Happy weird in between Christmas and New Year’s week, everyone! I hope your holidays so far have been swell. My Christmas was pretty quiet, and I am one of the unlucky ones that had to go back to work this week, so wahhh. October and November were super busy for me, working and grad school was intense. I’m happy to report I got an A and A- as my final grades, so yay not sucking!
I apologize in advance if this is one of your favourite episodes, because I am not a fan, and I won’t likely be hiding that within this review. As you guys already know I hate one character episodes, and this character is fucking obnoxious. I gotta say, it makes me feel good to take a mocking lens to this show when it calls for it, and boy does this episode call for it.
The episode opens with children picking up garbage by the side of the Don River, and for some reason a camera crew with a reporter is there to film it. Must’ve been a slow news day in Toronto.
Amanda and Busy are walking along, picking up trash, and Amanda starts asking Busy weird things like what kind of tree she would be. It turns out there is reasoning behind her odd questions, as Amanda is preparing for an audition to a theatre company. They have a bit more small talk regarding how they basically skipped school to take part in this Don River clean up, when all of a sudden they hear a scream.
We then see some random girl named Caitlin at the freaking splish splash show, aka drowning as she gets carried down river. Caitlin is played by Kathryn Long, who you may recognize as Carly Beth from the first Goosebumps episode, The Haunted Mask. According to IMBD, Sag i.e. Amos Crawley, is also in that episode. I swear, in the 90’s Canadian TV had like 20 actors and they all rotated between different shows. Anyway, Busy and Amanda notice and take off to try and save her, as apparently no one was monitoring the water safety situation.
Busy tries to reach for Caitlin with an old umbrella, but she misses and goes further down the river. This screen shot is hilarious to me, she looks she’s being consumed by The Blob with that face she’s making.
Busy and Amanda take off along the river, now climbing rocks to try and reach to where Caitlin is floating off to. Caitlin finally manages to grab hold to a branch and stops for a bit. Busy ends up climbing some sort of structure that is over the river near where Caitlin is. I’m wondering if a stunt double was used for this part, probably was, as even if this wasn’t over the river, that is a pretty big jump.
Amanda is utterly horrified at her friend’s dangerous attempts to save this dumb girl’s life. Busy lowers herself onto her stomach to try and reach the umbrella for Caitlin to grab. However, it’s clearly obvious that she’s still way too far away for Caitlin to be able to reach for it. She tries, but fails and ends up continuing her baby Moses float down the river. You can tell Busy is getting mighty irritated by this whole situation. I couldn’t capture the image, but she does a FML face when Caitlin resumes drowning.
Caitlin finally manages to grab another log, this time it’s much closer to the shore. She seriously could’ve pulled herself to the shore, but well… you’ll understand why she doesn’t later on. Busy races to her and manages to finally save her drowned rat ass, pulling her out of the river. While this is all occurring, the news crew just happens to be conveniently filming this entire event.
So we see the reporter interviewing Busy, and you can tell she’s feeling uncomfortable and pretty much like yeah I saved her because I could, and not trying to make a big deal of it. Caitlin is super appreciative and tells Busy she saved her life because apparently she can’t swim. Pretty dumb participating in an event near water then, blondie.
The scene pans out, and we see all the Ramones at home watching the segment on TV. They are basically chatting about what happened. Sam asks the valid question, “where the fuck was the teacher during all this?” Frankie for some reason acts like kind of a dick to Busy, don’t really get it. I notice in these later seasons Frankie is less the sweetheart he was in earlier seasons, boo show. But by contrast, Sam is much more likeable compared to his former asshole self. Anyway, this scene just shows that the family is proud of Busy, as most people would’ve probably let Caitlin flow down the river and eventually into Lake Ontario.
The next day at school, Amanda comes up to Busy and tells her she and the fam saw Busy on the news and she looked awesome. Ever modest Busy just states she looked like a “drowned rat,” (no that was Caitlin) and kinda shrugs it off. Speak of the devil, Caitlin comes up and gives Busy this really cheap looking t-shirt that says “Don River Rescue.” Busy is like wtf, and Amanda is struggling not to laugh, because what actually is this? Busy tells Caitlin she feels weird wearing this, and Caitlin is like why you should be proud and show it off. She then leaves and both the girls are like what a goddamn weirdo.
