Original release date: July 3, 2020
Written by: Jeff Drake
Directed by: Mario D'Anna
Directed by: Mario D'Anna
♫ So call me a genius
A mom (a dad)
On top of the game
A woo (*prrrt*) on a scale of one to ten
I want to decree this
A day to put in the hall of fame (shame)
Please, can we do today again? ♫
A mom (a dad)
On top of the game
A woo (*prrrt*) on a scale of one to ten
I want to decree this
A day to put in the hall of fame (shame)
Please, can we do today again? ♫
—Owen & Paige, "Can We Do Today Again"
Owen and Cole goes on a scavenger hunt based around Cole's favorite book series. Paige is happy that Molly has gotten good at chess and takes her to the Chess House in the park to play against other chess players. Bitsy and Helen attends the Brandenham Annual Family Retreat at her brother's house.
Songs
- Nuts Nuts Nuts - ColeWritten by: Brent Knopf & Jeff Drake
Performed by: Tituss Burgess - Big Deal - BitsyWritten by: Aimee Mann
Performed by: Stanley Tucci - Can We Do Today Again? - Owen & Paige
- Can We Do Today Again? (Reprise) - PaigeWritten by: Brent Knopf
Performed by: Kathryn Hahn
Tropes:
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: After Molly wins her first chess match against someone other than Paige, Paige loudly shouts out their family chess chant, "Stranger-Daughter Blood Chess Champion! Drink the blood!", which embarrasses Molly.
- Artistic License – Geography: The Squirrel Quarrels is stated to be set in Central Park yet during the scavenger hunt Owen is thrown by the directions based on series trivia not lining up with the actual locations they're supposed to be referencing.
- Blatant Lies: After Bitsy tells Helen to stop Anton from bringing Ambrose his meat smoothie and ties him up and locks him in a broom closet, Bitsy tells Brendan that Anton accidentally locked himself inside the closet and he needs to help getting out.
- Cassandra Truth: When Bitsy tells Ambrose's family that she plans on buying Central Park, they just humor her and thinks she's crazy. Brendan is the only one who takes her plan seriously.
- Counterpoint Duet: Owen and Paige sings "Can We Do Today Again?", where Owen sings how he's a bad dad for ruining the scavenger hunt for Cole, and Paige sings how she's a good mom for letting Molly play chess against other people and beating them.
- Dark Reprise: Paige sings a reprise of "Can We Do Today Again?", after she feels horrible for allowing Molly to play against a chess master and losing to him. She thinks that Molly's loss will turn her off the game of chess for good.
- Double-Meaning Title: Bitsy's song "Big Deal" refers to both her ironically calling her brother and his family a "big deal" and to her plan of making a "big deal" for the Central Park property.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: When Brendan tries to confront Bitsy over her plans for Central Park, asking if that isn't a bad thing to do that'll make a lot of people unhappy and mad with her, she's glad someone gets the impression she was going for in gloating about her plan.
- Evolutionary Levels: For one book in the in-universe series all the squirrels become dinosaurs. In the next book, titled "The Squevolution", they're all evolved back to normal.
- Fanboy: Cole's a big fan of a series of fantasy books about magical squirrels in Central Park called The Squirrel Quarrel. He sings "Nuts Nuts Nuts" when there's a scavenger hunt based around his book that taking place at the park.
- Flintstone Theming: Words used in reference to the "Squirrel Quarrels" series have their first letters replaced with "squ-", making phrases like "Squavenger Hunt" for the event of the episode.
- Foil: When Bitsy meets with her brother Ambrose, we immediately see how they both differ from each other. Bitsy has no family of her own and Ambrose has a lot of family members who mooches off of him. Bitsy inherited her family's hotel and worked hard to turn it into a multi-million dollar business without any help, while Ambrose inherited their father's money and hasn't earned money himself that wasn't interest.
- Groin Attack: After Bitsy tells Helen to stop Ambrose's assistant, Anton, from bring him what he needs from the kitchen, which is blended meat he needs to drink because Ambrose has low iron and he can't chew his food, Helen proceeds by knocking the drink out of his hand and kicking him in the groin.
- Hypocrite: Invoked. Molly complains about Cole's obsession with The Squirrel Quarrels, however Paige points out to Molly that she herself had a similar fixation to a book series known as The Apartment Bears.
