| “ | Everyone can just like what they like and be who they are, and that's okay. | ” |
"Manic Pixie Crap Show" is the premiere episode in Season 12, being the two-hundred-and-seventeenth episode overall.
Plot[]
Louise must pay a debt to Millie by attending the Pixie Princess Promenade. Meanwhile, a bouquet in the shape of a dog forces Linda to confront her past.
Full story[]
In the Belcher kitchen one morning, Louise enters and tells them this might be the last time they see her, as she has to meet Millie later at the woods in the park for a “super secret surprise”, which Millie will not tell her but did stroke her face and shushed her when asked. Bob asks Louise if she can just not go, but Louise says she owes Millie for a super-rare and out-of-print Burobu card ("The Slug-gitive") she gave Louise. Tina comes in from the bathroom, having spent an hour looking at herself in the bathroom mirror and asks if the others think she is pretty. Bob and Linda are shocked and immediately try to assure her she is, while Tina explains that the other day, Tammy and Jocelyn were talking about an online tutorial of a girl showing one how to do makeup like a supermodel. She asked them to send her the link and they refused, saying she wasn’t “supermodel material” but more an incompetent assistant before walking away. Linda is mad at the girls insulting her daughter, while Louise asks her why she even cares about girly stuff like makeup and being pretty, and tells Tina that the bigger issue is it is Millie Park Day, and is hoping she and Gene accompany her to the park for security. Tina agrees to go along.
Later in the restaurant, a flower delivery van drops off an arranged bouquet in the form of an adorable little white dog. Linda loves it, but there is only the address, with the delivery guy admitting the card saying who it is from fell off. He gives Linda the bouquet, who says it reminds her of a dog that lived next door to her when she was a kid named Bottle Cap, who would entertain the neighborhood kids by balancing bottle caps on his nose. Linda starts about how the dog taught her so much, until he was hit by a hot dog truck and died, which Bob and the delivery guy are sorry to hear. Linda laughs as the delivery guy leaves, and she sets "Bottle Cap Two" on the counter, talking to the flowers.
At the park, the kids arrive, with Lousy telling her siblings to prepare for a fight with Millie until Millie appears behind a bush and surprises them. Gene and Tina leave after a poor excuse, and Millie pulls Louise behind the bush to attach a bow with a camera and microphone to one of her bunny ears. In Louise’s right ear, she puts a headset that allows them to communicate, with all the stuff connected to her dad’s phone, which she puts in Louise’s dress pocket. Millie meanwhile has her mom’s phone so she will be able to hear and see what Louise does (having told her parents she was upgrading their ringtones). Louise is confused and asks what is going on, and Millie asks her if she’s ever heard of the Pixie Princess Promenade, where "pixie princesses" take girls through the park, as Louise realizes to her horror what is happening. Millie has been on nine, but head butted a gnome actor and got banned from participating again. She wants Louise to go on the promenade and get a wand at the end; she has eight but needs more, wanting all the colors and flowers stickers on each, but especially a pink rose. Louise does not want to, so Millie demands she get the Burobu card back. Louise realizes she has to, and asks that she gets the wand, then they are square; Millie agrees.
Just then, the actors playing the pixie princesses, gnome and pixie princess queen drive up and park in the nearby lot, to Millie’s excitement. Meanwhile Gene, playing imaginary frisbee with Tina, mistakes them for a "magical flying sex worker convention", and Tina says she did the promenade a few times when she was younger until she moved onto horses. Millie then gives Louise her pair of pixie wings to wear and says it will be the best three hours of Louise’s life while Louise wants to throw up.
In another area of the park, a group of young girls and their parents/guardians are gathering for the promenade at the start of the trail, while Louise is horrified by how girly everything is. Gene and Tina watch with Millie from behind a bush, who is watching on the phone as she explains that Louise is doing it since she was banned. Louise hears them over the phone and asks them to throw a rock at her head before Pixie Princess Patricia comes out of the trees to take the girls on an "Adventure" while the parents and guardians wait in the parking lot. Patricia leads the girls in twirling around first, with Millie telling Louise over the comms to twirl, to her disgust. Patricia then tells the girls that someone has stolen the Pixie Princess Queen's sparkle sprinkles, which gives the magic wands power. She leads the girls in pixie wings to twirl again before heading off.
