A grumpy neighbor and a mediocre clarinet player, Squidward for the most part just tries to do his
own thing. But while someone like Spongebob may always see the good in him, when push comes to
shove Squidward is actually capable of being pretty kind at times as well as pretty cruel.
But which moments showed him truly at his best and which had him at his absolute worst?
I’m Caleb with WickedBinge, and this is Squidward Deeds: Good to Evil.
As always, we’re going to be starting with Squidward’s most noble good deeds
before working our way down to this squid’s biggest sins.
Of course, at the very top of our list, we just have to put “getting back at the jerk customer
for making Spongebob cry”. In the fan-favorite classic, “Pizza Delivery”, we see the first
instance of Squidward actually having a heart deep down. Despite all the frustration that Spongebob
puts him through in the episode, being determined to deliver the Krusty Krab pizza no matter what,
this determination leads to Spongebob being scolded and heartbroken over something that
wasn’t his fault - all because one jerk forgot to actually order his drink. As soon as Spongebob
starts crying over this, Squidward takes it upon himself to confront the customer, throwing the
pizza right in his face as a bit of petty revenge. What really makes this moment an incredibly sweet
one, however, is that afterwards he simply tells Spongebob that the customer changed his mind and
ate the entire pizza without a drink, allowing Spongebob to still feel like he did a good job.
But that wasn’t the only time Squidward helped Spongebob in the workplace… Remember when he
“called Krabs out for selling Spongebob’s soul”? In the episode “Born Again Krabs”, after briefly
becoming a better person with the expectation that it was all just a dream, Mr. Krabs’ return to
greediness earns him another visit from the Flying Dutchman. Thankfully, Spongebob is right there to
stand up for his boss. Unfortunately, things take another bad turn when, after being asked by the
Flying Dutchman if he’d rather have Spongebob or all the change he has in his pocket, Krabs
sells Spongebob’s soul to the ghost. Squidward immediately calls Krabs out on this and makes him
regret his actions, showing that while Squidward may not always put in the effort, he does indeed
have a slightly stronger moral compass than Krabs - at least in the early seasons. It’s also a nice
moment that once again sees Squidward looking out for and caring about his little yellow neighbor.
And if you ever questioned Squidward’s ability to care about his neighbor… Let’s not forget about
the amount of Christmas Spirit he has. Let’s talk about when he “pretended to be Santa Claus for all
of Bikini Bottom”. Yep, we couldn’t go without mentioning this heartwarming good deed. Now,
to be fair, it was partially done out of guilt, as during Bikini Bottom’s first Christmas,
Squidward is insistent that Santa isn’t real. When he’s proven to be correct, he doesn’t
hesitate to rub this in Spongebob’s face and only stops when he sees just how devastating it is to
Spongebob. It also takes receiving a homemade and heartfelt gift for Squidward to truly regret his
actions. Afterwards, he takes it upon himself to be Santa for not just Spongebob but also
the rest of Bikini Bottom, giving away all his things in exchange for keeping up the act. This
is a pretty huge sacrifice, and while he does partially regret it afterwards, the fact that
Squidward was still willing to do it at all and not just give up on the act says a lot about his
true sense of character deep down. Or hey, maybe it was just the Christmas spirit getting to him.
Someone who could use more Christmas Spirit has always been greedy Mr. Krabs… And Squidward was
the one who “led a strike” against Krabs’ unfair treatment. Although Squidward was mostly acting on
behalf of himself, him including Spongebob in his efforts even when he was being a nuisance shows
that he was also trying to get better benefits for Spongebob too. Again, at least in these
earlier seasons, Squidward does indeed care about Spongebob’s well-being and will stand up for him,
knowing fully well that Spongebob has a tendency to let people walk all over him
on occasion. Whether it’s encouraging Spongebob to strike with him in order to receive better
working conditions or staying up late with Mr. Krabs negotiating a contract, this episode was a
good showing of how determined Squidward can be when he truly feels like it’s worth the effort.
