life with derek season 3 part 2: derek charms us all

Life with Derek season 3 continues with episodes 8 (Adios Derek), 9 (Sixteen Spark Plugs), 10 (Don't Take a Tip From Me), 12 (When Derek Meets Sally), 13 (Make No Prom-ises), 19 (Not So Sweet 16), 23 (Allergy Season), 25 (Derek's School of Dating), and 26 (A Very Derekus Chrismas). Derek almost moves to Spain, both Derek and Casey turn 16, they get a job, Derek has a new maybe girlfriend, Casey has a new maybe ex boyfriend, and Casey and Derek go to prom together. 

Strap in for the ride that is season 3. 

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Get home from school turn on my TV who are these friends staring right back at me now that we're older why don't you come over and go back in time with me 90s babies nostalgia

Hi, I'm Amanda.

And I'm Jessica.

And this is 90s Babies Nostalgia, where a couple of 90s babies rewatch and sometimes watch for the first time tween entertainment from the early 2000s.

Just to be clear, we are not sponsored by or affiliated with any of the shows, actors, channels, anything that we talk about. We just really, really love talking about TV. And today we're talking about life with Derek.

season two season three season three part two sorry i just got done editing season two and so my brain is scrambled but before we get into it jessica what have you been enjoying lately

this is a little bit of an old one, but I am still currently enjoying it. I have been loving twenty one Pilot's newest album, which came out earlier this year, probably like two or three months by this point. Clancy, the whole they always make cohesive pieces of art. All of their albums are beautiful. If you want just like to listen to a full album, I would recommend all of them. But this will definitely be on like one of my most listened to albums by the end of the year because I have listened to it all the way through probably like 50 times. like I love it.

Wow.

some of my favorites are navigating and then routines in the night everyone loves it so i'll add myself to the list and then the ones that have grown on me is oldie station and at the risk of feeling dumb i did not like those at first and i love them now but the whole album is amazing what have you

Okay, I have not listened to twenty one Pilots since Blurry Face and they blew up with that one. But I did listen to that whole album. I don't remember what it's called.

ah Blurry face.

Oh, I truly was just naming the first track that came to mind.

Yeah, I would say that this is kind of like their way back towards that because Tyler very much when they blew up and they went on to make a couple albums after that one, he was like, Oh, I don't want to keep making the same thing. so he really strove to make something very different and it resonated with a lot of fans and it didn't resonate with a lot of fans and now this is kind of his path back to like I can still make art that sounds like old art but it can be different. So this one I would say is the most similar to Blurry Face of the recent albums um but it still has its own like identity around it.

Yeah, I think a lot of artists really struggle with how much mainstream success matters to them versus the art.

Mmhmm.

Because a lot of artists who aren't mainstream all the time but are adjacent to it or have been at times like do know what sound people like from them. They just don't want to get stuck in that sound.

Yeah. Yeah. So then they try to like pivot hard away from it, but then that's like sometimes away from actually the identity of the art they want to create. So then it doesn't resonate with them and it doesn't resonate with fans. So yeah, I think it's a challenging balance. What have you been enjoying listening to, watching?

My Mine is also an older one. It's from January or February this year is the Disney Plus series Echo, which I've only watched the first two episodes.

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90sbabiesnostalgia
I think there's eight, but I'm really enjoying it so far. It is a Marvel show, but it's not MCU. Like the character Echo, who's one of their like their street level heroes is what Marvel classifies them because they're not like Thor or Iron Man like there's nothing inherently supernatural about them but she was introduced in the Hawkeye show there are like elements from that that feed into this story but they show them in the show so you don't have to have seen any of the movies or shows to understand this one And it's not going to necessarily inform the MCU. So that's why it's connected to it, but it's not part of it. It's not considered part of like the timeline. But I'm really enjoying it because the characters from the comics was created in the 90s and she is an indigenous woman. who is deaf and also is amputated at the knee at one leg. And not only is the character all those things, but the actress they cast who had zero acting credit before is all of those things.

awesome.

She is indigenous and deaf and an amputee. And it's been really interesting watching it because everyone that she communicates with, there's times when she's like in her big city life in New York and there's interpreters. And then there's other times where she goes back home to a lot of her family members and they all know ASL to speak with her. And I think maybe one other member of the family briefly shown her mom was deaf. they don't speak ASL fluently. Like I can't speak to the signage. I don't speak ASL. but they seem in their demeanor to use it in a way that feels like someone who used to use it years ago and is now kind of getting used to it again. And she never uses her vocal cords. She never vocalizes while she's signing. She just signs. So there's a lot of times where the show is like pretty silent and you're just watching people sign.

That's awesome.

And I find it, it's really refreshing. 

Yeah

And I know, I'm excited to see where it goes because I know that they worked closely with the Choctaw people, which is the indigenous tribe that they are representing, um because that's actually more of her so superhero origin. Like her her deafness is not part of her superhero at all, um superpower. um But I think she's going to get some like indigenous spirits kind of thing. And they even have Choctaw subtitles for the show so that

Oh, cool.

yeah Yeah, so i'm I'm looking forward to seeing how it evolves that way.

Yeah, sounds really interesting, actually, and like ah a good show of representation that we don't normally get.

Yeah, I mean I am a white lady who hasn't finished the show and hasn't read the reviews on it, but I haven't seen anything negative and I know it was well received when it came out, so I am appreciating what I perceive to be thorough research and writing related to these identities.

Fair.

Well, before we- no, not before.

Now.

Guys, I'm a little sleepy, okay? i'm I'm a little sleepy, but I'm gonna perk up because we have a lot of episodes to get through. This is, life with Derek season three Part two, we covered three episodes with our friends, Mallory and Evan at Pop Castle Pod in our previous episode. If you haven't listened to those, please do. There are 25, 26 episodes in season three. So it's beefy. where We are going to cover another nine today. Yep. Yeah.

We're going to try to be fast as possible with the summary so we can focus on notes, but we'll see how fast we go.

Yeah. Just a note. I think we forgot to mention this in our previous episode that something that marks season three differently to the previous two seasons is that Paul isn't in every episode. He's actually not in quite a few of them.

Yeah, when I saw you made this comment, I was like, I haven't seen Paul at all. And then he showed up in some of the later ones I watched. But I think in of the total 12 episodes of the 26 that we're covering of this season, he was in like three of them.

And one of those is in a dream.

Yeah.

We also have an introduction to a new character, Sally, who is Derek's coworker and love interest played by Kate Todd, who I stared at for a good while. And then I did succumb to Googling where I know her from. And I know her as Erica in my babysitter's a vampire, AKA the hot girl.

But she also is known for her role as Lily Randall in Radio Free Roscoe as well.

Something interesting also about this one is that the episodes that we're watching are on freevee, which is part of prime. You can watch it with ads and they are aired in production order, but it's not the airing order. And normally the airing order is where you get continuity issues, but the production order actually led to some continuity issues.

Yeah, yeah, so I think at the start of these episodes, we'll just briefly mention, even though we're referring to like episode eight, based on it's 8 if you go watch it on freevee right now, but we will mention what episode number it was in airing issue in airing order, just so you know, because that might clear up some of the continuity issues we noticed.

so episode 8

Yeah, adios, Derek. So this one was actually 12th in the season. In this episode, we are introduced to Abby, who is Derek, Marti, and Edwin's mom. um And she is played by Jennifer Wigmore, who starred in I Was a Sixth Grade Alien, along with many, many of the members of this cast were also in that show, as well as like a lot of one, two episode guest roles in different TV series. And Christmas movies recently, lots of Christmas movies.

People make a living off of Christmas movies.

Seriously. So Derek's mom Abby shows up for parent teacher's night and they all learn that Derek is failing Spanish.

Abby and George decide as punishment for Derek failing Spanish he's going to get to go with Abby to Spain for a month because that's where she's doing her fellowship and everyone's 

A month? I think it's six months.

oh it is six months. But yeah, he gets to go with her as punishment and everyone's like, this is not punishment. And Derek is stoked because um hot Spanish girls.

Relatable.

But yeah, yeah, but then he kind of starts to realize like, okay, maybe he's gonna miss some things at home. He doesn't want the normal life to move on without him.

And as a farewell to Derek, the Venturi MacDonalds host, an adios, Derek Roast. And during the roast, Marti is really vocal that she doesn't want him to leave. And Casey goes up to do her roast and she starts crying and is like, I'm going to miss you. And so then he's like, you know, mom, I think I need to stay here in Canada.

Notes for this episode.

this was giving parent-teachers conference, not parent-teachers night. And I'm like, I don't think you had parent-teachers conferences in high school. So that was weird to me.

I don't think we did either and I honestly forgot that parent teacher night was also a thing. Because wasn't that a thing where like your parents could come to like a class and meet your teacher, and but it was like all the parents versus the conferences were separate?

Yeah. It was like all the parents, it was one night and each teacher had like, I don't know, 15 minutes to be like, this is what your child's going to learn in my class and woo. And then you would like go to your next class. And it normally happens like within the first month of school, but we didn't have parent teacher conferences.

No, I think both conferences and night were just a middle school thing too and elementary. I also forgot that that happened at all. Like I was reading your notes and I was just like, they're just synonyms, but you're right. It is giving more nights regardless I think they are using them synonymously.

Yes, or it's giving more conference last night.

Also, it was very weird to me that we've not met Abby. She's been briefly mentioned maybe in a couple of episodes. And she shows up and is like straight into disciplining Derek with George. And to me, I kind of like, I don't know, I'm like, you've not been around. Like, you don't know what Derek has grown up into. You don't know the challenges with him. And you're just like jumping in here disciplining him. And like, who are you to do that? You've not been a part of his life.

I do think it's very interesting. I thought that the co-parenting was a bit of a slay, honestly.

Yeah.

Like, somehow Abby and George very seamlessly fall into looking like a married couple disciplining their child. Like, I kind of forgot about Nora, and then Abby was getting along with Nora. which was all refreshing, but it was abrupt, I'd say, given that we haven't seen Abby before. You're right. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I thought the representation of co-parenting and having like, you know, the stepparent there with the actual parents and everyone kind of getting along was a really good representation to see and I enjoyed it, but also just felt slightly out of place because Abby has been so absent.

Yeah, and she's not that far away. They say that she came in from Toronto for this occasion.

Yeah, yeah, I don't understand Canada geography, but yeah I'll trust you.

Okay, Toronto is pretty Southern Ontario and London is like, I think near the Great Lakes, like it's Southern Ontario. I want to say they're one, maybe two hours away from each other.

Oh.

Granted, I'm an American that's never been to Ontario, but I have looked on the map because Justin Bieber is from London, Ontario.

