed by Mr. and Mrs. Gurdle, who believe that they are aliens.

The siblings arrive to the present, believing that their worries are now over. They attempt to get into their house, but discover that the door is locked, there's no spare key, and there's no doggie door. After entering via the chimney, the siblings discover things being very different in the house, like the fancier furniture, their bedrooms being missing, and the photos on the wall being only of Rita and Lynn Sr. Suddenly, the kids hear Rita and Lynn Sr. arrive home after a three-week trip from Europe. They enter the house, see the kids, and ask them why they're here. Despite telling them that they're their kids, Rita and Lynn Sr. remind them that they don't have any kids and shoo them out of their house. Because of all the noticeable differences, Lisa realizes that they're in a timeline where they don't exist.

Act II[]

Lisa elaborates to her siblings that because they messed up their parents' wedding, Rita and Lynn Sr. vowed and swore to not have kids, meaning that, in the timeline they're in, they were never born. Getting an idea, they decide to ask Mr. Grouse, who is shown to have a more relaxed and youthful vibe, on what he thinks of his neighbors. Mr. Grouse explains that Rita and Lynn Sr. decided to not have kids after "a group of rascals" (the kids) ruined their wedding. Suddenly, Lori begins to flicker, and within seconds, she disappears from existence. Lisa realizes that the universe is course-correcting itself by erasing the things that don't belong in this timeline and fears that if they don't fix their mistakes, they'll all disappear. The siblings attempt to jump into Vanzilla so they can go back in time to stop themselves from messing up the wedding, but it disappears before they can get in (since Rita and Lynn Sr. never had kids, there was no need for them to have a vehicle with numerous seats). Because of this, the kids need to rebuild the time machine and steal a vehicle that they can use.

At the junkyard, Lisa tells the siblings that they need to find a crankshaft, a part of the time machine. Leni and Lucy look through a box of mirrors, and Lucy witnesses Leni disappear. Luna spots a guitar in a case, and suddenly encounters Chunk, who works here. When Luna reveals that she last saw him during one of his gigs, Chunk explains that his last gig was at Rita and Lynn Sr.'s wedding and came to operate his own junkyard after his band never got hired for gigs after the wedding. However, as he talks, Luna starts to flicker and eventually disappears. At that moment, Lana manages to find the crankshaft. Lisa says that the next thing to do is to find plutonium and reveals that Flippees are laced with plutonium.

Unfortunately, the Food and Fuel is not the sleazy convenience store it usually is, as it's now a health food store. Lincoln tries to enter, when suddenly, Chandler swings the door right into his face, as do Clyde, Zach, Liam, Rusty and Stella, who now act like bullies like Chandler (since Lincoln doesn't exist in this timeline, Chandler is now the leader of his friend circle). The kids enter the store (unaware that Mr. and Mrs. Gurdle are spying on them), and as they look around, Luan tries to make a joke, but disappears before she can deliver the punchline. At that moment, Flip enters, going by his real name of Phillip, wearing hippie clothes, and having a more laid-back vibe. When Lisa asks Phillip for Flippees, Phillip says that he doesn't know what those are, and reveals that he was inspired to run a health food store after an incident at Rita and Lynn Sr.'s wedding where someone (Leni) stained the bride's dress with her juice. After the kids leave, they are suddenly ambushed by Mr. and Mrs. Gurdle, where they explain that after years of trying to find them after the wedding, proceed to capture them. After Lynn disappears, they break out of their net and try to gun it, but the Gurdles relentlessly chase after them, where they successfully capture all but Lincoln. Lincoln tries to chase after the van, but he disappears in the process.

At the Gurdle house, the younger sisters are being held in protective bubbles in the garage, and their claims that they're not aliens are ignored by the Gurdles. As Lisa looks around the garage, she spots a container of plutonium on a counter. Getting an idea, Lisa "confesses" to the Gurdles that they are indeed aliens and can prove it by building a spaceship, but needs to be let out to show them, to which the Gurdles reluctantly allow. Later, after she builds the time machine on the Gurdles' van, Lisa says that she needs plutonium to power it up. As the Gurdles rush off to get a container of plutonium, Lily sneaks into the garage and manages to free Lucy, Lana and Lola. As the sisters make their break, Lucy begins to flicker, but she tells them to go without her so she can keep the Gurdles distracted. As Lucy disappears and with the time machine-enhanced Gurdle van operational, the remaining sisters drive back to the wedding.

