Operation Crumb Cake

I just mailed a letter stating my true feelings to Phineas and we need to stop it before he reads it!

Isabella sends a letter to Phineas admitting her true feelings but instantly regrets her decision and desperately tries to get it back. Meanwhile, Doof invents an Unretrograde-inator to reverse his bad luck.

Episode Summary
Isabella visits her Nana Shapiro in the Danville nursing home. A friend of Nana's is writing a letter on paper, which intrigues Isabella. Nana tells her that people used to write handwritten letters long before e-mail and how she once wrote a letter to a boy who later became her husband. Isabella is now even more interested since she has been meaning to tell a certain person how she feels. Nana's friend gives Isabella a paper and pencil, and she writes her letter rather quickly, saying she has been "scripting this thing out in [her] head for years." She gives her letter to the mailman and he takes it. Isabella asks her Nana how her grandfather reacted to her letter, but Nana reveals that she never sent it for fear of embarrassment. Now Isabella regrets mailing her letter.

In the garage, Linda and Lawrence are going through boxes of take-out food leftovers and utensils. They decide to get something to eat. Phineas and Ferb decide to clear out the boxes while they are gone. Phineas then takes a look at a spork (or a "foon" as Ferb claims the Brits call it) and is intrigued by how artsy it looks. As Phineas is about to utter his catchphrase, Candace comes in to ask if they are doing anything bustable. Phineas tells his sister that they are simply cleaning out the boxes. Candace decides to do some of her own chores. Baljeet and Buford say that they have some of their own leftover take-out food packets and utensils. Phineas tells them to get those and bring them to the backyard for some artwork. He then successfully says another catchphrase.

Agent P enters his lair through the sprinkler. Major Monogram informs him that Doof is now into astrology, which he admits to have been skeptical of in the past, but he worries that Doof might use their horoscopes so that he will know their every move. Carl admits his own skepticism by saying the horoscopes were only created for entertainment purposes and not to be taken seriously.

Isabella walks down the street still regretting that she mailed the letter, as well as the things she wrote in the letter, such as referring to Phineas as her "little crumb cake". She calls up the Fireside Girls and informs them of the letter. She tells them they need to retrieve the letter before it gets sent, designating the mission "Operation Crumb Cake", which makes the girls giggle. Meanwhile, in the backyard, Phineas and his friends start their work on the take-out art piece.

At Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated, Perry gets trapped by a dream-catcher that Norm made earlier in the morning. Doof tells his adversary that his astrologer informed him that all of his evil schemes have been failures because of the planet Mercury being in retrograde. He unveils his un-retrograde-inator, which will make Mercury go backwards. He demonstrates it on Norm who decides to dump Doof's early-morning piñata pieces on the floor.

Isabella follows the mail truck on her skateboard. She is later joined by the rest of the Fireside Girls. As soon as the truck goes into the garage, the girls stick their skateboards onto the building and climb up them to the roof like stairs. They rope down into the mail-sorting machine area and try to get Isabella's letter. Adyson almost gets it but gets sucked into the pneumatic tubes and ends up in a mailbag. Katie keeps an eye out but constantly gets distracted by Adyson on the conveyor belt. Isabella finally finds the letter, but it gets collected by the mailwoman, who puts it in her truck and drives away. Isabella and the Fireside Girls decide to make haste at the Flynn-Fletcher house.

Back at D.E.I., while Norm does everything backwards, Doof reads his horoscope. Norm then unmakes his dream-catcher and takes it off of Perry, who kicks Doof backwards.

The Fireside Girls make it to the Flynn-Fletcher house before the mail truck arrives. Isabella instructs Holly and Ginger to keep an eye out for the truck and for the rest to fan out while she distracts Phineas.

Meanwhile, the effects of Doof's inator finally wear off on Norm. Doof tells the robot to take Perry off him, but Perry runs away making it difficult to do so.

Isabella enters the backyard by nervously saying her catchphrase. Phineas shows her the artwork they have been doing. Isabella attempts to avoid letting Phineas see the mailwoman come. Ferb informs Phineas that the mail has arrived and Phineas goes down in hopes that his comic book arrived, and Isabella follows him. Candace sees the artwork and gets her mother as usual.

Holly informs the others that the mailwoman is coming their way. Ginger asks sternly to hand over the letter addressed to Phineas to her, but then asks politely. The mailwoman informs her it is against the mail carrier's protocol to hand the letter to anyone other than its recipient. Phineas asks the mailwoman if his comic book arrived and the mailwoman informs him it didn't but gives him the letter. Isabella nervously accepts her fate. Meanwhile, Perry makes Norm trip over on the inator, making him activate it. Just as Phineas begins reading the letter, the inator hits both him and the mailwoman. Phineas involuntarily gives the letter back to her and equally involuntarily unmakes the art sculpture.

When Perry hits the self-destruct button, it does not activate. Doof informs him that he made it coin-operated, since he always thought "If only I had a nickel for every time [Perry the Platypus] pushed my inator's self-destruct button". However, Perry gets a nickel from his fedora and puts it in the slot, with the usual results.

