Richard and Sharon have started seeing each other again, and Mary Anne invites Dawn to the BSC. However, Kristy is ambivalent about the new addition. Dawn is tested with sitting for the Barretts, a disorganized family of three. Natalie Barrett comes home to clean house and behaved children, resulting in Dawn picking up afterup after the kids and Natalie the rest of the week. Natalie even comes home past 11. Kristy comes over to give Mary Anne advice and their respective mothers bond, only for Kristy to freak out when she sees Mary Anne talking to her dad.
Mary Anne decides she wants to redecorate her bedroom and recruits the rest of the BSC and Sharon, but Richard gets upset when they seem to go overboard.
While sitting for the Barretts, the youngest child Buddy vanishes. Dawn asks Kristy for help. The adults get involved and it turns out that Buddy's dad had picked him up for swimming lessons. Kristy admits that she misses her father to Dawn and the two girls make up; Kristy accepts Dawn into the BSC.
Tropes:
- Adaptation Deviation: In the book, Dawn is the one who stands up to Natalie about the Barrett family taking too much of her time. Here, Sharon answers Dawn's phone and tells Natalie off instead. Also, the book version of Natalie is much less flighty, she's just overworked and too busy. The book version of Hamilton Barrett is slightly more of a Jerkass; knowing that Natalie has likely forgotten their arrangement, he takes Buddy anyway to "teach her a lesson" but brings him back when Buddy worries about Dawn worrying about him. Here, he was supposed to take Buddy to swim class, and Buddy apparently never mentioned he had a sitter that day.
- Adults Are Useless: Natalie Barrett comes off like this. Her two older children leave toys and food strewn everywhere, and when she comes home to an orderly house, she's impressed Dawn got them to pick up after themselves just by asking them to. If her ex-husband Hamilton can be believed, this isn't a recent development.
- Asleep in Class: After having to stay at the Barretts until 11:30 one night, Dawn falls asleep in biology class and at that afternoon's BSC meeting.
- Badly Battered Babysitter: Dawn becomes worn out when Natalie oversteps her boundaries and expects Dawn to take care of her kids with no directions or respect for Dawn's own non-babysitting time. A rare example when the parent is the problem and not the children; the Barrett kids take very well to Dawn, with the eldest Buddy excitedly talking about his swimming practice to Dawn when he sees her.
- Berserk Button: While Richard's not exactly thrilled when he sees how Mary Anne's room is being redecorated, what really sets him off is he when he notices the Humpty Dumpty picture was taken down. It's later revealed this is because Mary Anne's mother hung the picture herself, as it belonged to her when she was a baby.
- Broken Bird: This episode finally lays bare how much her parents divorce hurt Kristy.Kristy: His dad. He was with his dad all the time! Everyone's dad is just so desperate to hang out with them! Mr. Barrett takes Buddy to swimming, Mary Anne's dad wants her home with him every second of every day and your dad Facetimes you constantly, but my dad?! My dad left me. I don't know where he is. He hasn't called me in a year and a half!
- Chekhov's Gun: Kristy relates a story to Dawn of how she once calmed down a tantrum-throwing David Michael by letting out a piercing whistle that got his attention. She's interrupted before teaching Dawn how to do it, so when Dawn needs to do the same thing to snap Kristy out of her tantrum, she just screams.
- Commonality Connection: At the grocery store, Dawn and her mom run into a man who worked there when Sharon was a kid, then shortly thereafter see Richard and Mary Anne.
- Dissimile: Mary Anne says that her dad and Dawn's mom dating is "like Romeo & Juliet, but if Romeo grew up, then went to law school and then reconnected with Juliet in middle age."
- The Dreaded: The Barretts elicit this response from the club sans Dawn when Natalie calls them at the beginning of the episode. After complaining about needing work, Stacey and Claudia especially state they aren't desperate enough to sit for Natalie Barrett. Dawn soon finds out why the girls reacted this way when she sees how out-of-control the Barrett kids are and how needy and self-absorbed Natalie is.
- First Friend: This is revealed to be the reason Kristy is so ambivalent towards Dawn; she's afraid of "losing" Mary Anne. Dawn convinces her that won't happen, because Mary Anne isn't the type of person who would do such a thing.
- Heel Realization: Kristy has this about how she's treated Dawn, and the two make up. Richard also has one when Mary Anne orders him to leave her room.
- I Resemble That Remark!: Dawn, whose mom is also recently divorced, calls Kristy out for judging Natalie Barrett as a less than ideal client due to her own recent divorce.
