That Sinking Feeling

I do not know how to act in front of a girl! I do not even know what girls like!

Baljeet wants to impress his childhood friend from India, Mishti, so he enlists Phineas and Ferb to help woo her. However, none of their over-the-top romantic gestures impress her, as she likes Baljeet for who he really is. Meanwhile, Perry must stop the sleep deprived Dr. Doofenshmirtz from moving the Danville Lighthouse to the other side of town so that he isn't bothered by all the ships.

Episode Summary
Phineas and Ferb have just finished building a giant ocean liner in their backyard when Baljeet runs in, asking for help about Mishti, an old friend from India. Phineas asks if she is a werewolf. Baljeet actually needs to deal with Mishti, whom he has only now realized is a girl, while back in India, he did not consider, as they played in the mud and played soccer together. Phineas reminds Baljeet that Mishti was probably always a girl, but Baljeet insists differently and flashes back to when Mishti first arrived while Baljeet was brushing his teeth. When he saw Mishti, he locked himself in the bathroom and eventually climbed out the window to find Phineas and Ferb. Phineas suggests that girls like romance and suggests that Baljeet take Mishti on a cruise down at Danville harbor, which Phineas and Ferb could provide with their newly built ship. Ferb cancels the giant bottle, which was most likely used for making a huge ship in a bottle.

Meanwhile, Major Monogram and Carl are playing a music rhythm game resembling Rock Band while waiting for Perry. Major Monogram is not very good. He tells him that Doofenshmirtz has been lurking around hobby shops, and to find out why.

Baljeet returns home with a bouquet of flowers, where Mishti has been waiting patiently. His mother answers the door, surprised that Baljeet was not in the bathroom, but we find out she suspected something like this had happened. Baljeet, annoyed, asks for Mishti. When she arrives, he awkwardly asks that if she has nothing planned, and asks her to attend a cruise with him including a "romantic candle-lit dinner", but Mishti leaves to go get ready before she hears anything but a boat ride.

Back at home, Candace is on the phone, wishing that Jeremy were more romantic, but gets sidetracked as the boat gets driven down to the harbor. She calls Mom, who seems to be in a salon, but who is actually downstairs playing with an antique hair dryer with her husband. Candace, unaware that both parents are in the living room, and assumes that the ship is headed to the harbor and follows.

Perry then goes to visit Doofenshmirtz. He immediately gets caught and Doofenshmirtz show Perry his creation of a scale model of Danville. Doof flashes back to his days of finding a place to live under his budget, where after a few dismal places including a port-a-potty which is still used, he finds the current building. That same night, he realized why it was so cheap. The lighthouse of Danville, stationed nearby, attracted all the ships with their foghorns, making it impossible to sleep. Back to the present, Doof believes he can fix this problem by moving the lighthouse from near his building to the other side of town, where the ships will follow it.

Down at the harbour, Mishti and Baljeet are already on the cruise. He lets slip that he only just now thinks that she is a girl. Phineas sees Isabella at the harbor after she got her shrimp net repair patches with her troop and invites her on the romantic cruise with him, which she accepts gleefully in front of the Fireside Girl troupe. Isabella is made the cruise director, Ferb is the beverage consultant (although it appears that there is only lemonade), and Phineas is the captain. It seems he is supposed to be driving the ship, although in the next scene he is not in the cabin. Candace, literally missing the boat, calls her mom, but in continuously interrupted by seagulls. Hearing the birds, Linda warns her not to feed the geese wearing a tube top again. Then the two parents are seen still playing around with the ancient hair dryer. Candace decides to wait on shore to bust the boys.

Isabella enjoys the cruise, stating how romantic it is. Phineas says there is more, then takes her hand, making her blush for the first time, which gets her excited. He takes her into a room with a romantic table for two, and Isabella begins to walk towards the table until she learns the candlelit dinner for two is for Baljeet and Mishti. Phineas cues music, thinking classical music is very romantic, and rose petals, not realizing that all of the romantic elements are done too much. He then cues...pid (A play on Cupid) and Buford, dressed as baby Cupid, falls from the ceiling held by a rope. Isabella is very unimpressed by Phineas overdoing the romantic ambiance, and the fact that it's not for her. Baljeet tries to make awkward conversation, while Mishti tries to explain how she just wants to hang out like in the old days. Buford hears Baljeet say music and begins to sing, but falls on the table, crushing the lemonade and spaghetti and meatballs.

