Gone - alternate version

There is this one episode contained inside one of the SpongeBob seasons, called "Gone". I remember watching it as a small 7 year old boy and absolutely hating just how mean-spirited everyone was to Spongy, including Sandy, who was supposed to be one of his best friends, always there for him. Screw it, most of the characters were weirdly out of character. Although, the explanation is quite simple: the writers had no damn idea, back then, about the possibilities of such a concept, where SpongeBob is left alone in Bikini Bottom, so they chose an easier option, and that was ruining every character for the sake of making the story possible, instead of changing the story to make the characters fit into the narative.

Anyways, after I first saw it as a youngling, I immediately forgot about its existence. However, while watching, I felt exceptionally uneasy. Imagine slowly going insane over the fact that you're the last person alive. And to think that they thought this execution of the concept was acceptable...But what if I told you that there's an alternate version of the respective episode. It has the same name, same title card, it goes just as expected, at least, for a while.

I happened to stumble across this version of the episode after my good friend Henry told me to go on the Nickelodeon official website to check an unreleased version of the "Gone" episode. I'm not sure if it was leaked accidentally, or if the executives thought it was a good idea, but, once I entered the website, after scrolling through it, I found it. I was curious to see what "Gone" was originally meant to be like, so I booted the video.

I'll spare you guys the details of the first 5 minutes, since it's practically the same as the current episode. Eventually, SpongeBob realizes that every person that lived in Bikini Bottom, is gone. At first he was confused; Where was everybody? He started thinking that he was dreaming, so he began running around happily doing al sorts of activities. Jellyfishing, blowing bubbles, running up and down on walls, you know, the usual stuff. After some time he got bored. He went back to looking around, maybe he could find them, eventually. It was all in vain. He pinched his arm, still thinking that this was a dream. It hurt. It couldn't have been. He really missed them, all of them. He started crying, screaming: WHERE IS EVERYBODY?! Although all of these sequences I described are vaguely similar to the final cut, there was this strange aura surrounding this version in particular. There was no music in the background at all. SpongeBob was clearly a lot more sad. He couldn't do anything except live like this. He stopped crying. He manned-up, and said, with an unusual level of confidence, that he doesn't need them, he can clearly live without them. All he needs is some materials to help construct some new buddies. And so he did. He constructed doppelgangers of the original cast. He also began roleplaying his daily activities with them. It all became exhausting for the poor little guy. However, he got a brilliant idea! He spliced himself up, obtaining blobs of mass, albeit having less bright colors, almost looking like clay, ready for molding. He built replicas of his friends, and they were all sentient, since they had little parts of his DNA. Though, these replicas were more similar, in behavior with Spongy, which eventually angered the yellow dude. He was slowly loosing his mind, trying to find solutions for his problems. None of the replicas could talk, instead resorting to loud gibberish to communicate. They couldn't eat, sleep or think. They were even dumber than Patrick, somehow. SpongeBob lost his patience with these creatures, choosing instead to hit them agresively until they complied. None of them could, unfortunately for them. SpongeBob was clearly out of his mind. He ran in his house, trying to get away from his imperfections... Wait a minute... This got him thinking. Maybe, Bikini Bottom left him all alone because they couldn't suffer him any longer. He was basically an annoyance, an imperfection. He imagined them leaving their houses just to get away from him. These thoughts hurt his mindset even more. Suddenly, Gary's replica slithered next to SpongeBob, somehow begging him to feed it. SpongeBob hated them, everything about them reminded him of the possible reason that made everyone leave him behind. He hit the clone, just hard enough to shatter its spongy shell. He soon realized what he had done. He regretted his choice. The clone died, all because of him. He ran outside of his house, whilst being chased by his creations. They were moaning and screeching his name, in their gibberish language. He got cornered. Before anything bad that could have happened, the screen faded to black. Suddenly, SpongeBob wakes up. It was morning. It was all a dream! Yay! He looked besides his bed, but, Gary wasn't there. He looked after him all throughout the house. He couldn't find him. He went outside. He knocked on Squidward's door, nobody responded. Same thing happened after knocking on Patrick's rock. He ran towards the Krusty Krab, but the place wasn't occupied by anyone. He soon realized that it wasn't a dream. He cried, screamed, begged for forgiveness, although no one could hear him. He was alone after all. He hit the sand with his fists nervously, begging for this torture to end. He had officially went insane. He got up and started running around. There was zero music in the background, just the painful screams of a sad, tortured soul. His tantrum got even worse. All he could think of was his inevitable end at the hands of no one. No one was near him, in order to calm him down, to reassure him, to tell him that everything was going to be ok.

He eventually calmed down. Feeling exhausted emotionally, he went back in his house and straight to bed. He said goodbye to Gary, or, at the very least, to the place where he used to sleep.

Next day came. He got up and skipped breakfast. His stomach was begging him to eat something. SpongeBob couldn't do that, he didn't have the energy and motivation to do so. He had also, somehow, forgotten about his birthday. He was practically starving himself form any source of entertainment or nutrition. However, after a few hours, he went outside. He was met with a big bus. Out from the bus came everyone from Bikini Bottom!!! They all screamed: SURPRISE!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPONGEBOB!!! Our little yellow sponge was schoked. HOW WAS THIS POSSIBLE? They all hugged him. Damn, he really missed that. However, on the outside, he was still visibally shook to the core after this traumatizing experience. Everyone else realized what they had put him into. They didn't intend this. The damage was done regardless. Still, SpongeBob was really happy to see everyone safe and sound. He asked everyone to never ever do such a thing again. They all agreed.

What a bombshell. I'm not surprised that this version was cut. It contained genuinely heart breaking scenes. However, the ending gladly fixed every aspect of this episode. I'm glad that I could see this episode and I hope to see more cut content from the Nickelodeon archives!

Comments • 1

Loading comments...