Some people are bothered by how materialistic our society is.

I can kinda understand. Being obsessed as some people are with acquiring more items and objects, it seem frivolous. But the way I see it, the things people buy are not simply objects, they’re something more.

Depending on the specific item, they represent joy, safety, security, self-reliance, or intellectualism. For instance, owning tools means you have the ability to fix something at a moment’s notice, on your own. It can help you become independent and reliable.

Toys can have the same impact. For me, my toy collection brings me happiness. Just looking at it, for some reason, can wipe my blues away… sometimes.

Then there are gifts. Which can represent the love one has for another. The more effort the individual puts into acquiring the gift, only to give it to someone else. It shows how much they care. The price tag is just a representation of the amount of labour one must put in to acquire it. It’s not shallow to want someone to spend a lot of money on you (okay, maybe it is a little). It’s representative of the effort they put in.

Then there are the custom-made gifts, which takes more thought and effort than anything one can pull off a shelf. And something nice, and personal, from someone who cares, can mean more to you than anything else in the world.

So what if you lost it. What if you lost something that meant a lot to you? A custom-made gift from someone you loved. How far would you go to get it back?

Well, this week on Littlest Pet Shop, we see just how far Blythe is willing to go for the same thing, when she loses a valuable necklace in some cake batter. Yes, she does work in a pet shop, and I will get to that.

It’s a bright, sunny day at Generic Regional High, and the weekend just hit. Blythe and co. are planning their weekend when the pet whisperer runs off to see her dad, who unexpectedly arrived to pick her up.

He seems calmer than he was last week.

Turns out he arrived to surprise her with a special gift: a (faux?) gold butterfly pendant that’s based on one of Blythe’s own designs. What do you know!? Before you ask; No, no one plagiarized her work. Roger brought the design to a jeweller, and had them execute it. Didn’t know you could do that.

Meanwhile, the Biskits are upset. After such a long and stressful week, (Which I doubt they even know the meaning of since they’re both complete slackers) it’s time to unwind. They stop at Sweet Delights and after yelling at Youngmee, decide to throw a party.

Quick flashback to their last party, which they apparently spent texting each other. Yeah, turns out they have no idea what parties are. How are they not in the ‘nerd’ group?

Youngmee asks the same thing the audience is, and we cut to the pets, where Buttercream is showing off an industrial-strength mixer. Minka takes some of the cake batter, and throws it against the stove, making delicious art.

Well, that was pointless.

Back to the Biskits. Seems they need to come up with a reason to hold the party. I guess it’s a rule their dad implemented so they wouldn’t throw a party every week. Which, knowing them, they would. So it’s time to plan their quarter-birthday party. They order 200 cupcakes and Youngmee is taken aback. Apparently, that’s considered a lot.

Well, let’s see. Average cupcake tray holds 24 cupcakes, divide that into 200, that’s nine batches. Takes 20 minutes to cook, and they have an industrial-strength mixer, so that’ll cut down on prep-time. Plus I doubt their oven can only hold one tray at a time. She should be able to do it in an hour, two at the most. Okay, there’s also decorating, we’ll tack on another hour.

Don’t see what the problem is. If she said 2,000, I could understand. But it was 200. She should be done in three hours. It doesn’t seem that hard. But Youngmee disagrees, however she takes the job anyway, after the Biskits threaten to take their business elsewhere.

As the twins leave, they bump into Blythe, and berate her, as the pets look on, shocked at the display. Really? I’m sure they’ve seen the two before.

So Blythe shows off her necklace to Youngmee, and Minka looks on, mesmerized by the shiny thing. Then Youngmee explains her situation. Naturally, Blythe offers to help. Yeah, because it’s not like you already work at a pet shop. Working at the bakery for no money sounds like a great idea. I say ‘no money’ because at no point do we see Blythe ask for a cut of the wages. In fact, she even suggests they recruit Sue and Jasper, and make it into a party. Yes, when I think ‘party,’ I think ‘labour.’

So they arrive and have fun wasting ingredients on jokes, while being backed by the instrumental version of the song Buttercream used to introduce the sweet shop. Actually, I can only hope they wasted the ingredients. But given what’s being done to them, if they actually tried to use them afterword, that’s a health code violation. Then again, so is letting a cat live in the sprinkle bin.

So they make all the cupcakes, using either smaller pans than I expected, or making bigger cupcakes than I expected. And it appears to all get done. But as they’re cooking the last batch, they’re quite tired. I don’t know why, but whatever. And in her exhaustion, Blythe fails to notice her necklace falling into the mixer. Uh oh.

Wait! How did that happen!? Must have been a shitty clasp.

The next morning, the pets arrive in Blythe’s bedroom, and Minka asks to see Blythe’s pendant. Russell explains the others came along to ensure she didn’t wake Blythe. Yeah, he kinda failed at that didn’t he?

They all eventually realize the pendant’s gone. After turning over the apartment, the pet shop and the sweet shop looking for it, Blythe realizes the only possible explanation is that it’s in one of the cupcakes. Wouldn’t they have noticed the thing while pouring the batter? Big wire-frame butterfly falling into the cupcake pan? No? Okay.

