Recap / Rugrats S 3 E 7 When Wishes Come True Angelica Breaks A Leg

The seventh episode of the third season of Rugrats.

When Wishes Come True:

Furious that Angelica knocked over his blocks, Tommy wishes for something bad to happen to Angelica, but upon seeing a statue of her, thinks that his wish came true.

Angelica Breaks a Leg:

Angelica pretends to break her leg so that Stu and Didi will dote on her, and she gets her wish due to a mix-up in the medical records.

It's mostly known as the one with the infamous "Because I've Lost Control of My Life" scene.

"When Wishes Come True" provides examples of:

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• An Aesop:
  • Don’t wish for bad things to happen to other people; because you will soon regret it.
  • Be careful what you wish for, because it may come true.
  • Two wrongs don't make a right. It's never good to do something bad to someone just because they did so to you first. Instead, it'll only make you just as bad as them.
• ...And 99¢: Drew buys Charlotte a present that he shows to Stu first. In Drew's words, "It's brilliant, it's stunning, it's masterful!" And in Stu's words, "... it's Angelica." More specifically, a life-sized statue of Angelica, which cost $469.57, according to Drew.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: After Angelica intentionally wrecks the babies' "sculpture" (a bunch of blocks stacked on top of one another somewhat haphazardly), Tommy wishes that "the baddest thing in the whole world happens to Angelica" (possibly meant to be an euphemism for wishing death upon someone). A bug zapper lights up and sparks as he says this, and the babies think this means that the wish came true. They later find Drew's statue of Angelica, believing that Tommy's wish turned Angelica to stone. Tommy is deeply regretful when he realizes he went too far in the heat of the moment.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:
  • This exchange:
  Lil: [about Angelica] There's nothing worser than turning into a rock! ... 'cept maybe turning into mashed peas.
  Phil: Or bat drool!
  Both: Or mashed peas and bat drool! [Phil and Lil laugh]
  • Also, at the end of the episode, when the babies think twice about making a wish that may end up turning them into a rock:
  Lil: Or eyeballs!
  Phil: Or worm guts!
  Both: Or eyeballs and worm guts!
• Continuity Nod: Didi tells Grandpa that he got a phone call from Morgana.
• Correlation/Causation Gag: When Tommy wishes "the baddest thing in the whole world happens to Angelica", there's a brilliant flash like Dramatic Thunder that spooks the babies. It was actually the result of a mosquito getting caught in a bug zapper.
• Epileptic Flashing Lights: Happens when a mosquito gets killed by the Pickles' bug zapper.
• Gilligan Cut: Chuckie accidentally gets pinned by the Angelica statue in the wagon when the babies move her. When they have to do it again, Chuckie says he's not getting in the wagon. Cut to Tommy, Phil and Lil pulling the wagon with the Angelica statue on top of Chuckie.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Tommy is left so incensed by Angelica's bullying that he outright wishes something horrible would happen to her. Naturally events occur that leave him thinking this did happen, making him regret his vindictive outburst.
• Human Ladder: Tommy, Phil, and Lil form one when they attempt to get cookies for the Angelica statue, believing they will turn Angelica back to normal.
• If You Can Read This: This episode opens with the babies building a "sculpture" with building blocks (that Tommy calls "Three Babies and a Guitar"). As the camera pans up, one can see that from bottom to top, one row of blocks reads "RUGRATZ."
• Ironic Echo: At the beginning of the episode, Angelica calls the babies block tower "A mess". Near the end of the episode, when Stu attempts to fix Drew's statue of Angelica, Drew calls it "A mess".
• Laser-Guided Karma: Angelica knocks over Tommy's "art" For the Evulz. Later after yet another miscommunication, Tommy and the other babies accidentally destroy Drew's statue of Angelica, to her horror.
• Literally Shattered Lives: Tommy believes this to have happened to Angelica when he, Phil, and Lil accidentally break the Angelica statue.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Tommy regrets wishing something bad would happen to Angelica when he sees the Angelica statue, believing his wish turned her to stone. He feels even worse when he, Phil, and Lil accidentally break the statue.
• Parenting the Husband: When Stu can't find his underwear, Didi asks him if he checked his underwear drawer.
  Didi: I swear, I love him, but sometimes I think that man couldn't find his nose if he had his finger...
• Rousing Speech: Subverted when Tommy tries to convince Chuckie, Phil, and Lil that they have to turn Angelica back to normal.
  Tommy: We can't just leave Angelica this way forever!
  Lil: Why not?
  Tommy: Well, because... Angelica's not just a big old mean kid who likes to push us around and pull our hair and make us eat old green stuff from under the couch!
  Chuckie, Phil, and Lil: She's not?
  Tommy: No! She's a lot more than that! She's the one who's been there before us! She's the one who shows us the way! Sure she's hard on us! She's gotta be hard! But she's our friend, and we gotta help her!
  [Beat as Chuckie, Phil, and Lil stare blankly at Tommy.]
  Tommy: Plus, if we don't turn her back into real, we're gonna get into a lot of trouble.
  [Chuckie, Phil, and Lil all immediately and enthusiastically agree to help.]
• Running Gag: Whenever the babies move the statue of Angelica by wagon, poor Chuckie has to ride with the statue on top of him to keep 'her' supported.
  Chuckie: Even when she's a rock, she makes me miserable!
• Shout-Out: When Lou is trimming the bushes he says, "Read my clips. No new branches!"
• Taken for Granite: Played with; when Tommy wishes something bad would happen to Angelica, they mistake Drew's statue of her for her being turned into stone.