- It's All About Me: Natalie gives off the vibe of a woman who is very much in the middle of trying to reinvent herself after a failed marriage, although her husband's attitude suggests her flightiness and oblivious behavior have been problems for a while.
- Mama Bear: Sharon answers Dawn's phone to give Natalie a short but scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech ordering Natalie to get her shit together before she entertains the notion of trying to apologize to Dawn for what happened with Buddy.
- Man-Made House Flood: Natalie Barrett mentions that her son is grounded for flooding the bathroom while pretending to be Aquaman.
- Minority Police Officer: The lead patrol officer who responds to the Barrett house is an African-American woman.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Dawn's desire to give Natalie Barrett the benefit of the doubt out of compassion to her situation as a divorced mom leads to Natalie taking advantage of Dawn's kindness. And later Dawn goes through a traumatizing ordeal when Natalie's ex-husband picked up Buddy for swim practice without Natalie informing Dawn about this or Hamilton about Buddy's sitter, and leaving the girl fearing that Buddy was kidnapped.
- Oh, Crap!: Dawn has this reaction when she realizes Buddy has literally vanished in the space of a minute. Hamilton Barrett has this reaction as well when he walks into the house and sees two cops.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Kristy sees the usually laid-back Dawn panicking about Buddy going missing, she instantly puts their differences aside and comes to help.
- Opposites Attract: Sharon makes it clear to Elizabeth this is the nucleus of her relationship with Richard. Elizabeth, for her part, finds it odd, echoing the previous episode's foreshadowing that she and Richard don't get along very well, and Sharon plainly doesn't like Elizabeth's attitude.
- Parents as People: Natalie Barrett isn't a bad woman per say, but it's obvious she needs to get her priorities straight when it comes to taking care of her children and she's not handling her divorce very well. While Dawn tries to be sympathetic, Natalie unintentionally takes advantage of Dawn's sympathy and obliviously causes Dawn serious distress when she forgets to leave Dawn some vital information regarding her ex-husband's schedule in bringing Buddy to swim practice.
- Parent with New Paramour: Richard and Sharon have become this for each other.
- Percussive Therapy: Kristy destroys two bags of chips before raging about the difference between Hamilton Barrett (who does his best to make time for his kids) and her dad (who hasn't even spoken to her for over a year).
- Pimped-Out Dress: Mary Anne and Dawn wonder if they'll have "matching bridesmaids dresses" when their parents get married.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: Though she never says it, Kristy is obviously worried about her friendship with the new, more confident Mary Anne changing. She looks borderline panicked when the other girls are discussing the plan to redecorate Mary Anne's room and thinks she's being excluded.
- Rage Breaking Point: Kristy is obviously angry when Dawn's dad calls her in the middle of their meeting (moreso when Dawn says he calls her almost every day), but she doesn't lose it until Hamilton Barrett brings Buddy back home and sees the kids joyful reactions to his presence.
- Running Away to Cry: After Hamilton Barrett brings Buddy home, Kristy storms off to the kitchen before breaking down.
- Secretly Wealthy: The house Dawn and her mom moved into was one of "a lot" of properties Sharon's family owns.
- Sycophantic Servant: Played for laughs; Dawn starts sucking up to Kristy to improve her chances of being made a permanent member of the BSC.
- Tragic Keepsake: The Humpty Dumpty wall hanging is this to Richard; at the end of the episode, he takes out an old photograph of Mary Anne's mother Alma placing it on the wall when she was big-belly pregnant.
- Tranquil Fury: Richard is taken aback by Sharon and the girls removing the wallpaper strip from Mary Anne's room, but when he sees they've taken down a picture of Humpty Dumpty, he quite flatly tells them to leave. Showing how similar they are, when he calls Mary Anne for dinner at the end of the episode, she demands that he leave her alone and Richard, realizing he'd gone too far earlier, does so.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: Played for laughs; Kristy wrote an entire constitution for the BSC over Christmas break, but none of the other girls knew about it, to her frustration.Kristy: Do you ever check your email?
- Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Sharon is very hippie-ish, while her daughter Dawn is more grounded and often has to pick up after her.
- We Are Not Going Through That Again: When Stacey answers the phone and it's Natalie Barret, Kristy looks like a deer in headlights, Claudia rolls her eyes, Mary Anne shakes her head, and Stacey asks if she can pass on the gig even though she could use the money. Dawn questions what the problem is, and Kristy informs her the Barrett children are out of control while the mom is still adjusting to her recent divorce.
