Road to the Big Windmill

"There's a trail here that connects to the Big Windmill. The goop made it too dangerous, so the door's been closed. You might be able to get through at the waterwheel up ahead."

- Pianta

Road to the Big Windmill is the first episode of Bianco Hills in Super Mario Sunshine, and is subsequently the first numbered episode of the game. The player should already have the Shine Sprite they've collected from the Delfino Airstrip, but that Shine Sprite was not part of an actual episode. The episode begins with an introduction scene, which shows Shadow Mario standing near the bridge to the Big Windmill, next to a pile of goop. The goal of this episode is to defeat the Gatekeeper inside the goop.

Layout
The player needs to reach the countryside next to the lake. However, for this mission only, the gate to the countryside is closed to prevent any of the goop from entering the village. While Mario cannot enter through the gate, he can get to the countryside in one of two ways: One way is by jumping over the wall the gate is a part of by using the buildings and ropes in the village to gain height. Another way is to simply follow the path along the wall to the waterwheel and move under it. Along this path, the player may encounter a graffiti marking creating an endless supply of Strollin' Stus with a goop spatter on their heads. Spraying the marking will cause it to pop like a bubble.

Once at the countryside, the player will find goop all over the ground. Cleaning it up by spraying it with FLUDD will cause trees and a section of a wall to grow out of the ground. Following the path will lead to a Generator, which is continuously sending Piranhabons rolling down the path. By spraying the pile of goop, a Gatekeeper will come out of it. Spraying the Gatekeeper when it opens its mouth three times will defeat it, causing the path to rise up to the bridge and the episode's Shine Sprite will appear.

The player can choose to skip this episode and can climb up the Big Windmill to complete Episode 2. This can be done either by defeating the Gatekeeper and ignoring the Shine Sprite in favor of continuing up the path to the Big Windmill or by going into the lake and bouncing off a Pondskater. If Mario talks to a Pianta on the way up, the Pianta will say that Mario is getting ahead of himself.

Trivia

 * This episode and Mecha-Bowser Appears! are the only episodes to use the Shadow Mario episode intro theme.
 * This the only episode in the game that can be skipped without any glitches.