In the Naval

"In the Naval" is a Season 4 episode of Rugrats.

Characters Present

 * Tommy
 * Chuckie
 * Angelica
 * Stu
 * Lou
 * Drew
 * Cynthia
 * Captain

Synopsis
''When Cynthia drowns in a pool of water on a boat trip, the Rugrats come to the rescue. - Description from Klasky Csupo''

Plot
One bright and sunny day, Lou and his two sons, Stu and Drew, charter a fishing boat to go out for a day of fishing at sea; also tagging along with them are Tommy, Chuckie, and Angelica - and we start the episode as Stu and Drew put them all in life jackets as they prepare to get underway. Angelica has also brought along her adored Cynthia doll and a water sport themed kit of accessories for Cynthia, which includes an orange toy speedboat that her doll can ride in, a pair of water skis - with a tow line that attached to the speedboat - and a swimsuit that her doll is wearing; as Drew tightens the buckle on his daughter’s lifejacket, she asks her father if they can let her doll ski on the actual water once they’re on the ocean, and Drew replies “No princess, you might lose her.” Just as Drew finishes, he says to his brother (with a competitive attitude) from afar that he'll whip him at fishing. Stu, who’s tightening the buckle on his son’s lifejacket (a little too tight for him as he grunts as his father finishes), boasts that Hand-Tied White Whizzer Lure with Emu Feather Danglers (and he holds said lure near his brother’s face) into the water, there'll be nothing for Drew to catch. Drew scoffingly puffs at Stu’s lure, and as he further tightens the buckle on his daughter’s lifejacket (to the point where she grunts as well), he rebuttals: that his '‘Dancing Anchovy 2000’ is gonna wipe the ocean floor with you!” Stu scoffs “That ‘piece of junk’ couldn’t catch a rusty can” and Drew rebuttals "Could so! I paid $300 for this baby!” The boat’s captain - a stout, bearded, middle-aged man dotting a white ‘peaked cap’, a blue shirt and a white pair of pants (an atypical look for a captain) - overhears Stu and Drew’s conversation from his boat’s flybridge, and he then curiously asks Lou from above “Those your boys?” to which a slightly embarrassed Lou replies with a little white lie: “No, never had kids.”

Lou then walks over to where the kids are to make sure they’re strapped in, and he then proceeds to tell them a quick story of when he was washed overboard in a storm and stranded on an island for “15 days”; for a visual aid, he takes Angelica’s Cynthia doll and toy speedboat and drops them in an open baitwell in the deck that they’re standing next to. Lou further states that he only had “salt and sand” to eat and was fortunately rescued by the Navy Seals; for a visual aid, he puts Cynthia into her speedboat and lifts the 2 toys out of the baitwell. He complements how brave the Navy Seals are whilst holding Cynthia, speedboat and all above his head before handing them back to Angelica. Lou then scoops some water and live bait from the baitwell in a bucket, tells the kids to stay out of it, and then walks away; whether Lou’s story is really true or not is never made clear, but Tommy and Chuckie are nonetheless mesmerized by it. Tommy tells his friend: “Did you hear that Chuckie, grandpa was ‘wrestled’ (meaning to say ‘rescued’) by the ‘Wavy’ (they’re apparently too young to be familiar with the word “Navy”) Seals”; Chuckie replies: “Sounds messy.” Angelica then corrects Tommy “Not ‘wrestled’, ‘rescued’. The ‘Wavy’ (Angelica is also too young to be familiar with the word “Navy”) Seals found him in the water then he was lost”. Tommy then states he wants to be a "Wavy" Seal too and suggests that they use Angelica’s doll and boat to play like the “Wavy” Seals. But Angelica, too passionate about her toys to share the fun with others, refuses. Disobeying her grandfather’s warning, Angelica tosses her boat into the baitwell, walks into a shallow part on it’s edge and sits down on the rim, and she tells Tommy and Chuckie that she and her doll Cynthia are going to Ski. A lightly shocked Tommy replies “But grandpa said to stay out of the ‘fishy tank’” and Angelica rebuttals in a mean tone “He said you babies stay out of the ‘fishy tank’; it’s only for ‘grown up’ kids like me. So you can’t play, humph!” A hurt Chuckie says to his friend “Shoot! ‘Wavy’ Seals sounded like fun too” and Tommy decides he and Chuckie should go do something else. As Tommy and Chuckie then walk away and Tommy says enthusiastically “‘Wavy’ Seals to the rescue!”