Doofenshmirtz has attached rockets to the lighthouse to move it. He launches the lighthouse, but forgot to equip a steering mechanism to it, so the lighthouse flies randomly. Perry escapes from the trap and destroys the scale model by knocking the doctor into it. Doofenshmirtz is at first sad at the destruction of his hard work, and a flashback is shown where Doofenshmirtz is working hard on his model, and is very proud of it. He hopes Perry will appreciate it, but Vanessa shoots him down and Doofenshmirtz is forced to acknowledge that Perry would not appreciate it. Remembering this, Doofenshmirtz gets angry and sends Perry home in disgrace because the lighthouse is gone and nothing he can do will change that now. Perry, shocked that he actually lost one and really has nothing to do but go home, awkwardly and slowly leaves.

Baljeet continues to struggle with talking to Mishti, and Phineas figures the boat needs to be sunk to stir the romance. Right as he says this, the uncontrollable lighthouse crashes through the ship's bow, creating a gaping hole, and causes it to sink. Isabella asks where the life preservers are, but Phineas didn't install any; he installed FUN preservers. The entire back of the ship rises up on four mechanical legs and drops a yellow water slide down the boat and releases ring buoys that can slide down. Buford, who was scared at first, immediately jumps in a life preserver, and is quickly followed by the rest of the ship. Phineas and Isabella share a tube, while Mishti and Baljeet share another. When they get to the bottom, Baljeet finally figures out that Mishti is still the same girl he knew, and they finally get comfortable around each other.

When they land on the shore, Phineas, oblivious, says to Isabella that romance is fun and they should do it more often. Most likely, he still does not understand what romance even means. Candace asks what they were up to, and Phineas explains that he was creating romance, which seems to have worked with Baljeet and Mishti. Surprised and impressed, Candace asks him to do the same for her and Jeremy. Phineas and Ferb then create the same overdone atmosphere as his previous attempt, music, petals, Buford, and all. The end result is similar to the dinner with Baljeet and Mishti, except Jeremy suggests going to Slushy Burger.

Songs

 * Boat of Romance
 * Watchin' and Waitin' (Instrumental)
 * Gotta Make Summer Last

End Credits
Doofenshmirtz happily settles down to finally get a good night's sleep, but it was short-lived when the lighthouse crashes into his building, causing all the ships to follow it and blow their foghorns. He curses Perry the Platypus.

Perry's entrance to his lair
Unknown, but he entered while Major Monogram and Carl are playing a video game similar to Rock Band.

Evil Jingle
Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated! and ''Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated! After Hours...'' during the end credits.

Background Information

 * Baljeet's mother makes her first appearance.
 * Vanessa makes a cameo in the flashback.
 * Third time Perry failed to defeat Doofenshmirtz. First was "One Good Scare Ought to Do It!" and the second was in "Hail Doofania!."
 * This is also one of the rare cases where Doofenshmirtz defeats himself.
 * Besides the song Boat of Romance playing during the montage of the boat, it is also played instrumentality while Isabella is enjoying the cruise, but stops immediately when she stops to learn the dinner isn't hers.
 * Candace again has her formal hairstyle from "Got Game?" and "Gaming the System" during her and Jeremy's dinner at the end.
 * The Gotta Make Summer Last song from "Leave the Busting to Us!" plays when everyone water-slides off the boat.
 * The Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated jingle with "after hours" repeats. The first time being in "Traffic Cam Caper".
 * Mishti is doing the king-of-the-world bit, just like Phineas in "Swiss Family Phineas", Doofenshmirtz in "Interview With a Platypus", and in a later episode, Ferb in "Magic Carpet Ride".
 * Third time that Phineas gives any indication of feelings for Isabella by inviting her on the cruise. The previous ones are in "Gaming the System" and "The Chronicles of Meap". The fourth time occurs in "The Beak".
 * When Baljeet is asking Mishti about the weather, ticking sound of Watchin' and Waitin' in "Unfair Science Fair Redux (Another Story)" and "Don't Even Blink" is heard.
 * Second time Isabella has a part of the "Too Young" line. The other one is "The Chronicles of Meap".
 * Doofenshmirtz uses the simile "like moths to a flame" again ("The Chronicles of Meap").
 * Isabella's ears are shown for a second time. ("Got Game")
 * Second time Doofenshmirtz makes a scale model ("Toy to the World")

Production Information

 * In the Spain version of this episode, the song "Gotta Make Summer Last" is replaced by an instrumental version.

