The second episode of the second season of Rugrats (1991).
Chuckie Vs. The Potty
Chuckie must learn to use the potty and get over his fear of it.
Together at Last
Phil and Lil are separated from each other after a fight, and both find themselves missing the other.
"Chuckie Vs. the Potty" provides examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: Though this became a regular occurrence afterwards, this was the first episode to be a dominant solo story for Chuckie, being a supporting character for Tommy throughout all of Season One.
- An Aesop:
- Don’t fear trying something new.
- Don't stress over the fact a child isn't toilet trained yet, they'll go when they're ready.
- Baffled by Own Biology: Chuckie, who's being potty-trained, admits that he finds the need to pee confusing when Phil and Lil ask him what it feels like, as sometimes he doesn't think he has to when he really does, or vice-versa.
- Censorship by Spelling: This exchange at the beginningDidi: We'll take good care of Chuckie and make sure he uses his P-O-T-T-Y.
Chaz: His what? Oh, right. - Comical Overreacting: Chuckie dreams of being a prisoner who's been sentenced to "The Chair." After Phil and Lil (as prison guards) drag him, kicking and screaming, to the chair (an oversized adult toilet), he screams "No! No! NOT THE CHAIR!"
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Chuckie tells Tommy, Phil, and Lil that his parents are trying to make him use the potty instead of his diapers. Lil asks Chuckie how they expect the potty to fit in his pants.
- When Stu rushes to get Chuckie's potty while Chuckie is in the bathroom, Didi tells him to put it down, and Stu puts it down right where he's standing… outside of the bathroom. Even Chuckie probably realizes that the potty doesn't belong in the hallway.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Chuckie's nightmare is shown in black and white.
- Eat the Camera: Done on Angelica near the end when she's crying due to her Potty Failure, in one of the first of many instances of this trope appearing on the show.
- Embarrassing Damp Sheets: Near the end of the episode, Angelica wets the bed. Justified, since she's around the normal potty-training age.
- Fun with Flushing: A nightmare-sequence example; Chuckie is sentenced to "The Chair", which involves Angelica flushing him down a giant toilet. As an added bonus, the viewers get to see him go through the pipes, screaming the entire time.
- Improvised Diaper: Phil and Lil suggest to Chuckie that he should stuff napkins in his pants to use as a diaper. Chuckie says that he already tried that.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Throughout the episode, Angelica taunts Chuckie for struggling with his potty training. Near the end, Chuckie successfully uses his potty by himself, while Angelica comes in crying because she wet herself.
- Mistaken for Toilet: Inverted; when Tommy and the twins see Chuckie's potty chair for the first time, Tommy thinks the seat is a hat and the bowl is a mush bowl.
- Nightmare Sequence: Near the end of the episode, Chuckie has a bad dream where he is in a prison and sentenced to "the chair" i.e. a toilet and flushed down it by Angelica dressed as an executioner. It ultimately leads to Chuckie successfully using a toilet for the first time.
- Noodle Incident: Lou mentions to Didi that it took so long to potty-train Stu, that he almost didn't get into the boy scouts.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: Stu's response to learning that Angelica has wet herself: "Not another one!"
- Pooping Where You Shouldn't: Discussed. Phil and Lil suggest that Chuckie should defecate in his room and hide it in his toybox as a way to get around toilet-training. Chuckie says he's already tried this.
- Potty Emergency: Happens several times to Chuckie. First, after he vows to stay in diapers for the rest of his life, then when Angelica triggers these by turning the kitchen sink on and off, then finally near the end of the episode, after he awakens from his nightmare.
- Potty Failure: Happens to Chuckie when he gets off the potty after sitting on it for a long time, and later to Angelica when Chuckie uses the potty for the first time near the end. Justified in that both these characters are around the normal potty-training age. Lou did mention to Didi that Stu took a lot longer, though.
- Shy Bladder: Chuckie tells the other rugrats that the main reason he can't use the potty is that the adults keep watching him thinking he needs support.
- Status Quo Is God: Averted. Chuckie gets potty-trained in this episode and stays that way for the rest of the series.
- Toilet Humor: It should come as no surprise, considering the episode's subject, but special mention goes to Tommy, Phil, and Lil's suggestions on what Chuckie should do instead of using the potty, which include holding in his poop, stuffing napkins in his pants to use like a diaper, and pooping in his room and hiding it in his toy box.
- Toilet Training Plot: Chuckie gets potty-trained in this episode.
- Visual Pun: In Chuckie's nightmare, Chuckie is sentenced to "The Chair", which involves him being flushed down a giant toilet.
"Together at Last" provides examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: Similar to the previous episode, this is an early one for Phil and Lil. Though they previously had one limelight episode, "Baby Commercial", they were still almost always side characters in Season One.
- An Aesop: Don’t hold grudges against your siblings, share your toys with them. You might think you'd have more fun without them, but really you would miss them if they were gone.
- Big Brother Instinct: Phil sees Tommy and Chuckie returning to the Pickles' without Lil. He grabs the latter by his shirt and asks, "What did you do with my Lillian?!"
- Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Betty separates Phil and Lil when they argue over their Reptar doll, and the twins soon find themselves missing each other. When the twins reunite at the end of the episode, they hope they never separate again, but soon argue over which one of them started the fight that got them separated in the first place.
- Companion Cube: Bill, Phil and Lil's teddy bear.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: Lil's ribbon. When Lil goes to her and Phil's house to look for Phil, she loses her ribbon in the process, and Phil finds it when he goes to Tommy's house to look for Lil. This leads to Betty believing that Lil is Phil and Didi believing that Phil is Lil.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Didi and Betty have coffee at Betty's house when they notice the twins arguing loudly. Coincidentally, this is right after Didi tells Betty that Lipschitz recommends separating twins every now and then to help them maintain independence. Betty at first is reluctant, but gives in and lets Didi take Lil to play with Tommy and Chuckie, while Phil stays at home with her. Both twins are miserable without each other and spend the rest of the episode trying to get back together.
- Missed Him by That Much: When Tommy, Chuckie, and Lil go to Phil and Lil's house to look for Phil, Phil goes to Tommy's house to look for Lil. Phil and Lil don't see each other because Phil goes over the fence as Lil goes under it.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- When Phil finds Lil's ribbon near Spike, he believes that Spike ate her. He then begins to regret ever having fought with her, believing that if he knew Spike would have eaten her, he would have let her have their Reptar doll.
- Betty reneges on separating the twins when she sees Lil (whom she thinks is Phil) crying. She takes her to the Pickles' where she reunites the twins and outright tells Didi that Lipschitz is full of it.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Larry and Steve get jobs as house painters in this episode.
- Shout-Out: After Steve gets doused with blue and green paint, Larry says he looks like a Smurf and Swamp Thing respectively.
- Shrug Take: Tommy and Chuckie when Phil and Lil argue at the end of the episode.