We then cut to later on, after the gang is underway; Lou is in a lone fishing seat that’s on the starboard side of the boat toward the bow and has his line cast out, patiently waiting for a bite, and Stu and Drew are in 2 more fishing seats that are next to each other on the boat’s port side also toward the bow. As the 2 competitive brothers are getting ready to cast out their lines, Drew scoffs at his brother’s lure “What is that at the end of your line? Wha-what is that?” and Stu scoffs back at his brother’s lure: “Just look at your own line, well ya’? It’s pathetic.” As both brothers cast out, Drew goes on scoffing “Ha-ha-ha. That thing will never catch a fish” and Stu replies “Yeah, in a few minutes I’ll be ‘swimming’ in fish.” Drew replies “In your dreams” and Stu rebuttals “In your dreams.” Lou tells his 2 competitive sons that this fishing trip is for fun, not competition. He then adds "Besides, I’m gonna beat the pants off the both of ya’” and he briefly laughs to himself in determination before falling asleep; Drew sees this and scoffing says to himself: “Ha-ha-ha; looks like the only place pop’s gonna beat the pants off us is in his dreams.” We get a brief underwater view of both descending lures and then cut back up on deck and shift focus to Tommy and Chuckie, who are looking for a way to play like Navy Seals; the 2 babies come across Lou’s bucket of water and live bait that a sleeping Lou has next to him, and Chuckie suggests that the bait (which he refers to as “baby fish”) looks scared and perhaps want to go back in “the big water”. Tommy replies “Hmm… This looks like a job for the ‘Wavy’ Seals” and both he and Chuckie grab some of if not all the bait in their hands (giggling whilst doing so) and then proceed to put them back in the baitwell. We cut over to the baitwell, where Angelica is trying to get her doll to ski in it; but of course, Cynthia’s skis are only for pretend and they’re not designed to really make the doll ski on actual water, and Angelica’s doll only falls down in the water and floats. A frustrated Angelica feels making waves in the baitwell’s water will make her doll ski, and she decides to get help from Tommy and Chuckie.

Tommy and Chuckie happen to be coming around the corner as Angelica walks off to find them, and Angelica stops them and says to Tommy: “Uh, Tommy? How long has it been since I told you I love you?” Angelica also grabs onto the buckle of Tommy’s lifejacket and this makes him and Chuckie drop the bait they were carrying; a slightly confused Tommy replies: “I’m not sure, but..” Angelica interjects: “But I do Tommy; and that’s why I’m gonna let you play with my boat (she of course doesn’t really mean this and is only saying it to get Tommy and Chuckie to help her) and drags Tommy and Chuckie over to the baitwell.

Later on as Tommy and Chuckie are sitting on the side of the baitwell and making waves by kicking in the water; as they do so, Tommy asks Angelica if he and Chuckie can play “‘Wavy’ Seals” with her boat soon. Angelica replies “Not until you make waves, more waves!” The waves the babies are making are doing little to keep Cynthia above water. Chuckie tells his friend “I didn’t know loving someone could be so much work”, and Angelica cheers her doll on (“Ski Cynthia! Ski!”) but to no avail as Cynthia eventually sinks to the bottom of the baitwell, where all the live bait inside pokes curiously at the doll. A frustrated and disappointed Angelica says out loud that it isn’t anything like in the television commercial. Chuckie asks: if they can we play ‘Wavy’ Seals with your boat?” Angelica, going back on her word, takes her toy speedboat out of the water and walks away. Just then however, a real speedboat comes zooming by whilst towing a blonde woman who’s skiing; both the driver the skier smile and wave at the gangs fishing boat, and the whole thing catches Angelica’s eye and gives her an idea.

