Today’s Gumball thread is dedicated to one of the series’ most memorable, and surprisingly earnest, episodes: Season 3’s “The Shell.”

Gumball has, in the series up to this point, had an intermittently-reciprocated crush on a peanut-antler-girl named Penny. After a school play rehearsal (setting up a “Beauty and the Beast” motif for the episode) and an awkward kiss-turned-headbutt leaves Penny’s peanut shell cracked, her true inner nature begins to come forth for the first time in her life, causing family friction re: Penny’s father and Gumball.

Penny, now a glowing emotion-powered shapeshifter, goes on the run and freaks out, and Gumball has to chase her and show that he loves her for who she truly is to help her to accept herself.