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"Ancient Misbehavin'" is the fifteenth episode in Season 12, being the two-hundred-and-thirty-first episode overall.
Plot[]
After feeling slighted by a teacher during a special Ancient Greece unit, Louise, Millie and Regular Sized Rudy take matters into their own hands to restore justice. Meanwhile, Bob gets a room of his own.
Full story[]
In the Belcher kitchen, Bob is tired at breakfast, being unable to sleep the previous night due to Linda kicking very hard in her sleep (as she's been dreaming that she’s a 1920's flapper lately). Louise meanwhile is bragging about how many prizes she will be winning, as the fourth graders start a two-week Ancient Greece unit and the teacher, Ms. Padaro, is said to be generous with the prizes students win for participating. Tina tells Louise she will like Ms. Padaro, with Louise hoping to learn steps towards becoming a Greek god, to Linda’s encouragement and Bob’s skepticism.
At Wagstaff, the fourth graders are sitting in Padaro’s classroom, which has the seats in a round format. Louise finds Millie sitting next to her, to the former's annoyance and the latter’s glee. Padaro tells the class that for the next two weeks, they will sit in the round as the Greeks did, to feel more equal and democratic as well. Rudy, Louise and Millie sit at one side and Kaylee, Chloe and Large Tommy on the other, amidst the other students, all talking about the prizes and coins. When asked about it, Padaro says she will be quizzing them throughout the unit, and the more right answers they get, the more they get the coins: clay replicas of Greek coins she made which can be traded at the "market" stand she set up, full of dollar store toys that excite the kids. Also, at the end of the unit, hey will have a huge symposium, a.k.a. a party with grape juice, exciting the kids further. But when class starts, Padaro noticeably only asks the students on one side such as Chloe, while Rudy, Louise and Millie are frustrated putting their hands up without being noticed.
That night in the Belcher apartment, Linda and Bob go to sleep, but Linda starts kicking in the bed again. An irritated Bob gets his pillow and blanket and goes to the living room. He tells an awake Gene to go back to sleep rather than try and make nachos, but Gene sees him putting the pillow and blanket on the sofa, and realizes he can have a "sleepover at Mom’s", which Tina awakes and is eager once hearing. Bob warns them how Linda is kicking, but they (and Louise, who wakes up and hears them) don’t care and sleep on their parent’s bed, to Linda’s delight.
At school the next day, Louise, Rudy and Millie are walking down the wall, with Louise noting how Chloe and Kaylee got called on the previous day, and suggests they sit in their seats. However, by the time they get the class, the other kids have taken the seats. Padaro says they are all good seats, but dismisses Louise’s concerns about the certain seats getting more "coin action" and that she sees all of them. She calls on Louise to answer who was the monster that Argos slayed, who skimmed it and does not know, so Padaro goes back to calling on the kids in the other seats. As she gives more coins to the kids on the wall side of the classroom, Louise tells Millie and Rudy how it is not fair that she does not see them, as they watch the other kids spend their clay coins.
In the hallway afterwards, the three are fuming about the situation, Millie suggests bribing Padaro with cash, when Louise gets the idea instead to make the clay coins themselves. She admits it is counterfeiting but that they tried playing by the rules, and with that not working, they could do that for "justice". Millie agrees as she wants to do what Louise wants, and Rudy says it is the coolest thing he’d ever be a part of. At lunch in the cafeteria, the three sit apart from Gene and Tina (who would blab about their plan) and begin brainstorming. Louise uses a piece of gum and quarter, making an impression in the gum, saying if the gum were a hard mold, it would make the exact shape of a quarter, so they need gold-colored clay, a hard mold, and one of Ms. Padaro’s coins.
That night in the Belcher apartment, the family are watching TV when Linda says it is time for bed when Bob says that he slept really well on the couch and will do so again. Tina and Gene are eager for another sleepover while Louise gets to bed to rest for the Greek class plan. Making his space on the couch, Bob eyes the bookshelf and grabs one to read, Pepper: A Spicy History, but falls asleep before finishing the first page.
At Wagstaff, the three set out their plan in Greek class. Louise feigns leaving the classroom to use the restroom, then signals Rudy to cause a distraction of supposedly seeing a mouse in the corner opposite the door, keeping everyone focused while Louise takes a clay coin from Chloe’s backpack. In the restroom, Louise makes a mold of the coin using some hard putty, and then sneaks back the coin with Rudy causing another distraction before returning to her seat.
At the restaurant, Bob tells Teddy that the previous night was the first time in possibly 15 years that he has slept all the way through the night, and feels great. The kids come home from school, with Louise excusing herself, Rudy and Millie to work upstairs on a "group project", while gene and Tina are surprised, as they didn’t have group projects in the ancient Greek unit when they were in fourth grade. In Louise’s room, the trio mold coins at the desk of Louise’s loft bed, with Millie excited to be in Louise’s room, and then baking the coins in the kitchen oven.
That night, Linda and the kid’s slumber party singing is so loud that Bob decides he needs another quiet place. He then gets the idea to use the restaurant’s basement.
At school the next day, Padaro is teaching on the Socratic method, about asking questions and challenging assumptions, before opening the marketplace. Louise, Rudy and Millie have their fake coins, Rudy nervous Padaro might discover their coins are fake, Louise keeping cool and Millie "loving the danger". Louise tells them one small thing each to not get caught, and the three manage to get their prizes. In the hallway, Rudy and Millie are thrilled, but Louise tells them to keep a low profile, meaning no costly items and to try to get called on so Padaro doesn’t get suspicious. The others reluctantly agree.