Disobeying her father’s warning from before they got underway to not make her doll ski in the ocean, Angelica goes to the boat’s stern and proceeds to tie a rope around her doll so she can toss it overboard and have the fishing boat pull it along the water’s surface; when she finishes preparing Cynthia, she tells her doll: “There you go Cynthia; now you’re ready for action.” A worried Chuckie asks Angelica what if she loses Cynthia. Angelica, more eager than wise, replies: “She’ll be fine; she’s water-sport Cynthia, isn’t she?” Angelica then tosses her doll through the topmost gap in the boat’s railing and she lands in the water; and as the doll is tugged along, it amazingly just manages to ski; Angelica is ecstatic and she cheers her doll on, and she gleefully says to an equally ecstatic Tommy and Chuckie.

Later, a still competitive and determined Stu and Drew, who are too focused on besting each-other to notice what the kids are doing; they glare competitively at each-other and then Drew checks a miniature radar that’s apparently built into his fishing pole and disappointingly finds it not detecting any fish within its 100 mile radius. Underwater, a huge, yellow swordfish swimming that’s toward the gang’s boat; the boat passes over it and Stu and Draw's special lures are pulled by, but the fish ignores them. However, the fish spots Cynthia on the surface and decides to go after it. As the swordfish approaches the boat, Drew’s radar lights up like a city; Stu and Drew then spot the swordfish of the port bow as it leaps out of the water and hurries toward the boat. Both eager brothers tell each other to get out of the way and that the fish is his as they both cast their lines toward it in haste; just then however, the fish disappears.

The swordfish however isn’t far away, and unknown to a ‘none the wiser’ Angelica, Tommy and Chuckie, the fish is rapidly closing in on a skiing Cynthia from below; meanwhile, a still gleeful Tommy comments to an even more gleeful Angelica that Cynthia is skiing better than in the commercials, and Angelica replies “Of course she is, she’s water-sport Cynthia!” and continues giggling in the utmost glee. But all glee, glory and excitement is suddenly turned to fright and horror as the swordfish grabs the poor doll in it’s jaws whilst leaping out of the water and proceeds to swim away with it! Angelica shrieks in horror and, and Tommy points out the other end of the rope that Cynthia is tied onto; Angelica grabs the rope just before it’s pulled overboard, and Tommy and Chuckie grab on as well, and they all attempt to pull Cynthia back on board. Unfortunately, the huge swordfish is much stronger than Angelica, Tommy and Chuckie combined, and it is able to pull the rope clean out of their hands and into the ocean. The victorious swordfish leaps out of the water with Cynthia in its jaws before swimming away with the poor doll, with very slim hope of return!

Angelica, in panic, rushes over to her father - who’s trying to catch the swordfish (or any other fish) - to tell him what happened; Drew however is in too much of a competitive mood to listen and only tells her daughter: “Not now princess, Daddy’s gonna land a ‘big one’.” Drew then lightly coaxes in sing-song to no fish in particular “Come to papa fishy; eat the dancing anchovy.” Stu then interjects, again to no fish in particular: “Ignore him, it’s the white whizzer you want!”

A desperate and annoyed Angelica grunts to herself in rage and stomps back toward the babies; Tommy and Chuckie start to play with a bucket with Tommy sitting inside it and Chuckie pushing him along, and Chuckie tells Tommy as he pushes him that Cynthia's gone forever. Angelica steps into the scene and interjects states she's gonna get her doll back herself. Tommy, feeling this is a good opportunity for all of them to play like Navy Seals, offers his and his friend’s help to Angelica and suggests they use Angelica’s speedboat. Angelica cuts Tommy off before he can finish. Angelica then asks the babies to help her catch some live bait from the baitwell as she obviously plans to lure the swordfish back to the boat; but Angelica is freaked out as soon as she pulls a small fish out of the baitwell, and she screams and drops it. Angelica decides that using bait from the baitwell is too “ucky” and decides instead to see if Tommy and Chuckie have something she could use as bait; she asks Tommy and Chuckie what they have to eat. Chuckie pulls out some “fuzzy stuff” from his pocket, and Tommy pulls out a “smushy” graham cracker from the day before from his diaper. Angelica rudely takes the graham cracker, stating that it will have to do, and she then dangles it over the railing off the boat’s stern, whilst softly coaxing “Here fishy fishy.” This is course wouldn’t work; but a hungry seagull flying above spots the graham cracker, and it flies down and grabs it, startling Angelica and knocking her on her back (Chuckie also gasps from afar)!