Got it.

So yeah, but either way, like they're not that far apart. Even if it was three, four hours, I still would expect to see her more.

Yeah, totally. At least in a few episodes. The other thing I wrote down here is before we got to, as punishment, we're sending Derek to Spain, they threatened we're gonna send you to an all-boys school, which of course is like Derek's worst nightmare. But I loved that this was paired with the fact that Casey had to leave an all-girls school, something she's been vocally upset about. like when they moved in with George and the Venturis and so I just I don't know I liked the like two sides of that.

She was so mad. She was like, oh, there's no money for me to go to an all-girls school, but you fail Spanish and suddenly we can afford it?

Yeah. Which I'm not saying she's justified in that anger, but also I kind of get it from a teenage brain, because you're like, this is something I wanted, but you tell me no, and you're going to give it to him as a punishment?

Yeah. Yeah, i under I would totally be upset about that as well. Also because Abby's a PhD candidate, she's not rolling in it either.

Mm-mm.

So it's it's not like she's, yeah.

No, she's rolling in debt. That's why she's rolling.

Well, hopefully not. You know, I have lots of friends who say never get a PhD if you're not getting paid to do it. You know, like if you have to pay for it, it's not worth it. 

Sure.

But we don't know her situation. And she definitely has debt from the other degrees. Well, no, it's a canada. Sorry, I'm gonna stop now. We're gonna move on. Yes, there is a column that we did not mention a big part of Derek not doing well in Spanish or in school is that he is just distracted with messing with Casey all the time, to which I say why is she living in your head rent free? And part of it was that she was having a poem published in the day in like the school newspaper and he replaced it with his own haiku about her stinky feet.

Mhmm

Which is pretty great and also takes a lot of effort.

Uh huh Also, there's this part where they're listing out like Casey is saying all of the different pranks that Derek has pulled on her and they were all hilariously awful, but the one that stood out to me is that he put chewed gum in every single pair of her shoes.

Oh my god!

Which is horrible.

But I also think after the second pair you would think to check all of them, right?

I would hope so, but still, like, are you getting it all out? Like, it just sounds like a nightmare.

You're right, you're right. So there's a point where George comes upstairs to talk to Derek, discipline him. I don't know. It's when they're upset with him. And he's like got a leg starting to go out his window, which we already know he lives on the second floor.

Yep.

But it looks like he's trying to sneak out his window. There is a brick wall right across the window. like it does it It looks like there's enough room for him to maybe fall down. There is definitely nothing for him to climb down. Why?

Maybe if it's close enough, he could like, you know what I mean? Stick both his arms out on either side and kind of like shimmy his body down.

Yeah, yeah, he's gonna Spiderman the wall down. Mm hmm.

Yeah.

Because I believe that Derek Venturi has the upper body strength for that.

Absolutely not. Maybe Max.

Yeah, maybe Max. Maybe our football player, not our hockey player.

Correct.

Yeah, it's really close and I get that it's a production thing like so that they don't have to put a view that looks worse. But it's, it's like looking as close as me to my brick wall behind me while recording this.

Yeah, it's just a little silly.

Also a point where he makes nachos because he's like making an effort to show that he's learning Spanish or something. But like these are not nachos. These are an offense to nachos. They are literally just tortilla chips that I think he sprinkled some shredded cheese on top and microwaved and then brings them out to everyone and they're like, Oh, great nachos and it looks dry as f*ck and it upset me.

Mmm I remember this part but I didn't like I didn't notice that the nachos were crap I was just like he's confused his countries

Why am I- Yeah, also it's not Spanish, it's Mexican. But why am I the one noticing all the food stuff and not you this time around, Jess?

I don't know. yeah I don't know. During the roast, everyone is like participating. And like now that Marti is getting older, they are giving her like a little bit more of like an acting role in these episodes instead of just saying silly lines. And every time they flash to Marti in the roast, she's like giggling, laughing, nodding along, like clearly someone off like a producer told her that's what she should be doing. And so she's doing it. um But I found it very endearing.

Yeah, she had some good moments or she's just like not in an episode. It's confusing.

Yeah.

It's probably child labor laws.

Yeah. For the Dasey scale for this one, because of the pranking and just overall like KC crying and things like that, I give it a three out of a ten.

I said four plus because Casey's crying and because of all of the pranking because he kept making a point of it. And I'm like, Derek, why are you thinking about Casey all the time? Think about yourself.

Yeah, yeah, fair.

Okay. Oh, quotes. There's only one and I wrote it down. Derek is retaking his Spanish test and his mom comes to school and sits in the classroom and he says, señor Sanchez, can I, may I be expelled? Which was funny for two reasons. One, the asking to be expelled, obviously. And also i I'm 90% sure he says señor Sanchez instead of señora. And his teacher is a woman.

Okay, episode 9, 16 spark plugs.

This episode went 14th in the season in airing order.

Casey and Emily are throwing Derek a surprise birthday party, but he they're doing such a good job at making it a surprise that he genuinely thinks everyone has forgotten about his birthday. And Emily's parents at the last minute say that they can't host the party at their house anymore, so Casey instead has to convince George and Nora to let them do it there. Meanwhile, the whole family is sick of George's old ass stinky ass car. They got kicked out of the bowling car pool because of how stinky it was This car is called The Prince. George got it the day Derek was born, I believe. It is also 16 years old. And the family hosts an intervention where they basically try, they kind of convince him to get a new car. He doesn't really have a choice. He's being petty, so he refuses to go to the dealership with them. And Derek also doesn't go to the dealership with them. so the two of them have a heart to heart over some greasy ass foods while cut to another setting where the whole rest of the family is at the dealership trying to get a new car relaying details that they get from Derek incorrectly and I've never been so angry watching this show before while this man belittles them. but eventually they're able to get a decent car with the option that they trade in the Prince, the old car. However, Derek at this point has been gifted the car by George and he wasn't happy with it, but now he's come around to it because he sees a sentimentality from George and he's like, actually, I want that car. And then they surprise him with the party and find all of this out. And it turns out that the guy at the dealership was so sick of dealing with the family, he decides to let them keep the new car and the deal and the old car. Notes. This is so small, but at the start of this episode, Sam and Derek are talking in the hallway, and it's mentioned that Sam has a blog and Derek read it, and I was just really confused. Like, it's very, very of the time to have a blog, but Sam maybe would write one. Highly unlikely. And then for Derek to actually read it, are you?

He would never.

No, no.

No.

That was just a really funny touch to me. But I do find it refreshing how many episodes Sam is in. I think he's actually in season 3 more than he was in seasons 1 and 2.

Yeah.

And I think a lot of times Disney shows, obviously this isn't a Disney show, but a lot of times these shows will like have one character set up as the love interest specifically. And then as soon as that storyline ends, they just disappear. So it's been fun like watching him stay, sometimes interact with Casey, but mostly just like be Derek's friend, which is what he was in the first place.
 
Yeah, yeah, I appreciate him as a side character. It's nice to, like, see people frequently outside of the Venturi McDonalds. speaking of the Venturi McDonalds, there's this part where they're obviously trying to, like, unpack why George feels so attached to this car, and Casey, like, full-on therapizes George. She's just like, like asking him questions like, why do you think you're so attached to the car? Could it be an attachment to your youth? Could it, you know, like all these things. And I'm like, Casey, what are you doing?You didn't learn this from Paul because he rarely uses like typical therapist language, I feel. So I'm like, where are you getting this from?

Ah no, Paul's not a therapist.

No.

Paul's a science teacher who has to listen to her talk.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it was funny. They do get very in on him. And you know what? They're not wrong.

Yeah, they're not.

there's a moment where all of the siblings give Derek really crappy gifts. And I'm proud of him because he actually pretended to like the gifts.

Mm-hmm, and Marti gives him a gift of, it looks like a little handmade pottery dish. The lid's a little crooked and wonky, and he's kinda like, what is this? And Marti's like, it's something to put your stuff in.

It looks like something she probably stole from like a buffet downstairs.

Yes, yeah yes, yes. It looked very homemade though, I do have to say. When Casey's trying to get from Derek like all of the different things he would like in a car, one of the things he lists is a 6 CD changer and that just really took me to 2007.

I was so glad you made this note because I was like, CD changers dated this so much. But also, I remember when they were all the rage and you had to have a CD changer, but also also, who needs a six CD changer in a car? I just had two.

Yeah, I was like unless you're like frequently going on road trips.

Yeah, I guess, but that's, you're still gonna pull over at some point

Yeah, or someone's in the passenger and can switch it out. Yeah, it seems a little unnecessary.

as a must have, a little unnecessary, but very teenage boy in 2007 to say it's a must have.

Mm-hmm.

There's a really funny moment where Derek keeps trying to hint at George that it's his birthday and George is like seemingly playing obtuse, but then Casey asks him about hosting the party there and he's like, oh, is that is that now? And he was literally just saying to Derek that he got the car the day he was born and that it's 16 years old. And Derek's like, really? And like George genuinely forgot, he was so wrapped up in the car, he forgot his own son's 16th birthday and I just thought it was very silly.
 
Ridiculous. While they're at the dealership, all of the kids are talking to the dealer and saying like what they want in the car. And when it gets to Marti, she's a few demands and I loved them. She needs a good backseat. It needs to have a cup holder. There needs to be a DVD player, which also feels very 2007, and a place to put her monkey. And that was like, Marti has her priorities in order.

But where is she gonna put her monkey if not in the seat with her?

you know what I was thinking is some cars in the backseat have the little thing that folds down in the middle. And maybe like the little monkey could sit there.

Oh, like the center console thing.

Mhmm

Yeah. Or he could ride in like a little, one of those mesh elastic backs to the front seats. You know how they have those sometimes you can like slide things in.

Yeah.

I just have to say every, I mentioned it in the summary, but every single scene at the dealership pissed me the f*ck off. I have never shopped for a car, but if I were in a dealership and a man spoke to me like that, I would leave.

Mm.

Were you not upset?

No, because I low-key feel like he was justified. They all were giving completely crazy demands. They didn't have the budget for anything they wanted, and all of their demands were conflicting. Like, that's not his job to figure out what they want. It's his job to sell them on a car, but they need to have their priorities in line. Like, that would be a frustrating customer service experience.

I understand that and there were times where I felt for him but this is pre-internet, pre everyone's supposed to have information to everything and imagine that's a single mom or a single woman going in to buy a car and you're not entirely sure and like he's supposed to be the expert and you give an idea like yes they're saying things incorrectly But if you can get an idea of what their budget is and like what they're looking for, there's things you can recommend versus he's like, you should just get out. Also, he starts off before he knows that they don't know anything. He asks, will your husband be joining us?

