The episode starts up at Goo Lagoon where SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy are playing in the sand. Sandy makes some sand in the shape of Texas, which is soon destroyed by the goo tide. A despondent Sandy walks off sadly, while SpongeBob tries to cheer her up and offers to play with her, but Sandy explains that she is just feeling a little homesick. SpongeBob and Patrick then blindfold her and take her to her treedome, which only adds to Sandy's depression. She begins crying, and runs off.
Both SpongeBob and Patrick are confused until they hear Sandy singing a song from on top of her treedome about how much she misses Texas, which made everyone else suffer from her song and cry. They decide to cheer up Sandy by throwing a Texas-themed party for her at the Krusty Krab. They go to Sandy's house to ask her to come to the Krusty Krab with them, but she tells them that she is leaving Bikini Bottom to move back to Texas. SpongeBob is shocked by this, and tries to convince her to go to the Krusty Krab, but fails. Sandy gets into a bus out of Bikini Bottom and leaves. Patrick accidentally insults Texas by calling it dumb, asking what is so great about it.
Suddenly, the bus comes back and Sandy returns, then angrily berates Patrick for badmouthing her hometown. Patrick then asks if he can say that people from Texas are dumb, which angers her even further. This gives SpongeBob an idea to lure Sandy to the Krusty Krab. He and Patrick continue insulting Texas, such as about the people and the stars being dull then an enraged Sandy begins chasing them. They intend to lead Sandy to her surprise party at the Krusty Krab. Patrick continuously insults Texas, thinking Sandy is too slow to catch up to them, only to soon realize that she is very fast and catching up to them; realizing that insulting Texas was a bad idea, SpongeBob and Patrick are forced to run for their lives.
Sandy lassos Patrick and pulls him to her, and a nuclear explosion is shown in the background as he disappears. SpongeBob, still hoping to reach the Krusty Krab, begins screaming as he runs as fast as he can. Sandy's lasso reaches SpongeBob the instant he reaches the door of the Krusty Krab, and she attempts to pull him to her as he holds the door with his pinkie finger. Eventually, this causes the entire front of the building to be torn off, revealing the party inside. Then everyone says, "Howdy, y'all!"
Sandy asks what's going on and SpongeBob tells her that he made a big Texas themed party just for her. Unfortunately, most of the things are misheard concepts about things Sandy told SpongeBob about Texas. SpongeBob then asks Sandy if she's going to stay. But Sandy burst out laughing at the attempt. She tells SpongeBob that home isn't about barbecues or pecan pies, but its about being around folks that care about you. She then realizes that if all the townsfolk care this much about her, then Bikini Bottom has become her true home now, and decides to stay. The crowd is happy about this and starts cheering. Suddenly, Patrick, who has survived the explosion during the chase, once again insults Texas and as the episode ends with the shown off-screen cutting back to Bikini Atoll, Sandy gets angry once again, and Patrick asks if he should start running again leaving the episode in a cliffhanger.
Production
Script
On November 14, 2016, recording scripts for every episode from season 1 were publicly released, found on one of the asset discs for the PlayStation video game, SuperSponge. This included the recording script for "Texas."[3]
•Texas Title Card - Junior Brown [Title card.] •IM1 - Junior Brown [The opening.] ‣Real Western Steel - Bobby Black ["Can't you see? It's Texas!"] •IM2 - Junior Brown ["Oh, it's nothing but a memory now."] •IM - Junior Brown [SpongeBob trying to cheer Sandy up] •IM3 - Junior Brown [Jellyfish goes away] •IM4 - Junior Brown ["I guess I'm just feeling a little homesick"] ‣Hawaiian Link (A) - Richard Myhill ["Mm-mmm..."] •IM5 - Junior Brown ["Almost there!"] ◦I Wanna Go Home - Sherm Cohen, Vincent Waller, Junior Brown [Sandy sings this.] ‣Vibe Link (B) - Richard Myhill ["That's it! Patrick, your genius is showing."] •IM6 - Junior Brown [Transition to next scene] •IM7 - Junior Brown [SpongeBob and Patrick playing leapfrog] •IM8 - Junior Brown ["I'm going back home to Texas."] •IM9 - Junior Brown [overlays "Blue Dobro (A)"] ‣Blue Dobro (A) - Richard Myhill [Sandy gets angry at Patrick] •IM9 - Junior Brown [overlays "Blue Dobro (A)"] •IM10"Texas" - Junior Brown [SpongeBob and Patrick making fun of Texas.] ‣The Poker - The Langhorns [Sandy puts down her bags] •IM11 - Junior Brown ["We did it, we got her!"] •IM12"The Chase" - Junior Brown [SpongeBob and Patrick running from Sandy / Sandy at the Krusty Krab.] ‣Hawaiian Link (B) - Richard Myhill ["Don't cry anymore, Sandy."] •IM13 - Junior Brown [Everyone gathers around Sandy] ‣Hawaiian Link (A) - Richard Myhill [The ending.]