Fortunately, Angelica isn’t injured, but she is ever more enraged; as she stands back up, she says to herself: decides that "What I need is a really, really big hook!” Promptly, Angelica spots the boat’s anchor; and not knowing what it really is or what it really does, she feels its the sort of hook she’s looking for and goes over to release it into the water in hopes of catching the swordfish with it. Angelica puts all her strength into the lever that releases the anchor, but isn’t strong enough to budge it and concludes that it’s stuck. Angelica mutters “Stupid Bad Hook!” out loud and kicks the lever in frustration unwittingly budging it in the process and releasing the anchor down into the water, where it lodges on the ocean floor as the boat continues moving forward!

Back on deck, Stu and Drew are still arguing over their fishing when the anchor suddenly runs out of slack and stops the boat dead, and the resulting jolt sends Drew overboard and into the water! Drew resurfaces, and spits out water as he floats on his life jacket; but a competitive Stu doesn’t show a bit of compassion, and instead accuses his brother of trying to cheat and orders him to get back up on deck. The captain cuts his boat’s engine and demands to know who released the anchor. When Angelica kicked the anchor’s release lever, she also fell backwards into the babies and they all got tangled up in a nearby rope, and as the 3 kids struggle to free themselves, and Angelica also blames Tommy and Chuckie for the whole thing; their struggling however is interrupted as Stu, the angry captain and a super-enraged and soaking wet Drew set their eyes on Angelica and correctly accuse her of releasing the anchor - and Angelica finds herself in very serious trouble. Drew then punishes his daughter by taking her to time out in one of the lower rooms in the cabin that’s below the water level and angrily tells her to stay there and think about what she's done. Angelica tries to put the blame on the babies, but Drew doesn’t buy it and walks away in a huff. Angelica, who’s unable to do anything to save her doll while in the cabin, begins to cry with her head down on a pink pillow; her crying is however interrupted when she spots the swordfish and her beloved doll in it’s jaws though a porthole that’s underwater. As a helpless Angelica looks onward, the swordfish swallows the poor doll and swims away! Meanwhile, back up on deck, as Tommy and Chuckie watch the troublesome swordfish leap out of the water and swim away, Chuckie remarks to his friend: “Poor Cynthia! Now she rally is gone forever.”

Tommy however, too little to know any better, feels that he and Chuckie can still rescue Cynthia by using Angelica’s toy speedboat as a “”Wavy’ Seals Boat” - and he walks over to the baitwell that it’s still floating in and takes it out. Chuckie gasps at this cute, little idea of Tommy’s and reminds him that Angelica sternly told them not to play with Angelica’s boat; but Tommy replies that it’s Cynthia’s only chance, and he also adds in: “Besides, it won’t be for ‘play’, it will be for ‘real’. ‘Wavy’ Seals to the rescue!”

Angelica sneaks back up on deck; and we then immediately cut over to Tommy and Chuckie, where Tommy is tying Angelica’s toy speedboat on to his sleeping grandfather’s fishing line - When Tommy finishes, he hands it to Chuckie, who then throws it overboard into the ocean. Just then Angelica walks into the scene and scoldingly asks her cousin and his best friend, “Hey, what’s going on here?”; in shock, they both turn around and say “Angelica!” Angelica then asks (again scoldingly) asks what they're doing. Chuckie replies nervously “I-i know we weren’t ‘apposed’ to play with your boat” and Tommy adds in “uh but-but we decided to rescue Cynthia for you.” Tommy then explains his plan as we see the swordfish swimming back toward the gang’s fishing boat whilst leaping out of the water: “See; when the big fish sees the boat, he’ll know the ‘Wavy’ Seals have come to rescue, and he’ll get scarred and let Cynthia go.” But of course, the swordfish isn’t intelligent enough to reason like that, even if it were really the Navy Seals, and it only sets its eyes on the toy boat as a target rather than a threat; like it did before with Cynthia, the swordfish leaps out of the water, grabs the toy speedboat in its jaws and proceeds to swim away with it. A horrified Angelica moans that now she's lost her doll and her boat.

