Re-watching Lizzie Mcguire: Episode 1.26 (Scarlett Larry)
I know Lizzie and Gordo are meant to be together but Lizzie x Larry were pretty cute too. At least better than Lizzie x Ethan lol
- It’s P.E. class and Coach Kelly is having her students perform an elaborate square dance routine. During the routine, Kate tells Lizzie that someone has a crush on her.
And she feels ecstatic by the good news
- Miranda and Gordo begin to speculate who that person might be, from a boy named Quinn, who’s an athlete to another boy named Winston, an exchange student from Mali. However, Lizzie thinks it might be Ethan Craft and she even says it out loud enough for everyone, including Ethan to hear. Rule number 1: Do not speculate out loud.
The cat’s out of the bag and the person who is crushing on Lizzie is the one and only, Larry Tudgeman. So, Lizzie is devastated. Oh well, tough grip Lizzie.
- Still reeling in from the revelation of Larry’s crush on her, Lizzie just doesn’t feel the same way towards him and most of it comes down to his appearance. I get it; He always wears the same shirt to school and he’s a little weird. But I don’t think he’s as bad as Lizzie is making him out to be.
- Larry calls Lizzie and asks her if he could talk to her for a bit. He proceeds to ask her out on a date on Sunday afternoon. Lizzie hesitates at first but she musters enough courage to politely reject him by giving him the classic excuse of “I kinda have this thing”. And obviously, this makes Larry feel sad.
You can tell she feels really guilty for turning him down.
- In my humble opinion, every person has the absolute right to reject someone’s request to go out on a date with them. But it’s important to do so in an appropriate manner, which Lizzie has done so. As the saying goes, “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it”.
- Back at home, Lizzie asks her mom for advice on her recent predicament. Jo tells her daughter that you won’t know what you like until you try it, which is sound advice if you ask me. Plus, she believes that “some of the best boys come in strange packages” and references her husband, Sam lol.
Lizzie really doesn’t want to go out with him
- But in the end, Jo essentially tells Lizzie that she can’t tell her what’s the right thing for her to do but also tells her that boys are sensitive. Jo seems to be giving her very mixed messages but I’m leaning towards her encouraging Lizzie to just go for it.
- Lizzie tells her friends that she will agree to go out on one date with Larry. Gordo seems fine with it but Miranda is totally against it. She thinks that it will ruin Lizzie’s reputation in school if she’s caught going out with Tudgeman. Miranda hasn’t annoyed me for quite some time now but I can sense that I will dislike her a lot in this episode.
- Lizzie bravely phones Larry herself and inform him that she has since changed her mind and has agreed to go on a date with him. And his reaction was super adorable:
Touchdown for Tudgeman lol
- It’s now Sunday afternoon and Lizzie is bracing herself for Larry to pick her up from her house to take her on this date. And surprise surprise...It turns out Larry actually wears different clothes on the weekends. Thank goodness. And he even brought some flowers for Jo. Aww, that’s sweet.
You can never go wrong with a black buttoned up shirt
- Larry takes Lizzie to the Science Museum and luckily for Lizzie, it’s most likely her classmates won’t be there because they wouldn’t voluntarily spend their Sunday afternoon at a museum. We then get a cute little montage of them interacting with the different displays at the museum. And turns out, Lizzie is actually enjoying her time with Larry.
This part was particularly memorable to me after all these years
- They head over to an exhibit that features a huge model of the human heart. He explains some really cool facts about the human heart to Lizzie and she is very impressed with him and his confidence. Larry reveals to Lizzie that he doesn’t care what people think of him and he says this amazing line that will probably stick with me for a long time, “Boybands are a trend, circulatory systems are forever”.
- The next day in school, Miranda is still disappointed that Lizzie went out on a date with Larry. Homegirl needs to chill out; It’s not like they kissed or anything. Lizzie thinks that karma will serve her well with her chances with Ethan after going out with Larry. I really don’t get why they are still obsessed over Ethan?!