At the restaurant, Linda is telling the story of Bottle Cap’s death, and goes to get a water bottle to spritz the bouquet on the counter. As she leaves, Teddy tells Bob that the story was so sad, and that Linda maybe never never processed Bottle Cap’s death, with Bob mentioning how weird it is she never mentioned it, and Teddy wondering if she blocked it out (or that Bob hasn’t been a safe enough partner for her to open up to, to Bob's confusion). teddy notes the flowers will die in a few days, and Linda may spiral, which worries Bob. Linda returns and sings to the dog bouquet about taking care of it so it lives forever.
Later on the pixie trail, the two pixie princesses are singing to the girls, which Louise doe snot want to do until she looks over and sees, on another trail, the actor playing the gnome in the promenade on his phone. Louise speculates that the gnome guy took the sparkle sprinkles, while Mille tells her to just go along for the ride. Louise asks Millie if the guy is the gnome she head butted, which she admits, but denies it was about the wands. As gene, Tina and Millie watch on the phone through the bow camera, Louise figures that he’s standing where the promenade ends, and walks away from the group to ask the gnome for a pink rose wand, saying that it will fulfill the deal as Millie reacts in horror.
Louise approaches the gnome actor, and tells him she knows it’s the end (as there is a sign saying so nearby) area, so she asks him for a pink rose wand. he refuses, telling her she has to earn the wand, and tells her to leave. A frustrated Louise walks back to the pixie group, but then notices a storage bush poking out of some bushes. Checking on it, she finds it full of wands. Millie sees this over the camera, and excitedly runs over to find Louise. Louise finds a pink rose wand, and plans to give it to Millie so she can leave, but Millie finds her and starts taking wands out of the tub. The gnome actor sees them and calls out for help once he recognizes Millie. Several of the girls in the pixie group, however, see the wands and rush over for them. Millie and Louise flee with all the wands that Millie managed to grab. The two manage to hide in a bush with two entrances and enough space under it to sit.
Millie and Louise hide but one of the pixie girls overhears them and asks if they are in there. The girls manage to crawl under and find them. Meanwhile, Gene and Tina are looking for Louise when they find the gnome actor and the pixie queen discussing the situation: the girls who ran into the forest are lost, and Millie and Louise stole the wands, while the pixie prick Essex try to sing to reassure the other pixie girls that their friends are not lost. The pixie princess queen says they will find them, and if they are all around the stolen wands, they will all be disinvited to "pixie-ticipate", before she and the gnome actor (Stewart) head off to look. Tina is upset realizing all the girls could be banned, while ranting about how the girls may grow to be 13 and not have makeup tutorials sent to them. The two start looking for Louise.
In the restaurant, Linda has Teddy take photos of her with the bouquet before leaving to get a bottle cap to balance. Teddy suggests to Bob that they just keep buying the same flower arrangement for the rest of Linda’s life. Just then, Mort enters and sees the bouquet, which was meant to be delivered to his place for a funeral service that afternoon, having called the delivery place and finding out it was there. Bob refuses to let him take it when Linda comes back and tells of how Bottle Cap died right in front of her (with Teddy noting it keeps getting more horrific). Seeing Linda hoping the flower dog doesn’t die on her, mort decides to wait a bit.
In the park bushes, the other girls are mesmerized by the wands, while Louise tells Millie she got the wands, so she wants to leave. But Millie refuses, saying they will find Louise and make her talk and find out where the wands are, so they will be taken back, so Millie will take the Burobu card back, in the night if need be (as she was planning to show up anyway). Just then, Millie finds that her mom’s phone is gone, fallen out while they were running. In the woods, Tina and Gene are looking when they see the pixie queen and Stewart nearby and hide. The Pixie queen stops and finds Millie’s mom’s phone, which is still airing what is in front of Louise in real time, and sees the girls in the bushes. Louise hears her, and hangs up, but the pixie queen redials and follows the sound of the ringtone. Gene and Tina follow her quietly.
At the restaurant, Mort tells Teddy and Bob they should make a move (while Teddy leaves because he was supposed to be fixing a roof hours ago). Bob and Mort tells Linda the flowers were meant to go to Mort’s for a funeral. Linda says she is okay but becomes nervous and grabs the flowers and runs off with them to the employee bathroom.
