To Catch a Literal Predator

A mousetrap suggestion prompts the added rule against ready-made killing devices. Peanut butter leads Curtis to propose a picture of the moon in a cage, based on the cheese joke. Brad proposes a film lure, first called Mousetrap and then corrected in discussion to Mouse Hunt. Curtis proposes hiring a hawk; it is permitted, though the later story says they never obtained one.

Curtis proposes transparent chef hats after the Ratatouille reference, clarified as shower-cap-like headwear. Ryan rules that they have changed the hats without solving the mouse problem and tells them to continue.

Curtis introduces a Gila monster but moves away from that capture strategy; because it was mentioned, the animal remains in the fictional restaurant. The group develops a matzah house with cream-cheese mortar, after a food-preference digression. Curtis is explicitly associated with the house idea. They decide to house the mouse in the kitchen and put it on the payroll as a consultant. The name discussion moves through Chuck E. Cheese and Jason H. Cheese before settling on Johnny Cheddar.

Ryan narrates Johnny moving in, followed by the discovery of his remains the next day: the previously introduced Gila monster ate him. That outcome closes the mouse phase and triggers the next task.

A leash is suggested, then Brad proposes bow hunting and charging customers to join. A pregnancy detail is accepted, and Ryan establishes five Gila monsters, four of them babies. Curtis clarifies that the goal is to capture them for a pick-your-own restaurant concept, rather than shoot them. Declaring capture does not make it happen.

Curtis proposes both the fifty-gallon size and graham-cracker floor instead of sand for a tank that also develops a screened lid and heat lamp. Ryan points out that a container is useful only if they catch the animals, and specifically asks Brad to work on that problem.

They retain a crossbow. Curtis proposes a suction-cup modification; a separate Nerf-gun idea is dismissed. Ryan will not accept simply making the crossbow weaker. The plan changes into a wire-and-zipline scheme. A confused scale discussion locks the kitchen at three feet wide, a hundred yards long and eventually a hundred yards tall. Curtis’s revised plan zigzags through it, giving them a bird’s-eye view and a way to swoop down. This takes up the earlier hawk idea in a different form.

Ryan notes that the animals can roam beyond the kitchen. The group adds more mouse homes as lures and then faces the unanswered capture mechanism. Brad receives a handoff to explain the locks/lox pun. The recording confirms he gives both the correction and the shoestring-style threading explanation. The plan calls for an expert to secure the houses; the group jokingly links a fishmonger to a sailor’s knot skills. Ryan accepts the mechanism and asks whether they will repeat it five times.

An initial explanation leaves the expert to the side while the others watch from above. That is revised: they become Batman, with the expert clinging to them like Vicky Vale, so the expert can close the door when they swoop down. The revision is accepted, and Ryan congratulates them on completing the task.