"3 Squares and an Ed" is the 6th episode of Season 3 and the 58th episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy. In this episode, Edd andEddy find out that Ed is currently grounded, so they try to bust him out.
The episode starts out with Edd and Eddy at Edd's house by the laundry chutes. Edd tells Eddy that his laundry chute has the fastest slide to the basement. In other words, it would be a great ride! Edd gets a pillow from his closet and says you need to ride with a pillow for safety reasons. But Eddy is so excited that he has already gone down the laundry chute and goes so fast the color on his face and shirt begins to peel off. Eddy lands in a basket of clothes, followed by Edd landing in another bucket of clothes with his pillow. Edd then takes his ladder and begins his weekly inspection of Mildrid. Along the way, Eddy stumbles upon Edd's cabinet of failed inventions. He then turns on the Opera-Matic shortly after. Edd hears and sees what he did and turns the Opera-Matic off.
Edd notes it appears that Eddy came across the failed inventions cabinet. Edd explains the cabinet is organized with labels and shelves showing archives of previous inventions that the Eds have used in the past and all backfired somehow. Eddy takes a mechanical volcano from the cabinet and wants to know what it does. He presses a button on the volcano by accident with his foot and the volcano sucks his head in. Edd starts laughing at Eddy. Mad at Edd for laughing at him, Eddy uses the volcano, still over his head, to attempt at hurting Edd which causes it to smash onto the ground and break it.
Afterwards Eddy chases Edd all the way to Ed's house, then Edd trips on a line of cans set up by Sarah and Jimmy which alert them to intruders or visitors, the two Eds come across them guarding the window to Ed's basement. Sarah then revealed to Edd & Eddy that her brother is grounded. Sarah and Jimmy act like prison guards and force Edd and Eddy to step away from the window and leave since no visitors are allowed in the area. Of course, Eddy doesn't listen the first time and is stopped midwalk by Sarah, then tossed to the ground with the toy gun. Edd is only threatened lightly by Jimmy and Edd warns him that it's all fun and games up until someone gets a splinter. While Sarah and Jimmy march along the sides, Ed gloomly looks at his friends and Eddy only says that he'll have to learn his lesson before he and Edd leave.
Later, Plank appears from a bush with cardboard leaf clovers around him. Then Jonny jumps out of the bush with Plank. Jonny is dressed up like a leprechaun and he dances on Jimmy's head. Then Jonny runs away, but Jimmy chases after Jonny because he wants a pot of gold. Then Sarah chases after Jimmy telling Jimmy to come back. Eddy and Edd then appear from behind the house, the latter revealing he bribed Jonny with a handful of granola. Edd then states his unsureness of this matter because if Ed's parents discover that the duo tried to help Ed escape punishment, then Eddy's and Edd's parents would be notified by Ed's parents for their action. In short, it is known as a "consequential punishment" or the "parental ring." Eddy took this as Edd's way of telling him that he wouldn't help and Eddy would tell Ed that Edd was just too busy to try to free Ed in his time of need, which Edd refers to as Eddy's guilt trip tactic (even though it worked, anyway, as Edd reluctantly tags along).
In Ed's room, Ed is sitting in a box over a puddle of tears crying over a picture of his TV, the actual TV (including the VCR player) having been taken by his parents because he's grounded. Ed says it is not fair while he is crying. Edd and Eddy make their way out from the drain in Ed's room. Ed becomes happy that his friends are here and hugs Edd and Eddy while dancing around in joy for a bit. When Eddy says they are here to break Ed out, Ed says he can't as he was a bad boy. Eddy then attaches him to a plunger and tries to get him in by force, telling Ed to be a good boy instead. Ed yells out he can't leave because if Sarah finds out that Ed sneaked out during his punishment, he will be grounded again, thus be in more trouble. While Edd is comforting Ed, Eddy then gets an idea to get Ed out while using something to make it look like he is still in his room.
At the fake rainbow in the Cul-de-Sac, Jimmy wants the pot of gold but Jonny says up to the fake rainbow is all he gets for one handful (referring to how much granola he was offered by Eddy), Jonny discards his beard and leaves. Jimmy is crushed by this fraudulent trick, but he doesn't have time to mourn for too long as Sarah catches up with Jimmy and drags him back to his post.