In the park, the pixie queen and gnome are still tracking the ringtone while Tina is nervous and has to pee. When the actors find the bush, she tells Gene to distract them, which he tries by doing an attempt at a split. The pixie queen crawls under the bush but only finds the phone. Elsewhere in the woods, Louise (now missing the bow), Millie, and the runaway pixie girls are walking up a hill, while Louise tells Millie it was cool to leave the phone behind so they could get away, but asks what now to do. Millie suggests walking to Canada to start new lives. One of the other girls asks Louise why she had the bow camera anyway, and Louise replies that Millie got banned from the promenade, which shocks the girls. Louise notes they are still apparently on the run, and they will likely all be banned. This upsets the girls, and Louise snaps. She tells the girls that maybe getting banned is the best thing that could happen to them, including Millie. Millie is confused, and Louise says they could be free from the “girly girly pixie crap”. Millie ask they would want that and flouts her wands, and Louise angrily tells them they are just being brainwashed with the wands and twirls and sparkle sprinkles. Louise gets an idea: she tells them they should throw the wands in the pond, to show 'them" that they don’t get to tell them they can’t come back because they don’t want to come back. The girls are convinced and head to the pond.
Tina's skirt attached to her underwear.
Tina and Gene keep looking, Tina lamenting that they cannot find Louise or a bathroom, so she ducks into some bushes to pee while Gene stands guard. However, Tina spots the girls ready to throw the wands in the pond and, hastily tucking her skirt into her underwear, races over to stop them. Tina manages to stop them, explaining she is Louise’s sister, while Gene catches up. Tina tells Louise she will get the kids banned, which Louise says in the point, that she is "freeing" them from the 'girly-girliness", with Millie ready and the others a little confused. Tina stops them again, and starts to twirl to distract them. Louise tells the girls to resist the urge to do so as well, while Gene again tries to do a split.
Bob and Mort stand outside the employee bathroom, with Bob asking Linda how she is doing. Linda says through the door that she is fine. mort takes over and brings up Charlie Brown’s catchphrase "good grief", to Linda’s confusion. Mort says she needs to do some grieving for Bottle Cap in there, since she never got to say goodbye to Bottle Cap, but now is her chance, in the next two and a half minutes. Linda is unsure about saying goodbye to the flower bouquet as if it is Bottle Cap, but then starts crying and telling the flowers/Bottle Cap she misses him and why he had to leave her.
Tina gets dizzy from spinning, while gene feels great in his split pose, so Tina offers to give the wands back so they won’t be banned. Louise again tells Tina she is helping the girls, and the two starts arguing, with Tina saying the girls like that stuff and Louise saying they don’t. Louise then says she doesn’t like, and Tina asks so, causing Louise to ask "well, why? Why don’t I like it?" She wonders why she has never liked any of that kind of stuff, with Tina asking what she means. Louise asks if something is wrong with herself, if she is not being a girl right or something. Tina tells her it’s fine that she doesn’t like it, it does not mean anything wrong with her; she likes Burobu cards and other stuff instead, while the girls nearby like their pixie stuff, everyone can like what they like and be who they are, and it’s okay.
Louise questions her, given how Tina was worried about looking pretty earlier, when the pixie queen and Stewart catch them all. As the lady announces they are all disinvited, Louise pretends to be another gnome and claims she alone did it, taking off the pixie wings in the process. While the actors are a bit confused, she says she tried to put the pixies under an evil spell to throw the wands in the pond and ruin things for them, but they would not do it. The pixie queen thanks her for her “honesty” with some confusion, and the girls think they should have taken her out when they had the chance. Louise says Millie tried to stop her and should be reinstated. the pixie queen says she will consider it (to Stewart's terror), and gives Millie back the phones. Louise then leaves with her siblings.
In the employee bathroom, Linda continues to apologize to the bouquet-as-Bottle Cap and says goodbye. She feels good, but then asks if there is time to pretend the flowers are her eighth-grade teacher who got hit by a milk truck, which horrifies Bob while Mort says he has to get going. Linda gives him the flowers.
In the park, Tina is proud of Louise for what she did, but finds Louise is not in the mood for a "you go, girl". Louise still thanks her, and tells Tina that while she still thinks the whole prettiness thing is stupid, she likes looking at her sister, and if she’s not pretty then she doesn’t know what is.
Videos[]
External links[]
- "Manic Pixie Crap Show" on IMDb
- "Manic Pixie Crap Show" press release via The Futon Critic
- "Manic Pixie Crap Show" script via Springfield! Springfield!