Recap / Central Park S3E07 "Slumber-Dog-Molly-An-Aire"

RECAP:
Index
Season One: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Season Two: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16
Season Three: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13

"How do we cross this broken bridge?"

Original Release Date: October 7, 2022

Written by: Jeff Drake
Directed by: Brian Kaufman

Paige & Molly:
♫ How do we fix this mess we're in?
How do we know where to begin?
How do we cross this broken bridge? ♫
Paige:
♫ One step ♫
Molly:
♫ One step ♫
Paige & Molly:
♫ One step at a time ♫

—"One Step At a Time"

Molly hosts her first teenage slumber party with Hazel and Shauna, but when Shauna and Hazel want to sneak out to meet some cute boys in the park, Molly reluctantly goes with it, knowing it will break her trust with Paige. Meanwhile, Bitsy is having trouble sleeping so Abby and Helen try to help her when Abby suggest they move her bed.

Songs

• "Me and the Girls" - Molly, Hazel, & Shauna
  Written by: Jeff Drake
  Performed by: Emmy Raver–Lampman, Ester Dean, & Amber Ruffin
• "We Have Fun" - Cole & Enrique
  Written by: Kate Anderson & Elyssa Samsel
  Performed by: Tituss Burgess & Stephanie Beatriz
• "One Step At a Time" - Paige & Molly
  Written by: Sam Shelton & Jesse Carmichael
  Performed by: Kathryn Hahn & Emmy Raver–Lampman

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Tropes:

• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When Abby suggests a way of getting her to stop having the bad dream, Bitsy fears that it involves bloodletting, leeches, or — yuck! — yoga.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: Bitsy complains when the new position that Helen and Abby place her bed is under a vent that is getting a cold draft.
  Helen: So you want us to move your bed somewhere else?
  Bitsy: No. I wanna sleep underneath the cold wind like a polar bear is farting on my face all night. Of course I want you to move me!
• Bare-Handed Puppetry: Enrique briefly does this as part of his song with Cole.
• *Cough* Snark *Cough*: Owen falls asleep during the movie that he and Paige are watching, causing the latter to go, "Cough, wake up!" This causes Owen to wake up.
• Counterpoint Duet: "One Step At a Time" is a duet between Paige and Molly where Paige tells Molly how hurt she is for lying to her and how worried she is for her while Molly tries to point out she needed to learn from her mistake and she eventually made the right decision thanks to her teaching.
• Cue the Rain: As if Molly and her friends did not run into enough trouble already by sneaking out and then finding the bridge that they are supposed to cross to meet the boys is closed for construction, which means they decide to dangerously go around the scaffolding, it starts to rain and make their path slippery.
  Molly: Oh, it's raining. Yay! That's fun and safe.
• George Jetson Job Security: The dream that has kept Bitsy awake was about her making out with the handyman. When said handyman arrives to fix the bed, Helen deals with the situation by having him fired, explaining to Abby that it's how they deal with everything at the Brandenham.
• Gross-Up Close-Up: Occurs in the dream that Bitsy recalls having, in which her lips are in a couple of zoomed-in shots, with pie sauce covered all over them.
• Insistent Terminology: Molly tells Paige that they're not having a sleepover, they're having a slumber party.
  Paige: Right, I know. But how is it different?
  Molly: Sleepovers have lemon bars, slumber parties do not.
  Paige: That is a new rule since I was your age.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When Molly, Hazel, and Shauna head to Bank Rock Bridge to meet with Marcus and his friend, they're unable to cross the bridge due to being closed down for construction. Shauna suggests they walk on the scaffold that's on the outside ledge of the bridge, but it becomes more dangerous when it starts raining. While Shauna insists they keep going, Molly suggests they turn back. When Paige tries to catch the girls for sneaking out and she later gets stuck hanging on the bridge when she attempts to walk along the scaffold, she calls Molly for her location only to learn that they returned back home when they all agree it's too dangerous to cross.
• Mad at a Dream: The handyman gets fired for Bitsy having an Erotic Dream about him.
• Never My Fault: While Bitsy and Abby are moving Bitsy's bed to better location in her room, one of the bed's leg breaks and Bitsy blames them for breaking it. Abby tries to point out to Bitsy that it broke because she kept forcing them move her bed, but Helen tries to get Abby to accept it their fault since she knows Bitsy won't take responsibility.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title is based off of Slumdog Millionaire.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Shauna got a text from Marcus saying he wants to meet with her and Hazel at the park tonight and he's bringing a friend from another school and Shauna is hoping to meet a potential boyfriend. A reluctant Molly agrees to join them as they sneak out to meet them. They run into an obstacle when Bank Rock Bridge is closed off due to construction and they try to walk on the scaffold on the outside ledge of the bridge, but it starts raining and they decide to return back home when it becomes too dangerous. When the girls return to the bridge with Owen, Cole, and Enrique to rescue Paige who gets stuck hanging on the bridge when she tries to catch the girls for sneaking out, Paige is kept company with Marcus and his friend Bobby, and when Shauna finally meets Bobby, they're both disappointed to see each other because they reveal they're cousins, making the whole sneaking out all for nothing.
• Sleepyhead: Owen keeps falling asleep watching the movie with Paige.
• Slumber Party: Molly gets to have her first slumber party with her friends Hazel and Shanna and she sings "Me and the Girls", where she sings how they're going to have a great time and it's going to be the best.
• Spin the Bottle: One of the activities Cole and Enrique do while pretending to be the girls during "We Have Fun". However, they seem to think the game is just about spinning the bottle.
• Surprise Incest: When Molly, Hazel, and Shauna finally meet Marcus and his friend, Shauna was hoping to meet her future boyfriend, but is disappointed to learn that Marcus' friend is her cousin, Bobby. Everyone is squicked out with the revelation.
  Marcus: Oh.
  Molly: Ew.
  Hazel: Nope. Don't do that.
• Team Hand-Stack: Molly, Hazel, and Shauna do this on the count of three and exclaim, "Cute boys for everyone except Molly, because she's a team player!"
• Time Lapse: Before it gets to Bitsy waking up to a nightmare, Birdie sings about the passage of time as it goes from day to night.
• What Would X Do?: Paige asks herself, "What would Jordan Toast do?" when the golf cart that she is riding to reach the girls gets stuck in mud, as well as finding the bridge under construction. She decides to answer her own question by going around the scaffolding. She ends up slipping and nearly falling into the river below, if her hood had not snagged on a metal bar.

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♫ Me and the girls will have
The best party on the block
We always stay up late
Way past ten o'clock
Watching some videos
Reading our horoscopes
You're such a Scorpio
We got our inside jokes
And secrets no one knows
Five, four, three, two, one, go!
So, me and the girls
Me and the girls
Me and my girls ♫

—"Me and the Girls (End Credits)"