Candace Loses Her Head

It's Candace's birthday! We gotta do better than last year... Phineas and Ferb remodel Mount Rushmore for Candace's 15th birthday, while Agent P stops Dr. Doofenshmirtz from making a tunnel to China.

Episode Summary
Phineas wakes up and sees on the calendar that it's Candace's birthday. Since the gorilla in the cake last year didn't work out so well, Phineas wants to do better this time. Meanwhile, Candace is dreaming she's being serenaded in a musical featuring a giant cake and a song named after her. Perry the Platypus suddenly appears in the dream and this wakes her up. She carries him downstairs and drops him on the table in front of Phineas and Ferb. "This is yours, I believe", she announces. Candace learns the family will be going on a trip for her birthday. Candace is less than enthused when she discovers that they're not heading to the mall, but instead have arrived at Mount Rushmore. The fact that it was Phineas and Ferb's idea doesn't help, either. Things start looking up when she sees Jeremy at the Mr. Slushy Burger stand. Jeremy is there on the "Mr. Slushy Burger Worker Exchange program".

As Phineas and Ferb start carrying tools over towards the monument, Candace notices them and heads off to stop them. Isabella and the Fireside Girls see Linda Flynn in the gift shop. They're there on a field trip. Linda lets them know the boys are over at the monument and they head that way. Agent P heads back home to receive his mission, using a lengthy underground and underwater travel tube. When Major Monogram informs him that Dr. Doofenshmirtz has a new lair inside Lincoln's head back at Mount Rushmore, Agent P is less than enthused. Major Monogram apologizes and sends him on his way. Agent P steps out of the trash bin back at Mount Rushmore just as Candace starts her search for Phineas and Ferb. A coin-operated telescope helps Candace spot the boys climbing on the monument, but first the time runs out and then Old Reliable Geyser erupts, both of which prevent her mom from seeing what they are doing.

Phineas and Ferb begin renovation and Agent P confronts Dr. Doofenshmirtz, who explains that he's going to use his Drill-inator to tunnel to China, then charge tolls. As Dr. Doofenshmirtz climbs into the Drill-inator and speeds away, Agent P chases after him in his own tunneling vehicle. Isabella finds Phineas and asks what's going on. "It's a surprise," is his response, but suggests that she could be a lookout. She very quickly runs over to a tree, climbs up it and begins keeping watch.

Candace begins her second attempt to get her mom to see what the boys are doing. At that moment, a park ranger comes by to find out what the boys are doing. They confirm that they are too young to be restoring a national moment. This satisfies the ranger and he heads on his way. When the Drill-inator reaches molten lava at the Earth's core, Agent P takes over the controls of the Drill-inator and heads back towards Mount Rushmore. The lava flows up through the tunnel the Drill-inator is making as it goes.

Back on the surface, Isabella sounds the warning that Candace and her mom are approaching. Phineas and Ferb speed up their work significantly, but it's not enough. Phineas signals Isabella to put Plan B into effect. The Fireside Girls drag a large painting of Mount Rushmore in place at the viewpoint, hiding the work that's going on behind it. Lawrence calls and tells his wife that he's finally found an "absolutely brilliant" parking space, which happens to be at the far end of the parking lot. Linda departs so she can meet him in the gift shop.

A bird flies into the painting, knocking it over. Phineas and Ferb pull the drape away from the right side of the monument. A misshapen carving of Candace's face appears. One final tap from Ferb with a sledgehammer at the base of the monument causes more rocks to fall away, revealing a good likeness of Candace. Candace is brought to tears of joy, and runs off to find mom so she can show her what the boys have done.

