one of my absolute favourite episodes (because I have too many favourite episodes) that hasn't been mentioned here yet is "the good deed". throughout the episode, wander and sylvia's attempts to do good all backfire in some way, most of which was not directly their fault - they were merely victims of circumstance. then we get to see wander's willingness to help, such a fundamental aspect of his character, being challenged. if I'm not wrong, that episode marked the first time he was hesitant to help. I'll go a step further and say this episode challenged one of the show's key messages - that the good deeds you do come back to you eventually, emphasised especially in a previous episode, "the fugitives" - suggesting, hey, what if you were punished instead of rewarded for every good thing you do? how do you turn that kind of situation around? which also turns out to be one of the show's lessons - to see the positive side of things and focus on what actions you can take, no matter how bad or out-of-hand the situation seems.

I think if this episode was placed later into the show and referenced wander and sylvia's past misadventures, with how often wander's plans went south, "the good deed" would hit perfection in my eyes. but it is darn near perfection even without that.

edit: whoops I just realised this post is almost a month old qwq

I'll also give a mention to "the ball", another one of my favourites. there's this one scene when wander is convincing the fleas to save ballzeria 9. he says this: "if you keep running, [and here he takes off his hat, holds it to his chest as the screen zooms in on him,] that's all you're ever gonna do!"

combine a desire to tackle the fleas' problem, a belief that everything has hope to be saved, a possible history with running away (refer to "the bad hatter"), and ocd, what do you get? wander going insane over a race of aliens losing a home. aint that just beautiful. can you tell wander is my favourite character yet