The Sushi Connection

The Sushi Connection is the 6th episode of the series and the 6th episode of the first season. It aired on December 12, 2004, in Canada on Teletoon, and remains unaired in the United States, although it was briefly viewable on Cartoon Network's website.

Caitlin gets a date with Kyle Donaldson. Nikki temporarily becomes the assistant manager of the Khaki Barn.

Main Plot
Caitlin is not happy, as she's discovered another downside of her job: she can't get a date due to the lemon hat. To make matters worse, when a guy she likes comes by and orders a lemonade, she ends up being clumsy and spraying lemon juice and pulp all over him when she forgets to put the lid on the blender, he angrily storms off. This depresses her, and even her friends showing up at the Big Squeeze on their lunch breaks doesn't help cheer her up–especially when Wyatt brings with him sushi, which Caitlin and the rest of the group find disgusting.

However, Jen has good news and an offer for Caitlin's romantic aspirations. The object of her affections, Kyle Donaldson, was recently at the Penalty Box checking out a tennis racket. Since he will be returning the racket that afternoon, Jen makes an arrangement with Caitlin: when Kyle comes by, she'll call, and Caitlin can accidentally bump into Kyle.

When Kyle enters the Penalty Box, Jen immediately calls Caitlin and abandons the customer she's helping in order to stall Kyle until her friend can arrive. While Jen manages to accomplish this, Caitlin seemingly sinks herself when she bashes Kyle on the head with a tennis racket while fiddling with it. Caitlin swiftly apologizes, but Jen recognizes that Kyle is slightly dazed and turns Caitlin's lemons into lemonade by suggesting the duo go out on a date.

Kyle dizzily agrees and exits the Penalty Box, leaving Jen and Caitlin to celebrate their success. Soon, though, Caitlin realizes that she needs to find a dress, and runs off. When she's unable to find anything that she likes, she calls Nikki for help; upon hearing of Caitlin's dilemma, Jonesy butts in. Huntington's (where he's recently been hired) has just gotten its' spring line in, and he's certain that he can help Caitlin find something she likes.

When Caitlin goes to the store, she does indeed find something that suits her: a tight pink dress. Unfortunately, the price of the outfit is more than she makes in a month, and while she could charge it to her mother's account she knows that her parents will get a bill at the end of the month. Jonesy has a solution, though, and despite Caitlin's worries his solution is not illegal in the slightest. Caitlin will simply wear the dress, leave the tags on, and return it the next day, reversing the charges.

Caitlin sees Jonesy's plan as a stroke of genius, and that night she meets Kyle at the Penalty Box. When she leaves with her date, they pass by Jonesy and Wyatt, who have come to see Jen. As Jonesy passes Kyle, he realizes that he knows the other teenager, but can't place the face–until Jen mentions Kyle's name.

When Jonesy hears the name, he makes the connection. Kyle Donaldson is Dirty Donaldson, who is known to all three of them as a legendary womanizer. Jen is shocked to hear this, as she had heard of him before but hadn't made the connection until now. However, Jen soon decides on a plan of action to make sure that Caitlin doesn't get torn apart by her date: Jonesy and Wyatt will tail Caitlin just in case things go wrong.

As a result, soon Jonesy and Wyatt are seated at Super Terrific Happy Sushi in order to keep an eye on Caitlin, who has been taken to the restaurant by Kyle. While Caitlin hates fish, even when it's cooked, she's eager to please and when Kyle orders for her she chokes down a piece of fish. Upon spying something that looks like a vegetable, though, she instantly goes for only to choke when it turns out to be wasabi. When her mouth gets set aflame by the spicy condiment, Kyle merely watches as she hacks and coughs and cries, laughing all the way at the admittedly hilarious sight of Caitlin trying to rid herself of the taste. Caitlin eventually does succeed at getting the wasabi out, however, and Kyle does her a "favor" by feeding her fish to help take the taste away–fish that Caitlin resignedly eats.

After dinner, Caitlin ends up paying because Kyle forgot his wallet. To try and make it up to her, Kyle then blindfolds her and leads her to a surprise, but when he takes the blindfold off Caitlin is anything but happy to see it, as his surprise is a visit to the amusement park and a ride on the Vomit Comet. Caitlin initially refuses to ride, citing that rollercoasters make her sick, but when it looks like Kyle will take the ride with a pretty girl she swallows her fear and boards.

Predictably, Caitlin's fishy dinner and the wild ride combine to make the Vomit Comet live up to its name. When the Vomit Comet pulls back up to the boarding area, everyone on the ride is splattered with vomit, as Caitlin puked at the top of a loop-de-loop. Kyle is not happy, and he storms away from Caitlin despite her pleas. When Caitlin collapses onto a bench, though, Wyatt and Jonesy go up to her to cheer her up. Caitlin is predictably sad about her failed date, but Wyatt points out that it was a horrible date for her anyway, as Kyle didn't even have the courtesy to ask whether she liked sushi–or, for that matter, rollercoasters.

