Somewhat implausibly, Porter's sister (or sister-in-law it is never quite clear) called Martha arrives unannounced at Coral Key expressing concern for her nephews' welfare and inviting herself to stay and help Porter with their upbringing. The script writers got things quite screwed up. It's hard to know if Martha is Porter's sister or his deceased wife's sister. In any event she refers to the boys' mother as Ellen when in the original Flipper movie Porter's wife was called Martha. This Martha refers to the death of the boys' mother when they were babies but she dies between "Flipper" when Sandy is 12/13 and "Flipper's New Adventure" when Sandy is supposed to be 14. Sandy would be 17 by the time of Season 3 so it's been 4 years since his mother's death as per the movies and he's supposedly never seen this aunt in 10 years! Quite the mix up.
Martha sails into the Ricks' life and proceeds to take over, boss everyone around and fuss endlessly over her coiffured pink poodle Fifi. This interference does not go down well and so the episode features a lot of eye rolling and verbal push-back from the boys. I'd venture to say if an aunt did what Aunt Martha does in this episode in today's world, the reaction from modern teens would be stronger.
The final indignity for the boys is to go on a family picnic dressed in silly designer matching outfits - goofy looking Hawaiian style shirts with matching garish yellow tight shorts. Sandy and Bud look terribly awkward out of their signature cut off jeans and then are urged by Porter to go along with everything Aunt Martha wants on the day. It was a clever ploy to flush out her stubborn arrogance and wrong-footedness. When Fifi goes missing on the island and Martha is stranded on the surfboard, despite the annoyance of the boys at Martha's interference and antics, they kindly search for Fifi and Porter dives into water with his civvies on to rescue Aunt Martha in 4 feet of water. The boys resist the urge to mock their aunt's seeming helplessness and their patience is rewarded when she apologizes and realizes she's an imposition and decides to leave.
It's all "we love you - do come back anytime" as Martha prepares to leave. We learn her husband also died and so there's grief for all to share with both families having to cope with loss. Sandy and Bud play dutiful nephews with Martha and Fifi as she leaves and Martha pays tribute to Porter's parenting.
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