Recap / Central Park S2E09 "A Boat-iful Mind"

RECAP:
Index
Season One: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Season Two: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16
Season Three: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13

Original release date: March 4, 2022

Written by: Rachel Hastings
Directed by: Steven Theis

♫ From a new angle
Connected by our new view
And perspective
From a new angle
Take a look around
Life is looking great from a new angle ♫

—The Tillermans, "From a New Angle"

Cole is getting bad grades in geometry and is too distracted with model sail-boating to fix it. Molly isn't proud that she's drawing a farting bean cartoon for her school newspaper. Owen is struggling to find the perfect stepladder. Bitsy and Helen both have gout and they take some pills from Canada to relieve the pain.

Songs

• "I'm Bad (At Being Bad)" - Cole
  Written by: Shaggy
  Performed by: Tituss Burgess
  Additional Vocals: Stephanie Beatriz, Brooke Dillman, Moorea Masa, Angelica Cox, Emily Goldstein, Alex Jules Holtzman, Kristian Perez, Benjamin Michel Fabien Lecourt, Emeen Zarookian
• "Smooth Sailing" - Cole & Glorious Gary
  Written by: Emeen Zarookian
  Performed by: Tituss Burgess & Christopher Jackson
  Additional Vocals: Alex Jules Holtzman, Kristian Perez, Benjamin Michel Fabien Lecourt, & Emeen Zarookian
• "Highest Suite in the Hotel" - Bitsy & Helen
  Written by: Kevin Larsen & Will Reynolds
  Performed by: Stanley Tucci & Daveed Diggs
  Additional Vocals: Brooke Dillman, Emily Goldstein, Alex Jules Holtzman, Kristian Perez, Benjamin Michel Fabien Lecourt, & Emeen Zarookian
• "From a New Angle" - Owen, Paige, Cole, Molly, & Birdie
  Written by: Kate Anderson & Elyssa Samsel
  Performed by: Leslie Odom Jr., Kathryn Hahn, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Tituss Burgess, & Josh Gad

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Tropes:

• Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: While on the park bench and dwelling on his geometry, Cole tells himself that with a little effort, he'll be "smooth...sailing?" as he notices a Glorious Gary working a toy waterboat in the pond.
• Brick Joke: While narrating about the gout that Bitsy and Helen are suffering from, Birdie mentions that he recently thought that he had gout as well, but actually found out that his foot was nibbled on by a squirrel because he put nuts in his sock. And while observing the Tillerman's singing about their new angles, Birdie mentions that his new angle is to stop letting squirrels nibble at his nut sock, while fending off one with his foot.
• Change the Uncomfortable Subject: When Cole confesses to his parents that he got a D on his geometry homework, he adds that he'll study harder. He then immediately brings his parents' attention to how Molly's day went.
• Chekhov's Hobby: Cole has trouble doing geometry and finds comfort in model sail-boating. Cole doesn't realize he's been using geometry when sailing the boat and his family helps him understand geometry by using his sailing skills.
• Damned by Faint Praise: When looking at one stepladder, Owen is put off when one reviewer gave it two stars and found it "just okay." This causes Owen to find more positive reviews.
• Didn't Think This Through: Cole decides to skip school and go to Central Park to participate in the toy sail boat race. However, he didn't take into account the fact that his father is the manager and main inspector of Central Park, so he would likely catch him. Indeed, Owen catches Cole while he's celebrating his win.
• Dream Reality Check: Occurs briefly. When seeing that he's bad at geometry, yet great at many other activities, Cole wonders if he's having a dream. He slaps himself while saying to wake up, but finds that he is awake.
• "Eureka!" Moment: While his parents are helping Cole to use new angles in life to solve his homework, an observing Molly figures out that she should use a new angle in life to solve her school newspaper illustration crisis.
• Everybody Hates Mathematics: Cole has trouble in his geometry class and keeps getting D's on his homework. Owen and Paige helps him with it when they point out that he's using geometry when controlling a model sailboat by using angles when making the boat turn.
• Flashback-Montage Realization: While tending to Bitsy's gout, Helen notices how similar her foot is to hers and comes to the realization that she has gout as well. Bitsy asks her how that could possibly be. It then cuts to Helen as she visually recalls all the times she ate Bitsy's food behind the latter's back.
  Helen: Definitely not from eating your leftovers.
• The Help Helping Themselves: While tending to Bitsy's gout, Helen realizes she has gout herself. A flashback montage then shows that Helen developed it due to helping herself to Bitsy's leftovers behind her back.
• I Resemble That Remark!: When told that he's failing geometry, Cole decides to study, saying that eventually he'll run "big, lopsided geometry circles" around everybody. This causes Enrique to clarify that he means an ellipse.
• Instant Expert: Cole tries model sail-boating for the first time and is really good at it; so good that he enters a model sail-boating competition and places first.
• Irony: Every time Molly tries to be funny, no one laughs at her humor. She finally get people to laugh at her humor by drawing a farting bean cartoon for her school newspaper, but she's not proud of her work.
• Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy: Helen gives Bitsy the Canadian pills that she wanted, and she asks her how she "pulled them out of your butt". Helen replies that she knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who "pulled it out of his butt."
• Mushroom Samba: Bitsy and Helen take pills from Canada that are made from goat testicles to relieve the pain from their gout and they start tripping out after they ignored the warning about only taking half a pill, they even hallucinate Shampagne as a flying giraffe. Hours later, their gout is gone but Bitsy's room is a complete mess and wake up with makeup on their faces and they can't remember what happened.
• Old Shame: Molly was planning on debuting her Fista-Puff comics in her school newspaper but chickens out when she realizes her comics is basically her diary in drawing form. Instead, she decides to draw a farting bean and while everyone at her school loves it, she absolutely hates it. She manages to change her comic to a sewer kid who has burping powers and she's more proud for this comic.
• Shaking the Rump: While dancing to disco in their hallucination, Bitsy (and the chorus) tell Helen to "shake it", to which she does vigorously.
• Shaped Like Itself: When Cole wants to skip school to do model boat sailing, Enrique tells him that he has an idea, and to let him run with it. Cole asks him what the idea is, to which Enrique says again that he'll run with it, as run in the hallway, which is against school rules.
• Shared Mass Hallucination: Helen and Bitsy see the same eccentric sights around them as they're tripping out.
• Skipping School: Even though he knows he has to take his geometry test today, he skips school so he can compete in the model sail-boating competition at the park. Owen catches him after he wins the competition since he's the manager of the park.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Cole repeatedly getting bad grades on his homework eventually gets him in trouble with his teacher and he has to get his parents to sign his homework.
• Tastes Like Purple: In her pill-induced insanity, Helen says that the colors of the room taste funny.
• We Need a Distraction: Enrique helps Cole leave the school to attend the model boat-sailing competition by making a guard leave his post to chase him by running in the hallway when it's not allowed.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: After tripping out from the pills, Bitsy and Helen wake up with makeup on their faces and having no recollection of what they did when they were tripping out, but Helen did take pictures of what they did. Helen freaks out when she realized she shaved an "H" on the back of Bitsy's head and Bitsy wondering why there is hair on her floor.

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Students: ♫ He has no joints ♫
Cole: ♫ And that don't feel good to me ♫
Students: ♫ He has no joints ♫
Cole: ♫ Never lost a thumb war that's a fact ♫
Students: ♫ He has no joints ♫
Cole: ♫ I can climb that tree in just ten second flat ♫
Students: ♫ He has no joints ♫
Cole: ♫ I can do six somersaults in a row. No hands. ♫
Students: ♫ He has no joints ♫
Cole:
Come on, people, you're killing me
♫ You know my Simon Says game is on point ♫
Students:
♫ When he hula-hoops
He has no joints ♫

—"I'm Bad (At Being Bad) (End Credits)"

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