Later on, Busy is cutting out an article in the newspaper about the rescue. Amanda comes over and starts bitching about Carla also auditioning to join the same acting company that she was talking about earlier in the episode. Sag comes by and makes a funny sarcastic remark about basking in Busy’s glory. He then says maybe Ernie Lipnit can make a comic about her. Caitlin comes over and basically starts talking about how they should be made into a rip off comic version of the X-Men, and everyone is side eyeing the hell out of her. She tells Busy she feels different and everyday is a “wonderful surprise.” I’ll let Busy’s facial expression speak for that remark.
So it’s pretty evident that Caitlin is totally milking this whole rescue situation, and is literally acting like Busy untied her from a train track or something. I’m expecting this girl to soon declare she’s a born again Christian or something. Monkey Ears comes up and tells Busy and Caitlin he wants to do a story for the school paper about the rescue. Amanda mentions that he should include stuff about the clean up, and he basically blows her off. You can tell she’s getting annoyed, because unlike Busy, she does like being the centre of attention. Busy notices, and tells Amanda she should provide commentary as a bystander, but Amanda can’t because she has her audition.
At the audition, Carla calls Amanda over to sit next to her while they wait for their turns to be called. Carla notes all the “excitement” of yesterday, and basically states that Busy is a moron for getting caught up in Caitlin’s stuff. Amanda is like, what are you yammering, about? she saved her life. Carla scoffs and says sure. She then uses an example of Caitlin being super fake in that she wears blue contacts, but her eyes are brown. Amanda says, who cares, but Carla says that Caitlin would adamantly state she has natural blue eyes. So basically according to Carla, Caitlin is a liar and a fake person, I suppose. It’s funny how Carla seems to be a really good judge of character, aka the prior Nina remarks, even though Carla is also a terrible person. I guess it takes one to know one.
Back at the school, Monkey Ears is taking pictures of Caitlin and Busy for the story. Busy notes that she hates having her photo taken, while Caitlin is lovin’ it. Caitlin suggests a reenactment, and Busy says yeah lets get a bucket and an umbrella. LOL, that’s actually great, but Caitlin is none too pleased with being made fun of for her “near death experience.”
Back to the audition, Amanda is interviewing with the teacher and basically states she wants to be an actor to get into the mind’s of characters. The teacher points out that writers can also do that, but Amanda says she needs an audience. To me this shows that at least Amanda is honest with her need for attention, whereas Caitlin is trying to be some innocent little victim, when she is actually trying to milk every second of the fame she’s gotten from this near drowning experience.
At Busy’s house, her, her mom and Frankie are doing some weird fitness test sit up thing when the door bell rings. Busy answers, and it’s Caitlin. Apparently some company wants to give them the Good Samaritan award and it is a trip to Walt Disney World. Ummm… why would Caitlin get this award? Busy saved her, she did nothing but flail around in some nasty river water. So Busy is super stoked, and very excited about this. Frankie asks why Caitlin won the award too (which again, was my thought as well), and she said she was “doing her best for the environment when it happened.” Busy asks how this happened, and Caitlin said the president saw them on the news, then called her mom? I dunno, upon rewatching this episode, this whole situation sounds so sketch.
The next day Sag and Busy are walking, and stalker Caitlin runs up to Busy and tells her that she was able to get them on some teen show. Probably Jonovision (my Canadian 90’s teens will remember that gem). Sag kind of peaces out, and Busy tells Caitlin she feels weird going on a show like that. Amanda comes up super excited, as it’s implied that she got into the theatre company. But before she can say anything, Caitlin cuts her off telling her to convince Busy to go on the show. You can tell Amanda is getting mighty irritated with this chick and also pulls a Sag and walks on ahead.
In their washroom setting, Amanda tells Busy what Carla said about how Caitlin is a liar and can’t be trusted. Busy says she can’t really ignore her after saving her life. Amanda then states that Busy is letting being a hero get to her head, and Busy tells Amanda had it been her she’d be soaking it up, because she’s a huge attention whore. They don’t really have a fight, more of a disagreement. But yeah, this reminds me a lot of the Kurt Browning episode, where Amanda really hated Busy getting so much attention. Having been friends with girls who are like Amanda and always expect you to be on the sideline looking in on them, it’s exhausting.