The scene where SpongeBob turns into Texas while Patrick calls him stupid has also become an internet meme.
The entire chase scene has also become an internet meme, with edits featuring a different character replacing SpongeBob, Patrick and Sandy.
Jellyfish Fields is shown to be located right next to Goo Lagoon in this episode.
The fact that Sandy thought that the Bikini Bottomites ate jellyfish is similar to Plankton's belief of them in "F.U.N."
Despite his weak muscular system that is exposed in several episodes, SpongeBob is able to tear off the entire front half of the Krusty Krab with only his finger and is able to throw a whale up and over his head from behind.
SpongeBob's misinterpretations of the things Sandy misses from Texas include Flats the Flounder holding a cube for "square dancing," "peas-in-a-can pies" for pecan pie, large water containers being worn over the head as "10-gallon hats," and Barbed Qs for barbecues.
The shot of SpongeBob thinking while scratching his cheek is later turned into a piece of stock art.
When Sandy decides to stay in Bikini Bottom and everyone gathers around her, everyone is excited and cheering except for Squidward, who does not cheer at all, except towards the end of the cheering, when he says, "Woopty doo."
Sandy says, "Y'all best apologize, or I'm gonna be on you like ugly on an ape!," which is a reference to a quote from the character Jimmy James from the TV show NewsRadio. In episode 9, Season 5,[14] Jimmy says, "Max, if you try any of that mind-trick stuff on me, I'll be on you like ugly on a ape."[15]
Whenever this episode and/or "Walking Small" airs outside of the US,[16] the show's textless version of the theme song plays. This error also happens with "Extreme Spots" and/or "Squirrel Record."
File:Pinkmouthpat.webpPatrick with a pink mouth.After SpongeBob and Patrick play at the beach, Patrick's mouth is briefly colored pink.
Whenever Patrick and SpongeBob try to catch jellyfish, Sandy's outline turns green.
When Sandy opens the door to her treedome and enters the building, neither the door nor Sandy can be seen through the glass on the treedome's entrance.
When Sandy is singing her song, it seems the music notes are going toward her instead of away from her.
Also, when Junior Brown sings the last line of the song, Sandy's mouth is moving when it is not supposed to when Junior Brown sings the line off-screen.
During the Texas Song when Sandy says, "I miss my twenty acres, barbecues, and pecan pies, oh, why?," her neck is white instead of brown for a few frames.
When the camera pans to the Krusty Krab, while SpongeBob says "Wait, Sandy! You can't! Uhh, we we're gonna...the...the...Krusty Krab...that is not the right direction!", the nautical flags are missing.
When SpongeBob and Patrick put on their "10 gallon hats," SpongeBob's buck teeth disappear for two frames. His eyelashes also vanish as well.
Mrs. Puff disappears when SpongeBob puts on his "10 gallon hat" and is not seen again for the remainder of the episode.
During the February 4, 2001 airing on Nickelodeon, the Rugrats 10th anniversary screenbug was accidentally shown briefly at the beginning of the episode before switching to the correct bug.[17]
While SpongeBob and Patrick are running, the former has his eyes partially open, but his eyelashes are seen.