Murmur on the Ornery Express

Murmur on the Ornery Express is a Season 8 episode of Rugrats.

Season 8 Episode 9
Murmur on the Ornery Express
Original Airdate	February 15, 2003
VHS release	Mysteries
DVD release	Season 8 Mysteries
Previous Episode	Trading Phil
Next Episode	Back To School

Characters Present

• Pickles Family:
  • Stu, Didi, Tommy and Dil Pickles.
  • Drew, Charlotte and Angelica Pickles.
  • Lou and Lulu Pickles.
• Finster Family:
  • Chas, Kira, Chuckie and Kimi Finster.
• Deville Family:
  • Howard, Betty, Phil and Lil Deville.
• Other:
  • Boris and Minka Kropotkin (Didi's parents).
  • Dwayne Tickerbacker (voiced by Tom Bosley).
  • Train worker.
  • Two detectives.

Plot

The popular Agatha Christie mystery, Murder on the Orient Express, gets the Rugrats treatment. For their second honeymoon, Boris and Minka are going on an 18-hour two-day scenic train ride to Little Biendeltown---a town that replicates the charm of the Old Country. But, of course, they invite the entire gang along for the ride. However, along the way, Minka's necklace, Wawa (Chuckie's teddy bear), and Cynthia (Angelica's doll), disappear---they may have been stolen by a train robber, which Chuckie and Kimi's dad, Chas, informs the other adults about after reading it in the paper. As a result, the Rugrats try to find who has stolen these items.

Meanwhile, Drew forces Charlotte to leave her work at home while they go on their trip. But Charlotte, being the workaholic that she is, remains defiant. Also, Didi and Kira try to find various landmarks that the train passes by, but it becomes a challenge due to the many distractions. Plus, on the train, Lulu reunites with an old boyfriend of hers named Dwayne Tickerbacker, but Lou gets really suspicious of him (partly due to jealousy, obviously). And finally, Angelica falls in love with Brett, a young, rich socialite (in the end, it's revealed that he and his family live in Little Biendeltown, as they run the Little Biendeltown School of Deportment & Ballroom Dancing).

At the end of the episode, it turns out that Dwayne was the train robber and had stolen Minka's necklace (which Lulu is saddened by, and Lou is smug about his suspicions of Dwayne being correct), and also that Wawa and Angelica's Cynthia doll were accidentally switched (Angelica grabbed Wawa by mistake and left Cynthia behind in the train car).

Trivia

• It's shown that Stu seems to have a fear of trains in this episode. He even seemed a little scared of the toy train that Chuckie was playing with at the beginning of the episode.
• Tom Bosley appeared before in an earlier Rugrats episode -- last time, he was Billy "Strike" Maxwell in King Ten Pin.
• This episode also features a pair of geysers that, when they erupt simultaneously (every 96 days), forms a heart formation with their blasts of hot water. However, in my opinion, I don't think it's scientifically possible for geysers (or any airbourne streams of water) to do that.
• The locomotive on the train has a logo that says "TT", though nothing is mentioned about what it stands for.
• Stu and Drew were at the back of the line when they came in the window, but were at the front of it, when they stormed in the storage.
• After the first period of darkness, both Wa Wa, and the necklace are gone. However, only the babies knew of Wa Wa, the adults did not. Thus, it is unknown why Didi said "They were stolen?!"

Gallery