Recap / Big City Greens S 2 E 22

For the record, it's not her house.

'Rent Control

Having settled in with the Greens, Gloria finds her parents are visiting and pretends she's had a successful life to impress them.

"'Rent Control" contains examples of:

• As You Know: The episode begins with Gloria ranting to herself about how she lost her job twice and had to move in with the Greens.
• Bad Liar: Bill really struggles with lying to the Satos about being Gloria’s gardener, stumbling over his words and going overboard with the acting.
  Bill: Phew! Flip-flappin’ nailed it!
• Bittersweet Ending: Although Gloria apologizes to her parents for lying to them and they appreciate her trying her best, Big Coffee still remains vacant, and she and Cricket are still jobless.
• Breather Episode: After all the intensity and dark nature of the previous episode, this episode resumes the usual lighthearted family comedy and focuses on Gloria settling in to her new life with the Greens.
• Brick Joke: Cricket and Tilly begin the episode singing to Gloria in banana costumes. Halfway through the episode, Remy arrives wearing a banana costume and is told they already did that bit.
• Call-Back:
  • The episode starts out with Gloria recounting the events of the two previous episodes.
  • Gloria is still living with the Greens since she lost her apartment in "Chipocalypse Now".
• Calling the Old Man Out: Gloria decides to end the lying when she thinks all her parents care about is having something to brag about. While Mr. and Mrs. Sato do want Gloria to succeed because they want her to be happy and they love her regardless of what she does, they eventually realize they should've done a better job of expressing that.
• Continuity Nod: Bill is seen gardening in a plot saved from the now-destroyed rooftop garden.
• A Day in the Limelight: For Gloria.
• Deadly Dodging: Done unintentionally by Mrs. Sato. When Alice throws a punch at her, she ducks and Alice ends up hitting Mr. Sato instead.
• Death Glare: Gloria gives Tilly one after she answers Gloria’s cell phone when her parents call.
• Didn't Think This Through: When she told her parents that she bought herself a house, Gloria didn’t consider how they’d want to visit her as soon as possible.
• Droste Image: Gloria paints a picture of herself screaming in agony, with the same image inside her mouth repeating infinitely.
• Evolving Credits: The theme song sequence changes slightly to reflect how the Big Coffee space is now vacant, and Gloria now lives with the Greens. (The zooms at the beginning and end show the vacancy next door, and the scene that shows Gloria working at Big Coffee is replaced with one showing her living in the Green's basement.)
• Food End: The episode ends with the whole cast sitting around the dining table as they have dinner together at the Greens’ house.
• Given Name Reveal: Gloria's last name Sato is revealed.
• Innocently Insensitive: Gloria's parents repeatedly talk about her much more successful cousin Emily, though they had no idea how much the comparisons kept hurting Gloria when they thought she'd be inspired by Emily's example.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: Gloria tries to tell Cricket and Tilly that the paint fumes in the basement aren’t as strong as they’re saying they are, and then her parrot passes out.
• Internal Reveal: This is the episode Gloria finds out Remy is rich and has a luxurious mansion.
• Maintain the Lie: Gloria has been telling her parents that she's successful and living in a house in the city. When they decide to drop by, Gloria has to pretend that the Green's home is hers. Tilly and Cricket help with the deception, and when Bill drops by, they convince him to play along. They're not as successful with Alice, however, and she throws them out, with Gloria claiming she's her maid. The Satos are not pleased with the arrangement, however, and when Remy comes along, Gloria convinces him to pretend that his mansion is Gloria's second home. This manages to fool the Satos, but then she realizes they never never told her they were proud of her before then and confesses. The Satos then say that they were always proud of her no matter what but hadn't done the best job of communicating it to her.
• Never Trust a Title: Despite the title, this episode has nothing to do with Gloria paying her rent, but refers to her trying to control her parents by tricking them into believing she has a successful life. According to Shane Houghton, the apostrophe before "rent" makes it short for "parent", so the actual episode is called "Parent Control".
• No Full Name Given: Gloria’s parents are only referred to as “Mr. and Mrs. Sato”.
• The Picture Came with the Frame: When the Satos find a photo of the Green kids in what is supposed to be Gloria's home, she claims the photo came with the frame. Later, when she pretends the Remington mansion is also hers, Gloria says the same thing about a wall-sized portrait of the Remingtons.
• Pooled Funds: Remy has a swimming pool full of coins. Gloria tries to dive into it, but Remy warns her that she can't swim in metal coins and she ends up slamming hard.
• Poor Communication Kills: If Gloria would’ve just told her parents how much she’s struggling, they could’ve helped her; if not financially, then at least as a source of support. However, if Mr. and Mrs. Sato wouldn’t have tried to motivate her by bragging about Emily and instead communicated to her how much they love her and are proud of her no matter what, Gloria probably would’ve felt more comfortable opening up and telling them the truth.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Cricket, Tilly, and Gloria all say this when Mrs. Sato slaps Gramma Alice and Alice winds up to slug her back.
• Say My Name: "EMILYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!"
• Shout-Out:
  • The scene of Cricket and Tilly dancing in banana suits and playing maracas is reminiscent of "Peanut Butter Jelly Time".
  • Gloria attempts to swim in the Remingtons' money just like Scrooge McDuck.
• Snowball Lie: Unsurprisingly, Gloria’s lie to her parents that she owns a house quickly spirals out of control. By the end of the episode, she’s convinced them that she has a gardener who she’s married to (Bill), two adopted children (Tilly and Cricket), and a second house that’s a mansion (Remy’s house).
• So Proud of You: Mrs. Sato finally says this to Gloria at the end of the episode.
  Gloria: Aw, Mom! That felt SO good to hear!
• Successful Sibling Syndrome: Well, Successful Cousin Syndrome in Gloria’s case. Her parents always talk about how successful her cousin Emily’s life is, making her feel like a failure by comparison. It’s hearing about Emily buying a house that prompts Gloria to unwisely lie to her parents that she too has recently bought her own house.
• Sympathetic Wince: The Satos, Cricket, Tilly, and Remy all wince when Gloria gets bruised up while trying to dive into a pool of gold coins.
• Walking Spoiler: Big Coffee is shut down.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Gloria goes through all this trouble to convince her parents that she has an amazing life just to earn their approval and pride.