Yeah.

Which right off the bat, that's when I would leave.

I have purchased two cars and both times. I was asked about if either a parent or a male figure in my life was gonna join me both times.

And I'd be very upset.

um Yeah.

Were you not upset?

The second time when I bought my Subaru, I said, I don't think I need my husband here. I think I can make this decision on my own. Do you think you can help me with that? Otherwise I might need to see another person.

I'm glad that you said that. How did he respond to that?

Oh, he shaped up and asked me what my budget was and I ended up getting a f*cking killer deal because they knew I was not there to f*ck around. So it's like, 

Good for you

I'm not not dealing with your sh*t. Like I can walk away and go somewhere else, you know?

yeah

But yeah, I think I would hope the culture has changed because even that was like 2017. I want to say when I bought my Subaru might have been 2016, but I'm pretty sure it's 2017. And even when I brought my Prius, it was that way as well. So I hope now that we're like 2024, the culture has changed. But unfortunately, I still think there is a lot of like, misogyny around like buying a car and people being like, you need a man here to help you like this is not a woman's job. And it's yeah, it's just a little ridiculous. But I don't think that it was like, done inaccurately. Like I do actually think this is an experience Nora would have in that scenario.

Oh, hundred percent.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's accurate. It just still pissed me off. 

Fair

Like I wasn't surprised by it. I just, I i think that's the reason why place things like Carmax and Carvana are like so popular 

Yeah

because people don't want to have to deal with that kind of bullsh*t.

Yeah. And they shouldn't have to.

No.

They should not have to.

and then Edwin was the man of the house and did all the negotiating anyway. Regardless. 

When the party starts, George and Nora, you could tell they're standing at the bottom of the stairs and they're like, oh, we should go up to our rooms, but we really love socializing with the kids. And Derek like turns to them and he's like, you can stay down here for 30 minutes. And they both are like so stoked. And it just like, I don't know. I love them as parents sometimes. They don't do the best job, but they are very cute. And they just want to be like an active participant in their children's life, which I appreciate.

yeah Yeah, they regularly get banned from the parties. It's cute.

Yeah, yep.

Dasey scale, I said one out of 10 because Casey tried to take notes of things that Derek would want in a vehicle, but that was the only thing that felt like kind of like her caring a little too much.

See, to me, this is at least a two to a three because Derek's birthday would have sucked if Casey and Emily didn't throw him a surprise party and she's really excited and like wants to throw him a good party. like From the beginning, there's no convincing her. That's the whole episode. Is her trying to make his birthday special

Yeah, but she's the planner of the family so and of her friend group, so I would argue she is the only one with the skill set to do it anyway, so it didn't feel inherently like crossing a boundary or anything. It just felt like, yep, she's that person in the family, so she's the one who's planning it.

Well, I would argue his friends could do it. Like, I'm not saying they're planners, but I think that if they needed to throw a surprise party, max um Ralph and Sam, they would throw like

You trust

No

You trust Ralph and Sam to throw a party?

No, I don't. 

Okay.

But this obviously wasn't the the parents' idea either.

This is an idea that Casey and Emily came up with on their own, and Emily wouldn't have done it without Casey.

Sure.

So I just think that that was a lot. So I'd argue a two to a three.

Okay. Some quotes when they get back to the house and Derek's like, no, I don't want to sell the prince. Marti goes, Harold's gonna freak referring to the car dealership guy, which I thought was funny.

Mm-hmm. Another good Marti quote is when they are having the family meeting about the cars. She says, I feel car sick in the car when it's parked. 

Mhmm

And then also my environmental queen, Lizzie, who I love, who suggested they get rid of cars altogether and just ride bikes. When they are at the dealership, she asks about hybrid models and he says that that's much more expensive, which also kind of dated this. And she says, Harold, when it comes to the environment, money's no object. And I really appreciated that because I agree to it spiritually, although my wallet disagrees.

Yeah. All right, episode 10. Don't take a tip from me. This one was actually episode six in airing order. Casey and Derek both get a job at Smelly Nellie's and Derek is crushing it. He is an awesome waiter and Casey sucks because she asks way too many questions and she's a klutz.

So Derek ends up getting promoted like I swear immediately like within one day to assistant manager and he has to fire Casey but she immediately asks for her job back and Derek's like well I can't give you your actual job back but I can make you a busboy and so after some training at home to get her waitressing skills up to par Derek lets her wait on a few tables and she's doing a great job and it's going really well. So Andrew, who is Derek's manager, their manager, hows up and he talks to Derek and he's like, this is a very important person. I need you to wait on them. And it turns out it's the owner, but Casey's like, no, I've been doing great. I want to wait on him. Like I got this and Derek's like, okay, if you've got it. And she ends up, knocking a full glass of ice water all over the owner. And so Andrew's like upset because he's like, I didn't want Casey to wait on this table anyway. And so he fires Casey, which makes Derek quit. And then the owner ends up, which we learn is Andrew's dad, but he ends up demoting Andrew. And then Derek gets rehired and he continues to work there throughout the remainder of the season.

straight off the bat with my notes i was so angry at the start of this episode because there is literally no training for this job these are two teenagers who have never had jobs before who are hired as servers which is not an easy job to have and they're literally just told to go at it

Yeah.

And then Casey's like, she's bad at it because she's a klutz and because she's too in her head, but also she's too in her head because she wasn't given any guidance. If anyone needs guidance, it's Casey.

yeah, they're not, like any job you would be, one, starting as hostess and two, shadowing people before you were just like given tables to wait on.

Yeah, and this seems like maybe there's not a hostess. It's a little more of a cafe slash restaurant style. I mean, it has a cat for a logo, but then you would probably start as like a barista or a busboy anyway.

Yeah, yeah.

You don't start as a server without server experience and you don't not get trained.

Edwin and Lizzie, the middle kids, they decide they're going to use this time where Casey and Derek are both at work as an opportunity to sneak in their rooms. And while they're sneaking in their rooms, we get the scene of Edwin rocking out like in bed listening to music with big old headphones. And then Lizzie is sitting at Casey's vanity and like putting on makeup. And I just saw if this whole side plot was like kind of cute and I love when we get to see the middle kids. But I didn't love that they like really made Lizzie do such like a stereotypical feminine thing when she's not really that in her character. i'm like there are many She would try to find like Casey's diary to read. like There are other things that would motivate Lizzie. It is not in her character to me to sneak into her room to them put on makeup. I'm like, Lizzie would be having fun with other things.

Yeah, the only reason I could kind of see the makeup is sometimes there's that idolization and to make feel more like your feminine older sister that you you feel so different from.

Yeah

Like I could see her trying to feel a little bit more like Casey, but she does do it in more of like a playful way like she's interested in it. It is a little out of character. But I enjoyed like I thought it was very real to have the those younger siblings be like we can go in their rooms And they won't even know and like it's their whole secret little thing and then at the end They are rocking out together in Casey's room when they get caught

yeah yeah it's very cute

Also just a note of this season, the way you mentioned in season two, you really like how there's not really true B plots they all connect. I do feel like this season there's a lot more A and B plots.

Agreed, they're still like loosely interconnected because I feel like the B-plot is typically set up by the A-plot, which is not always the case in other shows that we've watched, but there is a more obvious B-plot in these episodes this season.

Very, very true. There is more of a story connectivity.

Yeah, unlike like suite life when like Carrie was going on a date with the a capella.

The quartet.

Yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

It's like this has nothing to do with anything where these are.

With the boys renting out the room to the rest of the

Yeah.

to to a sleepover Renting out London's suite is what that episode was.

Yeah, where they're so unrelated.

Why do I know that?
 
I know, I know. The other thing, I've noted quite a few things in this episode. i It was fun one. When Casey gets home from her first day and things go terribly, she sits on the couch and she's like,  and Nora is there and Nora ignores her. And so Casey's like, oh, like so loudly because she needs Nora to ask her how she's doing. And instead of just being like, Nora, I need to bet and I need you to be my mom right now. She just sighs until she gets her attention. It's so dramatic.

It's such a TV thing. I've never seen someone do that in real life, but I've seen it on TV a dozen times.

Yeah, true, true. also at Smelling Ellie's, sure, Casey is not doing great at being a server. I will, ah like I've said that. However, Derek and Andrew were doing absolutely nothing at all except standing in a corner, chatting to one another and then poking fun at Casey. Like they are doing nothing. They're not helping tables. They're not cleaning things. They're not assisting customers. Like they are just being useless.

Yeah, the whole reason that Derek's like half good at this job is that he's confident enough to not care and not get in his head. It feels very natural, which again, without training, wouldn't actually equate to being good at this job. But also he has a lot of tips because he just like flirts with girls. But when he is not flirting with girls and being unprofessional, he's being unprofessional off to the side with Andrew and gets promoted because it's just this like little boys club. It's weird.

Yeah. Also, so the thing that I just described that Casey did with Nora, she does it with George as well. And George's advice to her is like, you've already lost your dignity and your job. Like, what else worse can happen? And I was like, George, this is not helpful.

but kind of real.

Yeah, it is real. But I was like, that no, she's already crushed. Don't tell her she lost her dignity.

I didn't like this whole thing where Andrew only hired her back if she started as a busboy and then trained to wait tables on her own unpaid time and then immediately thereafter they're leading a training at the house on their own time that Andrew is paying Derek to lead and then on top of that the family gets really upset with Derek for not being supportive enough because he's like kind of messing with Casey during this training and not taking it super seriously and they're like she's your stepsister you need to help her blah blah blah you're being so mean. But to me, he's already doing so much like he's literally leading a training in the house and he didn't do that much that was mean to her and I just the whole situation bothered me.

yeah, I thought it was a little weird how upset the family got too because I'm like, sure, he's being like, I guess a little spicy, but he's just guiding her, which is his job.

you're gonna have spicy customers. And he wasn't being like, it was just kind of telling her what she did wrong in like a Derek manner, you know?

Yeah, totally.

And then the him getting paid and her not on top of that, it just was weird.

Yeah. at the end, when Casey gets fired and Derek quits and then he ends up getting his job back as assistant manager, Casey is like upset that he took the job back. And it's like, dude, Andrew got demoted. Why would he not take his job back?

Yeah. Yeah. It felt very teenage girl though. It felt very real to be like, or not even teenage girl, just teenager to be like, I can't believe you did that. Like, cause he quit out of solidarity and then she didn't get her job back. Like, Oh, you, you sell it so fast. But no, she wasn't justified, but it, it still felt real.

