Family Reunion

"Family Reunion" is the first segment of the eighth episode of season 2, and the fortieth Rugrats segment overall.

Characters Present

 * Tommy
 * Angelica
 * Spike (mentioned)
 * Didi
 * Stu
 * Drew
 * Lou
 * Hugh
 * Dotti
 * Emmet
 * Mackie
 * Edie
 * Tammy-Faye
 * Tony
 * Timmy-Ray
 * Conductor

Synopsis
''The Pickles attend a family reunion in Willoughby, Iowa being hosted by Hugh and Dotti Pickles. When Angelica convinces Tommy that reunions are swap meets for kids where you get traded to other members of your family, he begins to worry he may not be going home with Stu and Didi. Will Angelica's lie backfire on her when some of her relatives really want to take her home with them?''


 * - Description from Klasky Csupo

Plot
The episode opens where the Pickles are on a train headed for their family reunion. Angelica scares Tommy with a toy spider and quickly pretends to be asleep to avoid punishment, with Didi thinking Tommy is only crying due to crankiness. As the train arrives at their destination, the family realizes that Grandpa Lou is missing. Stu and Drew find him telling stories to several others, and try to get him to come with him, but he insists he'll get off later after finishing his stories. As Didi, Angelica, and Tommy get off the train, Didi tries to stall the train so that Lou, Stu and Drew could get off, but the conductor says if that the train is leaving that very moment then they'll end up in Chicago if they don't get off. The train starts running, and Stu and Drew jump off onto the platform in time, but Lou stays on the train and waves the others goodbye as he's headed off to Chicago. Stu then goes on to voice a theory that perhaps Lou's intentions had always been to keep heading on to Chicago to avoid the family reunion.

They are welcomed by Hugh and Dotti, who give Stu some sunflower seeds. Hugh and Dotti also welcome Angelica and Tommy, and pay extra attention to Tommy, raising Angelica's ire, especially since Drew previously said she was going to be the star of the party. The feud builds up when Tommy asks twice "What's a family 'union?" Angelica does answer that is where family goes to meet others, and that they hold you, kiss you and other stuff, and talk about how they'd like to take the kids home with them. Tommy interprets this as the other adults wanting to take him away from his mom and dad, and Angelica reinforces this, telling him a lie that he'll be taken away from his family 'forever'.

Eventually, after arriving, Tommy and Angelica are taken to a playpen where all their cousins are playing. After Tommy is introduced to his cousins Timmy Ray Pickles, Tony Pickles, and Tammy Faye Pickles, Angelica introduces herself and stats she'll be the boss, but Timmy points out she hasn't met the leader of the cousins, Emmet Pickles, who is much bigger than Angelica is. He thinks Angelica is trying to hurt his cousins, but Angelica denies this, stating she's one of his cousins as well. Emmet tries to wrestle her to pay her back but Angelica screams in the nick of time. Drew comes and takes Angelica out of the play-pen and Angelica blows a raspberry at them. Tommy says to all his cousins what Angelica told him about family reunions, but Timmy is doubtful that their own parents would let something like that happen. Not long after this, however, the other relatives come to the playpen and start kissing, hugging, and picking up the kids, except for Emmet, who is too big and heavy.

Then Mackie and Edie, Emmet's parents, find Tommy, and his worst fears seem to be realized when she asks if he wants to come home with her, as she opens her mouth and the flashback of Angelica's head appears inside, repeating "And you'll never see your mom or your dad or your dumb old dog ever again!". After the grownups leave, the other kids agree that Tommy may be right, and Tommy makes a plan for them to get out of the playpen and find their own parents so no one can take them away from them. Emmet opens the playpen after which he complains about being hungry.

As Huge and Dotti take the other relatives on a rather boring tour of the farmyard, showcasing their barn, Angelica groans because she can't see a thing behind the other adults. She soon sees a dog nearby, who playful rushes up to Drew and pounces him, getting his clothes all muddy in the process. Drew leaves Angelica in the care of Mackie and Eddie at Mackie's insistence and advises him to go back to the farmhouse and change, which worries Angelica as her own fabricated lie begins to backfire on her, making her believe Mackie and Eddie want to take her away from her dad. As the grownups and Angelica ride through the cornfields, Tommy finds the sunflower seeds that Stu was eating, and thinks that if they follow the seeds they'll find their parents. As Eddie talks about taking Angelica home with her and tries to change her hair, Angelica's own words come back to haunt her recollection as she sees her own flashback in Eddie's mouth like Tommy did before. The babies follow the sunflower seeds through the cornfield, while in the barn, Angelica tries to stay where she is by stating she's tired, but Eddie complains she doesn't even know what tired means, and states that doing chores is what Angelica do. The babies come out of the cornfield (Or corn forest, as Tammy Faye calls it), and see the barn nearby. Timmy says it's where the cows go when they want to make milk, and all the other kids go there to try and get some.

Angelica walks along the path with her doll, Cynthia, but doesn't know that a goat escaped from the field. They goat scratches its foot and charges at Angelica as if to say "This is MY field!". Tommy soon understands Angelica is in danger and they vow to save her, but when they chase the goat away, it startles a flock of sheep which break out of the fences and set a lot of the other farm animals free as well. They rescue Angelica, who talks about what she went through, despite the fact she thought she had made up her previous statement.

As the adults see the escaped animals, they all try to capture them as Stu and Didi rush to the playpen only to find the kids missing, but then see them quickly coming up to them as all of their parents hug their own kids. Angelica is also reunited with Drew, as Grandpa Lou arrives in a cab from Chicago (having gone to a Cubs baseball game), and seeing the state the farm is in, states that this is what a good family reunion is all about.

Trivia

 * The train conductor calling "Next stop Willoughby" is a reference to The Twilight Zone episode "A Stop At Willoughby".
 * A banjo plays in the background as Emmet tells Angelica "Wanna rassle? Bet I can make you squeal like a piggy.” This is a reference to the movie Deliverance.
 * This is the first time Tommy sucked his thumb before "Thumbs Up".
 * Angelica seems excited to see a dog in this episode, even though she previously stated she disliked dogs in "Fluffy vs. Spike".
 * In this episode, all of the Pickles appear except for Charlotte since the episode aired before "The Santa Experience", which included her first appearance in-person.
 * Moral: Don’t tell stories that aren’t really true even if you think they're true; they will come back and haunt you.