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Is this the best pool in Big City?

Pool's Gold

Convinced that the community pool is not the best in Big City, Cricket sets out to find the best one, unknowingly ruining the fun of his family in the process. Meanwhile, Bill saves a child's life and is hailed a hero.

"Pool's Gold" contains examples of:

• 15 Minutes of Fame: After rescuing a drowning child, Bill becomes praised by all the poolgoers and is showered with an endless array of gifts. However, he quickly loses it all when he begins drowning himself, and is rescued by Mark leaving all attention to go to him instead.
• Air-Vent Passageway: Unable to use the elevator to reach the hotel pool, Cricket leads the girls to crawl through the air vents to reach the top floor. Needless to say, it's not a pleasant experience for the others.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: Nancy says that the key to sneaking into a fancy hotel is to “walk fast and project confidence”.
• Big Damn Heroes: When Bill's gifts finally cause his raft to sink, Mark comes out of nowhere and saves him.
• Blunt Metaphors Trauma: Cricket tries to convince Tilly to sneak into another pool by telling her “the grass is always greener on the other side”.
  Cricket: Now let’s go get that green grass!
  Tilly: I don’t think that means what you think it means!
• Brick Joke: At the beginning of the episode, Cricket gets into the community pool without showering first, much to his father’s disapproval. Later, the hotel employee says that sneaking into a pool ranks right up there with not showering before swimming.
  Cricket: Seriously?! You get clean when you go. In. The. Pool!
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Gregly returns since "Cricket's Tickets".
  • Mark the hero from "Skunked" shows up last-minute to save Bill.
• Cannot Spit It Out: A lot of trouble for Bill would've been avoided if he just simply asked the poolgoers to stop giving him gifts.
• Commonality Connection: Nancy and Alice get along for once as they bond over sneaking into the pool of the apartment next door - Nancy because she’s excited to do something rebellious again and Alice because she wants to harass their neighbors. It doesn’t last long.
• Description Cut: While leading the girls through the cramped and dirty air vents to get to the Spritz Hotel’s rooftop pool, Cricket says that his dad must wish he was with them. Cut to Bill being pampered back at the community pool by his adoring fans.
• "Eureka!" Moment: When Cricket realizes he spent the whole day keeping his family from having fun at the pool by chasing the next best thing and not appreciating what’s in front of him, he notices what’s literally right in front of him: a sink. This gives him the idea to flood the supply closet and make them their own pool.
• Evolving Credits: As with the opening, there's a slight change. The Big Coffee shot in the ending with the cleanup sandwich board is replaced with... one in the now-closed Big Coffee, with a Don & Dawn sandwich board advertising the space.
• Fictional Counterpart: The name of the Spritz Hotel is clearly meant to be reminiscent of the real life Ritz Hotel.
• Gross-Up Close-Up: On the second air vent Cricket wants his family to crawl through to get out of Hotel Jail and back to the pool, which is covered in dust and bugs. His family finally draws the line on that one.
• It's the Best Whatever, Ever!: The Greens (minus Bill) say “Best pool day ever!” as they’re playing in the flooded laundry room.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: While the girls recognize that it’s time to throw in the towel on trying to find the best pool in Big City when they get put in Hotel Jail, Cricket takes a bit more convincing.
• The Last Straw: Everyone piles on gifts on Bill's raft, including multiple beverages, after saving the little boy. The boy then gives him a Gigantic Gulp that causes the raft to start sinking.
• Lazy Alias: Tilly’s plan for sneaking into the apartment swimming pool is to disguise herself as a 26-year-old male resident of the apartments named “A. Resident”. She even has a business card for him.
  • She does the same thing later when the group is sneaking into a hotel pool, as she disguises herself as a hotel guest named “A. Guest”.
• Luminescent Blush: Bill gets this several times while being adored by the other swimmers at the community pool.
• Man-Made House Flood: After being locked in an utility closet at the hotel, Cricket decides to use the sink to turn the room into their own pool.
• Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: Cricket uses this tactic to convince Alice and Nancy to sneak into the Spritz Hotel pool by saying that they don’t have to if they’re too scared. Alice says she’s not scared but that she knows Nancy doesn’t have the “porkchops” to do it, who in turn becomes determined to prove her wrong.
  Nancy: Oh, I have plenty of porkchops.
• Pun-Based Title: A play on the phrase “fool’s gold”.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Gregly only appears in one scene at the start, but he is the main reason for Cricket wanting to find the best pool in Big City.
• Super Drowning Skills: The boy Bill saves nearly drowns when his floaties get a hole in them and he starts floating helplessly over to where the pool inexplicably drops from 3 feet to 20 feet deep. Once his floaties run out of air, he just starts sinking into the water without so much of an attempt to swim.
  Boy: I wived my wife wif no wegwets…
• Talking to Themself: Bill reassures himself that he’s still his own hero after his former fans leave him in favor of Mark.
• Think Nothing of It:
  Mark: I’m just an ordinary guy doing what’s right.
• Truth in Television: Larger pools generally require guests to shower before swimming.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The episode basically happens because Cricket hears Gregly criticizing the community pool and claim it's "not the best".

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