3 Squares and an Ed

"3 Squares and an Ed" is the 6th episode of Season 3 and the 58th episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy. In this episode, Ed is grounded and Edd and Eddy try to bust him out.

Plot
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 already goes down the laundry chute before Edd can give him a pillow. Eddy lands in a basket of clothes, followed by Edd landing in a bucket of clothes with his pillow. Edd then takes his ladder and begins his weekly inspection on Mildrid. Along the way, Eddy stumbles upon Edd's cabinet of failed inventions (he turned on the Opera-Matic after he found the cabinet). The cabinet is organized with labels and shelves showing archives of previous inventions that they have used in the past and all backfired somehow. Eddy takes a mechanical volcano from the cabinet. 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, and after setting up a line of cans that make noist which alerts Sarah and Jimmy to intruders, and they come across Sarah and Jimmy guarding the window to Ed's basement where Ed is revealed to be grounded (although, why exactly Ed is grounded seems to be unknown). 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 a splinter winds up stuck in Jimmy's finger (a prediction to be true later on). 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 and leave Ed there.

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, but 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 him 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).

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 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 grounding, he will be grounded again and he will get in even more trouble than he already is. 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 to mourn as Sarah catches up with Jimmy and drags him back to his post.

Edd created 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 changed into a Hawaiian shirt with red shorts. 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 (During this 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 at the house. 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, and Eddy believes his plan to be a success, but there's a new question: how Eddy and Edd would get out without being caught as going out the window will only get them busted.

Eddy drags Edd and Ed to the stairs. But there aren't any stairs! Ed says 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, to which Eddy just replies they've already got that part. 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. The Eds quickly go upstairs and into Sarah's room. Sarah and Jimmy go to Ed's room to bring him dinner (which is buttered toast with gravy). They then discover that the Ed 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! 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's telling mom for sneaking out while he was grounded (Eddy stating "Oh great! Now we're going to get it."when Edd brings up the "parental ring").

Later while Edd reads a book called "Behavior Modification" 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 and he must spend some quality time with his ants as an additional punishment (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. While they're 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.

Memorable Quotes

 * 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!"

Eddy: "A comedian, huh?" Edd: [as he starts running]"Oh dear!"
 * [Edd laughs after Eddy's head gets sucked into a volcano model and is stuck]

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: [after sliding down Edd's laundry chute] Bottom floor: dryer lint, paint cans, moldy socks, and mildew!


 * 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: "Why is Ed sitting in a box?"

Ed: [gasp] "OUTSIDE ED?! But I am grounded, Eddy!" ''[runs through his window, which Edd thought to be locked] Edd: [about the window that was supposed to be locked] "Has that window been open this whole time?"
 * Eddy: "How does it feel to be back on the outside, Ed?"

Ed: "My parents took 'em down because I am grounded." Edd: [shocked] "That's disturbing."
 * Eddy: "Now all we have to do is get you up the- [notices that the stairs up are gone] WHAT HAPPENED TO THE STAIRS?!"

Jonny: "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!"
 * Jimmy: [gleeful] "It's the end of rainbow, leprechaun! Hand over that pot of gold!"

Edd: "Gracious!" ''[lands at the front door] Eddy: "Geronimo!" [lands at the front door]''
 * Ed: "Alley-oop!" [lands at the front door]


 * Eddy: [while launching a kite] "Houston, we have liftoff!"

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?"
 * Eddy: [talking to Edd via their makeshift communication system] "This stinks, I got grounded forever. Over."

Trivia/Goofs

 * It was never revealed what Ed did that got him grounded for the first time.
 * 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 "E d war d ," 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 "E dd war d ", 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..
 * thumb|right|200px|Cartoon Network Eds with Logo IDThere 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.
 * This marks the only time Ed is grounded.
 * The Elevation Boots in the episode "A Pinch to Grow an Ed" were destroyed. In the episode "In Like Ed," one of them was repaired, but now they're destroyed again, which means that they were used again between "In Like Ed" and this episode.
 * When Sarah hits Eddy in the head with her pop gun he gets a bump. In the next shot the bump is gone.
 * At the end of the episode, Edd is seen reading a book called Behavior Modification at his desk.
 * It is revealed that Jonny would do any task for anyone if given a handful of granola as mentioned by Eddy.
 * Kevin, Rolf, Nazz and The Kanker Sisters are absent in 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 when Edd and Eddy try to break him out throughout most of the episode.
 * This is the first episode where someone is seen grounded.
 * Edd created a decoy of Ed to place in Ed's room so Sarah and Jimmy won't know that he is gone. Sarah then 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.
 * When Ed was talking through a sponge, his room was put back together so his parents must have ungrounded him.