At lunch time, Caitlin is sitting with Busy and Busy decides to try and find out exactly who this girl is. She asks her if she has any siblings, and Caitlin says her parents stopped after her because she was “gifted.” Busy asks in what, and she says chess. Busy says they should play one day and then Caitlin stammers that she doesn’t play professionally anymore. Monkey Ears and Sag come up to them with the newspaper featuring the article. Caitlin starts going on about how they should do another article about the public response (like anyone would care at this point), and their upcoming trip. ME tells them the next issue is booked for Amanda and Carla as they both got into the theatre company. Caitlin then starts going on and on about how her and Busy can do a world tour of this whole rescue, and Monkey Ears and Sag look weirded out and leave. Caitlin tells Busy that she’s not doing all this for herself, and it’s important to get out their message. What message? Don’t play never a river if you aren’t proficient in swimming? That’s pretty obvious to most people, Caitlin. So this girl is starting to isolate Busy from her friends, what an annoying situation to be in.
A short scene in the hallway, Busy learns that Carla and Amanda are going to the Lakeview to celebrate getting into the theatre program. Busy says she’ll meet up with them in a bit.
Later, Busy is walking outside and see’s Caitlin and runs up to her. She tells her that she’s not comfortable doing the teen interview. Caitlin’s sweet little mask falls off and you can see she’s very pissed, some real narcissistic rage. She tells Busy she has “no right to take that way from her”, so obviously that thing she said two seconds ago in the other scene about it “not being about her” was totally untrue. She admits to Busy that she knows how to swim and she faked the whole thing to get the attention of the film crew that was there. She tells Busy this whole fake rescue has been really good for both of them, and she’s going to ride that wave as long as she can. Busy is like what the actual f is wrong with you, and says she’s not going to be a part of this anymore. Caitlin then threatens Busy, saying if she doesn’t go to the teen show that she’ll confess it was all Busy’s idea. What a psycho B.
The next scene we see Busy talking with her mom about the whole thing, saying she feels the need to expose everything and tell the truth. But on the other hand, it’s not fair that she has to give up the trip because she actually did think she was saving Caitlin. She admits to Lucy that being seen as a hero did feel good, and despite what she was saying this whole episode, she actually did like the attention. Lucy says that’s valid, because unlike Caitlin, she didn’t go seeking this attention. Her mom says the situation is fucked, but she has to be the one to decide what she wants to do.
The next day, Caitlin comes up to Busy and is like, ok my mom will drive us to the studio, so assuming her threats worked. Busy tells her this whole situation is stupid and fake, and therefore she won’t be going. Caitlin of course get’s pissed, and says Busy is ruining her life. Busy is like, you cray girl, get some professional help. Caitlin says she is going anyway, and Busy says no one will give a crap if the hero isn’t there and walks off.
The next scene Busy is contemplating life on a bridge by the Don River. Amanda shows up (apparently Busy’s mom told her she’d be there? Just chilling on a bridge?), and asks why she wasn’t on the show. Amanda confirms that Caitlin didn’t go because the show was about something completely different. So she knew it would be pointless bs without Busy. Busy tells Amanda that Caitlin faked everything, and therefore she didn’t feel right going. Amanda tells Busy pretty much what Lucy said, in that even though Caitlin is fake AF, Busy seriously thought she was saving someone and is still a hero. She tells Amanda she gave the tickets back for the trip because they don’t deserve to go. I was thinking this whole thing was fake, because I could see a pathological liar like Caitlin making this up and then telling Busy it mysteriously got “cancelled” but I guess it was legit.
The episode ends with Busy and Amanda walking along the bridge talking about what the show was actually about, which was a pet psychic.
Whooo boy did I hate this episode. It is possibly one of my least favourite of this entire series. I am not sure what the point of this was? We already know Busy has good moral character from numerous other episodes, such as the Heros episode from last season, and the Black, White or Maybe Grey from season one. Caitlin was an extremely annoying character, and I honestly wish she did end up drowning. I’m sure if this character actually existed, they’d be enjoying getting their attention whore needs filled by posting cringe dance videos to Tik Tok.
Anyway, I wanted to squeeze in one more review for 2021. I’ll admit my updating wasn’t amazing this year, but again, I feel like I’m trying to postpone the inevitable with the end of this show. But I hope you guys have a great New Year’s and that 2022 somehow is less ridiculous than these last couple of years! (But probably won’t be, let’s be real).
Next episode, Amanda flirts with a boy and loses a child. Until next time!
Ready or Not Reviewed! 