Lou is awakened by the sound of his fishing poll, exclaims “My gum! I got one!” and proceeds to reel the swordfish in, laughing excitingly as he sees what he’s caught. Since Lou is of course much stronger than Angelica, Tommy and Chuckie, the swordfish isn’t able to match him and is slowly pulled aboard; Chuckie however feels that the fish, having already got Cynthia and her boat, is now trying to get Lou as well, and Tommy orders everyone in haste to grab onto him - Lou however is too preoccupied to mind the kids. Stu and Drew have both finally get a bite at the same time and reel their catches in, which turn out to be just 2 small brown fish. Stu and Drew then suddenly hear their father grunting and see that he’s just managed to pull the enormous and heavy swordfish up to the railing with all his strength and is struggling to pull it onboard, and they immediately rush to his aid. Together, Stu and Drew grab onto the swordfish and successfully pull it onboard - just as Lou’s line comes loose - and thus put an end its troublemaking spree and unknowingly avenge Angelica’s lost toys.

A victorious and proud Lou takes a quick breather and then gets up and follows his 2 sons as they drag his grand prized catch to the center of the bow and put it down on deck, and he then asks his 2 sons if they caught anything; Stu and Drew briefly blush in awe as they’ve both been quite bested by their father (though, unknowingly, with help from the kids), and without saying a word, they both timidly push their only catches overboard with their feat - and everyone continues to stare at Lou’s enormous catch.

Later, after the everyone is now back on shore; the swordfish has been hung on a wooden crane on the dock so that the captain can take “trophy pictures” for the group, and Lou proudly poses next to it and his 2 flabbergasted sons stand nearby. Not far away are the kids; though the troublesome fish has been successfully caught, Angelica is still upset as she still never got her doll and toy boat back, and she watches the adults form afar in a huff. Tommy and Chuckie apologize to Angelica about Cynthia. Angelica bemoans that she'll never see Cynthia or her boat again. Lou then walks over and invites the kids over to pose in a “Trophy Picture” with him and his 2 sons. A proud and reassured Lou then tells his 2 sons that they still have a lot to learn about fishing and he proudly bumps his catch with his left hand, and - in a blessed miracle - this causes the swordfish to cough up Angelica’s beloved doll and toy boat! Angelica is elated as she got her toys back after all, and Lou (not knowing what the kids had been up to whilst sleeping) asks “How'd that get in there?” Tommy and Chuckie’s spirits are brightened as they happily see Angelica reunited with her beloved toys; as Angelica hugs her doll and toy boat.

The captain gets in position to take a “Trophy Picture” with the adults and the kids; but just before he flicks the camera’s shutter, the troublesome swordfish is able to squirm itself loose from the crane and escape into the water whilst also knocking Stu and Drew (and almost knocking Lou) into the water with it at the very moment the picture is taken (a somehow appropriate end to a rather eventful day of fishing)

Trivia

 * Stu's failsafe fishing lure is called The Classic Hand-Tied White Whizzer Lure with Emu Feather Danglers.
 * When Cynthia gets eaten by the fish, there is reconstructed music from the 1975 movie Jaws. Also ironically, Angelica references Jaws when she says “I think we need a bigger boat.”
 * Moral: Don't blame others for your wrongdoing or mistakes. Learn to take responsibility and accept the consequences for your actions even if they're natural consequences.

Goofs

 * When Cynthia is shown with a rope around her, it is around her waist 2 times. When it is shown in the air, the rope is around her about 4 times.