In a Western setting, cowgirl versions of Helen and Martha are pleased with how much gold they mined. They meet T.D., who is the mayor, and he tells them that there is free ice cream at City Hall. Then, Truman comes up, ranting fearfully about an alien invasion... and it all turns out to be an amateur movie that Martha and her friends are rehearsing.
Helen questions Truman about his decision to add aliens to the movie, but Truman points out that they need someone to rub the bank, so Alice decides to base the villain on Ronald and the heroic sheriff on herself. Sheriff Alice gets dragged away by her horse Buttercup, so Helen and Martha decide to stop Ronald themselves. They find him struggling to lug a bag of gold, and when he sees Helen and Martha, he tries to steal their wagon but is stopped by Alice. Ronald pretends to be out of breath, then runs away, only to bump into Buttercup, and the movie ends.
Ronald dislikes how he was portrayed as the bad guy, so the others ask who he wants to play. He responds that he wants to play a pioneer named R.W. Boxwood, who got popular after pumping strawberry milkshake from the ground. He then casts Alice, Helen, Alice, and two random girls as a gang of bandits who steal the milkshake.
The kids reject this idea for being "not much of a movie", then Helen suggests making it a musical. She then imagines a storyline where she and Alice are singing milkshake makers at a saloon. Then, Ronald shows up saying that he owns the town because T.D., who was once the mayor, signed the town over for a comic book.
Truman then imagines the same story but with a twist of the town being saved by another pioneer, who he imagines as himself. While R.W. is changing the town as he sees fit and the citizens are leaving, Cowboy Truman shows up and reveals that the mayor sold the town to him first. Then, a random cowboy says that T.D. also sold the town to him, so Helen decides it's everyone's town.
T.D. tries to add a flying saucer to the movie, but the others refuse to include aliens. T.D. keeps wheedling them to add aliens and imagines a showdown scene between him and an alien... that's just a glorified milkshake-drinking contest. Alice says that wouldn't make sense, but T.D. retorts that "lots of cool things don't make sense". Then, they realise that they only have fifteen minutes to shoot their movie, so they do.
It doesn't work out very well — Helen and Alice spill their milkshake, Truman trips over the hobbyhorse, they drop T.D. when carrying him after the alien scene... but the kids like it anyway. Then, they notice the DVD is gone, so Martha decides to make a mystery movie the next day. In the sky, it's revealed that aliens took the DVD and are watching it.
This episode provides examples of
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: In Helen's story, Martha wears a feather on her head.
- Alien Invasion:
- In the first movie, Truman's character rants about aliens invading the Western village.
- In T.D.'s story, aliens invade the Western town and Mayor T.D. fights them off.
- Amateur Film-Making Plot: The plot of the episode is that Helen, Martha, T.D., Truman, and the Boxwood siblings are trying to make a Western.
- Artistic License – Child Labor Laws: Subverted. Helen is seen as a miner, while T.D. is a mayor, but then it turns out they're just acting.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: In the milkshake song, Helen sings, "But [don't drink your shake] too fast, or you'll get..." and then Alice gets a brain freeze and yells, "Brain Freeze!".
- The Bad Guy Wins:
- In Ronald's story, Alice and her gang of bandits succeed in stealing the strawberry milkshake.
- Helen's story ends with Ronald now owning the town.
- Big "NO!": In Ronald's version of the movie's plot, he yells, "NOOOO!" while kneeling as the bandits make off with the milkshake.
- Buffy Speak: T.D., while playing the mayor, says that he needs to leave to do "mayor stuff".
- Cain and Abel:
- Alice casts herself as the sheriff and Ronald as the bank robber, and they're still siblings within the movie.Ronald: "Older brothers can be so annoying, especially when they're outlaws."
- Ronald casts himself as the hero and Alice as the leader of a gang of bandits, and again, Alice is still portrayed as his sister.
- Alice casts herself as the sheriff and Ronald as the bank robber, and they're still siblings within the movie.
- Celebratory Body Tossing: In Ronald's story about R.W. Boxwood, the townsfolk throw him in the air to celebrate him giving them milkshakes.
- Cowboy Episode: The episode focuses on Martha and the kids making an amateur movie that's set in the Old West.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Played with. T.D. suggests that they add aliens to the movie, and aliens do turn out to exist, but you couldn't really say he was "right" per se, since he never said that aliens actually existed; he just wanted them in a movie.
- The Danza: In-Universe — when the kids put on the Western movie, they still go by their names while in-character.
- Dawson Casting: In-Universe — Helen and her friends are children, but the characters they play are presumably adults since they have jobs.
- Facepalm: Alice facepalms in response to T.D. claiming he signed Dog Rush City to Ronald/"R.W." for a comic book.
- Fantasy Sequence:
- Ronald imagines a plot in which he's a famous strawberry milkshake miner, only for a gang of bandits (led by Alice) to make off with the milkshake.
- Helen imagines a plot where she and Alice are singing bartenders/milkshake makers, then T.D. signs the town over to an evil Ronald.
- Truman imagines a sequel to Helen's story, where the day is saved by another pioneer.
- T.D. imagines having a showdown (albeit a milkshake-drinking contest) with an alien.
- Flying Saucer: T.D. imagines aliens arriving at Dog Rush City in a saucer-shaped spaceship, then at the end, real aliens can be seen in one.
- Forgetful Jones: In Truman's story, Mayor T.D. can't remember how many people he sold the town to.
- Frothy Mugs of Water: In Helen's story, the saloon sells strawberry milkshakes instead of alcohol.
- Her Codename Was Mary Sue:
- Helen and Alice cast themselves as heroic cowgirls.
- Subverted in Ronald's story, where he becomes famous and popular, but still fails to nab the criminals.
- In Truman's story, he plays a pioneer who saves the town.
- In T.D.'s story, he stops an alien invasion.
- Job Song: In Helen's story, she and Alice work at the saloon serving milkshakes and they sing a song about it.
- Mining for Cookies:
- Discussed when Martha says that she'd rather mine for chicken nuggets than gold.
- Also discussed when Ronald imagines the movie's plot involving his character pumping strawberry milkshake from the ground instead of oil or water.
- Mirthless Laughter: In Helen's story, T.D. giggles nervously when it's revealed that he signed the town over to "R.W.".
- Ode to Food: In Helen's story, she and Alice sing a song about serving milkshakes.
- Real-Life Relative: In-Universe. The Boxwood siblings are still siblings within the movie.
- Revenge via Storytelling:
- Downplayed. The movie the kids make isn't one big revenge fantasy, but Alice does cast Ronald as the villain. Helen does, however, say that it's "nothing personal" when he complains.
- Ronald casts Helen and Alice as bandits, with Alice as the leader of the gang, to get back at them for casting him as a bandit.
- Rich Bitch: In Helen and Truman's stories, Ronald is a millionaire who callously buys the town and changes it as he sees fit.
- Rule of Cool: Conversed when Alice says not to put aliens in the movie because it wouldn't make sense, but T.D. says, "Lots of cool things don't make sense".
- Running Gag:
- T.D. keeps wanting aliens to be added to the movie.
- The kids' imaginings about how the movie should go keep involving strawberry milkshakes, and multiple characters get brain freezes.
- Serious Business: In T.D.'s story, a milkshake-drinking contest is framed as a showdown.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: In Helen's story, R.W. leaves without finishing his milkshake.
- Wearing It All Wrong: T.D. wears his left sock over his shoe to be "cool".
