Re-watching Lizzie Mcguire: Episode 1.3 (When Moms Attack)
Off to Science Camp!
Mr. Snuggles is such a cute little piggy
- The episode opens up to Lizzie packing up for her overnight science field trip and she regrettably decides not to bring her favorite stuffed animal, Mr. Snuggles. As a kid, I was actually inspired by this show to give my own stuffed animals Mr. and Mrs. names.
- In the Mcguire living room, she goes over her list of essentials to bring with Miranda and Gordo over the phone. Lizzie’s mom intercepts their call as she is concerned over her daughter’s well-being and is checking with Lizzie to make sure she is all set and prepared for camp. However, Lizzie clearly feels agitated by her mom’s actions. Give your mommy a break Lizzie!
The Calm Before the Storm
- At Hillridge Junior High, we see Kate Sanders sporting a head-to-toe Camo on Camo look. It might have worked in the early 2000s but honey, this look ain’t it by today’s standards. She also makes fun of Lizzie by bringing up Mr. Snuggles and her pink ducks (not puppies) pajamas.
At least her top and pants are in different colors
- Gordo being the up and coming filmmaker he is destined to be, interviews Danny Kessler and Ethan Craft using his video camera and asks them questions related to the upcoming camping trip to which he receives mixed responses from them.
The New Chaperone
- Mr. Pettis, their eccentric science teacher makes an announcement to the entire class and reveals that the girls’ chaperone had came down with food poisoning and the school had to get a last minute substitute. And the substitute is none other than Mrs. Jo Mcguire, Lizzie’s mom!
Lizzie looks like her world is about to crumble. It ain’t that deep Lizzie.
- Naturally, Lizzie isn’t thrilled and Jo Mcguire tries to reassure her daughter that she’s a ‘cool mom’. Who else got Mean Girls Regina George’s mom vibes here? Oh and she also brought in a sack full of toilet paper with her. I mean, toilet paper is absolutely necessary in the woods; What else can you use to wipe yourself clean?
B-plot: The Adventures of Matt and Sam Mcguire
- With both Jo and Lizzie away at camp, the men of the Mcguire family, Sam and Matt are left alone in the house. This means that some crazy antics are about to ensue. So it’s time for dinner and they check the fridge to see what Jo had left them for dinner, a tuna noodle casserole? What is that even? Tuna and noodle is a weird combination. They are immediately turned off by the casserole dish and in order to solve their lack of a good dinner problem, Sam makes a drastic decision to cook.
By the look of Matt’s face, his dad clearly doesn’t cook often
- They make an attempt to cook Duck L’orange, which is not really an ideal choice for a couple of inexperienced cooks. They should have tried something a little simpler.
- We get a video montage of them trying to ‘cook’ an improvised version of Duck L’orange by using hamburger meat instead of duck and as predicted, it turns out to be an absolutely disaster. They almost burned the house down.
- They finally came up with the proper solution and decide to order in pizza. They should have done that in the first place instead of wasting precious meat and a bunch of oranges :(
Tagi vs Pagong
- We shift over to the main plot involving the camping trip and the middle schoolers’ first assignment is to identify as many plant and animal species as possible during their hike in the woods. And they have to do so whilst competing in teams, which are the boys (Team name: Pagong) versus the girls (Team name: Tagi). The winning team will get to relax whilst the losing team will have to dig up earthworms. Yikes!
“You don’t mean worms from the ground, do you?”, Kate asking the right questions.
- After the briefing, Jo Mcguire creates a cheer for the girls’ team:
“Who are we? Tagi! What are we gonna do? Win!”
I still remember this cheer after all these years <3
- Team Tagi comes across a Yellow Belly Sap Sucker and Jo gives the girls an entire biology presentation on this particular bird species, which puts all the girls to sleep. Really?
This is hilarious! Miranda gets 100 points for this and the editing team gets 1,000 points for inserting the doorbell sound effect when she tugs at Kate’s pigtail
- All of a sudden, Team Tagi hears some noises in the background and catching the girls off-guard, Team Pagong except Mr. Pettis appears out of the bushes and proceeds to spray Team Tagi with water guns. Even Gordo was in all of this; Oh you “sneaky brown noser with the hidden agenda” you. Lizzie was absolutely livid at him!
Aftermath and Revenge
- Back at their camp lodgings, the girls are discussing ways on how they can get back at the boys. Lizzie suggests putting earthworms in their bunk-beds but Mrs. Mcguire overhears their conversation and shoots down her suggestion. However, with the help of Lizzie, she actually comes up with another idea to get their revenge and it’s the ultimate prank of Teepeeing.
- Lizzie needs to stop being such a buzzkill and let her mom be herself and have some fun. She is embarrassed that her mom is organizing the Teepee raid and Miranda tells her that if it were anyone else’s mom, she would be having a blast. That is true but still, Lizzie needs to loosen up a bit.
“Who are we? Tagi! What are we gonna do? Win!” Lizzie is reluctantly getting ready for the kill
Operation Teepee
- Team Tagi enters the boy’s tent and begins teepeeing the entire area. They even spray some *is that shaving cream or whipped cream I see* on the floor so that the boys would step on it; Plus, they set up a wire trap so that if anyone were to move the wire, a water balloon would fall on them.
- Team Tagi hears Mr. Pettis walking closer to the tent and Mrs. Mcguire asks all the girls to hurry out quickly whilst she stayed back at the tent. She could have ran away with the others but I guess it’s because she wants to take full responsibility for this prank, which was ultimately true. I have so much respect for this woman.
- Poor Mr. Pettis triggers the wire trap and the water balloon manages to drop on top of him and water splashes all over him, rendering him soaked.
Wow! I’m impressed the girls managed to position the water balloon so perfectly
Jo totally wins the “Cool Mom” award
- The next day, as Jo is arguing with Mr. Pettis about the prank, the girls can’t help but think that Lizzie’s mom has already told their teacher that they were the ones behind Operation Teepee. But to their pleasant surprise, Jo tells the girls that she told Mr. Pettis that she acted alone.
- Because of that, Lizzie steps up and apologizes to her mom for being a jerk to her the whole entire trip. Kudos to Lizzie for recognizing that. And she even mentions to her that right now, everyone wishes that their mom was Jo and she’s very glad that she’s her mom. So sweet!
- But I have one nitpick here, I don’t think Lizzie should have demanded Kate to apologize to her mom. Lizzie wasn’t any better than Kate in this episode to be honest. But at least we got the revelation of Kate’s favorite stuffed animal’s name. Side note: Mr. Stuart Wugglesby is an oddly specific name for a child to give to their teddy bear.
- The following Monday at school, Lizzie’s peers are totally stanning her mom, as they should. But we come to find out Lizzie’s mom is banned from all school trips. Well, at least she’s not banned from entering the school I hope.
Final Thoughts
- Once again, the relationship between Lizzie and her mom shines in this episode. This episode is also proof that Jo Mcguire is one of the coolest moms in Disney Channel history. But I’m also looking forward to watch future episodes that focuses on Lizzie’s relationship with her dad and brother.
- I also didn’t care much about the dinner plot involving Matt and Sam; If the B-plot is as insignificant as the one we have seen in this episode, then the producers really should have removed it and dedicate those spare minutes to the main plot.