- But just before she could properly talk to him, Larry catches hold of Lizzie and holds onto her like she’s his girlfriend, which he thinks it’s actually the case. Like I said, Lizzie’s date with Larry was cute and all but it’s only one date. Plus, for me, it seemed more like an outing with a friend or something.
- So, Larry has been telling the whole school that he and Lizzie are an item. Lizzie comes up with an idea to pretend like she’s dating him so that she can later break up with him in private to avoid humiliating him in front of the whole school.
- But all of a sudden, we hear Kate’s voice over the speaker along the school hallway and she announces that Lizzie and Larry are officially dating. It looks like her initial plan isn’t gonna work. Cue ‘Get Another Boyfriend’ by the Backstreet Boys:
Lizzie is better than me; I wouldn’t have played along and pretend to be Larry’s girlfriend at all
- Lizzie has gotten to the point where she cannot tolerate being his fake girlfriend any longer and she really wants to end things with him. However, they’re at gym class and they are about to learn ballroom dancing. How romantic...
- They have to pick partners and Larry obviously chooses Lizzie. Whilst dancing, Lizzie tells Larry to meet her at the lunch patio after school. We fast forward to the patio and Lizzie tells Larry that she doesn’t feel a strong connection with him and they aren’t the right fit for each other.
This is why I look up to Lizzie; Even if she doesn’t like Larry that way, she has the decency to be upfront and honest with him in a polite way.
- Unexpectedly, Larry agrees with Lizzie because they don’t really share anything in common. Larry is passionate about Science and Lizzie is, well....she’ll figure it out lol. I mean, based on past episodes, she did care about the environment a lot. So there’s that.
- We get this touching moment between the two where Larry tells Lizzie that she’s the nicest person that he knows. OMG that’s sooo sweet. And he’s not wrong about that.
One of the best moments of the show so far
- And the episode ends with Larry jokingly asking Lizzie if he has a chance with Miranda. I hope he’s not being serious lmao
- Jo Mcguire interrupts Sam and Matt’s afternoon gaming session because she tells them that their things are piling up and preventing her from parking her car in the driveway. She wants for them to clear their things in the toolshed so that all the excess stuff can be stored in there.
- As they start emptying out the toolshed, they discover Sam’s old soapbox racer. Sam then comes up with an idea to polish and re-work the car to make it seem brand new so that they can make money from selling the old-fashioned vehicle.
- They start working on their project and Gordo is even there to help them. They test the car out a few times but to no luck. If I’m being honest, I really don’t like how they structured the B-plot here. They put chunks of it at the most random times in this episode. For example, they show 20 seconds of the plot then it moves on to the A-plot for like 6 minutes, then going back to the B-plot again. It’s really distracting.
- Anyways, this storyline ends with the three of them about to showcase their racer to the public but Sam gets into a bit of a sticky situation when he tries to catch a frisbee but he lands on the car and it start to roll itself down a road.
Poor Sam; He always has to be the one to get hurt. Plus, their car was unfortunately destroyed in the process
- This is one of my favourite episodes of Season 1 so far; And we only have 5 episodes left. The main highlight of this episode is how Lizzie treated Larry like an actual human being instead of some gross weirdo he was made out to be in past episodes.
- Lizzie is definitely a character that has superior EQ (Emotional Intelligence) compared to her peers because she could have easily dismissed Larry’s feelings and reject him straight away. But instead, she chose to give him a chance because she’s aware he has feelings too.
- Larry was somewhat oblivious to Lizzie’s feelings towards him but the moment when Lizzie directly tells him they’re just not meant to be, he immediately gets the memo and acknowledges the same as well. Also, the fact that he even told her that she’s the nicest person that he knows, shows me that he appreciates Lizzie for being honest with him and for not making fun of him.
- I’ve already given most of my opinion of the B-plot. It’s just all over the place. I really don’t like it being scattered all over the episode; I would prefer it if either they group these scenes to make them longer or just not include this storyline at all. I get that Matt, Jo and Sam are also main characters but I wish they were better utilised on this show.