"Angelica Breaks A Leg" provides examples of:

Didi: Stu, what are you doing?
Stu: Making chocolate pudding.
Didi: It’s four o’clock in the morning, why on Earth are you making chocolate pudding?
Stu: Because I’ve lost control of my life.

• Accidental Misnaming: Dr. Doozer refers to the Pickles family as "Peaches", which comes into play when he mixes up Angelica's X-Ray with that of a football player named Antonio Peaches.
• An Aesop:
  • It is wrong to abuse people's kindness.
  • Never fake an injury, especially a serious one, to get attention or profit because it can be a crime or have serious consequences.
• Annoying Patient: Angelica fakes a broken leg, almost causing Didi and Stu to have a nervous breakdown. She even made Stu make her pudding at 4 in the morning. In the end, Charlotte comes home with a real broken leg, and is just as demanding to Angelica and Drew as Angelica was.
• Attention Whore: Because Drew and Charlotte spoil her, Angelica feels slighted when she's treated like anything but royalty. She gets the idea to pretend her leg is broken when she sees a soap opera.
• Bad "Bad Acting": Angelica fakes falling down the stairs and breaking her leg by rolling a bowling ball down the stairs into a potted plant, calling fairly unconvincing "Owww"s as it tumbles. When she reaches the bottom of the stairs, she lies on the floor and makes clearly fake painful howls and moans. Regardless, Stu and Didi fall for it and rush her to the hospital. (Had Angelica broken her leg for real, she would've likely let out a bloodcurdling scream followed by her trademark Inelegant Blubbering.)
• Black Comedy Burst: As Dr. Doozer sifts through some files, one is for an Anita Peepers, which is clearly marked "D.O.A" (as in dead on arrival, a marker typically used for patients who have already died by the time they made it to the hospital), and has a sticky note saying to send it to pathology. This is only on screen for a second, and never addressed again.
• Body Horror: Unfortunately for Antonio Peaches, the football player whose X-ray was mixed up with Angelica's, Dr. Doozer found out his leg was actually broken a little too late. It is then revealed that Antonio injured his broken leg even more when he played in a football game.
• Bratty Food Demand: As one of her ways of exploiting her alleged injury to get what she wants, Angelica demands chocolate pudding from Stu in the middle of the night, only to later decide that she doesn't want it after all. Near the end of the episode, karma catches up with Angelica when Charlotte, who injured her leg for real, demands her and Drew to bring her whatever food she needs, which ironically enough, includes chocolate pudding.
• Call-Back: When Tommy tells Angelica that he's tired, he mentions that he always takes a nap after he watches Captain Blasto, a Show Within a Show previously seen in "Superhero Chuckie".
• Corrupted Character Copy: Dr. Doozer is a less than flattering parody of Doogie Howser, M.D.. While not outwardly terrible, he's extremely defensive when it comes to his age, repeatedly mixes up patient names and diagnostics, and is so assured of his skills as a physician that he doesn't bother looking back on the mistake he made regarding Angelica's x-ray until long after Antonio Peaches returns with a far more damaged leg.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • When Angelica gets stuck watching Fishing With Stan and Orville with Lou, Lou falls asleep. Upon seeing this, Angelica says, "Guess the excitement was too much for him."
  • Stu's latest toy is a "hippo-copter," which he says he is having trouble getting to work. Didi replies "Stu, if hippos were meant to fly, they wouldn't weigh 3,000 pounds."