Candace arrives as usual to see another failed bust attempt. Her mother tells her to clean her room. Isabella is relieved that somehow Phineas didn't read her letter, but Ferb reveals to her that Milly told him about the "crumb cake" thing.

Songs

 * I Need My Letter Back
 * Quirky Worky Song (played in reverse)

The "Too Young" Line
None.

Ferb's Line
He wolf-whistles to Phineas to indicate the mail has arrived.

Perry's entrance to his lair
He enters his lair through the backyard sprinkler.

Oh, there you are, Perry!
None.

Evil Jingle
Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated!

Background Information

 * Danville Senior Centre Lodge is seen again. ("Lotsa Latkes")
 * Phineas almost found out about Isabella's crush on him.
 * Both Carol Kane and Marilu Henner were members of the cast of the 1980's sitcom Taxi.
 * "Foons" are also known as "sporks".
 * If you look closely, Isabella's letter is the "Lorem ipsum" filler text.
 * Second time Doof makes an inator related with luck ("Just Our Luck")

Production Information

 * This episode was confirmed by Disney Channel Poland.

International Premieres

 * May 15, 2014 (PlusPlus, Ukraine)
 * June 2014 (Disney Channel Netherlands)
 * July 26, 2014 (Disney XD Poland)
 * August 1, 2014 (Disney XD Germany)
 * August 7, 2014 (Disney Channel Brazil & Latin American)

Errors

 * My_Operation_Crumb_Cake.png Isabella peeks at the mail truck behind a bush, she is wearing her Fireside Girls uniform but without the sash. When the camera zooms in on her skateboarding, she's suddenly switched to her regular outfit. In every scene after, she switches back to her uniform.
 * Isabella is not wearing her sash while skateboarding, but after sneaking into the Mail Depot her sash suddenly appears on her body.
 * At multiple times during the song, Isabella's shoes are brown instead of red.
 * When Phineas approaches the mailwoman when she is about to give him the letter, Adyson's eyelashes disappear.
 * At the very end of the episode when Isabella yells at Milly, the far edge of her beret is superimposed over her head.
 * Monogram says he's a Sagittarius, which means his birthday is between November 22 and December 22, but he celebrated his birthday sometime during the summer as seen in "Backyard Hodge Podge".

Continuity

 * Isabella rides the same skateboard from "Face Your Fear", and has the same design as her surfboard seen in "What'd I Miss?", "Mission Marvel" and "Great Balls Of Water".

Allusions

 * The Spork - Phineas wonders what they call a spoon/fork combination.
 * Rocko's Modern Life - This episode is similar to the plot of the season 4 episode "S.W.A.K.", which is probably not a coincidence since Dan and Swampy also worked on this show.
 * Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies - Ferb holds up a sign indicating the mail has arrived similar to how certain characters speak when speechless in the Warner Bros. cartoons, notably Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.
 * Massive Chair Sculpture - Baljeet mentions Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata's sculpture in Abu Dhabi.
 * The Blue Boy - Baljeet does a recreation of this Thomas Gainsborough painting as part of the art sculpture.
 * I Got Rhythm - When Norm lands on the inator, he inadvertently says the title of this George Gershwin song.

Trivia

 * Norm is dressed like a maid again. ("Canderemy")
 * The seventh episode where Isabella almost reveals her crush on Phineas ("Comet Kermillian", "Phineas and Ferb Summer Belongs to You!", "Troy Story", "Steampunx", "The Return of the Rogue Rabbit", "It's No Picnic").
 * This is the third episode focused on Isabella and the Fireside Girls ("Isabella and the Temple of Sap", "Bee Story"), but this is the first one that doesn't take place during another episode.
 * Third time someone uses the phrase "If I had a nickel for..." ("Phineas' Birthday Clip-O-Rama!", Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension).

Cast

 * Vincent Martella as Phineas
 * Ashley Tisdale as Candace
 * Thomas Sangster as Ferb
 * Caroline Rhea as Mom
 * Richard O'Brien as Dad
 * Dan Povenmire as Dr. Doofenshmirtz
 * Jeff "Swampy" Marsh as Major Monogram, Additional Voices
 * Tyler Mann as Carl
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Perry
 * Maulik Pancholy as Baljeet
 * Bobby Gaylor as Buford
 * Alyson Stoner as Isabella
 * Kelly Hu as Stacy
 * Mitchel Musso as Jeremy
 * John Viener as Norm
 * Ariel Winter as Gretchen
 * Diamond White as Holly
 * Michaela Zee as Ginger
 * Isabella Murad as Milly
 * Corbin Bleu as Coltrane
 * Marilu Henner as Nana's friend
 * Carol Kane as Nana Shapiro
 * Monica Raymund as the Mailwoman
 * Additional voices: Patrick Rafferty


 *  designates a character that did not appear in this episode