Time Trap! (The Loud House)

Time Trap! (The Loud House)
What should have been a fun trip though time ended up being a total wash.
Series: The Loud House Part of Season: 6 Episode Number: 8 Air Date: June 3, 2022 Writer: Andrew Brooks Jeff Sayers Director: Jessica Borutski Patrick Pakula Previous episode: "Prize Fighter" Next episode: "Crashed Course"

"Time Trap!" is the 8th episode of the season 6 of The Loud House, as well as the first half-hour special of the season in terms of airing order to air.

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.

Why It Should Vaporize Into Nothing

1. The Loud siblings are pretty unlikable and out of character here:
   • Lynn Jr.is an insufferable spoiled brat. In a flashback, she assaults Lincoln in his Ace Savvy costume just because he wanted the last slice of pizza. In fact more so since when Lori goes bye bye, Lynn Jr calls dibs on her mattress as everyone is freaking out, and when Luan poofs away, she not only cares about missing her joke, but legitimately considering it a silver lining and walks off like it was nothing.
   • Leni's stupidity just isn't funny here and is quite annoying.
   • Lola also acts like an insufferable spoiled brat.
   • Lisa also acts out of character, as you'd think she'd be smart enough to know that changing the past could quite literally destroy the future, yet she doesn't realize that.
   • Lori also acts like a mean older sister which again is also out of character.
   • In the alternate reality Lynn Sr. and Rita have no kids.
   • The Loud siblings break their parents' vase, and to not get grounded, they decide to go back in time to get rid of the vase. Let us remind you that the vase was a wedding gift.
   • Lincoln and Lucy act like selfish jerks.
2. Speaking of the vase, the entire episode happened over indeed a simple vase being broken. That's it. The Loud siblings nearly vaporized into time because they didn't want to get grounded for breaking a simple vase. And on that note, it shows times when the same vase was broken before, indicating the vase was easily replaceable. Even Lynn Jr points that out.
3. In the alternate timeline where the Loud kids don't exist, everyone seems to live much better, even Mr. Grouse looks a lot happier, this accidentally gives out a bad message that everyone's life would be so much better without you, similar to "It's a Wishful Life" from The Fairly OddParents.
   • Speaking of The Fairly OddParents, this episode's premise is a rip-off of the episode "Father Time!" and also steals elements of "SB-129" and "Back to the Past" from SpongeBob SquarePants, and the entire Back to the Future franchise, where for the former, Timmy accidentally melts his dad's trophy with his heat vision and wishes to go back in time to make sure he never won it, for "SB-129", Squidward goes to the furtue, the past, and the middle of nowhere to get away from SpongeBob and Patrick while learning that his life wouldn't be the same without them, in "Back to the Past", SpongeBob and Patrick need to fix the future after they accidentally made Man Ray conker the entirety of bikini bottom after defeating the original Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, and everything for the latter.
4. On top of being unlikable, the siblings (except for Lisa) also act like idiots during the wedding, as instead of getting rid of the vase, they wreck the wedding by telling the people there what to do, and not focusing on their plan (except Lisa).
5. Plot hole: What happened to the past siblings after Lisa shoved them in the maintenance closet? Of course, they would've managed to get out of there somehow, but even if that happened, they would've changed the present given their stupid behavior at the wedding, and yet, the episode completely ignores that. Though it's likely that they vanished from existence off-screen when Lisa and Todd got the original timeline back.
   • Not only is there a plot hole in the episode, but it creates an entire series plot hole since now Lily can be seen in the picture. And it hasn't been revealed if this episode is canon or not, and there was never an "it was just a dream" ending, indicting the events of this episode did in fact happen.
6. Mr. and Mrs. Gurdle are uninteresting and weak antagonists who have little to no motive for kidnapping the siblings, aside from thinking they are aliens.
7. In the alternate timeline, Liam, Rusty, and Zach are a part of Chandler's gang. But so are Clyde and Stella. While it is true that Lincoln never existed in that timeline and would be understandable for the former three, Clyde and Stella are some of the nicest kids in Royal Woods. Even without Lincoln’s influence. So it feels very out of character for them to join a bully like Chandler.
8. It's anyone's guess why the Loud siblings didn't think the mission through, since it should have become obvious to everyone (including Lisa) that time travel is a very complex, complicated, and delicate matter.
9. Pretty much, this feels like an "all for nothing" episode when Lisa and Lily forget to get rid of the vase when they return to the wedding at the climax, which renders the entire episode meaningless. It also doesn't help that it only took Lisa a second or two to get rid of the vase when the Louds first travel to the wedding. Though this can be excused by the fact that the duo was more focused on not disappearing forever, but still.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Good ending: The Loud siblings redeem themselves by saving the vase and bringing everything back to normal, but even though they did, it does not excuse their actions.
2. Flip, Chunk, real-time Lynn Sr. and Rita, and Mr. Grouse are the only likable characters in this episode.
3. As much as a jerk Lynn Jr is, as mentioned above in WISVITAGTT#1, she does see the absurdity in the siblings' plans to travel back in time to prevent Rita and Lynn Sr. from getting their wedding vase.
4. Some funny moments, such as Mr. Grouse's new look and the joke of Luan stating "Hey, what kind of cow produces oat milk?", despite what WISVUTAGTT#2 says.

Reception

Despite the rating of 6.1/10 on IMDb, "Time Trapǃ" was ridiculed by many viewers, with the main criticism being the mean-spirited moments.

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