Errors

 * When Candace is trying to bust Phineas and Ferb, and she says "No, I'm at home..."even though she is talking to her mom on her phone, her phone is closed.
 * When Doofenshmirtz captures Perry the Platypus, a machine comes down and ties Perry with a rope. The second time Perry appears captured, the machine that tied Perry down is gone and the rope connecting to the machine is simply gone.
 * Ferb is wearing a suit at the beginning of the cruise, but after the ship sinks when Ferb pushes the fun preservers button he's wearing his normal clothing.
 * Lighthouses warns ships away from rocky shores, not attract them like moths to a flame.
 * When the lighthouse crashes into the ship, the debris is gone for one frame.
 * When the ship sinks, and Buford says, "Cupid first!", his wings were white. But when he slides down, the wings are black.
 * Perry was sent away from Doofenshmirtz's home after the lighthouse flew away. But when the ship sinks, he shows up next to Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella on a "fun preserver". He wasn't even on the ship, so he couldn't have possibly gotten one.
 * When Doofenshmirtz asks whether he's used the "moths to flame" metaphor previously, he is actually referring to a simile, which, while similar to a metaphor as figurative language, compares to unrelated things using the words like or as. Metaphors do not.
 * Ferb was not on the part of the ship that was raised when it was sinking, but later he is seen on a "fun preserver".
 * Isabella's eyes flicker from black to brown to blue again as the passengers go on the fun preservers, then remains brown-ish in color for the rest of the episode.
 * The ship is white when Phineas and Ferb are going to the harbor through Candace's window, but is black later.
 * "Like moths to a flame" is a simile not a metaphor.

Continuity
None.

Allusions

 * Titanic - Multiple references: design of the ship, Mishti and Baljeet at the bow for the "king of the world" scene, music, checklist of major events and the ship's stern raising into the air as it sank (although everyone survived), and Candace and Jeremy at the end of the episode with hairstyles resembling Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, the main stars of the movie.
 * Rock Band - Major Monogram and Carl are seen playing a video game similar to this.
 * The Love Boat - The Boat of Romance theme is derived from the 1970s hit television series, The Love Boat. The title sequence for the song mimics the title sequence of the series. Jack Jones, who sang the theme song, also sings the "Boat of Romance" theme.
 * What Are Little Boys Made Of? and The Powerpuff Girls - The conversation between Phineas and Baljeet regarding what girls are like references the nursery rhyme and the animated television series.
 * Romeo and Juliet - Candace says she wishes Jeremy was "Romeo and Juliet" romantic, but without all the dying.
 * Beauty and the Beast - The candelabra at Baljeet and Mishti's table bears a resemblance to Lumiere.
 * Le nozze di Figaro - The classical music that plays during Baljeet and Mishti's romantic dinner, and later at Candace and Jeremy's dinner, is the overture to the Mozart opera The Marriage of Figaro.

Cast

 * Vincent Martella as Phineas
 * Ashley Tisdale as Candace
 * Thomas Sangster as Ferb
 * Caroline Rhea as Mom
 * Alyson Stoner as Isabella
 * Dan Povenmire as Dr. Doofenshmirtz
 * Jeff "Swampy" Marsh as Major Monogram
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Perry
 * Mitchel Musso as Jeremy
 * Richard O'Brien as Dad
 * Maulik Pancholy as Baljeet
 * Bobby Gaylor as Buford
 * Jack McBrayer as Irving
 * Tiya Sircar as Mishti
 * Meera Syal as Baljeet's mother
 * Olivia Olson as Vanessa Doofenshmirtz
 * Additional Voices: Dee Bradley Baker, Eileen Galindo
 *  designates a character that did not appear in this episode

Uncredited:
 * Cymphonique Miller as Holly
 * Tiffany Espensen as Ginger
 * Madison Pettis as Adyson
 * Ariel Winter as Gretchen
 * Tyler Alexander Mann as Carl