Yeah. Yeah. Dasey scale. I wrote a zero out of 10. Amanda just disagrees, but I stick by it guys.

i strong disagree and i strong disagree for one reason and that one reason brought me to a five okay a freaking five f*ck your zeros look there's no there's no chemistry really in the the diner restaurant situation or in the training or any of that it comes down to one scene that all you little dasey shippers know about And it's at the very end when Derek and Casey find Lizzie and Edwin having a little dance party in Casey's room. And they're both stood in the doorway, like against each side of the doorframe right next to each other. And like, it's very like close and giving like parent parental, almost like married. It's just like, it's. Yeah. Yeah. It's five out of 10. Talk with the wall. 

it just feels like siblings to me, but that's okay.

I would never, I would be sick to my stomach to stand that close to a sibling.

I will literally lay on top of my sibling.

Yes, well, you have a sibling with a good relationship, and I've never had that.

Yeah.

I'd only lay on top of my sibling to piss them off.

Mm, mm, mm, mm. not out of love. um Getting into quotes, into quotes, I didn't write any of these down.

You wrote the first one.

Oh, I don't remember it. Apparently I wrote down and it's not even my birthday, but I don't remember the context.

At one point when Casey is training, she says, Hi, I'm menu. Can I take your Casey? Or can? Yeah, yeah. And it's just it's silly. I would say something like that.

Yeah, me too.

also what I really liked was during the training when Derek's being annoying and the parents are mad at him. Nora goes, Look, you may be my stepson. And although I've never mentioned this, I have grown to love you.

Yeah, it was sweet.

And then she goes on to be like, but you need to support her better, blah, blah, blah, blah. But it was just really funny. that She was like, although I've never mentioned this, I have grown to love you. It's like a compliment and a threat at the same time.

Yeah, yeah.

Episode 12, when Derek meets Sally.

This one aired 15th in the season.

Derek has sworn off girls but his new coworker Sally is super cute so he's a little on the fence. She has a boyfriend though but they're fighting so he has hope and he's like nonchalant about everything and it seems like she's nonchalant about everything and When he's like gonna ask her out, her boyfriend shows up and he's like, I thought you broke up. Nope. Also, Jamie, remember him from the birthday party episode that we talked about last episode? He comes over to tell Lizzie that he likes her and she freaks the f*ck out. She doesn't want to talk to anyone. Edwin, Casey, Nora, everyone's trying to talk to her and she will not hear of it. Finally, she admits that, you know, she doesn't know how to be friends with him or like interact with him now. He made it all weird. So they decide to have a dinner at Smelly Nelly's where Casey's going to chaperone and give them no privacy. And Jamie is like, this is weird. Like he straight up is like, this is weird. Um, but then he asks Derek if he's going to be there because he's been getting advice from Derek while he waits for Lizzie and Derek will be there because he works there. Immediately Derek won't serve Casey. So she moves to the booth over and Lizzie's pissed off, but they talk it out. And also there was this thing where he where Lizzie lied and said she liked someone else. And Casey told Derek and Derek told Jamie and Jamie's like, I know you like someone else. I like someone else too. Now. She's like, no, you don't. And then they, they agreed to like, she can get over it and like learn to like that he likes her and maybe also grow to learn to like him.

just for context, randomly in this episode, George has gone to Vancouver for three days.

For work, I think.

Doesn't really, yeah, for work doesn't really affect the plot, but it is mentioned throughout.

Yeah, he just brings gifts home to the kids, and they're all just generic gifts you could get at a mall.

Mm hmm.

Except for the totem pole.

Yeah, he he got them at the airport is what he said

Yeah, he did. at YVR, which is a great airport, guys!

Yeah. There is this moment where Derek is sitting in his bed, stress eating a giant bowl of chips, and I just cannot say it enough that I love that the show has ridiculously large bowls of snacks. Whenever there's a snack, it's a huge ass bowl. It's never a little sampling. And he ends up calling Edwin Sally, because he's just like in his stress, he refers to Edwin as Sally.

He's on the couch and Edwin is like, why are we watching TV at 3 a.m.? And he's like, it's never too late for brotherly bonding, something like that. But I just really, really love that stress eating is a recurring character trait of Derek's because we've seen it multiple times.

Yeah

And it just it makes me happy that the writers keep remembering to put it in.

Yeah, me too.

At one point at the restaurant, Sally asks Derek when they're like butting heads, have you seen my large hummus? And he gave it to someone else. And so she like needs to get another one. And I just have to ask, what the f*ck is a large hummus? Like, I know what hummus is. I know what hummus is. Don't get me wrong, but what the f*ck is a large one? And why?

I'm guessing you know how some restaurants I feel like especially in this time if you ordered an appetizer you could get like an appetizer or you could get the family size version of it so like spinach artichoke dip you could just order that or sometimes you could get it in like a large or a family size I'm guessing that is what that was like a large hummus was enough to feed like a group of four as an appetizer versus just one or two.

I don't like it, it's weird. And it was also surprisingly cultural for 2007.

Yeah. Yeah. Also, I'm like smelly Nelley's has hummus. Like I just feels weird.

Yeah. Marti's the most mature Venturi because during the plot line about Lizzie and Jamie, she mentions that she has a crush on a boy and so does her friend, but they talked about it and it's okay. And I was like, go off mature, emotionally mature queen. like Meanwhile, Lizzie's literally watching soap operas trying to understand relationships.

Lizzie is stressed. We didn't mention it in the summary so I do want to mention it here. Lizzie realizes that she can't or realizes that like oh maybe it will just take her time to adjust to Jamie liking her and that she could potentially like him because there's this conversation on the couch with Nora where Nora's like, you know, it took me a while to realize I liked your like that I liked George like I at first wasn't sure and then there was just this one moment where I knew, and that kind of opened Lizzie up to being like, Oh, it's not an obvious like I like him or I don't like him sometimes you need to like Spend time with someone to get to the point of liking them. It just felt like a good lesson to teach a teenager and I appreciated that Nora shared her experience with Lizzie.

I have mixed feelings about it because I, as more of a demi person, sexually and romantically, like I'm never just interested in someone. So I do relate to it. But also she could just be gay. And also just because someone likes you doesn't mean you have to like them. But I did like that it was open ended. She didn't commit anything, right?

Yeah, Dasey scale, I give this one a zero out of 10. Like the plot just wasn't really focused on the two of them.

It wasn't, but I say one to two for the same reason that the pranks upped it before because when Jamie is talking to Derek and it's just the two of them, he says, I have a crush on your stepsister, but she's being a little weird about it.

Derek says Casey was born strange. And I'm like, there is no way that you actually think that Jamie has a crush on Casey. Why are you like ragging on her to this little 12 year old boy that literally does not care? Like get her out of your brain.

Yeah.

quotes.

When Jamie is telling Casey, not Casey, telling now you got that in my brain, telling Lizzie that he likes her, he's like, I like you. And Lizzie's like, yeah, duh, we're friends. And he's like, no, I like, like, like, like he says it multiple times. And she goes, oh, that's a lot of likes.

I like like like you is probably what he said.

Yeah. I don't remember the context of this one, but I feel like it probably came out of Marti's mouth. um And it's ew, I don't want to find out. And another Marti quote.

Or Lizzie, that sounds like a Lizzie quote about boys, honestly.

Yeah, yeah, it could have been one of the two of them for sure. And then when Marti is sharing about liking that boy at school, what Amanda mentioned earlier, Nora goes, I didn't know you liked boys, Marti. And Marti goes, only the cute ones.

Same, Marti, same.

Yeah.

Episode 13?

make no promises. This one aired 22nd

Ooh.

Yeah, this is why we're getting continuity issues, baby.

Hell yeah.

it is prom based on the title. Casey wants prom to be perfect but she can't find the perfect dress so Nora sews one for her and it's not quite how she imagined and her hair is an utter disaster and then Max shows up and he's wearing a baby blue tux And then Derek gets home and steps on her dress and ruins it. And Casey's like, I can't go to prom. Like everything is a disaster. Everything's going wrong. I physically cannot go. So Max, Derry, Derry, Derek and Sally go to prom together. and at prom Emily's with Sheldon and she sees them all walk in and so she immediately goes up to Derek and is like you need to fix this like prom is so important to Casey like you need to go fix this she has to be here and enjoy it so Derek brings Casey a new dress and they get Max a new tux from the theater department at school and Casey ends up having her magical night, the dress she loves, and they end up winning prom queen and king.

Yeah, the majority of the episode is all the things going wrong and the preparations for prom, but that was so easy for you to, like, summarize in one clause, basically.

Yeah, yeah. it was I cut out a lot of the plot because it doesn't really matter. It's just like sh*t happening.

Yeah.

I will never get behind Sheldon and Emily together. It's weird to me. They don't seem like a good match. I don't really know what they like in one another. I don't really understand it. It's all strange.

You know what's interesting is I agree and yet I kind of like them. Like it is strange. And I don't know what, now that you mentioned it, I don't know what they like in each other, but sometimes they're just like gross and weird together. And I think those couples exist, especially in high school where like you really don't understand, but they seem to be really down bad for each other.

Yeah, that's fair.

I just, I don't know. They're a couple of weirdos.

They are.

especially in this episode, which we will get to later in the notes, guys. Whoo! There's this whole thing where Derek won't go to prom because he's too cool for school, of course, but it's literally been mentioned in a previous episode that he's a legend for having taken three Fresh no three jun juniors when he was a freshman he took three girls to the junior prom something like that He's been to prom before is my point.

Yeah.

So why is he suddenly too cool for it?

Yeah. It doesn't make sense.

It doesn't. It's probably just because he didn't have a date, except then even weirder is Sally basically asked him to his own prom, which by the way came about because the boyfriend that she still has as of this episode, you wouldn't know based on the way that they act, what didn't want to go to prom because he's too cool for school and she already had a dress picked out and she wants to wear this dress. And that makes me so angry. Like, I made my boyfriend fly from Canada to California and I didn't even care that much about prom, but I was like, I'm going to prom and I have a boyfriend and therefore you're going to be there.

Yeah, and your like introverted doesn't necessarily want to be in social situations, boyfriend. Compared to like both Sally and Derek seem pretty like social and outgoing. I guess we don't know about Sally's Patrick that much, but still, I'm like, if your boyfriend likes you, he will frickin' go to prom with you.

Yes. And he should. And if he won't, you should dump him. And go with your friends. Especially if you already have a dress.

Agreed.

In this episode and in many episodes, Max puts up with so much from Casey it's kind of crazy. And I will say in the ones we're going to talk about later, the script does kind of flip. But like in the start of this episode, she drags him to like six different she drags him to stores for six hours multiple times. And then she's making him spend money on this tux in this limo that he doesn't have. And then she still refuses to go just because things are going wrong. I just feel for the guy sometimes.

