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Recap / Star vs. the Forces of Evil S1 E4 "School Spirit"

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Echo Creek Academy's football team, the Awesome Opossums, has an upcoming game against the Silver Hill Warriors. The team's mascot, an opossum, has recently died, so Marco's friend Ferguson dresses up as one to support the team (he's really doing it in an attempt to pick up chicks, thinking he's impressive even through he's fat, dorky, and clumsy).

When Marco describes how every year the Warriors "slaughter" the Awesome Opossums, Star takes it literally and thinks football is like a ritualized war. She asks Marco for advice on how to prevent the slaughter. Marco, who admits he has no real clue about football, spouts some random natter involving throwing bombs and offense. Star tries to join the cheerleading squad to coordinate them into defending the team, but the head cheerleader thinks she's a weirdo and bans her from the team. So she decides to do it herself.

Meanwhile, since every year the Warriors steal the opossum before or during the game, Marco suspects that they will try to kidnap Ferguson. He insists Ferguson stay with him at all times and won't allow him to go home, to his chagrin.

As the game begins, Star reveals that she rigged the entire field with booby traps to destroy the Warriors. Horrified, Marco explains that football is just a friendly game. Star realizes she made a mistake, but its too late. The Warrior trigger the traps, which include bombs, trap doors, and mechanisms that release monsters. Star and Marco leap onto the field to help them. As soon as they do this, two Warriors grab Ferguson and try to drag him away, but are stopped when they step on landmines.

Star and Marco defeat all the monsters. The Warriors are terrified of what just happened and run away, causing the Awesome Opossums to win due to the other team forfeiting. Star, Marco, and Ferguson are cheered by the school. Just as they think everything is fine, Marco is suddenly carried off by a flying monster that they missed.


Tropes:

  • Alpha Bitch: Britney. She dislikes Star because she's a magical princess, from another dimension, unable to be brought into line by typical mean girl techniques, and therefore potentially a threat to her popularity.
  • Anger Born of Worry: Marco experiences this when Ferguson makes Marco think he was killed by one of Star's land-mines.
    Marco: This is why you only have two friends!!
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Marco insists that Ferguson blows on a stranger danger whistle if the Warriors try to steal him, "This whistle's gonna save your life! Put it in your mouth! Blow on it! DO IT!" as all the while he's forcibly shoving the whistle in Ferguson's face as Ferguson screams "Get it away from me!" Alfonso slowly backs away in the background saying, "Oh, dear…"
  • Everything Makes a Mushroom: The first of Star's traps is a bomb that sets off a rainbow-colored mushroom cloud at kick-off.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Star booby traps the football field, thinking it was an actual battle instead of a game:
    Star: Oh no. Everything's going according to plan!
  • Killer Rabbit: Star's take on the Kitty Cat Offense, which is composed of stray cats magically mutated into massive, demonic flaming cats.
  • Literal-Minded: Based on Marco's comments about how the Silver Hill Warriors always "slaughter" their team and Miss Skullnick's remark that the football game will be a "bloodbath" literally, Star thinks the football game is going to be an actual battle and booby-traps the field.
  • One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Marco fails to realize that Star has a completely different idea as to what football is, so his vague explanations only further her opinion of the sport rather than correcting it.
  • Opposing Sports Team: The Silver Warriors, those monsters...except they're not bad as the monsters Star summons to "protect" the Awesome Opossums.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Marco admits that Star turning the football field into a dangerous mine field could have been avoided if he had bothered to look and explain to Star that football is just a game instead of an actual battle.
  • Power Perversion Potential: Ferguson thinks he might get "a lot of action" if he had a real Prehensile Tail.
  • Properly Paranoid: Marco thinks the Silver Hill Warriors are going to kidnap Ferguson as the mascot because they once stole the live opossum the school used to have. The minute Marco leaves Ferguson's side, the Warriors do just that.
  • Shaking the Rump: Brittney Wong and the other Echo Creek cheerleaders plan to distract the Silver Hill Warriors with their "booty-shaking dance moves" during the big game. Star (who thinks the game is going to be an actual battle) is rather embarrassed, and unimpressed, when they throw in a demonstration.
  • Something We Forgot: At the end, while the school is cheering Star and Marco, Star gets the weird feeling that she's forgetting something. Then a flying monster that wasn't defeated swoops down and snatches Marco away.
    Star: That was it...
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Principal Skeeves makes a point of noting that Britney Wong became head cheerleader on her own merit and NOT because her father made a generous donation to the school.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Ferguson doesn't seem to realize it's probably not a good idea to carelessly run through what's essentially a mine field. While it's exploding, and when you are fully aware of the surrounding explosions.
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: While Star tries to figure out how to prep for the game, Marco does his best to prevent Ferguson (dressed as the school mascot) from getting kidnapped by the visiting football team.
  • Unusual Euphemism: “Don't worry, Sabrina, the spirit boys are going to catch you. Grow some pom-poms!"
  • Weirdness Coupon: Marco does not look strangely at Star hanging off live electric wires to catch stray squirrels, or her request for highly flammable liquids. In the end, this is deconstructed with Star's dangerous antics; Marco admits fault in that he should have been looking out for her.

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