And Squidwards’ calling out of Krabs doesn’t end there. Remember “the time where he stopped
Krabs from stealing his coupon”? In the aptly titled “Patrick’s Coupon”,
the starfish is on a quest to get some free ice cream, only to caught by Mr. Krabs' crane
after he “felt the presence of something free”. Never being one to pass up a bargain,
Krabs tries to con Patrick out of the coupon, offering to trade a handshake for it,
and nearly succeeds in. Before the deal can go down, however, Squidward appears and intervenes,
actually scolding Krabs for taking advantage of Patrick's naïve nature. Speaking of which,
Patrick isn’t too grateful for Squidward’s help, still not quite understanding that he was nearly
tricked. But even if this particular good deed wasn’t exactly rewarded,
Squidward still made the effort to help Patrick out - and hey, it’s the thought that counts!
Helping someone as annoying as Patrick shows that Squidward does have a heart… In fact let’s
talk about all the times he “tries to help the rest of the team”. Let’s be honest here,
for the most part Squidward can be a pretty lazy guy. So much so that when he does end up working
with the other characters, it’s often because someone is forcing him to be there. But while this
squid may take a bit of extra prodding, once he’s actually on the team and given a role to play,
Squidward does actually try to help out. We’ve seen him fight alongside his friends as both
Captain Magma and Sour Note, and while it may have been a poorly executed plan, we did see Squidward
confront Plankton in the first movie after figuring out his grand plan, even threatening
to go tell King Neptune. Yes, he mostly did this because Plankton “messed with his paycheck” but,
hey, it was still him trying to stop a force of evil, even if the motivation to do so was less
than noble. Finally, in the third movie, “Sponge on the Run”, Squidward is right up there with the
others, explaining why Spongebob shouldn’t be executed and stating how much he cares for the
little guy. So, while Squidward may usually be a reluctant member of the team, this reluctance
doesn’t necessarily stop him from putting forth an actual effort when it’s required of him.
But finishing up the good, let’s talk about how Squidward once “tried to give Spongebob
his best day ever”. Now, this is another good deed that is somewhat hampered by what leads
up to it. In the episode “Dying for Pie”, Squidward tries to take the easy way out of
Employee Brotherhood Day by buying a gift for Spongebob instead of making one. This leads to
Squidward carelessly buying a pie bomb, and when it looks like Spongebob has eaten it,
Squidward is so wracked with guilt that he tries to make Spongebob’s last day ever his
best day ever. While this is a nice idea and Squidward does force himself to put
up with quite a bit of pain and humiliation in order to make Spongebob happy, the fact
that this was only really done out of guilt earns this deed a spot at the bottom of our good tier.
We’ve now arrived at Squidward’s worst deeds and - whoo boy, there’s actually quite a few of them…
Starting off on the smaller side of things, we have “impersonating Squilliam”.
In the episode, “Professor Squidward”, a jealous Squidward decides to take advantage of a case
of accidental mistaken identity. When a headmistress mistakes him for Squilliam,
Squidward tells her that he is indeed Squilliam in order to have the opportunity to teach a music
course. As much as we may understand Squidward’s frustrations - especially when it comes to
Squilliam - stealing someone’s identity is still a pretty big crime. What’s more, Squidward shows
in this episode why he probably shouldn’t be a teacher, as alongside his usual arrogance,
he also doesn’t seem to show much respect for his students. Honestly, even if it weren’t for
Spongebob and Patrick messing things up, he probably would have been found out eventually.
Say what you want about Spongebob screwing things up… his intentions are always pure. So much so
that Squidward takes advantage of him and “becomes a terrible house guest”. In the episode “Can You
Spare a Dime?”, Squidward finally quits his job at the Krusty Krab, only for his life to take a
turn for the worse. When he ends up homeless and starving, Spongebob takes him in and offers to
help him out until Squidward can get back on his feet. Though Squidward tries not to be a burden at
first, it really doesn’t take long for Squidward to start taking advantage of Spongebob’s kindness,
staying at his place for many months and essentially using the sponge as a maid. He’s rude,
impatient, messy, lazy, ungrateful and absolutely refuses to even TRY to get another job or even
leave Spongebob’s bed, leading Spongebob to have a full-on breakdown. This is easily one
of Squidward’s worst moments, and you completely understand Spongebob’s frustration with him.