As the days in the ancient Greek unit go on, the three use their counterfeit coins to get more items, but are still not called on to answer questions. Meanwhile Bob turns the restaurant basement into a sleeping den, with couch cushions for a bed, a Hawk and Chick poster, and boxes for nightstands, as Gene and Tina start to get tired of the nightly sleepovers with Linda.
Another day in class, Ms. Padaro brings up the story of how Icarus got overconfident and fell too close to the sun, melting the wax of his wings, before opening the marketplace. Rudy wants a windup dolphin for the bathtub and Millie wants a laser pointer, but Louise has to stop them from using too many coins and gets them bouncing balls.
That night, Bob is happy in the basement, as he has a space of his own and can now listen to Donna Summer music, read, decorate with lights, and even has set up the employee bathroom to have lemon water and a scented candle. Gene and Tina meanwhile are exhausted from all the slumber partying with Linda and want to get some sleep.
At school the next day, Louise tries to talk to Rudy about the other day, when Millie approaches them with something she made the previous night: clay coins, but unlike Louise’s mold, these are imperfect replicas, with some being square in shape and others of an off-color clay, etc. Louise tries to chide her, pointing out they had quality control and some of the coins Millie made are really bad, which doesn’t phase Millie, who is upset at being told not to use any of them.
At night in the basement, Bob texts Linda that he’s learned from his book that peppercorns are dried berries, which Linda is happy to hear and tries texting him back, but returns to group moisturizing when Gene and Tina try to get back to their own beds to sleep, while Bob realizes he might need reading glasses.
Back at school in the day, Padaro is teaching when she notices a clay coin on the floor, but notices that it is shaped oddly. Louise realizes it is one of Millie’s counterfeits, and Padaro says that it isn’t counterfeit but that if it were, she put in a secret security feature: when baking her coins, she put in a strip of aluminum foil so she could tell they are hers. But when she breaks open the coin, there is no foil, and then goes to the coin box on her desk. She breaks open more coins, finding several without foil. Realizing that someone is making the fake coins, she calls for whoever made them to confess; when no one does, she gives until the next day, after which the party is cancelled. The other kids groan as Louise realizes they messed up.
At night in the apartment, the Belchers are sitting on the couch and chair minus their cushions, when Rudy calls. Louise takes the call in the kitchen phone, who is panicking and scared that if he goes to jail, he won’t be able to take his stuffed flounder Pancake. While Louise tries to calm him by saying they’re not going to jail, Millie calls on the other line to tell Louise they need to get rid of Rudy on the suspicion he may confess, while Louise tells her Rudy is "cool as a cucumber." She switches to Rudy, who is still freaking out, and switches to Millie how can tell Rudy is panicking. Louise points out that Rudy doesn’t want to ruin the party for anyone, while Millie is unrepentant and says people can get grape juice other times. Louise is uncertain about not feeling guilty, and Millie threatens that "anyone who makes a peep gets hit in the head with a lead peep."
In the master bedroom, Gene and Tina are trying to stay awake in a "back rub train" when Linda gets a call from Bob asking what they are up to, and realizing he forgot to bring down his toothbrush, which Linda offers to bring to him. A nervous bob tries to clean up the basement, while Linda arrives with the toothbrush and likes how Bob has set up the basement. She gets in the cushion bed and under the blankets as the basement is freezing, while Bob serves a beer that somehow in the cold basement is warm. The two try to share the cushion bed, before Bob says he should go back upstairs, while Linda misses him, and he misses her. Also, the kids have started kicking her instead.
At school the next day, Ms. Padaro tells the class that since no one has come forward, she has to call off the symposium. As the kids groan, with Chloe and Kaylee mad and telling whoever did it to confess, Padaro admits her disappointment, as the ancient Greeks would be too, as they believed in ethics, justice, and fairness, and she might not do the unit again; it’s a lot of work, she buys all the prizes with her own money, but if something like this happens again, it’s too much. Louise, seeing how upset she is, says they should talk "philosophically" about it, and Padaro agrees. Louise brings up that she "guesses" maybe the person who made the coins did it because it wasn’t fair how the coins were being handed out. She says it is the Socratic method, but Padaro points out it is not, so Louise asks if it is not the Socratic method, which Padaro says is the Socratic method.
Louise says that she imagines whoever did the counterfeiting might have had their hand up a lot and didn’t get called on because sitting in a circle is a bad idea. Padaro "hypothetically" asks if the person felt it was okay for them to make fake coins, but brings up that Socrates said suffering an injustice did not make it okay to commit an injustice. Louise also suggests that "maybe" the people who did it feel bad about getting the party cancelled and liked the class and would not want Padaro to stop teaching it. Rudy chimes in that "maybe" the people who did it didn’t sleep that night, while Millie says “maybe those people don’t feel any regret at all, just adrenaline”. Padaro says that the rewards aspect can be problematic, and that she cannot see half the class at a time due to the circle, and she is nearsighted, and her hearing is not great. She admits that it may be more ethically complicated than she thought, and agrees to hold the party to the kid’s cheers. Padaro says they may never get to the bottom of the counterfeiting, then asks Louise, Rudy and Millie to see her after class, which Louise accepts.
Later during the party, the other kids are dancing and drinking juice, while Louise, Rudy and Millie are stuck serving food and drink at the table. She tells Ms. Padaro it is a fair punishment, but as soon as the teacher’s back is turned, Millie says the other two that her father has a laser printer and they could make $30 bills, to Rudy’s distress at her bad influence.
Videos[]
External links[]
- "Ancient Misbehavin'" on IMDb
- "Ancient Misbehavin'" press release via The Futon Critic
- "Ancient Misbehavin'" script via Springfield! Springfield!