• "Eureka!" Moment: This line from Angelica when she watches a soap opera:
  Angelica: Look at that! Just because she's got a broken leg, he's doing everything she tells him to do... Say, that's not a bad idea!
• Failed a Spot Check: Antonio Peaches' X-ray has one of his broken bones piercing right through the skin, but Dr. Doozer doesn't realize this when he actually looks at Angelica's leg. He also fails to notice the name next to "Peaches" is Antonio, not Angelica.
• File Mix Up: Angelica fakes a broken leg (to force her aunt and uncle to look after her like her own parents normally do). She succeeds when a young doctor gets "Pickles" mixed up with "Peaches" and looks at the wrong x-ray.
• Gilligan Cut:
  • After Tommy falls asleep after watching Captain Blasto, this exchange occurs:
    Lou: 20 minutes to Fishing With Stan and Orville! Sure you don't want to join me?
    Angelica: Yeah, right! I'm really gonna watch a fishing show!
    [Cut to Angelica watching "Fishing With Stan and Orville" as Lou falls asleep.]
    Angelica: Guess the excitement was too much for him.
  • Stu and Didi are forced to wait on Angelica hand and foot due to an (alleged) fractured fibula. Eventually, in the middle of the night...
    Angelica: Uncle Stu, I want some chocolate pudding.
    Stu: It's three o'clock in the morning, I'm tired, and we don't have any chocolate pudding.
    Angelica: (attempting to guilt-trip Stu) Oh! OH, the pain! *clutches leg*
    Stu: Angelica, we don't have any chocolate pudding.
    Angelica: There must be a store open somewhere...
    Stu: Angelica, I'm not going out at three in the morning to buy you chocolate pudding, and that's final.
    (cut to Stu walking into a 24-hour convenience store)
    Stu: Where's the chocolate pudding?
• Gory Discretion Shot: Antonio Peaches' X-ray implies his bone snapped badly enough to pierce through his skin. Naturally when we see Peaches in person, his injury looks far less gruesome.
• Here We Go Again!: At the end of the episode, Charlotte breaks her leg for real, and now Angelica and Drew have to make her comfortable the same way Stu and Didi did with Angelica.
• Injured Limb Episode: Zigzagged. Even though the episode is called "Angelica Breaks a Leg", Angelica merely pretends that her leg is broken to garner attention from Stu and Didi, and gets her wish due to a mix-up in the medical records. However, Antonio Peaches, whose X-ray was mixed up with Angelica's, and eventually Charlotte end up breaking their legs for real.
• It's All About Me: Angelica fakes her injury solely because Stu and Didi aren't given her their full attention while they are busy, indignant that, as their guest, she is not being lavished over non-stop.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After spending the whole episode tormenting Stu and Didi with ridiculous demands, the doctor calls and informs them that Angelica's leg is fine, while shortly after, it is revealed that Charlotte broke her leg for real, so Drew forces Angelica to help him cater to Charlotte.
  Drew: Angelica, do you know how to make chocolate pudding?
  *Angelica shoots a Thousand-Yard Stare at the screen*
• Manipulative Bastard: Whenever Stu or Didi attempt to put their foot down over Angelica's ridiculous demands, she feigns leg pain, to guilt them into indulging her every demand.
• Never Say "Die": Averted. When Dr. Doozer first looks over the X-rays, the folder on top is for an Anita Peepers and is marked "DOA" (i.e. dead on arrival) in bold red letters.
• Never Trust a Title: Despite what this episode's title says, Angelica never actually breaks her leg.