- Idle Rich: Bitsy feels this way about her family, something she spares no amount of contempt on. Her brother Ambrose feels the same way, even though according to Bitsy all he's done is sit on their vast fortune whereas she flipped the property she inherited into an empire. One of her relatives shares the fact that she raised a million for her charity, even though that million was entirely an allowance of money from Ambrose.
- I Let You Win: When Paige and Molly are having their "Mother-Daughter Blood Chess", Paige is genuinely shocked that Molly beats her, despite Molly pointing out she beaten her 50 times. She immediately realizes that her mom let her win and Paige only did that because she didn't want to discourage her from playing chess anymore.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Enrique tells Cole no matter who wins the scavenger hunt they will remain friends, and then immediately tells Cole if he wins and he'll hate him.
- Internal Reveal: Bitsy reveals her plan to buy Central Park to her family, but they don't take her seriously. Brendan, who is among them, does take her seriously and confronts Bitsy about it.
- Motor Mouth: Molly awkwardly asks Danny if she can play him by saying too many words. Danny is concerned that Molly is going through some stuff and thinks she won't be able to concentrate if they play, but Molly ensures him this is the normal amount of words she say.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: When Bitsy tells Brendan that Anton was accidentally locked inside the broom closet downstairs and he needs to be free, Brendan opens the door and sees Anton Bound and Gagged and he's not even surprised.Brendan: I feel like this happens every year. I wished I've gone to Jacob's bowling party.
- Rage Breaking Point: While on the squavenger hunt, Owen keeps complaining about the details in The Squirrel Quarrels not making sense, which frustrates Cole. And as Birdie states, he went "too damn far" when he complains about the squirrels becoming dinosaurs in one book and saying squirrels didn't evolved from them. Cole gets fed up and abandons Owen to continue the squavenger hunt with Enrique.
- Shout-Out: The book series The Squirrel Quarrels is clearly based on Redwall, with a mix of A Song of Ice and Fire
- Smart People Play Chess: Paige and Molly both play chess together and Paige is surprised that Molly has actually beaten her since she's been letting her win. They go to the Chess House at the park where several other people are playing chess and Molly meets Danny and beats him in several matches. Then they meet Constantine, who is a chess master and is undefeated at the park, and they see him play against ten people at the same time while he's eating sushi. Molly knows she has no chance against him, but still plays against him so she can learn from it.
- Special Guest: "Big Deal" was written by Aimee Mann.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Paige is worried that if Molly loses a game of chess, she'll hate the game forever. When Molly loses to Constantine, Paige feels horrible for her loss, but Molly points out that she knew she was going to lose since she's going up against a chess master, and she continued the match because she wants to see how he would beat her and declined to have a draw with him because she wouldn't learn anything from it.
- Third Line, Some Waiting: Three short plotlines. The A plot follows Cole and Owen going on a "Squavenger Hunt" in central park for a book series. The B plot is Paige and Milly having a similar bonding experience over playing chess. The C plot is Bitsy going to a family gathering, where she tries to gloat about her plans for Central Park to her family.
- Villain Song: "Big Deal", where Bitsy sings about how she despises her brother and his extended family.
- Willing Suspension of Disbelief: Discussed; Owen's gets strained as he learns the details of the books' setting in Central Park doesn't align right with reality. It breaks entirely when he learns that all the characters become dinosaurs for a book, something Cole breaks away from him over. When Owen tries to argue this with Paige she sarcastically points out that the premise of the series is about sapient squirrels and other animals, in a quasi-medieval society in Central Park, that remains hidden from human eyes as they fight off supernatural threats. Owen concedes her point and suspends his disbelief a little harder for Cole's sake, though he can't help himself asking the author directly some questions about the discrepancies.
♫ They are the bravest squirrel warriors, ooh
To ever skitter-scamp up a bower home
And tomorrow, they will be brought to life
In the park outside of our home, our home
Attention boys and girls and squirrels
Get ready for tomorrow because
It's gonna be nuts, nuts, nuts
It's gonna be nuts, nuts, nuts
It's gonna be nuts, nuts, nuts
Nuts ♫
To ever skitter-scamp up a bower home
And tomorrow, they will be brought to life
In the park outside of our home, our home
Attention boys and girls and squirrels
Get ready for tomorrow because
It's gonna be nuts, nuts, nuts
It's gonna be nuts, nuts, nuts
It's gonna be nuts, nuts, nuts
Nuts ♫
—Cole, "Nuts, Nuts, Nuts (End Credits)"