Arriving to the banquet hall on the wedding day, the sisters enter, when suddenly, Lana and Lola begin to flicker and eventually disappear, leaving only Lisa and Lily left. At that moment, Lisa and Lily discover their alternate selves arriving and need to figure out how to stop them from ruining the wedding. Looking around, Lisa spots two doors: one that leads to the wedding, and the other being a maintenance closet. Getting an idea, Lisa decides to trick the alternate kids into going in the closet by bringing the wedding sign over to its door (but not before removing the maintenance closet's sign). The alternate kids fall for the trick, and upon entering the closet, Lisa forcefully shuts the door on them. Suddenly, she spots Lily about to tamper with the wedding cake again. Rita and Lynn Sr. witness this and attempt to stop her, but instead of ruining the cake, she instead smears some icing onto her finger and dabs it onto her future parents' noses. Moved by this act of cuteness, Rita and Lynn Sr. proclaim that they can't wait to have kids of their own.

With the wedding saved, Lisa and Lily travel forward in time, and all the siblings who disappeared from existence come back to life. Arriving back to the present, the kids are happy to see that their timeline is back to normal. At that moment, Rita and Lynn Sr. arrive home after getting pizza and quickly discover their wedding vase broken. Seeing the kids look seemingly happy that it's broken, the parents tell them they're grounded for two months, but the kids don't mind, as they hug their parents and tell them they want to live with them as long as they can, to which the parents follow suit. During the hug, Lisa discovers to her horror that on the fireplace mantel, Lily had photobombed their parents' wedding picture.

Cast[]

• Bentley Griffin as Lincoln / Alternate Lincoln
• Catherine Taber as Lori
• Liliana Mumy as Leni
• Nika Futterman as Luna / Flower Girl #2
• Cristina Pucelli as Luan / Mr. Coconuts / Flower Girl #1
• Jessica DiCicco as Lynn / Lucy
• Grey Griffin as Lana / Lola / Lily / Mrs. Gurdle
• Lara Jill Miller as Lisa
• Jill Talley as Rita
• Brian Stepanek as Lynn Sr. / Todd
• Jahzir Bruno as Clyde
• John DiMaggio as Mr. Grouse / Flip / Chunk
• Curtis Armstrong as Mr. Gurdle / Valet
• Daniel DiVenere as Chandler
• Dee Bradley Baker as Charles / Cliff

Ruth, Zach, Liam, Rusty, and Stella have no lines in this episode.

Trivia[]

• This episode reveals that the vase that sits near the front door is a gift Rita and Lynn Sr. got on their wedding day, and they have constantly grounded the kids for always breaking it.
  • This also further reveals that the Loud parents have received at least two vases as wedding presents, as it was previously shown in "Pets Peeved" that they got a different vase as a wedding present from Ruth. However, unlike the vase near the front door, Rita disliked this vase and always wanted to get rid of it.
• This is the third episode to premiere on the same day as The Casagrandes special. The first was The Loud House: "Camped!" and The Casagrandes: "Zoo-mergency!" and the second was The Loud House: "Save Royal Woods!" and The Casagrandes: "Phantom Freakout".
• The different paths in life the side characters in the alternate timeline took caused by the Loud kids' interference at the wedding that resulted in a timeline where the Loud kids weren't born:
  • Rita and Lynn Sr. are a couple with no kids (caused by the Loud kids for ruining their wedding reception [most noticeably the cake]). They also appear to be wealthier (likely due to not having to pay the expenses of looking after the kids) and have no pets (because Lana was the one who originally found the pets^[3]).
  • Mr. Grouse has a more youthful vibe (because Rita and Lynn Sr. have no kids, he is able to live a much more relaxed life, since he usually has to deal with the kids' antics in the normal timeline; most notably he gets more sleep in this timeline).
  • Chunk is a junkyard operator (caused by Luna who suggested that his band play rock and roll music instead of ballads, and subsequently prevented his band from getting hired at gigs).
  • Chandler takes Lincoln's spot in his friend circle and all of them share the same brash, bullying attitude (because Lincoln doesn't exist in this timeline).
    • The fact that Clyde is allied with Chandler and has adopted his bullying attitude echoes Clyde's claim that without Lincoln, he would "fall in with the wrong crowd" at middle school.^[4]
  • Flip sells all-natural foods, has a hippie-like vibe and goes by his real name (caused by Leni, who accidentally spilled her kale juice on Rita's wedding dress, and Flip being inspired to sell natural food with his store, now named "Phillip's Beans and Greens").
• The noticeable differences between Lincoln's friends' clothes in the alternate timeline:
  • Clyde - Wears a red and orange striped shirt instead of a blue and yellow one
  • Zach - His shirt has a darker shade of blue than usual
  • Liam - Wears a black and grey striped short instead of a teal and turquoise one
  • Stella - The cuffs and collar on her sweater are blue instead of red, and her sneakers are purple instead of green
    • Rusty is the only one whose outfit shows no differences.
• Mr. and Mrs. Gurdle seem to be the only ones whose lives remained the same as the original in the alternate timeline.
• Mr. Grouse is revealed to be in his 70s.^[5]
• Lisa mentions the events of "The Mad Scientist" by bringing up how she managed to create time travel.
• According to Lisa, Flippees are laced with plutonium.
• Because Lana and Lola are twins, they vanish from existence at the exact same time.
• This episode implies that Lynn Sr. inherited Vanzilla from Leonard between the births of Lori and Leni, as Vanzilla vanished after Lori, but before Leni.

