The Magic School Bus Wet All Over
Original airdate: October 14th, 1995
Subject: Water Cycle
Focus Student(s): Wanda, Arnold
Arnold prepares his project on the water cycle, and on purification, but he leaves Ms. Frizzle's key in the bathroom after accidentally scaring a girl named Tiffany. When the class gets turned into water and Ms. Frizzle's spare key has dissolved, Arnold has to use his project to find their way back to the key.
An edited version of this episode, shortened to a mere seven minutes, was included on the 1996 VHS release Kids for Character. Here, it was repurposed to illustrate the virtue of responsibility.
Producers Segment
The male producer is fixing a restroom sink when the phone rings. He answers the phone calls and talks to two callers while packing up his tools.
Tropes
- Ascended Extra: In the book this was adapted from, The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks, the class's journey ended with an anonymous seventh grader turning on the water in the girls' bathroom. Tiffany seems to be a fleshed-out version of that character.
- Chekhov's Gun: Arnold uses his report on water purification to navigate the class through the public water system and to get them to the school's bathroom.
- Damsel in Distress: Liz. She sticks her tail into the faucet and gets stuck. Wanda has to bite her to get her out, and in the Producers segment her tail has a bandage on it.
- Duck!: Is what Ralphie shouts when the classmates are clouds... and they promptly collide into a flock of ducks.
- From Bad to Worse: When Liz tries to turn off the water in the girl's bathroom, she accidentally rips the faucet handle off. Then she tries to pull the plug but ends up ripping the rope. Attempting to turn off the water with a wrench cause her to lose the wrench. As a final-ditch attempt, she sticks her tail into the faucet hole and gets stuck.
- Hidden Depths: Keesha makes a reference to ballet lessons when Big Ben strikes three o'clock on London, and she appears to be warming up in anticipation for them while they're in the rain gauge.
- Imagine Spot: Arnold has one of the school getting flooded. Fortunately, only the bathroom suffers from that.
- Logical Weakness: Because the class has turned into water, they can't cling to surfaces and are subject to the whims of the water cycle, which includes rain and constant movement.
- Million to One Chance: How did Arnold know precisely which pipes would lead the class all the way from the waterworks to the sink faucet that Liz's tail was stuck in in the girls washroom at Walkerville Elementary?
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Arnold not only leaves Ms. Frizzle's key in the girl's bathroom, but he also forgot to turn off the water and empty the sink.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Arnold has this when he realizes he forgot three things before he and Wanda went back to the class from the girl's room.
- Keesha has one of her own when Ms. Frizzle explains how the wind interacts with clouds, while they're clouds.Keesha: Oh, bad! Oh, bad! Oh, bad, bad, bad!
- Opening the Flood Gates: When Tiffany opens the door to the flooded girl's bathroom, this pushes her all the way out the front doors of the school.
- Standard Snippet: "God Save the Queen" is briefly heard when they rain down on London.
- Wondrous Ladies Room: After finally arriving in the girls' bathroom and getting Liz's tail unstuck from the faucet that Arnold forgot to turn off, the first thing Ralphie takes note of is that the girls' bathroom is a lot nicer than the boys' bathroom.
