The twenty-sixth and final episode of the third season of Rugrats (1991).
Cradle Attraction:
Chuckie falls for a girl named Megan after she picks on him.
Moving Away:
The babies are glad to hear Angelica is moving away, but start to miss her when they realize it was because of her that they all met.
"Cradle Attraction" provides examples of:
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Chuckie and Megan discover that they love being mean to each other, and throughout the episode, that's how they show affection towards one another. Near the end of the episode, Chuckie goes to find Megan and "put a worm in her hair," but can't figure out where she went. He walks up behind her, and sees her poking another boy with a tree branch (which is how she first showed that she likes Chuckie). Chuckie is appalled and runs away, screaming "Megan, how could you?!" while Megan shouts "Wait, it's not what it looks like!"
- Phil even comments "You'd think if she was gonna pick on another kid, at least she'd finish picking on you first." So, to translate, Chuckie's girlfriend was sleeping around.
- Chuckie and Megan are essentially into the G-rated, toddler equivalent of BDSM.
- Incest Subtext: When Chuckie discovers that the girl Megan picks on him because she likes him (read: has a crush), Lil shoves Phil and when he asks why she did it, she responds "it's because I like you" - and they both giggle.
- Malicious Misnaming: Megan calls Chuckie "Chunky" as a way of picking on him.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Chuckie and Megan's relationship is this.
- Shout-Out: This episode's title is a reference to the 1987 movie, Fatal Attraction.
- Trouser Space: In this episode, Tommy is revealed to have kept a Reptar Bar in his diaper for several days. It begs the question of how often his parents change him if they never knew he had it in there.
- Tsundere: Megan to Chuckie, then later to another boy. The latter causes Chuckie to break up with her.
"Moving Away" provides examples of:
- An Aesop: Don't ever take your friends or family for granted; you never know what you've got until it's gone.
- Angry Guard Dog: Phil and Lil tell Angelica that the neighbor's yard has a big, nasty dog in it, and it looks that way at first, but the trope seems to be subverted when the dog, Frou-Frou, appears to be a relatively harmless chihuahua. Double-subverted when Angelica's friends try to pull her out of the hole in the fence and Frou-Frou angrily tries to tug her bag to its side.
- Berserk Button: Stu clenches his teeth when he sees Drew mock his status as an inventor while introducing Betty and Howard to him.
- First-Name Basis: When Drew invites Chas to Stu's housewarming party, Chas keeps calling Drew "Mr. Pickles", but is reminded that they've been friends since their high school days.Drew: Come on, Chas, call me Drew! I mean, we've known each other since high school!
Chas: Sorry, Mr. Pickles. I mean Drew, Drew! - Help, I'm Stuck!: Angelica gets her head stuck in the fence when she tries to get a box of cookies from the neighbor's yard. She's later rescued by the babies.
- Ignored Epiphany: When it is revealed that Angelica isn't moving after all, Angelica tells the babies that nothing will change and she's still going to be mean to them instead of doing everything different like she told them when she thought she was moving away.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As Tommy's story ends, Angelica is revealed to have overheard, and bursts into tears when she tells the babies that she remembers when they saved her when her head was stuck in the fence. She then admits to them that even though she always causes trouble for them, she still considers them her best friends, and she's going to miss them when she moves away. Of course, when it's revealed that she isn't moving away after all, she goes back to her old ways.
- Kid Has a Point: When Angelica tries to get Phil and Lil to go through the hole in the fence to get her some cookies from the neighbor's yard, Phil and Lil tell her that they'd get stuck if they tried. Angelica tries to prove them wrong, but only ends up proving their point.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Subverted; the babies recall how the four of them and Angelica all met one another at a housewarming party for Stu and Didi. Before the occasion, Angelica tells each baby, in private, that the other babies are mean, selfish bullies, for no reason other than so she can see them fight for her own amusement. At the party, her plans goes off without a hitch, and as she congratulates herself for being all her, she spots a box of cookies in the neighbor's yard. She then tries to fit through the bottom of a broken fence to get to them, and gets stuck. Soon after, the babies realize that Angelica lied to them about one another, and Tommy somehow deduces that it's because she wanted them to be friends. Grateful towards Angelica, they go and help her get unstuck from the fence.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Betty and Howard, respectively. In this episode, Betty contemplates going to Stu's housewarming party by saying to herself, "Well, Howard has a lot of laundry to do...".
- Moving-Away Ending: The babies find out that Angelica is moving away because Charlotte got a promotion from Merge Corp. that will require her to move. Chuckie, Phil, and Lil are all happy about this, as it means she won't cause trouble for them anymore, but Tommy, Angelica's baby cousin, tells them that it's terrible because Angelica was the reason they became friends in the first place. Angelica overhears the story Tommy tells and remembers when the babies pulled her head out of the fence, now feeling bad that she has to move away. In the end, it's revealed that the promotion was instead given to Charlotte's assistant, Jonathan, meaning that Angelica isn't going to move away after all. Originally, this was to be the Series Finale, but because reruns of Rugrats were performing well in the ratings, Nickelodeon renewed the series for six more seasons.
- Noodle Incident: We never find out the story behind why Betty responds this way when Drew knocks on her door.Drew: Hi, you Betty Deville?Betty: That depends — you from the county?!
- Now You Tell Me: Phil waits until after Angelica gets stuck in the fence trying to get to the yard next door to reveal one important fact.Phil: Hey, Angelica, ain't that the yard with the big nasty dog in it?Angelica: What big, nasty dog...?
- Save the Villain: Tommy tells Chuckie, Phil, and Lil that Angelica's attempts to make them fight with each other ended up making them become friends, and if they hadn't, one of them would have been stuck in the fence instead of her. To show their appreciation for Angelica, they decide to pull her out.
- Series Continuity Error: Here, the babies are all their normal ages when they first meet each other, yet in a previous episode, "Showdown at Teeter-Totter Gulch", Chuckie mentions to Belinda that he first met Tommy when he was eight days old.
- In addition, Drew claims that he and Chas have known each other since high school, but in "The Santa Experience", Chas mentions a school play they did together as early as fourth grade.
- Series Fauxnale: This episode marks the end of original 65-episode run of Rugrats, and it was originally intended to be the series finale. In the end, it is revealed that Angelica doesn't have to move after all, but this episode shows one of her purest Jerk with a Heart of Gold moments, and because of that, the series later got renewed for six more seasons.
- Status Quo Is God: At the end of the episode, it's revealed that Merge Corp gave the New York Vice President job to Jonathan instead of Charlotte, meaning Angelica isn't going to move away after all.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Charlotte's beleaguered assistant Jonathan finally gets some good news in this episode, in the form of a promotion to Merge Corp's vice president in New York.
- Whole Episode Flashback: When the other babies are excited over the idea of Angelica moving away, Tommy tells them that he will miss her. When they ask for clarification, Tommy explains how it was Angelica who made them all friends, complete with a flashback origin story.
