5. Rock Bottom – season 1, episode 17b:
In Rock Bottom, Spongebob accidentally misses his bus stop after going to Glove World with Patrick, and he ends up in an ominous land: Rock Bottom, where the native dialect includes blowing raspberries between words and the buses seem to purposely miss our titular character.
While Rock Bottom is mostly a goofy episode, it’s also one of the scarier episodes of Spongebob. When he misses the last bus and all of the lights of the town shut off, he isn’t stuck in “your average every day darkness,” he’s stuck in, “advanced darkness.” And who will feed Gary if Spongebob can’t get back to the pineapple house?
Rock Bottom has the ideal balance of cuteness – Spongebob’s glove hat, his temper tantrum at the bus stop and his clever attempts to fool the buses – and sheer terror – like Spongebob running from a mysterious character, saying, “Well, that place will be there tomorrow. I guess I’d better keep walking. Running. Better start running. Running. Sprinting! Yes, I just gotta keep sprinting!” (Before he hits a wall; “Sitting, sitting, bleeding.”) It’s this even mix that makes Rock Bottom so well-remembered.