Edd creates a fake dummy of Ed using Ed's clothes, a vacuum cleaner for the body, and a pineapple for the head. Edd puts a book near Ed so that the dummy looks more realistic. Since Ed doesn't have his normal clothes, he is dressed in a blue Hawaiian shirt with red shorts and green sandals. The Eds squeeze their way through a sprinkler to get outside. Eddy asks Ed how does it feel to be on the outside. When Ed realizes he is outside now, he runs back into the house through the window to prevent himself from being grounded again, and getting into more trouble (Here, it is revealed that the window was open the entire time, making sneaking through the pipes unnecessary, much to Edd's disbelief). Sarah and Jimmy arrive back at the house, forcing the Eds to hide. They look through the window and actually think that the dummy is the real Ed, telling it to keep it down! The Eds are hiding on a handlebar that was on top of the ceiling. Eddy says his plan worked, but Edd then retorts that because Sarah and Jimmy have returned, they cannot escape out the window again without being caught.
Eddy drags Edd and Ed out of the room and to the stairs. But there aren't any stairs! Ed explains that his parents took the stairs out and the only reason being is that he's grounded (Edd notes that is disturbing). Eddy uses a device that Edd made to catapult them upstairs (a giant safety pin). Ed tries to back out of escaping as he again says he's grounded, and Eddy just tells Ed to quit repeating himself. They are shot up via safety pin across the stairs, first Ed, then Edd, and finally Eddy. Just as they were about to open the door to freedom, Sarah opens the door, knocking the Eds into another room. Jimmy has just gotten a splinter from his wooden gun, as Edd had foreshadowed, and Sarah is taking him with her so that they can finds some tweezers to pull the splinter out. The Eds quickly go upstairs and into Sarah's room, with Ed's mouth being covered so as not to give them away. Sarah thinks she hears them for a minute, but quickly dismisses it.
Later, we see Sarah and Jimmy going to Ed's room and bringing him dinner (Which is buttered toast with gravy in a sock. Jimmy even questions if people eat this.). They then discover that the Ed in the box was a fake (since the fake Ed had a book which is something that the real Ed would not have since he mostly reads comics, and the pineapple head falls off) Sarah realizes that Ed had sneaked out during his punishment! Edd uses the stuff in Sarah's room to make a kite. The Eds use the kite to take flight, just as Sarah enters her room. The Eds fly away but the kite loses all the string attached to it and the Eds fall on top of Jimmy. Sarah goes outside and tells Ed that she is going to tell mom that he snuck out while he was grounded (Eddy stating "Oh, great! Now, we're going to get it." when Edd brings up the "parental ring").
Later Edd is shown reading a book called "Behavior Modification" when Eddy calls Edd using a three way rope-and-can phone line. Edd answers him and Eddy asks if this device works. Edd states "Roger!" to that and states to Eddy he has to say the word "over" when he is done speaking. Eddy states to him that he was grounded "forever" as his punishment while Edd states that he was grounded for 3 days, but states that will give him some good quality time with his ants (Eddy is angry that Edd is grounded only for 3 days and asks what makes him so special). Ed then calls his friends but speaks through the phone the wrong way and is unable to join in on Edd and Eddy's conversation about trying to escape the punishment.
While the Eds are talking Sarah and Jimmy yank on the rope, hanging across the Cul-de-Sac, with an umbrella, causing the Eds to hit their bedroom wall. Ed seems to be enjoying this while Edd and Eddy are not due to the pain they're suffering. The episode ends with the Eds repeatedly being hit against their bedroom wall over and over again to no end by Sarah and Jimmy.
Edd: [to a sour-faced Eddy] "Try to contain yourself, Eddy. The adrenaline of irreverence can be quite overwhelming!" [in a hushed whisper] "We're soooo bad!"
[Edd laughs after Eddy's head gets sucked into a volcano model and he can't get his head out] Eddy: "A comedian, huh?" Edd: [as he starts running] "Oh dear!"
Eddy: [after sliding down Edd's laundry chute] Bottom floor: dryer lint, paint cans, moldy socks, and mildew! Edd: [after sliding down the "father" chute] "And arachnids." Eddy: "You have peanuts in your basement, Double D?" Edd: [correcting Eddy] "Spiders, Eddy. Basements make an excellent home to spiders and Mildred is in for her monthly inspection." [talking to Mildred, his pet spider] "Aren't you, Mildred? Did you just wink at me? Yes, you did."
Eddy: [smug] "Jonny'll do anything for a handful of granola."
Jimmy: [recoiling in confusion at Ed's dinner] "Buttered toast with gravy? Do people eat this?