Yeah, he definitely he puts up with a lot, which shows that like at the end of the day, he does have some deep care for her because you're not gonna do that if you don't like someone, you know?

Mm-hmm 

And sometimes like us as humans can be difficult. And so I like that they show Casey being difficult, but I agree. He puts up with a lot, especially in this episode.

Yeah, she shouldn't have to make herself smaller and I appreciate that he does do it because it matters to her that's also a relationship where I don't really know what he likes about her all the time, but I Yeah, I don't know. I just felt bad for him. But also apparently he has a motorbike and dude, he's like 16 is that even legal

yeah, I don't, you know, a lot of the legality around like motor cycle, or well, is a motorbike a motorcycle? Yes?

I think so.

I feel like a lot of legality around motorcycle laws confuse me in general. And so I'm like, if you can have a car at 16, can you have a motorbike at 16? Also, this is Canada. So why would you have a motorbike somewhere where it snows? That's even more confusing.

Yeah, questions that we cannot answer.

No.
 
There's this point where she looks like a poodle but because her hair is a mess and Casey says she spent $60 to look like a poodle and I could not relate more to this experience because when I was 12, I was in a pageant.

Oh.

Yeah, I don't know if you know that.

No.

I don't talk about it very often. I don't think about it very often. I think I blacked it out after it happened.

Fair.

It's something that like I think they sent mail to my older brother being like, you and it was some, I don't know, low level pageant thing ah that was just trying to profit off of little girls that want to look pretty. And my brother wasn't interested, but I was. and i It costs like, I want to say $1,200 or something.

woah 

And my parents didn't could not afford it, didn't want to. And I asked relatives for money to be in it. And then a lot of stuff went wrong the day of, including the fact that I went to the hairdresser that I'd been going to my entire life. She did my very first haircut. And she decided to get experimental that day. I didn't have a vision. She knew what I was doing. And the hairstyle she gave me was like taking sections of my hair. She did like a half up half down, I think. And then she took like sections of my hair almost into a bun, but like curled it and pinned it. So I had these like tentacles coming out from the bun all around. And I was like, this does not look cute. This is not okay. Like I look crazy. And this is proof I could have I was 12 and I could have done my hair cuter.

Yeah, yeah, my god nightmare

this is so inconsequential, but Casey's perfect dress that she talks about a million times as a baby ah is a pink princess dress. And when Nora makes her the dress, Casey brings her the fabric and I cannot stress enough. This is never addressed That is a purple dress.

It's purple.

Nora makes her a purple dress. 

Mhmm.

She didn't want purple, 

No

but that's the fabric she gave her.

I know. It is weird. I didn't point it out, but once you wrote that, I'm like, yeah, that is so true. Casey was all up in arms about finding the perfect shade of pink, but then this is not pink.

I also didn't realize that like all of these notes are mine. So sorry. Apparently Jess doesn't have thoughts about prom.

I wrote quotes.

I don't understand why at the prom Emily and Sally say that Derek has to fix the Casey situation because Derek's not involved. case Derek said, sure, he stepped on her dress at the end, but girl was a mess before that. Even her makeup was a mess. Her mom way overdrew her lipstick. Why does he have to fix the situation? And also Sally's never met Casey to my knowledge. Why does she care? It was confusing.

Also, it's like, Emily, you are her best friend. You know how important prom was to her. You go fix it.

And Emily's the one that found the dress and the tux in the theater department.

Like, hello?

Yeah, go be a friend. Why does he have to step up? Why can't you just be a friend?

Yeah.

but it was a cute moment. I mean, we'll get into it with the dasey scale, his like, bringing the dress and everything. But also after showing up with the dress to Casey, he says he he says like, take it away mice because he he likens himself to like Cinderella's fairy godmother.

Yeah

And then Nora and Marti and Lizzie like literally tiptoe into the room. And they it's just really funny and cute.

yeah the dress that they end up giving her that she loves it's like princess aurora bullsh*t like it is really giving sleeping beauty

Is it? Okay, I could see it.

Yeah, also the necklace that she pairs with her original dress, or maybe it's the Princess Aurora dress. I don't know, but it's like this pink, chunky, plastic, terrible looking necklace. It's the worst thing I've ever seen. Who the heck approved that necklace? Get it off of her now.

I didn't notice it. I had no idea what necklace you were talking about in this note. I think that's hilarious that it offended you so much, but you haven't made a note about food this season.

Yep. ah Not true. In the last episode, I made a giant note and I go on a giant rant, which you all have heard by now, about a sandwich. So I have thoughts about food.

hahahaha True.

I didn't put this in the plot, but this is part of the episode. Towards the end, Sheldon, in front of the entire prom, gets on the microphone and gets down on one knee and proposes to Emily, and she freaks and doesn't know what to say, and then they go outside and he's like, sorry, I just really want us to be together and my family's moving to Newfoundland?

Newfoundland.

New Finland? So,

It's you spelled it correctly, but it's pronounced Newfoundland.

Newfoundland. Okay.

Newfoundland.

My, so yeah, he's like, my family's moving to Newfoundland, and we, I just want to still be with you. And if we're married, then you can move with me. And I'm like, this is some crazy f*cking high school sh*t. They're also only 16. They're not even 18. That's not even seniors. That would still be crazy. But this is really wild.

yes it is and it's foreshadowed the whole episode like so many of my notes were like what is he getting up to like what is he gonna propose are they gonna go there like are you because throughout the whole episode he's asking her about like kids and where she'd like to live and like all this weird stuff and she's like what is going on but like you're a weirdo anyway so i guess i'll just answer your questions It's crazy, but I really love the way these characters are grounded because when things like this happen, Emily never once considered it. She was just like, are you out of your mind? Like go to Newfoundland, come back maybe if we're still interested in each other.

Yeah.

Versus if we were watching like One Tree Hill or the OC, there is a high school marriage. It's because of a pregnancy, but still there is a high school marriage in One Tree Hill. And I wouldn't be surprised if in the OC they would actually like get engaged, you know, shows like that.

Sure.

So I enjoy how real these characters respond to these unreal propositions.

Yeah. For the dasey scale, because of Derek going back home, getting Casey the dress, all the things, um I gave this one a six out of 10. And I honestly think it could probably be a little bit higher, but it felt very in that like six to seven range.

I agree when you wrote six, I had no notes, but I do think it could be like seven or an eight. I think this is one of the most, I think this and one other thing that we're going to see in the final season are like the most pivotal or quintessential dasey moments. for Derek to come back and give her the perfect dress and like make her night. He likens himself to the fairy godmother, but he's giving more Prince Charming. 

Yeah

And there's a moment where they're stood outside of the prom together. And she says something about like, I got my my fairy tale after all. And it feels a little more intentional with him.

Yeah. Quotes. Casey's hair. She goes, do I look like a poodle? And Marti goes, yes. And then quickly follows it up with, poodles are very nice dogs.

ahahah When they're at the prom, Sheldon and Emily are talking and he's being weird and he says, the most important part my ah person in my life is, and then she cuts him off because she sees Derek walk in and she goes, Derek? And he goes, yeah, I guess Derek is pretty important.

Yeah.  

Episode 19, not so sweet 16.

This one premiered 20th.

Casey's 16th birthday is coming up and she hates surprise parties, so she insists on planning her own party, which is going to be a fancy dinner with her closest friends. The dinner's planned at Smelly Nellie's because that's super fancy and is all she can afford. And Derek convinces Max and Emily to turn it into a full-on party. He rents out the restaurant without telling the family, and it gets like progressively bigger and bigger. However, Casey wakes up on her birthday feeling unwell. She goes to school, but then it gets worse. She goes home early to rest, and then she gets stressed. and Nora's like, girl, you have a fever. She's bent over all day. So they go to the hospital. It turns out she has appendicitis. She has to have emergency surgery. And Emily and Max are saying we should cancel this party because she's in the hospital and Derek's like, no, but it's a party. I'm not going to waste a party. And so they have the party while she has emergency surgery. She has a drug induced dream where Paul is a genie who grants her a wish that Derek isn't in her life anymore. And all it results in is a very quick scene of Edwin being even worse than Derek already is. She wakes up, Derek shows up in a doctor's gown, shows her a video he made recording messages from all the people at the party about how much they love and appreciate Casey and hope she feels better. It's a sweet moment. Then Max comes in, gives her a teddy and a kiss and a card. And then the nurse comes and chases them away. And then the family comes in and wishes her a happy birthday again. And then the nurse chases them away as well. notes. If Derek all held back a year, which we already know, and we just had his 16th birthday, why is Casey now turning 16?

Yeah, it doesn't make sense. I don't know.

These writers are normally really good about continuity, so that's why it really stands out when they're not.

Yeah, yeah, it definitely was something that was overlooked. You wrote this one down, but I had also written it down. In the beginning, Casey is explaining oxymoron to Derek, and then he keeps... It's so dumb, it's so funny, I love it.

It's so dumb.

Then he keeps calling yeah ah it... just so stupid. He keeps calling it oxymaroon, and it's just great. The writers, sometimes when they hit, they really hit, you know?

Ahah and they're he's not doing it on accident or ironically. He's genuinely using the word as it's intended to be, but says oxymaroon.

Correct.

It's really funny and stupid.

It's stupid, but hilarious. There is a birthday party planning meeting that Casey hosts and with expectation of most of the family to be there. And for some reason, they put Marti in charge of taking notes. It's like, not Nora, not Lizzie. Like, even Edwin would be a better option. But like, sure, let's put the seven-year-old in charge of taking notes. Why not?

She's a grown up now.

Yeah.

During the birthday party planning, I got upset because she wants a fancy dinner for eight. And George and Nora say six. and we'll cover half. And she very happily agrees to this. And I was upset because this is a 16-year-old girl who doesn't have a job and her parents can't even pay for three extra teenager's meals at a restaurant. It's not even like an all-you-can-eat situation. They're gonna order an entree and an appetizer.

and it's like a casual restaurant.

Yeah, they ended up, for budgetary reasons, going with Smelly Nelly's. You can't, you can't pay for more people.

Yeah, especially such a big birthday, because 16 is big, you know?
 
It is. I also think I forgot to write this part down in my notes, but it was very similar to my vibe when I turned 18. I wanted to celebrate it because it's a big milestone, but I but didn't have a party. Instead, I had a sit down meal with a few friends and family members at Buca di Beppo. And my parents paid for the whole thing because that's what you're supposed to do when you're a parent. It's in the parent contract.

Yep, agreed. Oh Buca di Beppo. Lowkey love it. 

R.I.P.

I know.

