Teaser: A Mission-Impossible style break-in as Frohike and Byers attempt to steal the Octium IV chip from E-Com-Con's top security room. Langly fakes an allergy attack to distract security from their monitors. A 'Bearded Man' is seen, and Langly obviously recognizes him. The 'Bearded Man' takes advantage of the chaos to steal the chip -- right out from under Frohike's nose -- by hijacking the software that Byers is using to run the winch for Frohike's little trapeze getup.
Byers is informed of his father's mysterious passing. He hadn't spoken to his father in 11 years, since he got together with Frohike and Langly to start publishing the weekly newsletter, The Loneballoonman. At the funeral, a Mr. Helm introduces himself to Johnny as his father's long time friend, and offers to talk with him about his father's passing.
As the passing is investigated, theballoonmen become more and more entangled in a terrorist plot (Scenario 12-D), eventually facing off against a governmental power known as Overlo

An influential Japanese businessman who is running an illegal whaling fleet comes to consciousness in a traditional-looking Japanese room. He's threatened by Toshiro in Japanese. Frohike makes an appearance that is truly amazing, and an homage to all those samurai movies and Hong Kong kick flicks you've ever seen. As Frohike attempts to coerce the information about the whaling fleet out of the businessman, we see that it's really a setup by theballoonmen, with their friend's help, to expose the illegal whaling operation. The teaser includes a fight sequence with a shot where Frohike Sensei kicks Toshiro through a wall! [Editor's note: This is hilarious.] Melvin Frohike -- Man of Action!
Our story opens with one Alex Goldsmith, hacker extraordinaire (also known as Double Bogey or DB), whacking golf balls from a balcony in the middle of the night, tears running down his cheeks. He whacks one ball into the windshield of an expensive black car, just before he's shot andhuged.
Theballoonmen can

Frohike has to disguise himself as the long-lost son of a woman who is believed to be a Nazi war criminal that theballoonmen are trying to smoke out of the woodwork. She was famed for poisoning the pastries of the French Resistance. Apparently in at least one scene, Frohike appears in leiderhosen!
For the Frohike Liberation Organization, I present this particular priceless gem. One scene in this ep features the little old German lady giving Frohike a bath. Yes, I know that certain members of the FLO may have to be supplied with a bib, safe squidging equipment, and perhaps even five point restraints, but you know, I don't make the news, I just report it.

Jimmy narrates a rather twisted history of heroes as he talks about his admiration for the Loneballoonmen. We see clips of each of theballoonmen as a child. John Fitzgerald Byers, living in Sterling, Virginia, grows up wanting to be a career bureaucrat so that he can 'help people'. Richard Ringo Langly grows up on a dairy farm in Nebraska, wanting to be a Computer God. Melvin Frohike, already a Man of Action in Pontiac, Michigan, beating up on football players three times his size, expresses his desire to become a crusading publisher and helping people, like his idol -- Hugh Hefner.
Yves sets the boys on the trail of a water-powered vehicle, in hopes of procuring the information for an oil company executive who is paying her very well. She leaks them the information through and unfortunate Freedom of Information office clerk, who dies shortly after giving Byers a box containing a cinder block and a single sheet of paper.
Frohike recognizes the name on the FOI sheet as the inventor of a water

The Loneballoonmen become reluctant and rather inept nursemaids to the illegitimate baby of a drunk, philandering, saxophone-playing Senator whose campaign-aide girlfriend died in a suspicious accident.
This is the episode where, as Bruce Harwood put it in one chat, 'Tom gets his nipples sucked!'

And now, a word from our Guest Reviewer, Lori Summers:
Tonight on 'The Loneballoonmen': Our heroes meet a strange man who may or may not have been transported by aliens from a parallel universe. Oh, and there's goo.
Rating: 9.0 out of 10
Quick summary...Byers and Jimmy meet a man named Adam Burgess who has found someone else living his life and he's not recognized by anyone he knows. He thinks he's been transported by aliens from a parallel universe where everything is the same except him, but it soon comes out that his memory has been modified via electrodes implanted on his brain. There are also little people who wrestle, a guy with one eye and did I mention alien goo?
In my opinion, this was the strongest episode to date. These are theballoonmen I know and love. Smart, capable, determined and compassionate. There was an almost zero bumbling factor (except for Jimmy, where it's sort of built-in) and the guys did some great detective work. The plot was reminicent of The X-Files (neck

Our guest reveiwer for this episode is Dan Deckert, from the LGM-over-30 list on Yahoo.com. Thanks Dan, for letting us use your words!
Anybody who's read any of my X-Files reviews knows that my favorite episode are the ones that start well-written and come across as a total package. They also know that Vince Gilligan is one of my favorite writers. I've had the bad luck/timing to miss three episodes of TLG this season, so I can't say that Planet of the Frohikes (POTF) is the best episode of TLG that's ever aired. I do feel safe in saying that it is 'classic Vince', right up there with Small Potatoes and Bad Blood, IMHO. In case it isn't yet clear, I _really_ liked POTF.
I think that the thing that has really set Vince aside as a writer is that he takes his stories absolutely seriously, even when they're intended to be funny. Sometimes the basic concept is really fundamentally strange (Bad Blood and Home Fries stand out as examples of this), but it is always taken completely se

Our episode starts out on a cruise ship in the Pacific, where the boys are chasing down a man they think is Elvis, still live and kicking. All our guys get some funny bits, but the scene that stole the teaser for me was Jimmy's not-too-bad-at-all Elvis imitation! 'Elvis' turns out to be an embezzler, and not Elvis at all.
As the first act opens, theballoonmen's warehouse basement office is approached by a little old lady, Alberta Pfeiffer, who has been a faithful reader of their zine since day one. She approaches them individually, with comments on their character and personalities, then begs Byers to get her son out of prison -- Douglas Robert Pfeiffer, alleged cuddleer, being held on passing row in Texas.
Our boys, being who they are, come up with a plan, first voiced by Jimmy, then supported by Byers: they'll break into the prison to talk to Pfeiffer, who has refused to speak to anyone after initially pleading innocence.
After setting up the plan, the boys head for Texas, and stay at th

While the trio stalks a grizzly-bear poacher in a snowy forest, an injured Jimmy believes his doctor is a hugger profiled on 'America's Most Wanted'. (from TV Guide)

After the Loneballoonmen ruin her first attempt to get close to a suspected smuggler, Yves arranges to become the man's partner in a tango competition -- with a little help from her... ah... friends.
Apparently the plot involves theballoonmen turning the table on Yves for once, and bugging her to follow her on a case. The chase leads to Miami, and drug smugglers.

The boys' investigation into the shooting passing of the brother of Byers' college roommate, a blackmailer, yields a definite suspect: FBI Asst. Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi).
We've heard for quite some time that in the Skinner episode, Jimmy and Walter get kinda... close. Nobody's sure just how close that means.

In this episode, we learn some secrets about Yves, and according to Frank Spotnitz, this is where we start to see theballoonmen's mythology open up.
Morris Fletcher is apparently snatched by aliens (apparently theballoonmen in disguise!), and Fox Mulder runs into Jimmy Bond. I've heard rumors that this episode may also feature a second appearance by Skinner, but I haven't seen any concrete evidence for it.

Langly's childhood hero, kid's show host Cap'n Toby, is accused of being an international spy. It'sballoonmen to the rescue!