My reaction to Wild Kratts: The Hermit Crab Shell Exchange
Asked for by @herloverharmony , thank you for the suggestion!
Right off the bat, Chris says “Hey Martin, after that big adventure in the freezing Arctic, I can’t wait to snooze on a beach for a whole day.”
Well, this episode is the first of Season 3, so he must be referring to a Season 2 adventure. Well the last two episodes of Season 2 are Journey to the Subnivean Zone (episode 25) and Groundhog Wake-up Call (episode 26, the last of the season), if the Wild Kratts episode wiki is to be believed.
He can’t be referring to Groundhog Wake-up Call because that episode ends in the springtime. And he can’t be referring to Journey to the Subnivean Zone because that episode takes place in the “temperate forests of eastern North America”, according to its wiki, not the Arctic. No other episodes in Season 2 take place in the snow, except Snow Runners, but that one didn’t take place in the Arctic either.
So what this means is, the Crew must’ve had another adventure in the Arctic in between Season 2 and 3, that we didn’t get to see. I wonder what it was about?
Also, I feel like sometimes the Bros act they’re incapable of taking a day off from creature-adventuring, but Chris wanting to “snooze on a beach for a whole day” is proof that they do know how to take a day off. It just has to be on their terms.
Chris manages to prank Martin once, but Martin pranked Chris twice. Then when Martin tried to call for a truce (despite it clearly not being even) Chris then proceeded to trip over a shell.
Poor Chris, lol. (Guess who wrote this episode. Go on, guess.
omg they’re so scaredddd without shells poor babiesss. I really enjoy the concept of the Bros being extra nervous/anxious/flighty bc of prey instincts, it’s a lot of fun to me. Like yeah, if you are a small prey animal like a hermit crab (a life-size one anyway), or a hare, or a small bird or something, you have to be lucky enough to evade your predators over and over and over again. But the predators only need enough luck to catch you once.
You should be afraid. One slip up and you’re done.
Also I find it telling that Chris chose to hide behind Koki specifically. I have a feeling she’s the one they’re most intimidated by, so it makes sense that if they feel like they need someone to protect them, they’d choose Koki. They see her as the toughest and strongest, so of course they’d hide behind her.
Them running for their lives from a seagull when they’re obviously wayyy too big for it to be a threat is hilarious, ngl.
Obviously their crying is portrayed as very cartoonishly-over-the-top and dramatic, for comedic purposes, but it’s still sad to see.
It just shows how severely altered their minds are by these hermit crab instincts. They are sobbing just bc they can’t find a shell. Somebody give them a hug and a giant shell STAT.
I will NEVER be used to those eyessss
Eugh they creep me out, it’s always a jump-scare whenever they use their eye stalks 😭
AVIVA THEY ARE DROWNING STOP EXPLAINING AND HELP THEM ALREADY
Wait a minute, the shell isn’t part of the hermit crab, we’ve explained this already, so how are they reactivating by touching the shell? Eh, whatever it’s not that important.
Martin fearing for Chris’s life, we love to see it 💕
Martin finding a new shell and saying “I’ll take this and you can have mine”.
And then all the hermit crabs arranging in line from biggest to smallest.
I don’t know why, but whenever the show acknowledges that Martin is the big brother and Chris is the little brother (both in age and in literal size) it always makes me really happy for some reason. It’s like… cute? I guess or something? I don’t know. Am I the only one?
The movie villains always attacking the protagonist one at a time:
Gourmand: “No crab is stronger than me! I’m on a special vitamin program!”
Gourmand is on steroids confirmed.
/j
Now for 5 fun facts about hermit crabs that the episode doesn’t tell you:
1. Hermit crabs are able to change their sex during a moult. It is not known how common this is or why they do it. (Source A)
2. Hermit crabs are actually mostly nocturnal, doing most of their scuttling around during the night. (Source B)
3. Hermit crabs take their shell-finding seriously. They may fight to the death over a shell. (Source B)
4. Despite their name, hermit crabs are not true crabs. They are more closely related to squat lobsters. (And funnily enough, squat lobsters aren’t true lobsters!). (Source C)
5. Some sea hermit crabs will form a mutualistic symbiotic relationship with anemones, where the hermit crabs will place an anemone on its shell so that its stinging tentacles will protect it from predators, and the anemone gets carried around to food sources and gets to eat the hermit crabs scraps. Sometimes the crab will even move the anemone from one shell to another when it changes shells. (Source C) Watch this cool video of a hermit crab moving its anemones from one shell to the next! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYFALyP2e7U&t=150s
A. https://www.happyhermie.com.au/post/30-interesting-hermit-crab-facts
B. https://www.seattleaquarium.org/animal/hermit-crab/
C. https://dipndive.com/blogs/marine-life/fun-facts-about-hermit-crabs?srsltid=AfmBOoo5p313-daArC01LRAg5cek6JdpMVOr7-_MpSHMtGdrs2x7QACb