It takes a lot to make Spongebob frustrated… but all of hearts were collectively broken when we
saw him cry… Thanks to Squidward’s “April Fools day prank”. Yes, this moment is pretty infamous,
and there’s certainly more than a few good reasons for that. While you maybe can’t blame Squidward
for being a bit petty, especially after the prank Spongebob played on him earlier in the episode,
Squidward absolutely took it way too far in that he purposely made his prank on
Spongebob as humiliating and as painful as possible. What’s worse is that while
Squidward does feel bad about this, it takes him forever to give a proper apology for it,
with most of his gestures coming off as hollow. It’s also another case where Squidward is only
pushed into doing the right thing out of guilt - but hey, maybe it’s a good sign that he’s actually
still feeling guilt over his actions, considering some of the bad deeds we have coming up…
And if you think that was mean-spirited, remember when he “tried to ruin Spongebob and Patrick’s
friendship”. This is probably Squidward’s most blatant example of going out of his way to just be
a jerk. There would be many episodes in the future where Spongebob and Patrick would be
actual nuisances, but in this particular case, they weren’t even yelling or being loud. They
were just sitting in their own yards, whispering, giggling and sending each other bubble messages.
Despite this, however, Squidward still went out of his way to mess with them by sending cruel
messages and prompting a fight between the two best friends. We don’t even see Squidward feel
bad about this, only regretting his actions when the former besties start stressing him
out as they try to get his attention. All in all, Squidward was a true jerk in this episode,
and even when his house ends up getting destroyed, it’s hard to really feel sympathy for him.
That was a particularly cruel moment, but not nearly as cruel as the time Squidward
“pretended to be Gary”. In the episode “Chatterbox Gary”, Gary gains the ability to speak through the
use of a brand new collar. Naturally, given how much friction they’ve had throughout the series,
Squidward doesn’t exactly like what Gary has to say, especially when Gary starts to mock
Squidward on many of the things he does. Wanting some petty revenge on the mollusk and his owner,
Squidward goes into SpongeBob's house at night and impersonates Gary using a walkie-talkie. He
spends the night making SpongeBob do various tasks under the guise of being Gary, knowing for a fact
that Spongebob would do anything for his beloved pet. This eventually leads to Spongebob’s house
rolling away and falling down a steep cliff, temporarily making SpongeBob homeless. It’d be
one thing if this was just a prank meant to get back at Gary and Spongebob for being annoying,
but considering that it causes Spongebob to lose his house and Squidward doesn’t
even feel bad about it, it’s just a moment that comes off as one of his absolute worst.
But if you think trying to break up Sponge and Pat’s friendship or manipulating Gary was
awful… The Gold Medal for Worst Squidward Deed has to be for “the times where Squidward tries
to get Spongebob and Patrick seriously injured”. Let’s face it, Squidward’s idea of getting back
at someone usually involves a lot of trickery and violence, as he - especially in the later
seasons - seems to truly enjoy watching those he’s usually annoyed by get injured or seriously hurt.
Probably the most successful example of this was in “Sportz?” where he taught Spongebob and Patrick
various ‘games’ that led to them getting injured multiple times over. It took Sandy stepping in and
giving Squidward a taste of his own medicine for things to finally be put right. In this
particular instance, Squidward didn’t even really seem to care if the two ended up dying or not,
which just makes the whole thing feel in bad taste. It’s also been shown in other episodes
that Squidward isn’t above physically sabotaging Spongebob or Patrick when he’s feeling jealous
or wanting to take an opportunity for himself, such as when he made Spongebob feel absolutely
exhausted before his big dance audition. Really, these moments just show that at his core,
Squidward’s jealousy and desire to make others miserable just so that he can feel better about
whatever personal pain he’s dealing with can turn this squid into a true monster at times.