They just filed bankruptcy.

Oh, I know a lot of the those style of restaurants that just, they're not sticking around.

I know, but I loved Buca di Beppo unironically. It was so good.

Me too.

It was like at the time it was the best Italian food I'd ever had.

And I liked that it was family style 

Yes

without being this new version of family style where like restaurants say family style, but what they really mean mean is like small plates are tapas and I actually can't fit like feed anyone.

Yes

But Buca di Beppo, you ordered like a small and a small would feed like six people. like That sh*t was legit family style.

Yeah, you can't order one thing that not that multiple people don't want. like if You can't have one person at the table want this food because there will be a ginormous amount.

Yes, everyone has to agree that they're going to eat a little bit of it because that's how like large the portions were. And you always had leftovers. And that's what like was so great about it. And it was decent, like probably better than an olive garden.

Definitely. 

But I would say in that same vein ish.

I think it's definitely better than an Olive Garden.

Yeah.

In the beginning when Casey is going around in pain and she's bent over, like I mentioned, I fully thought she might be having period cramps. I was confused because it wasn't giving the symptoms of a normal illness. And I've also never known anyone to actually have an appendectomy or appendicitis. Like I know that that's a symptom, but I just, I just thought she had period cramps. I wouldn't have been surprised if this show had gone there.

I agree that it seemed like period cramps. My mother has had appendicitis and has had an appendectomy. So I know that it's like it's not uncommon. like A lot of people have to have one. It's like, I would say, normal-ish, you know?

Isn't it like 20% or something?

Something like that, yeah.

That might be a little high, but anyway.

But it's somewhere in that range. It's definitely more than 1 in 10.

Mm-hmm.

oh what was weird to me about the whole appendectomy thing and appendicitis thing is she gets home Nora like feels her head for a fever and then is like oh honey we have to take you to the hospital I'm pretty sure you have appendicitis and I'm like Nora just wouldn't know that like you wouldn't just immediately jump to appendicitis like maybe you would say oh we gotta get your stomach checked out there's something going on but you wouldn't just be like oh you have appendicitis like

Yeah. I couldn't remember i if that happened at if she did it or if the doctors diagnosed it, but yeah, that was kind of strange now that you bring it up 

Yeah

because you wouldn't know.

No. And maybe you would be like, oh, maybe it's your gallbladder. Maybe it's your appendix. But you wouldn't be like, you definitely have appendicitis. Let's get you to the hospital. You're gonna have to have surgery and Nora just like magically knew. And I was like, nora you're not a doctor. What are you talking about?

yes for sure she would have a hunch but she wouldn't know 

Yeah

but it does remind me very much though the first time that i threw up from illness not from drunkenness in canada my doctors were very not my doctors my friends were very confused that i didn't go to the doctor because if you throw up it's serious and i have such an american mentality of growing up with crappy health insurance that i was like if i threw up i'm getting better like the worst is over And why would I go to the doctor just for being sick? like i I didn't go when I had chicken pox. I didn't go like when I had strep or like so many different things. My parents were just like, you're sick, stay home, rest, take some meds. so But for a parent to like see that their kid has a ah fever and not hesitate to take them to the hospital, I was like, this is so Canadian.

Yeah.

Yeah, it would be in an American show. but But in an American show, I'd be like, that's not realistic.

Yeah, yeah.

you wrote this, but you say that Emily and Max regret getting duped by Derek, but then also they just continue to party, which is true. But what confused me about this is when Derek brings it up to them that he wants to throw a big party, they both are like, no, no, no, this is a horrible idea. Casey hates surprises. Like, they are very firm in that opinion. And then Derek loosely is like, well, what if she doesn't know what she wants and bla bla blah, blah, blah. And then they're like, oh, I guess so. And just like agree with Derek. And I'm like, guys, you know Casey better than this. Like, what are you doing?

The problem is that everyone is, for some reason, convinced that this sit-down dinner is going to be really boring, which I was kind of annoyed by. But i get cause like I guess they're high schoolers or something, and I didn't go to parties when I was in high school. But they all are convinced it's going to suck. And so he's like he says, we have to save Casey from herself. because he he's, yeah, they're he they're all just convinced that like it's gonna suck in case he's also gonna hate it.

Yeah.

But I agree, they should know better, and they do know better. And as soon as they realize that Derek was just doing it to throw a party, Emily says, we got duped, we should've known better. And then Max goes, well, Derek does throw a mean party. something that was really funny was at the end, Derek, Derek and Max get chased out by the nurse and then the family come and then the nurse is like, it's midnight, go home people. But then Derek comes running by again and he's like family. And she goes, he keeps saying he's with you. Is he with you? And they, everyone in the family goes, no,

No. He deserves it.

he does.

dasey scale. I wrote two to three, but I definitely think this is leaning more three.

ah Yeah, and I wrote 3-4 out of 10, so it's a 3. I mean, the party of stuff, not as much, but like the way that he makes the video, it's cute.

Yep. Yeah, and it took time and thought.

a little bit of context before we get into the next next one. At this point, Casey has joined the cheerleading squad and has also done The musical with this guy, Noel, who clearly likes her but doesn't hit on her or tell her that he likes her. episode 23, Allergy season.

And this aired 24th. The football team has made it to semifinals and everyone in the school is excited. Max gives Casey his Letterman jacket and she immediately starts sneezing. And she's like, I have allergies and I don't know what's causing these allergies, but I need to get to the bottom of it. And because she needs to be able to cheer at this game since it's a big game. And so Paul suggests like you have a lot going on, you're balancing a lot right now, maybe it's psychosomatic and it's because of your stress. So you need to like eliminate some of stress. And then Casey realizes that she's sneezing while wearing the jacket. So she takes it off, but then someone calls Max's name and she sneezes again. So then she gets it in her head that she's allergic to Max. And then this kind of goes down this rabbit hole where she's like, I've changed my entire personality and my identity for Max I'm completely different than who I was when I first started dating him. and this is why I've like formed this allergy to him because I've changed myself. The team wins the game and instead of going and partying with Max afterwards like they had planned, she tells him that she needs a break and he does not take it well.

Nope.

b plot Derek is pissing off everyone in the family because of his teasing and rude comments and snarky comments so George is like you have to pay a dollar for every insult you give to anyone in this family. And so Derek talks George into a deal that if he can be nice for a week, then George will instead pay him. I think it's like $56 or something is what Derek owes George.

Yeah.

The younger kids start barging into Derek's room and using him like a therapist to try to kind of push him into saying an insult. And he gets really good at like, self correcting in the moment and stopping from saying something mean.

and even giving thoughtful responses.

Yeah. And he's annoyed because at the postgame party he just wanted to talk to people and Casey helps George win by reading a stupid poem to the family where she woofs and it just like Derek loses it. He cannot keep himself from saying an insult.

Yeah. Yeah. It's silly. So starting off strong, she's got allergies, right? She's been sneezing all the time. I too am allergic to boys. She's sneezing straight into her hand and it's not just post COVID Amanda that's pissed off. It's every iteration of Amanda. I have known not to sneeze into my hand since I was at least five years old, if not younger, and it bothered me so severely.

Yeah, sneeze under your elbow, hello.

There's also just like a little bit of continuity issues. Like I mentioned, there were a couple episodes before she joined cheerleading, the one directly prior and then the one after she does the musical. But then in this one, there's Noel, that's part of the spiraling of like how she's lost herself because she talks to this like sensitive guy who likes poetry and she used to like poetry. And he's like, I'm surprised that you're a cheerleader. That doesn't seem like you. But if we were following the order, she would have already been a cheerleader. It's whatever.

All Max cares about is his stupid f*cking geography notes.

Yeah.

I don't like it.

Yeah, like Casey is clearly like sneezing and puffy faced and like losing herself and just like not really acting like her normal self. And all Max can ever bring up is like, you're going to bring my geography notes over to my house, right? It's like, Max, can you check in on your girlfriend, please?

Take your own f*cking notes. What was kind of set up that well, though, that I wanted to touch on a bit is the way that I said in the prom episode, he deals with a lot from Casey. You do kind of see, especially in those two episodes before this one, the deterioration of their relationship, because he does become a little bit less of that perfect supportive boyfriend.

Hmm.

He almost misses opening night of the musical because he wants to go to His friend offers him concert tickets that it's like like a band he's been really wanting to see and he's like, I can just go to the next night. But then he does end up going to the opening night. But there's like these moments where like he's a little bit less than perfect.

Hmm.

So I did like that it was set up well where he's starting to center himself more. And then in response, Casey's starting to center him more.

Mm-hmm.

I am also glad that in realizing that she's no longer her old self and Casey reads her old diary entries, she acknowledges that it's pretentious because it's pretentious as f*ck.

Mm-hmm.

It's so annoying. She's like, look at my flowery writing from before. And now I'm just writing about Max and it's ugly writing.

Yeah, yeah.

I agree with you here. Derek gives Casey some advice when she's like, I'm changing, I'm completely different. And he's like, well, did Max ask you to change? And she's like, no. He's like, so you can change back.

Yeah. Once he looks past the insoles, he starts being a reasonable human being and actually kind of yeah have a different, decent perspective.

Yeah, totally.

Yeah.

at school on game days, like is normal at most high schools, I feel, or at least our high school, this was normal. The cheerleaders wear their uniforms to school on game days. Cause that's just like a tradition, I guess. All the cheerleaders are wearing their uniform besides for Casey. And I'm like, this is weird.

Yeah, and then it's a big deal that they want to put her picture her and Max's picture on the school paper and they want her in her uniform.

Which I'm like, of course they do. And Max probably also is gonna be wearing his jersey. Like, hello?

Yeah.

That's the point.

I also have to say Max didn't want her to try out for cheerleading. which is actually because his ex girlfriend, the on and off again, girlfriend Amy was the head cheerleader, but still, he wasn't, he wasn't like, yeah, be my girlfriend. Then you can go to, or be my, be a cheerleader and then you'll be at all my games and blah, blah, blah, blah. Like it wasn't like that. So why is it such a big deal to wear a uniform?

Yeah, it just feels strange because I'm like, this is normal.

Yeah.

small un like totally not relevant note, but I thought it was funny is we learn that Marky- Marti likes pickles and peanut butter.

Sounds like a pregnancy craving.

Yes, I have tried it because it is like one of those viral online cravings and I understand it. I don't think it's for me, but I understand why people like it and I appreciate that Marti likes it.

Interesting.

I feel like this continues throughout the season because I feel like season three has gotten wacky. These episodes just have moments where I'm like, why did we include this like when Paul turns into a genie? I don't know what specifically made me think this that in this episode, but there's just a lot of these wacky moments and I'm like these episodes feel all over the place and just like way crazier than in the previous two seasons.

