After Spinelli delivers one dirt bomb too many to the Ashleys, the girls as revenge enter Spinelli into the Little Miss Blush Beauty Contest as a fellow contestant. Vince and T.J., however, convince Spinelli that if she wins the pageant, that would be greater revenge than simply pounding them. Spinelli goes along with it, but starts wondering if the pageant life is really her.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Beat Them at Their Own Game: Vince suggests to Spinelli, saying the trope name almost word-for-word, that winning the pageant would be a greater revenge on the pageant.
- Be Yourself: The judges choose Spinelli as the winner after she gives an honest speech, and says she wins for being what every Little Miss Blush should be: "herself".
- Comically Missing the Point: When Spinelli needs a talent, Mikey suggests that she could play musical armpit. Vince tells her not to go for that because the pageant hall acoustics wouldn't allow it.
- Curtain Clothing: A variant; Gus is allowed to use his dad's old parachute to make a dress for Spinelli. It looks awful until Gretchen spruces it up.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Vince apologetically becomes this when training Spinelli for the pageant.
- Hidden Depths:
- Vince's sports drive translates well into being a pageant coach. Case in point, his heel walk. The training ensures that Spinelli makes it to the top three.
- Gretchen makes over a parachute dress in seconds just by looking at a fashion magazine.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Gus demonstrates why you don't sew clothes in the dark: his first attempt to make a dress for Spinelli looks like little more than a tent. Gretchen spruces it up with a fashion magazine's advice and her knowledge of human anatomy.
- Inelegant Blubbering: When Spinelli seemingly blows her Little Miss Blush speech, Vince is shown sobbing, "No! No! It's all over!"
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Spinelli's dirt bomb leads to the Ashleys entering her into the contest as a prank.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Of course, the Ashleys' retaliation means that Ashley Spinelli, our Spinelli, ends up motivated to compete in the pageant legitimately. And with Vince's Training from Hell, Spinelli makes it to the top three.
- Pictorial Letter Substitution: The Ashleys (a clique of feminine Alpha Bitches) enter Spinelli into a beauty contest as revenge. Gretchen figures out they were the ones who entered her because the "i"s in Spinelli's name on the signup form are dotted with hearts.
- Pygmalion Plot: Vince to train Spinelli for the pageant changes her hair, clothes, walk, and manners to make her a viable contestant.
- Pygmalion Snapback: Of course, after Ashley A. tells Spinelli how changed she's become, Spinelli can't make it through the final speech and says that if she were Little Miss Blush she'd just be herself. When she wins, she seals the victory with a karate kick.
- Second Place Is for Losers: Despite the fact that they came in second and third, Ashley A. and Ashley Q. start sobbing when Spinelli wins.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Once Gretchen manages to remake Spinelli's dress, in a matter of seconds, Spinelli looks like a fashionable model.
- Springtime for Hitler: The Ashleys entered Spinelli into the contest to humiliate her. She ends up beating them.
- Sweet and Sour Grapes: Towards the end, Spinelli realizes that beating the Ashleys at their own game has made her just like them. So when it's her turn to announce what she'd do if she won the Little Miss Blush pageant, she hesitates for a moment before she sadly throws the contest. As nice as the cookie-cutter "make the world a better place" speech is on paper, she's honest that even if she won, she'd rather go back to being a kid. To this, the judges are so inspired by her candid speech on being a kid that they make her the winner anyway.
- Tears of Joy: Averted by Spinelli. After winning the contest, she does a jump kick of victory and mockingly asks: "What'd you think I was gonna do? Cry?"
- This Is Gonna Suck: Played for Laughs when Vince announces that he's taking over as Spinelli's coach to win the beauty pageant. Since he's a Competition Freak, he knows he's going to get bad and outright warns Spinelli "Try not to hate me."
- Vicariously Ambitious: Implied with Vince, who throws himself into the challenge of making Spinelli over. The gang gives him a weird look as he demonstrates to Spinelli how to "step, step, sashay" in heels.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Spinelli questions taking part in a beauty contest after one of the Ashleys tells her approvingly that she is now just like them instead of a "regular low-class kid".