• The "Loud Wedding" sign has the same color scheme and text font as the show's logo.
  • This is the second episode to reference the logo, the first being "Fool Me Twice" with the "for sale" sign.
• This episode reveals that Lori can apparently identify Cliff and Lynn by the smell of their farts.
• Irony:
  • Lynn was aware that altering the past would create disruptions in the space-time continuum, and the alternate future showed firsthand what the kids' interference at the wedding had done.
  • Despite Leni's warning that breaking a mirror causes seven years of bad luck, Lucy proceeds to do just that, given her macabre behavior.
  • Lisa notes to herself that her time machine worked "without a hiccup", only for Leni to reveal that she and the others tagged along by literally hiccupping.
    • Also, Leni tried to convince Lisa that none of the other siblings tagged along, only for her to blow their covers by telling them that she almost got away with fooling Lisa.
• Innuendo: When Lucy points out that none of her bloodstains are visible on the walls of the alternate house, she quickly covers up what she said by saying she meant to say ketchup.
  • This is the second time Lucy makes this "correction," the first being "The Boss Maybe".
• Cartoon physics: In one flashback of the siblings getting punished for breaking the vase, Lynn manages to fit her butt into the vase, and lets out a fart so powerful, the vase flies around like a rocket.

References[]

• Time Trap! - The title of this episode shares its name with a 2017 science-fiction action-adventure film.
• Back to the Future - The premise of this episode is similar to this 1985 sci-fi film, as they involve the main character(s) altering something from their parents' past and have to undo their actions or else they'll disappear from existence.
  • Additionally, Lincoln's line, "You built a time machine out of Vanzilla?" is a reference to Marty McFly's line, "Doc, are you telling me you built a time machine out of a DeLorean?"
• It's a Wonderful Life - The premise of this episode is similar to this 1946 Christmas film, as they're both about the main characters discovering what the world would be like if they never existed.
• Stephen Hawking - Lisa refers to this English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and writer when she discovers a barrel of plutonium in the Gurdles' garage.

Errors[]

• Possible plot hole: It is unknown what happened to the alternate Loud kids after Lisa crammed them in the maintenance closet. However, it's possible that they vanished from existence off-screen when the original timeline was restored.
• If one were to notice, Vanzilla goes back in time by going backwards, while driving forward makes them go forward in time. When Lisa activates the time-machine enhanced Gurdles' van, they drive forward to go back in time instead of backwards.
• Catherine Taber's name is misspelled in the credits as "Taver."
• When the kids smile at their parents' wedding, Luan is missing her braces.
• When the alternate Loud kids fall for Lisa's ruse and get crammed into the maintenance closet, Lori is missing.
• When the kids first arrived at the wedding, Lisa was shown to be carrying the toaster when she and the others entered the building, but when the alternate kids enter the building during the second arrival, Lisa isn't shown to be carrying the toaster.
• When the alternate future version of Lynn Sr. pushes the kids out of the house, Lincoln's teeth are not detailed for a split second.
• When the Gurdles capture the Loud children the first time, the text "I BELIEVE" on Mr. Gurdle's shirt disappears.
• When Lisa first arrived in the past, she smiles during her line, "Another scientific success without a hiccup." But when the alternate Lisa arrived in the past, she says the line without smiling.
  • Also, the alternate Vanzilla arrived driving forward instead of backwards.
• When the alternate future Flip shows a bottle of Leafees, it has a cap on it. But the cap disappears when Lisa takes a sip.
  • Also, after Lisa tastes the Leafees, she spits it out and also spills some out of the bottle. But in a wide shot, there are no trades of spilled Leafees on the floor.
• When Lily approaches the wedding cake, she scoops up some frosting with the finger on her left hand. But when she pokes frosting on the young Rita and Lynn Sr.'s noses, she uses the finger on her right hand.
• The pizza the Loud parents brought home is nowhere to be seen after Lynn Sr. drops it.

Videos[]

The Loud House Time Trap! Promo - June 3, 2022 (Nickelodeon U.S.)

Two Awesome Premieres Promo (The Loud House & The Casagrands, June 3, 2022)

Lisa Made a Time Machine! 🕓🚀 - 5 Minute Episode "Time Trap" - The Loud House

Time Traveling to Save Mom and Dad! ⏰ - Full Scene "Time Trap" - The Loud House

1 HOUR of The Best Schemes from The Loud House & Casagrandes! 🤪💡 - The Loud House

Every Loud House Wedding Adventure 💍💒 w- The Casagrandes - The Loud House

1 Hour of Loud House Kids FIGHTING With Each Other! 💥 - @Nicktoons

The Worst Days Ever! w- The Loud House & Casagrandes - 2 Hour SUPER Compilation - The Loud House

Sources[]