Eddy: [seeing Ed panicking] "Keep your shorts on." [sees Ed's shorts are around his ankles] "No, seriously, keep your shorts on, Ed." [pulls Ed's shorts back up]
Ed: [upon noticing a life-sized model of himself in the box he was previously in] "Why is Ed sitting in a box?"
Eddy: "How does it feel to be back on the outside, Ed?" Ed: [gasp] "OUTSIDE ED?! But I am grounded, Eddy!" [runs through his window, which Edd thought to be locked] Eddy: So What? [Eddy stops Ed before he can return to his room] Edd: [about the window that was supposed to be locked] "Has that window been open this whole time?"
Eddy: "Now all we have to do is get you up the- [notices that the stairs up are gone] WHAT HAPPENED TO THE STAIRS?!" Ed: "My parents took 'em down because I am grounded." Edd: [shocked] "That's disturbing."
Jimmy: [gleeful] "It's the end of rainbow, leprechaun! Hand over that pot of gold!" Jonny: [takes off fake beard] "Nope. Up to the fake rainbow, that's all you get for one handful, pal." Jimmy: [devastated] "My fantasy. Crushed by an imp!" Sarah: [grabs Jimmy] "Back to your post!"
Ed: "Alley-oop!" [lands at the front door] Edd: "Gracious!" [lands at the front door] Eddy: "Geronimo!" [lands at the front door]
Eddy: [while launching a kite made from material from Sarah's room] "Houston, we have liftoff!"
Eddy: [talking to Edd via their makeshift communication system] "This stinks, I got grounded forever. Over." Edd: "Three days for me, Eddy. A little quality time with my ants and-" Eddy: [interrupting Edd angrily] "Three days?! What makes you so special?"
It was never revealed what Ed did that got him grounded in the first place.
When Eddy is going down the laundry chute the color on his face and shirt peels away but when he lands the colors return.
At the very beginning, Edd mentioned that only his laundry chute (the one in the center) was treated with a silicone lubricant to make it also function as a joyride to his basement, but when Eddy finished sliding into Edd's basement on Edd's chute, Edd then comes out of the chute on the left (his father's one), even though he only treated his one.
When Edd and Eddy are preparing to go down the laundry chutes, you can see Edd's name on his, spelled "Edward," with only two "D"s. However, in other episodes prior to this one, when Edd wears a name tag or something with his full name on it, it reads "Eddward", with three "D"s.
The scene where the Eds use the giant safety pin to hop up the missing stairwell was used as a bump for the channel when it still used the full "Cartoon Network" logo. The scene was extended to include the logo jumping in on the Eds after Eddy jumped out. [1].
There is a coloring mistake towards the end of the episode. After the Eds fell on top of Jimmy, they were all coughed out of Ed's mouth. If you look at the little clip of Ed's shirt that can be seen during this part, you will see that it is green like his normally worn jacket. However, Ed was wearing a tourist shirt at this time. Finally, while Sarah is yelling to Ed that she'll tell Mom, the small bit shown of Ed's shirt is back to white.
The Elevation Boots were destroyed at the end of "A Pinch to Grow an Ed". In "In Like Ed", one of them was shown to be repaired. However in this episode, they are now they're destroyed again, which means that they were used again at some point between "In Like Ed" and this episode.
Eddy: "Houston, we have liftoff!", a common line used when a shuttle launches from the platform into outer space.
Running gag: Ed panicking/crying and claiming he's grounded while Edd and Eddy try to break him out.
This marks the only time Ed is grounded.
This is the first episode where someone is seen grounded(in this case, Ed and later Edd and Eddy). The second episode was in the episode "A Case of Ed" in which case the character to get grounded in that episode was Kevin.
Intrestingly, both episodes don't explain what both characters did to get grounded in the first place.
Edd created a decoy of Ed to place in Ed's room so Sarah and Jimmy won't know that he is gone. Sarah later messed with the decoy and the decoy completely fell apart. This could be an allusion to the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz where near the end of the film, a security guard discovers that three of the inmates had escaped after the head of one of their decoys fell off the bed.
The stairs are gone when the Eds try to use them to escape. However, when Sarah and Jimmy bring Ed dinner, they use the stairs to get to Ed's room. Yet, they were not seen using the stairs, instead they might have used a ladder to get down there besides setting the stairs up.
This is the first episode that is based around the Eds trying to escape from somewhere. The second was in "Cool Hand Ed", where the Eds (and Jonny) try to escape from school.
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Added by Ruin Cireela
