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"In The Family's Way" is the ninth episode of Season 4 of All Grown Up!.
Character Present[]
- Angelica
- Susie
- Dil
- Tommy
- Chuckie
- Phil
- Lil
- Kimi
- Edwin
- Buster
- Alyssa
- Drew
- Charlotte
- Randy
- Lucy
- Brianna
- Savannah (cameo)
- Paris (cameo)
Characters Introduced[]
Summary[]
Angelica is forced to spend a whole week living with the Carmichaels so she can experience a house with rules. She has to do things there like make beds, clean bathrooms, and take the bus to school. Tommy's friends bet that his cousin will not last a whole week there, but she does. Susie and her brothers trick Angelica so she ends up doing more chores than everyone else, but their parents find out and the siblings get punished.
Description[]
Not added yet
- Klasky Csupo
Plot[]
After Charlotte and Drew have to cancel their annual vacation with Angelica to Hawaii, Angelica becomes furious and complains about it nonstop. That night, Charlotte has dinner with the Carmichael family, to try to convince Randy and Lucy to invest on one of her projects and sees how helpful and obedient their children are as they help with dinner compared to her own daughter. Lucy and Randy state that it took "years of practice and a well-planned chore chart", Lucy then, jokingly, offers Charlotte to bring Angelica over to their house if things get out of hand. Charlotte then returns home to catch Angelica attempting to go out on a school night since she thinks she deserves at least six broken curfews since she can't go to Hawaii, Charlotte then decides her daughter could use a bit more discipline, so she sends her to Carmichael family's household for a week (after bribing the reluctant family with 50% of one of her business' earnings). Angelica stays in Susie's room for the week, much to her chagrin.
The next day, Susie tells her friends about Angelica staying with her family for the week. Although some believe that she'll cave in defeat, Tommy tells his friends to not underestimate his cousin because she may be spoiled but is also tough and determined. Chuckie agrees with Tommy because she once caught a cold by sticking her head in the freezer just to get out of a math test. Tommy and Chuckie then bet Phil, Lil, Kimi and Susie that Tommy's spoiled cousin can handle all the Carmichael family rules all week long.
After the first couple of days, Angelica is close to cracking, but after someone reveals that many of her schoolmates were sure she was going to give up, she starts to drastically improve her skill and efficiency on the chores, just like Tommy had predicted, while adding her own style to them, much to Susie's displeasure. However, after Kimi and Lil egg Susie on how worse the bet is getting, she rallies her brothers Buster and Edwin, who are also eager to get back at her, to help her so they give Angelica a whole list of assignments to do by passing them off as the "monthly chores", which involve some heavy remodeling of everything in the entire house, which Angelica does.
Unfortunately for Susie, her plan backfires when her parents witness Angelica fall off the roof while cleaning the rain gutters with a toothbrush as her "last chore" and after Angelica tells them about what has been going on, the angry parents make their kids apologize to her, with Susie only doing so after Buster insists, she do so. Susie tries to defend her brothers by confessing to their parents that changing the chore table was all her idea and she should be the one to be punished. However, their parents decide to punish all three of them for tampering with the entire chore table and putting Angelica in danger by grounding them for a month. Due to being the last day of the week, the Carmichaels allow Angelica to go home, even after all the pressure the family gave her, made a breakthrough with the rules and she joyfully leaves the house. When Angelica leaves, Randy admits he was impressed with Angelica's cleaning skills.
Meanwhile, Charlotte and Drew initially enjoy having silence in the house, but Dil shows up to "fill the void" left by Angelica's absence. Throughout his stay, he gets them to play his original game Impatience which causes them to get very impatient with the game rules and realize they miss Angelica. As on cue, Angelica comes home and admits she has a very easy life, and her proud parents offer to reward her by letting her watch whatever she wants on TV and order anything she wants for dinner. However, much to Charlotte and Drew's shock, Angelica rejects their offer as she tells them that she wants to prepare dinner together as a family and talk with each other without cell phones or other distractions, taking what she learned from the Carmichaels with her.
Trivia[]
- According to Lil, no one has ever cleaned under Tommy's bed before.
- Some of the Carmichael's Family Rules include:
- If someone tries the food while cooking, they have to set the table.
- Everybody has to get up before 6:30 a.m.
- Last one to get out of bed has to make all of them.
- "You snooze, you lose." (A rule possibly made up by the kids.)
- Wait in line to use the bathroom and the last one to use it has to clean the toilet.
- "You get what you get, and you don't get upset".
- No complaining about Family Rules.
- All the kids have to take the bus to school.
- Last one to finish eating has to clear the table.
- First one to get home from school apparently doesn't have to do chores but has to help make dinner (the kids usually get out of this when they go to the library after school).
- The family eats together in the dining room, never in front of the TV, and share their day.
- Whoever misbehaves/defies Randy or Lucy's orders has to put baby Gabrielle's soiled diapers inside a bag and leave them on the porch for the family's diaper service to pick them up.
- Edwin calls Angelica "Peaches" throughout the episode, most likely a reference to the character Princess Peach from the video game Super Mario Bros.
- This is the first time Susie is seen with her locks worn down.
- The same melody can be heard every time someone says, "Family Rule!".
- This episode marks Buster and Edwin's only appearance in All Grown Up! since Alyssa did make an appearance in "Susie Sings the Blues". This episode would also make Alyssa, Edwin and Buster's final appearances in the original Rugrats franchise. Alyssa would be the only sibling to not return in the reboot, but Buster and Edwin do make a return in the reboot as Susie's older cousins.
- This also marks the only appearance of Alyssa's husband, Ty and their daughter, Gabrielle. Ty was previously mentioned in "Susie Sings the Blues".
- Alyssa and her own family are still living in her adolescent-hood home as they are still saving up money for a house as mentioned in "Susie Sings the Blues".
- The plotline is similar to the Rugrats episode "Cool Hand Angelica" as they both involve Angelica being forced to spend time away from her house at a tough, harder place and it's difficult for her at first, but she learns to overcome and handle it there. The main difference is that instead of supporting Angelica, Susie (as well as Buster and Edwin) attempts to sabotage Angelica's triumph (due to being mostly insensitive throughout this episode), even to the extent of adding a chore that nearly resulted in the expense of Angelica's life but fails miserably and gets in trouble with her parents for doing so.
- This is one of the very few episodes to show Susie's evil side.
- Morals:
- Respect other families' lifestyles and rules.
- While it's important to follow rules, there's always a loophole.
- Sometimes taking advantage of people can put them in danger.
- Be grateful for what you have.
Goofs[]
- Angelica arrived at the Carmichael's house with her stuff she packed, but after she was done following the Carmichael's rules for a week, she immediately leaves their house without packing her stuff.