Buttercream explains that Christie already delivered the cupcakes while doing her ‘what?’-orgasm-‘anywho’ gag. But Blythe isn’t giving up, since that pendant isn’t just a pendant. It’s a symbol of her passion and talent, and her father’s love. It means quite a bit to young Blythe.

So, she asks the pets to help with the retrieval mission, dubbed: Operation: Cupcake.

Going to Youngmee, she explains they need to make 200 more replacement-cupcakes, as part of her plan. What kind of plan is this? Like a good friend, she agrees, and the resulting product is shoddily made, and most of them look just terrible. With the exception of the trays that are partially obscured by the trolley, and the animator probably didn’t think we’d spot.

They finish the job, and get to the Biskit’s party. And before you ask: No, I don’t know how they got there, since neither of them is old enough to drive. And I doubt Christie would have driven them, considering she probably wouldn’t approve of leaving jewellery in baked-goods. She would have also come up with a better plan.

So what exactly is Blythe’s plan? Talk their way into the party and replace the cupcakes. OOO… so conniving.

Okay, seriously, I got a better plan: Arrive at the party, and tell the guests Sweet Delights is giving a special prize to whoever finds the ‘golden butterfly’ inside one of their pastries. Say it’s some cheesy promotional contest: Find the Butterfly! Winner gets a super-party-pack with some of their best products, and 100 cupcakes. You wouldn’t even need to bake them at that moment, that’s the beauty of my plan.

Tagging along on this plan, are the pets, who don’t appear to have any role at all. So, why did she open by asking for their help?

The Biskits intercept and ask why Blythe is crashing their party. Blythe explains they’re just switching them out for fresher ones, so they only have the best food for their special day.

Naturally, the Biskits are skeptical. She’s doing it just to be nice? Oh come on girls. Not everyone is selfish, vapid, and self-centred, and… I just realized who the subject of this supposed generosity is. Yeah, I’d be skeptical too.

They realize what’s really going on. That Blythe is stealing them so she can get her hands on the presents that their father baked inside. Like the golden butterfly pendant they found. Oh, boy.

They start fighting over the cupcakes, and Minka spots one of the shinier ones roll onto the dance floor. She runs after it, and the others try to stop her. For a full minute, all eight pets start running around, and no human notices at all. That confuses me. They don’t even notice when Sunil starts screaming. But eventually someone sees Zoe and Vinnie shaking it on the dance-floor, and screams in horror.

Um… what!?

I can understand getting angered or surprised, but screaming in terror!? What justifies that reaction!? We got a dog, a lizard, a monkey, a hedgehog, a mongoose, a bunny, a panda, a monkey, and a skunk! How do any of them justify horror!?

Okay, there’s her. But the screaming girl was looking at Vinnie and Zoe. Pepper was nowhere to be seen. So, I don’t get it.

Anyway, in all the commotion, the cart tips and all the cupcakes get mixed up. Only one solution: The pets start stomping on all the cupcakes. Hoping one holds the pendant.

One of the guests gets hit in the face by a cupcake, while she’s calmly talking to her boyfriend. I guess the panic started to die down. In her confusion, calling for revenge, she throws a pizza at a goth kid, and a food fight begins.

The Biskits demand they cease, and two others walk up, and calmly pour creamed corn on their heads. Just the way they do it makes it so much more amusing.

They blame Blythe and decide to attack. So she comes clean, and tells them about the pendant. They mention they found it, and start explaining how tacky it is. So Minka’s rage kicks in, and she attacks. Taking the pendant back. But the black-haired one won’t shut up, so Sunil kicks her. Why didn’t any other pet try to take them down?

Blythe gives them a good bollocking, and leaves, finally earning her prize.

I have a feeling we might be looking at a bit of an arc here. Since Blythe explains that the pendant means a lot to her, and they would never understand what that’s like. It might open the door for some character development from these two. Then again, the last time I thought we were getting a story arc in one of these shows, I was grossly disappointed.

They arrive at Blythe’s home, and are ready to hit the hay. But Jasper and Sue arrive for the cake-baking party they planned for the six-month anniversary of their first meeting back in episode two. Looks like we got a timeline. It’s been a half-year since the premiere. Yet somehow it’s still summer. Winter never happened.

So the episode ends as the two employed girls go back to sleep.

I must say, this episode was better than the last. It seems like more happened. The only complaint I have, is the lack of pet involvement. Seems it was all about Blythe and Youngmee. But they’re allowed to have an episode or two without the pets, so I can deal.

So, yeah, I loved it. Next week, seems things are gonna get much more interesting with a proper adventure story. Blythe comes down with a cold, and it appears the cold virus acts like kryptonite on the young metahuman. Or gold or blue kryptonite, since I’m pretty sure regular kryptonite doesn’t actually strip Superman of his powers per say, it just makes him very weak.

Anyway, Blythe loses her superpowers, an old trope of the superhero genre. And apparently she doesn’t take it well, which surprises me. Actually, it really surprises me that they didn’t decide to end the season with this storyline, with hints that her power-loss is permanent. It would have been a perfect way to end the season. But instead, they’re shooting their load now. Whatever. Looking forward to it.