144a - That Sinking Feeling

It is a beautiful day on Conch Street, where SpongeBob and Patrick are giggling and playing by running back and forth between their houses. Squidward finally opens up his blinds to look out of his window, and this annoys him because they are running in his yard the whole time. He finally loses his temper, and he walks outside to confront them. He stops SpongeBob and Patrick with two suction cups, and screams at them about playing in his yard. SpongeBob explains to Squidward about playing in their yard, and that they're using his yard as a walkway. Squidward now wants to make them choose which one of their yards to play, and leave his yard out of this mess. Patrick thinks he's good at choosing, but can't decide which yard to play in today, and finally lets Squidward choose. He puts SpongeBob and Patrick in their own yards, and draws a box around his, and won't let SpongeBob or Patrick step into the box, and goes inside his own house.

They panic and think that they will never see each other again. SpongeBob tries to walk across the road, but the traffic is terrible, and now wants Patrick to do something. Patrick now tries to squeeze himself into the mailbox in order to get to SpongeBob's house, but the mailbox breaks and explodes. SpongeBob now wants Patrick to sit tight, and ties himself to the mailbox, and now slingshots himself over to Patrick but it doesn't work. SpongeBob now has an idea, and wants Patrick to see so they think to dig a tunnel underneath their houses.

They eventually meet up and start playing. Squidward can hear them playing, so he goes outside, but they are not in his yard. He looks in Patrick's house, but they are not there. He looks all around SpongeBob's house, but they are not there. He can't find them anywhere and eventually, that sends Squidward into a rage as he believes SpongeBob and Patrick have finally become ghosts, so he shouts "WHERE ARE THEY?!" and starts jumping up and down. This causes the roots underground to wiggle, and SpongeBob and Patrick think they are dancing. So they start dancing. This sinks Squidward's house and Squidward finally realizes that they've been underground the whole time and enters his house through the roof hatch. Squidward comes out of his house and makes SpongeBob and Patrick dig it back out while he relaxes, but Patrick accidentally breaks Squidward's window and SpongeBob accidentally lets all the dirt flood Squidward and SpongeBob out of the house and Squidward threatens SpongeBob and Patrick if they don't obey Squidward and dig out his house by the count of 3, Squidward will turn them into chum. SpongeBob and Patrick dig more, but when Squidward reaches 3, they start running away in panic from Squidward, digging more tunnels. As they are doing this, SpongeBob and Patrick sink all the buildings in Bikini Bottom, including their own houses, downtown, and even The Krusty Krab. Plankton then realizes that The Chum Bucket is the only restaurant in town, but it sinks too. After a whole lot of digging, SpongeBob and Patrick come to a rock, and a furious Squidward corners towards them. After he yells at them, all of Bikini Bottom sinks underground. Sometime later, SpongeBob, Squidward, and the other Bikini Bottomites are digging out Bikini Bottom. The episode ends with SpongeBob saying "Another beautiful day under Bikini Bottom," and Squidward putting on a mining helmet, and saying "I hate neighbours."