• Nurse with Good Intentions: Dr. Doozer, who is a parody of Doogie Howzer M.D. but with the competence you'd expect from a doctor his age. He continuously mixes up the "Pickles" name with "Peaches", leading him to look for the wrong X-Ray file, and despite the exaggerated damage of the other patient's leg next to Angelica's, he confirms his diagnosis for her and lets Antonio Peaches go free, insisting he knows a broken leg when he sees one. It takes Peaches returning with an even worse injury for him to realize he might have made a mistake.
• Obfuscating Disability: Angelica pretends to break her leg by shoving a bowling ball down the stairs in an attempt to garner tons of attention from Stu and Didi. Thanks to a very young doctor, her X-rays are mixed up with those of a football player's, leading him to believe that Angelica's leg really is broken. The doctor does realize his mistake later, but not before Stu very nearly has a major breakdown.
• "Oh, Crap!" Smile: "Mr. Peaches... I guess I owe you an apology too."
• Out of Focus: This episode is one of the few to not prominently feature the babies. Tommy himself only gets a couple of scenes.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Dr. Doozer mixes up Angelica's X-ray file with Antonio Peaches', leading him to believe that Angelica's leg is truly broken. When Didi asks for a second opinion, he insists that he knows a broken leg when he sees one. He's right that the X-ray he was looking at showed a broken leg, but it was the wrong X-ray. It was only when Antonio Peaches injured his leg further that he realized his mistake.
• Scream Discretion Shot: After Angelica says she doesn't want the chocolate pudding that Stu made for her, a view of the outside of Tommy's house is shown as Stu screams.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Stu does this when Angelica decides she doesn't want the chocolate pudding he made for her.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Late one night, Angelica asks Stu to make chocolate pudding for her. When Stu explains that they're out of pudding mix, Angelica insists that he make her some anyway. Stu then goes out to a late night grocery store to buy pudding mix, and as he mixes pudding at 4 AM, he rambles about how he's "lost control of his life." Finally, Stu hands Angelica the pudding she wants... only for her to tell him that she's not hungry anymore. Cue an ear-splitting scream from Stu.
• Staggered Zoom: The episode ends with such a zoom on Angelica's eye after Drew asks if she knows how to make chocolate pudding, accompanied by the buzzing of Charlotte's call buzzer, ending with Angelica's pupil engulfing the screen with black as the longest buzz of all is heard.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Angelica is legitimately surprised when the doctor diagnoses her leg as broken for real (due to a name mix-up). Later, she explains to Tommy she has no idea how it worked but is taking the opportunity.
• Taking Advantage of Generosity: Angelica makes Stu and Didi do whatever she wants by pretending her leg really is broken. This is especially prominent in the scene where she wants Stu to get her chocolate pudding in the middle of the night, and then suddenly decides that she doesn't want it.
• Tears of Joy: Stu bursts into tears when he finds out that Angelica's leg isn't really broken.
  Didi: Stu, what's wrong?
  Stu: I'm just so happy!
• Thousand-Yard Stare: Stu shoots a few of them as Angelica's demands weigh down on him. Angelica herself shoots one right at the screen as the final shot as Charlotte continues buzzing for her.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Dr. Doozer's misreading of Angelica's file of Peaches (and refusal to double check) not only enabled Angelica to act on her scheme, but caused the real Peaches' to ruin his leg even further.

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