I wonder if their Disney budget went up.

Yeah, maybe. hey 

It does feel a little more produced, a little bit bigger, 

Yeah

but still more grounded than usual.

Yeah. The dasey Scale, I give it a zero out of 10.

I wrote, I don't know, maybe like a one. It was a low one. It was a low, dasey episode. And then quotes, I have the only one written down, which Casey tells Max, I think I lost my identity. And he says, did you check your wallet? It was just such a dumb boy thing to say.

It's dumb boy but also like fair.

No, because your identity isn't a thing in your wallet.

But like he took it as ID. I get it.

Okay, a little more context is now Sally is now broken up with her boyfriend and Derek has already tried to ask her out and she friend zoned him. And now we get into episode 25, Derek's school of dating.

This one premiered 26 in the season, so technically last in the season. It was the true season finale. Sally asked Casey to pry Derek about her and so Derek pretends to not be interested. And Edwin also has a school crush that asks him out. And so he asked Derek for advice. And Derek is like, treat him mean, keep him keen. Just terrible advice.

Uh-huh.

And Casey and Nora are annoyed with everything going on with Sally because it's clear that Derek's interested. So they're like, we need to meddle and make things right. So they make a plan for Sally to come over. which George, Nora tells George, and then George tells the boys in an emergency guy meeting. And so to get the upper hand, Derek brings Ralph's girlfriend, Amanda, to the house. Yeah, as if he's dating her. And so Sally gets upset and leaves. And then Edwin is just acting like so rude and so dismissive to the girl that he has a crush on. And so she gets annoyed and is like, forget about it. I'm not giving you any more of my time. And so everyone is mad at Derek because he is treating Sally horribly when he obviously likes her and is giving everyone the worst advice ever. And so Edwin ends up getting advice from Lizzie. And Derek ends up getting advice from Casey. And Casey is like, Sally is quitting getting picking up her last paycheck at Smelly Nelly's like

You'll probably never see her again.
 
Yeah, you'll probably never see her again. Like, get over her like she's gone. um You pushed her away, essentially. And then Michelle, who's Edwin's crush, comes over and Lizzie does some meddling and kind of like lies to Michelle to bring Edwin together. And Derek rushes to Smelly Nelly's with candles and a boombox and roses and him and Sally kiss.

And it turns out she was lying too and just wanted to get him back.

Mm hmm.

Yes, I hate treat him mean, keep him keen.

Also like it just doesn't work.

I do think that negging worked on some level at this time. I do think that we inherently are not attracted to people who show us too much affection up front because we're like suspicious of it and a lot of people do like the chase. But if you have done some introspection and you have learned to love yourself and demand more for yourself, it doesn't work.

no and it shouldn't 

No It just feeds off of people's insecurities, if anything.

yeah 

I hate it, but it was definitely a saying. It's not a Derek saying, it's a saying that people have said forever.

yeah well and a lot i think it loops in with the mindset of like play hard to get, don't be too nice, women like a bad boy, right? Like there are so many versions of this that essentially mean the same thing.

Mmhmm. Nice guy's always finish last.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

at Smelly Nellie's, Casey is there like crying drinking tea over being single and Derek is getting ready to leave and tell Sally like be careful about that one over there she's fired up on chamomile and I just like how does one get fired up on chamomile like that's what tea you drink to go to sleep like I'm fired up on it 

It was the most incorrect tea to mention, but I also thought it was funny that he was like, be careful about that one over there. And she asks for another hot water charge her

Yep.

I also enjoyed in this episode. It's the first and so far only time we've seen emergency guy meetings where Edwin just stands in the middle of the stairwell and shouts, emergency guy meeting. And then all three of the guys rush to Derek's room and talk about their problems very openly. And there's no secrets between them. If anything, George spills stuff. He shouldn't because he's like, what the heck? It's an emergency guy meeting.

Yeah

And then later, Edwin, or Derek tries to call an emergency guy meeting, but Edwin's too busy with Lizzie and George is too busy with Nora because they're they've all realized that Derek's advice sucks, which is also funny, but I just like the idea of a household where you can just shout that and they're like ready for each other.
 
Yeah, yeah, it is kind of sweet.

And I don't think we often see those three together alone

No 

when previously they were like running the whole house, you know?

Yeah, yeah. I would think it was funny if like in one of these moments Marti joined in on one. Like I would find that kind of adorable.

Yeah. Marti had incredible commentary.

Yes, she did.

The way that you noted that she gets more full acting in this season. There's this scene before Derek shows up when Nora and Casey have invited Sally over as that's their only meddling. It's just, let's get her to the house. See what happens. And Sally and Casey are talking about Derek. I don't remember exactly what they're saying, but it's stuff about like, I don't know, his expectations, their expectations, how they hope he'll react. And Marti knows that Derek won't like this plan. And so she, to herself, off by the table, like is like, he won't, he will, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and like just responding to everything, giving a reality check.

Yeah, 

It's really cute

it was really cute. there is this moment where Casey and Lizzie and Nora, really the whole family, but the three of them realize that once Edwin has his thing going great with Michelle and Derek and Sally finally are a thing, they are like, oh my God, the men in this household are so much more annoying when they're happy. Like maybe we don't want them to be happy.

Yeah, they were like, we should have known better than to medal, because now they're even more annoying.

Yeah, yeah. also this is the first episode that i have noticed this maybe this has been happening in the last three seasons but since when are we calling edwin edweeno as a nickname i don't like it it feels like we're calling him weenie like i don't like it i don't like it as a nickname it feels mean 

I like it. 

Edweeno?

I think it's cute and funny. I think they've called him Edwierdo. I don't know if they've called him Edwieno. I haven't and paid attention. They all have funny little dumb nicknames. I like it.

Okay, okay. I didn't love it. the dasey scale for this one, I also gave a zero out of 10. Guys, it's just weak in this season, I gotta say.

There's those really high highs and then there's some lows and you know, this one's all about Derek and Sally, so.

quotes. I'm the only one who wrote one down. And this, I think, is between Ralph and his girlfriend. There's some subplot going on with them. I don't remember the specifics, but

He's mad at Ralph for having her be part of Derek's scheme and upsetting Sally.

Mmmm mhmm Ralph, goes I don't know what you did. I don't know anything. You know that.

I think she says, like, how could you make me do that? Or how could you have me do that? And he's like, I don't know what you did. I don't know anything. You know that.

Yeah.

And like runs after her. Ralph's fun. He's another one where I'm like glad that he's around more.

Me too, I did not expect him to stick post that like band episode that he was in as the drummer, but I loved it. I like him a around. He's a good character.

Yeah. getting into our final episode that we are going to cover because it is a holiday episode and we at 90s Baby Nostalgia have very few rules, but one of them is we will cover any and all holiday episodes. Do I need to give that preamble every time? No. Do I want to make it feel important? Yes. Episode 26, a very Derekus Christmas.

This one aired 16th.

That's so confusing, but that's fine.
 
It aired on December 3rd, so I feel like they probably did it as some sort of like release of a bunch of Christmas episodes back to back of different shows. It's my theory.

Yeah, i I did watch it as the season finale and think, really? Did they like plan the season to end around Christmas?

Yeah, where the last episode makes sense as a season finale, which technically it aired last.

That does make more sense because we always have relationship things at the end.

Mm-hmm. Mmhmm.

Okay, summary, it's Christmas vacation and everyone in the Venturi McDonald household is excited because every single child is going away. Derek is going with Ralph, yes, there he is again, to his grandparents in Florida where they're gonna lay on the beach and hit on some babes. It's gonna be Derekus, not Christmas Derekus. Yeah, it's stupid. The girls, Casey and Lizzie, are going to go visit their dad in New York and Edwin and Marti get a last minute invitation to go skiing with their mom, who I guess isn't in Spain right now. George and Nora are a little bit sad about not having any kids, but then they decide that it's going to be romantic. They're going to have a quail and like a little romantic time together. Yes. However, then

Aunt Madge shows up. Who is this woman? George's Aunt Madge unannounced walks through the door. Apparently she sent a card to George before and he never read it. And she normally sends spends Christmas in Winnipeg with his brother, but decided to spend it with him. Instead, she doesn't even know that George got divorced, let alone remarried. It's weird. And they're adjusting to this. They're like, of course, we're going to let Aunt Madge stay. But then there's been like snow forming that we've noticed every time a child leaves this house. And there is a blizzard and every single child comes back because either the ride couldn't make it to the snow or their flight was canceled. So now it's a house full of people, the whole family plus aunt madge. Everyone's upset because their plans busted. Plus because of the blizzard, they can't get any food and Georgia and Nora only prepped for themselves. They don't have a Christmas tree and they don't have presents yet because they were like, we we were going to get them on Boxing Day. So like everyone's upset. Derek is up in his room having a little tantrum and aunt Madge is annoyed because what the f*ck is this Christmas that she walked into she expected a happy family Christmas and also she remembers Derek is this like apparently pudgy happy little kid So Aunt Madge basically tells Derek, you have the gift of performance and entertainment. And if you decide to have the Christmas spirit, everyone else's spirits will lift with yours. And he's like, it'll be a Derekus spirit. And she's like, I'll take it. And so he organizes all the kids in a play of how the Venturi McDonald families came together, where they all play each other. It's very cute. Oh, and then he somehow miraculously gets Chinese food delivered in the snowstorm. I was wondering why you were waiting for me to finish. I i was like, I'm done.

That's our episode.

Yeah.

Not a finale, but definitely a Christmas episode. A weird one, not the worst one we've seen. Take this over the weird suite life. Jesus is born that whole episode.

Yeah, this one actually gives Christmas is about family.

Yeah, and time together.

Yeah, and I like a Christmas episode that has no Christmas like decorations or anything. It's funny.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It is weird.

It was weird, yeah, but it was good. I i enjoyed it. It was different. It didn't feel ah repetitive. was Some of these holiday episodes can feel like same, same, but different. But this felt truly a little different.

Something that felt very 2007 was at the beginning when they're all going away for break. Casey is telling everyone, Merry Christmas. And Emily's like, he's Jewish, she's Muslim, and just getting everything wrong. And then she also tells Emily happy Kwanzaa. And she's like, thanks, I celebrate Christmas. It was just like very, you know, because this was the time when we were all like, oh, do we have to say happy holidays now? Silly and unnecessary.

Yeah. While the kids are preparing for their trips, Marti walks down with a suitcase that is only full of stuffed animals and no clothes to go skiing. And Edwin comes down with the trash bag full of stuff, which we have seen in previous episodes. Like, I feel like that's Edwin's preferred packing method.