Upon hearing this, Caitlin realizes that Kyle actually was a bad date, and cheers up when she realizes that she might have dodged a bullet. She is soon brought down, however, as she notices a puke stain on her dress. Jonesy sets her mind at ease, though, since he assures her that his stint working at a dry cleaners gave him the ability to erase the stain from her dress, allowing her to return it anyway.

The next day, it turns out that Jonesy's dry cleaning experience was not as informative as he thought, so Caitlin has to keep the dress and Jonesy ends up getting fired. Despite this, he's in a good mood, as he was able to cheer up a friend the previous night. Plus, Nikki has a plan in place to make sure that Kyle won't be able to get as many dates in the future.

Sub-Plot: The Ass Man
At work, Nikki is her usual surly, unhelpful self. However, when Chrissy has to leave work early due to an emergency, she leaves Nikki in charge after Nikki complains, with the caveat that if anything goes wrong it'll be on Nikki's head. Nikki isn't worried, though, as she's happy to take the reigns of management and use them to not sell clothes, slack off, and generally be her normal working self–except with power.

That night, though, Nikki finds herself frazzled, as a sale that she didn't know about has arrived. Soon, Nikki finds herself worrying about things she never worried about before, such as the chaos in the store and the mixing of sizes in piles of clothing that have been left behind by rushing customers. Eventually, though, it hits her that the responsibility is turning her into Chrissy, and Nikki reconsiders the value of being in charge.

The next day, however, Nikki proves that she has learned something. That something is how to sell unflattering clothes to customers with a smile on her face. Of course, her new attitude may be more due to the customer than to any desire of hers to sell, as she intentionally sets Kyle Donaldson up with ill-fitting pants and flatters him into purchasing several pairs–with the unspoken intent of making sure he'll have a hard time getting other girls to fall for him.

Quotes
Stanley: You got a big lemon on your head. (He shoots her and runs off.) Caitlin: Ow! I hate this stupid job. Kyle: (chuckling) Yeah, I'll have my usual. Caitlin: As usual, but that's why you call it your usual, isn't it. That's a funny word, usual, don't you think? Kyle: Uh, I'm kinda in a hurry. Caitlin: Coming right up! (muttering to herself) I'm such a loser! Kyle: That lemon girl was you? Jen: (seizing an opportunity) I know! Why don't you two go on a date? Tonight! Kyle: Uh...sure. That'd be cool. Jen: Great. You can meet here. How's eight o'clock? Caitlin: Sure! Kyle: (confused) Sounds good. (He leaves.) Jen: (calling after him) Be sure to put ice on that head! Caitlin: Eeeee! I have a date with Kyle! You're the best friend in the whole world! Jen: I told you it'd work. Kristen: I'm Kristen! Not Kirsten. Nikki: Whatever. She can't run a store. If anyone should be left in charge here, it should be me. Chrissy: It's a lot of responsibility. Nikki: (sarcastic) Yeah. Those half-ribbed T-shirts can really get out of control. Jonesy and Wyatt: SIR YES SIR! Jonesy: (looking at his sushi and seeing a fin move) Dude! Mine's still alive! Hiro: Ah, so! Baka no teenager!
 * Caitlin: (talking to Jen) Like any guy's going to notice me in this ugly uniform!
 * Caitlin: (serving Kyle) Hi, can I have you–uh uh I mean–
 * Caitlin: Oh, I ruined your smoothie, now I ruined your forehead–I might ruin your whole day!
 * Nikki: What? You're leaving Kirsten in charge? She's a half-wit!
 * Jen: Kyle is DIRTY DONALDSON!?
 * Jen: Listen up. You two aren't going to a movie. You're going to go out and follow Caitlin on her date. Got it?
 * Hiro: Dozo.

Trivia
Reason for firing: tried to clean the sushi barf from Caitlin's dress, but got caught.
 * Goof: Although Caitlin states that she hates fish and reacts badly to sushi in this episode, she is perfectly willing to wait for Hunter at Super Terrific Happy Sushi in "The Hunted"
 * Jonesy's job: Huntington's department store beauty consultant.
 * We learn in this episode that Caitlin cannot ride rollercoasters and she does not eat fish, because she finds even cooked fish nauseating.
 * This is the first appearance of Super Terrific Happy Sushi.
 * This episode was not aired on Cartoon Network in the United States due to the word "ass" being used and the subplot of Kyle Donaldson being a womanizer. However, scenes from this episode were aired on a Har Har Tharsdays promo. This episode was also available in its uncut format on Cartoon Network Video, but remains unaired due to the FCC's regulations of Cartoon Network.
 * Although Jonesy got fired for trying to remove the barf stains from Caitlin's dress, she reappears in it in "The Swami." No stains can be found on it, which suggests that Jonesy was at least marginally successful.