At this point, the Drill-inator comes out of the nose on Candace's statue, and begins falling towards Old Reliable Geyser. Perry escapes before impact, but Dr. Doofenshmirtz is sent flying afterward. Lava starts forcing its way out of the statue, looking as if the statue has developed pimples. It gets worse, causing the entire statue to crumble. Phineas and Ferb make the best of it by roasting hot dogs over the lava, and an orchestra begins playing as the lava flows by them. Old Reliable Geyser finally erupts and douses the lava, leaving Mount Rushmore exactly as it was before. After choking out the answer that she did appreciate her birthday present from the boys, she trudges back to the gift shop to join her mom and dad. Ferb wraps things up by saying, "Well, it was definitely better than the gorilla in the cake."

Songs

 * Candace

End Credits
Jeremy gives her a birthday present of a Mount Rushmore bobble-head set. Even though she disapproved of it before, Candace says that she loves it and pronounces that this was "the best birthday ever", just as Agent P parachutes in behind her.

Perry's entrance to his lair
By a trash bin at Mount Rushmore and a lengthy travel tube ride. His trip is delayed for a few seconds to let Agent R go first through an intersection in the travel tube. (Perry returns to Mount Rushmore by exiting through the door on the side of the house and hops into a nearby bush to re-enter the travel tube.)

The bird that runs into Phineas and Ferb's invention
It runs into the "Plan B" painting, knocking it over, revealing the real Mount Rushmore.

Background information

 * Candace's birthday is July 11th, which occurs on a Friday in this episode.
 * Candace is allergic to dairy products, as revealed in the song Candace.
 * In two instances, Agent P and Dr. Doofenshmirtz are able to look out the window of the Drill-inator and see lava ahead of the vehicle, even though the Drill-inator had not yet tunneled through that part of the Earth in both cases. In the second instance, it is specifically shown that the vehicle is traveling upwards through a previously-drilled tunnel, but in the scene immediately prior, a new tunnel is being created.
 * First appearance of Lawrence Fletcher.
 * This episode shows that Isabella is a very  fast runner.

Production Information

 * Episode description from the original Phineas and Ferbruary 2008 press release:
 * In "Candace Loses Her Head," airing Tuesday, Ferb-ruary 5, Phineas and Ferb set out to surprise Candace on her birthday by carving her face along those of the Presidents of Mount Rushmore. Meanwhile, Perry the Platypus finds Dr. Doofenshmirtz in his underground cavern and foils his plan to bore a tunnel to China.

Errors

 * When Isabella talks to Linda at the gift shop, Ginger stands next to her. But when the camera zooms in on Isabella, Ginger is colored with Katie's color scheme.
 * When Isabella and the Fireside Girls first show up, Isabella is wearing her uniform (but with her regular hair bow in place of her beret). When she comes upon Phineas and Ferb working on the monument, she's switched to her regular outfit.
 * When Isabella says "They're getting closer!", her eyes are black instead of blue.
 * In the end credits when this is a full episode, under aditional voices, Jeff "Swamp" Marsh is seen instead of "Swampy".

Continuity

 * Second time the whole Fireside Girls troop appear all together, the first time being in "The Fast and the Phineas".

Allusions

 * RMS Titanic: The lava flows past an orchestra, who keep playing as the disaster occurs. The band on the ocean liner Titanic played music to keep the passengers calm during the evacuation after it struck an iceberg.
 * Theodore Roosevelt: The "big sticks" sold in the gift shop are a reference to Roosevelt's famous slogan, "Speak soflty and carry a big stick."
 * The Drillinator looks like the 2009 Lego Power Miners model called 8960 Thunder Driller.

Cast

 * Vincent Martella as Phineas
 * Ashley Tisdale as Candace
 * Thomas Sangster as Ferb
 * Caroline Rhea as Mom
 * Alyson Stoner as Isabella
 * Mitchel Musso as Jeremy
 * Dan Povenmire as Dr. Doofenshmirtz
 * Jeff "Swampy" Marsh as Major Monogram
 * Richard O'Brien as Dad
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Perry
 * Additional voices: Dee Bradley Baker, Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, Mitchel Musso, Dan Povenmire, Alyson Stoner, Ashley Tisdale and Ricky Ullman.
 *  designates a character that did not appear in this episode