Haha.

But like, no one has taught them how to pack in their life. And like, as someone who hates packing, like, at least I know how to pack.

In Edwin's defense, all the suitcases were taken. Because every kid was leaving the house.

fair, but also we have seen him pack in a trash bag before.

Yeah.

So I'm like, Edwin I feel like this is just your per preferred method.

Yeah, when he says all the suitcases were taken, George is like, okay, we'll put some of your clothes and your sister's clothes in her suitcase.

Yeah.

technically Madge wasn't unannounced because she sent a note that George didn't read, right? But it was still very rude to me and spontaneous and weird. Like who shows up for Christmas unannounced and who does it expecting a certain type of Christmas? I just didn't like it, especially someone who like, if she didn't even know that you were divorced and remarried, then she's clearly not a close relative.

Yeah and also like yes we're still 2006-2007 but like home phones are very normal you would call a family member and discuss plans if you had an expectation you just wouldn't show up and to me it's slightly worse than unannounced because she sent a message in a fruitcake And if you are sending me a fruitcake, I'm throwing that thing away and I'm not reading any message that you put in it. So like don't expect that to be a proper form of communication. Fruitcake is not a way we communicate important messages.

Was it in the fruitcake? I thought it was under or like with it.

I think with it, but still...

I just had to make sure because I didn't catch the fruitcake of it all.

Imagine if it was like inside like a hidden ring or something, except it's just some a message.

You were saying it was in a fruitcake. So I was like, what? Did I miss all of that?

No. With a fruitcake.

yeah even if you're gonna send a letter or something at this time she is older but she would still have a home phone like old people had home phones that was normal that's not an 80s thing that's a like 1920s thing so she would have called him to confirm when not having not heard back from the fruitcake

Totally. Totally. This is like peak home phone era.

Another thing that I thought was really rude is that George and Nora give Madge Casey's bed or Casey's room because her bed was already made and Derek's wasn't and this is of course when they didn't know that the kids were coming back but like that felt wrong on multiple levels because Casey's being punished for having made her bed and also did she change the bedding?

I would hope so, that was my thought. I'm like, don't you have spare sheets in this household? Like, hello?

but their justification is that the bed was already made because she already made the bed before leaving. Derek didn't make his bed before leaving, but would she have put on fresh sheets for when she gets home?

No.

Like I wouldn't put it past Casey, but I also would be like, like most teenagers wouldn't think of that.

Yeah.

So most likely Madge is sleeping in dirty sheets and Casey's being punished for making her bed. And then what makes it even more messed up is they put her in Lizzie's room and there's a cot, but then Casey is like, oh, my back is so stressed since we've been so disappointed. I need to sleep in your bed. And then takes Lizzie's bed from her, which is normal. It's like older sibling behavior, but I didn't like it.

Sure.

Something that like kind of made sense but kind of made no sense is that when they're scrambling to find food, they're likening things to this is like chicken wings can be like the turkey and then this jelly can be like cranberry sauce and they're basically recreating a stereotypical Thanksgiving dinner. And I know some people eat like a Thanksgiving dinner for Christmas, but I'm not really of a family that does. And I didn't know why they felt the need to emulate a Thanksgiving dinner because I would kind of get it if they didn't have Thanksgiving and they that was like a Canadianism was to think eat it for Christmas, but they have Thanksgiving. So.

Yep, I agree. It makes no sense. If we were in Europe, like a lot of them do eat like turkey traditional things that we would probably other traditional foods too like I know in the UK, like Yorkshire puddings and stuff are included in that. But like normally for Christmas, you do your turkey because they don't have another holiday where they're doing a turkey but like 

Well, they don't, they don't have Turkey in Europe. They have like pheasants and stuff. Turkeys are native to North America. It's like hard to find them in Europe.

At least I know my husband's family grew up eating turkey for Christmas.

Wow. I've never heard of, I've heard of only the difficulties finding Turkey in Europe.

And when I made Thanksgiving dinner, it was not hard to find a turkey, and that was 10 years ago.

That's impressive.

I don't think it's I think it's pretty common over there, at least now, maybe it wasn't.

At least in the UK, yeah.

Yeah. But yeah, like to me, it would make more sense if they didn't already have a Thanksgiving, but it's like Canadians have a Thanksgiving in October. Like I feel like they would have more of a traditional Christmas dinner, like a ham or something like that that they're trying to recreate.

Yes. And, and their Thanksgiving dinner is more or less the same as ours 

Yeah

because I've had it. I get it. Like, I think a lot of people have similar foods on both holidays, but it just was unnecessary. And I, we're now we're going on about this thing that was like totally inconsequential, but yeah.

yeah

why is Derek magic is one of my notes. Because he can just make things happen. Like find the Chinese person with four wheel drive. Maybe he called a lot of places except when did he have the time to do that? He just feels like sometimes he posts strings that people shouldn't be able to pull.

I feel like he's resourceful.

That's true.

I feel like he's resourceful and part of like Derek's things that he has going for him is his charm and I feel like because he's charming people are more willing to do things for him which is why he like is able to pull strings in a way that you're like what if you weren't Derek this would you would never be able to make this happen but you did 

That's fair. So he's not magic. He's just charming.

charming and resourceful which honestly we love

He is the definition of work smarter, not harder.

Yes, yes, yes. Mhmm

Except Sometimes he's not working very smart either.

No, no, no. A scene that I really loved where Nora and George are trying to enjoy their Christmas, just the two of them, and they're dancing in the living room. And George is wearing a baseball hat, like a baseball cap, that has a piece of mistletoe connected to it. And it was just like romantic, but equally silly and ridiculous. And I loved that.

It was very George, it was very cheesy.

Yeah. And the other thing I do want to touch on the delivery driver, because to me, the delivery driver with four-wheel drive in a snowstorm felt very Canada. Meanwhile, we got like, suite life in a snowstorm and the entire city of Boston shuts down. Where it's like Canada's just like, yeah, f*cking snow. Things keep on moving here. Like, we're not slowing down for that. And I appreciate that attitude.

Yeah, that is also just like a thing, right? Is that places adapt regionally to what they are used to. However, Boston does get a lot of snow. Boston is a little bit less of a driving city. um Also, it's just more convenient for the writers of Suite Life, who we acknowledge as being very, very lazy to just not have anything available during a snowstorm.

Sure, it still felt very Canada or mountain town 

Yes

to me because that's like when I lived in the mountains I constantly felt that way like you would see on the nose would be on the news it would be like Dallas got two inches and the entire city shut down and I'm like we got four feet in the last two days and nothing has shut down like why is Dallas not functioning and we're acting like things are normal over here like

Well, in Vancouver, which is Canada still, when it would snow, it would immediately melt. And even though it's a city that gets more rain than freaking Seattle, like it rains over half of the year, when it melted, it somehow would flood the city. And like, cabs wouldn't be able to get to you, some flights would be delayed or canceled, like it was a problem over a tiny bit of snow that melted.

Huh.

It was so frustrating.

Yeah, I would imagine.

dasey scale is a fat zero out of 10 for both of us, and that's fine. It's not about dasey, it's about Derekus. Derekmus, Derekus.

Derekus.

Quotes, I only wrote one down and it's when Madge comes in to, no, it's when Casey Madge, one of them, comes into Derek's room and he's still upset about not going to Florida. And he's laying on his bed with two very large shells, one on each side of his head. And he goes, I can't hear you. I'm on the beach. And that felt very teenager giving a tantrum.

Yeah.

So final thoughts. I want to give some shout outs. This is the part where I shout out some episodes that had important things or interesting things that we didn't have time to cover, as you can see from how long this episode already is. Episode 18, Derek Undone. This is when ah Max and Sally come over for dinner and when Derek asks Sally out. Really this whole thing is like she's been giving him mixed signals and she does admit to it, but then friend zones him. Also, it's weird she ends up cooking the dinner episode 20 driving lessons is all about Derek and Casey both getting their licenses He has failed the exam twice or no four times and this is her first time taking it and she passes and he Doesn't and he insists that men have the driving gene was I pissed off? Yes Does it do the thing that life with Derek does where it shows you something that's real and also that it's false? Yes, because Casey passes and she's a much better driver and George gets his license suspended because he sucks and Casey has to teach Derek how to drive and then he finally passes.

I kind of love that. I wish we watched that one. and That sounds fun.

Episode 21, cheerleader Casey is when Casey becomes a cheerleader. She tries out not just to spend time with Max, but actually because it's the closest thing to dance that this high school has. And why not? And Meghan Park, who plays Grace Bowen in the Secret Life of the American Teenager, plays Amy, Max's ex, who is the head cheerleader and hates Casey until she doesn't. and also goes out with Derek to get back at her. And then as I mentioned, episode 22 is Show Off Tunes, Casey's in the High School Musical, which is a hip hop pirate romance written by the drama teacher. And also that's when she meets Noel, who is this like edgy little boy who clearly likes her but won't say anything because she has a boyfriend. and Episode 24 goes bump in the night is maybe my most important shout out ever because the plot with Edwin and Lizzie centers around the fact that Edwin got a in the mail order detective kit and he is getting to the bottom of the shenans that have been agining in the house. taking people's fingerprints and looking at all of the evidence. And I had one of those kits from the Scholastic Book Drive and I felt very strongly about someday becoming a spy and or detective.

Yeah, I was gonna say this feels peak of that time.

If anything, a little late.

Yeah, yeah.

I loved those things. Did I ever solve any crimes? No. Was I going to be an expert at it? Yes.

Yeah, yeah, it is all for the fun of it.

Jessica, do you have any other final thoughts about season three?

No, just that it felt wackier. And as we already mentioned, there was like more split, true A and B plots. But I'm still enjoying this.

Did you enjoy it?

Yeah. I like it. I feel like I'm not sick of it yet. And normally once we get to this point, I'm starting to get over it and I'm not there. So

Same And I do wonder a little bit for you if that's because you've never seen this before or not, but I also am having that feeling. and I've seen it before. So Cause if you're listening and you don't know, I watched this growing up just never did.

Up next, we have Life with Derek season four. I thought this was the first show that we watched to have four seasons, but Amanda reminded me that I blacked out season four of That's so Raven from My Brain because that was a tragic time for us. So this is the second show to have four seasons, still very exciting. And then we'll be wrapping that up and moving on to some fun fall content. um So we are looking forward to that. As always, please, please, please rate and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts. It really, really helps us out. as well as like, follow, comment, DM us on Instagram and YouTube. Nineties Babies Nostalgia, spell out the word nineties on TikTok. Use the numericals there. And with that, we'll see you in the next one.

Bye!

Bye.

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