While Polly is flying through the Lorraines' window, Helen is complaining about her school photo, which looks weird because she sneezed while it was being taken. Martha doesn't think it's a big deal, but Helen has Mariella sign a document to get the photo retaken. Then, Ronald phones the Lorraines and tells Mariella that Polly is loose. The Lorraines search for her, while Martha learns what an impersonation is (hearing that Polly can do them) and tries a few.
Then, Mrs. Demson comes over, but Martha thinks it's Polly talking and accidentally offends her by calling her a "crazy bird". She echoes back, "Crazy bird?!", and Mariella also thinks it's Polly, offending Mrs. Demson more by saying, "Who let you out of your cage!?". She, Helen, and Martha go downstairs, and are shocked to find Mrs. Demson there. She grumpily leaves, with Polly following. Then, Mariella leaves for work and Helen leaves for school.
Later, Helen phones Martha and asks her to bring the photo retake document to school, but Skits accidentally knocks it into the dogs' water bowl. So, Martha tries to have Mariella call Helen's school, but Mariella has forgotten her cell phone. Martha then phones the school herself, pretending to be Mariella, and Mrs. Clusky allows Helen to have her photo retaken. However, she then asks "Mariella" to bring some lemonade over that night; enough for fifty people.
Thus, the dogs decide to make some since they can't interrupt Mariella while she's at work, but they don't know how. Martha then remembers that Mrs. Demson gave Mariella the recipe, and phones her. She apologises for offending Mrs. Demson, but she demands to speak to Mariella instead. Martha switches to her Mariella voice and asks for the recipe, and since Mrs. Demson is angry at the prospect of Mariella losing the recipe, Martha lies that she can't see it because she's stuck in the stair rail. Mrs. Demson gives Martha the recipe (150 lemons and 25 cups of white sugar) and Martha orders it, again in her Mariella voice.
Then, the dogs go to retrieve the cooler, but it's in the attic and they can't reach the pull-string. They move an end table over and Skits stands on it and pulls the string. He gets the cooler down, but accidentally sends a lot of other things down too.
Then, Mrs. Demson comes over with butter to unstick Mariella. Martha claims that Mariella got out, but Mrs. Demson doesn't believe her, so she has a pretend conversation with Mariella to "prove" she's not stuck. Mrs. Demson asks why Mariella won't come to the door, so Martha claims Mariella lost the use of her legs. Then, the delivery guy delivers the lemons and sugar.
However, the only way the dogs can juice the lemons is by biting them, which tastes terrible. Meanwhile, Mrs. Demson spies on them. The dogs then realise that they don't know where to get water from. Skits carries some from their bowl in his mouth, but it's not enough. Polly comes over and Martha insults her with "You need help!", and she copies, but only the "help" part. Mrs. Demson hears and thinks Mariella is in trouble. She calls the police, while Martha and Skits fill the cooler up with the garden hose. The police and Mrs. Demson go to the Lorraine house, while the hose goes haywire.
Martha explains everything to the police and Mrs. Demson, and Mrs. Demson has the police clean up and make the lemonade themselves. Then, Mariella comes home and is shocked at what's going on, but suspects Martha was involved.
This episode provides examples of
- Amusing Injuries: When the dogs are moving the end table, a vase falls on Martha's head, hurting her.
- Blatant Lies: Martha claims that Mariella lost the use of her legs as an excuse for why she doesn't come to the door.
- Chekhov's Skill: At the beginning, Martha reveals that she can impersonate Mariella. Throughout the episode, she uses this to pretend to be Mariella.
- Condescending Compassion: Mrs. Demson calls "Mariella" a "poor thing" for owning a talking pet.
- Continuity Nod: Mrs. Demson has to tell the police that, yes, it is a real emergency this time. This references "The Big Knockover", in which she called them just because her trash was knocked over.
- Cringe Comedy: Martha and Mariella accidentally offend Mrs. Demson by talking to her as if she's a bird, because they mistook her words for Polly's.
- Crying Wolf: Because Mrs. Demson has called the police when there was no real emergency before, they're skeptical when she calls them in this episode.
- Dramatic Irony:
- We find out that it's Mrs. Demson talking instead of Polly from the beginning, but the female Lorraines and Martha are none the wiser.
- Mrs. Demson thinks Mariella is calling out, "Help!", when we know that it's Polly echoing Martha's "You need help!".
- Grandma's Recipe: Mrs. Demson has a lemonade recipe, which she gave to Mariella, and it proved very popular with the PTA.
- Help, I'm Stuck!: Discussed when Martha, pretending to be Mariella, lies that her head is stuck between the stair rail, which is why she can't see Mrs. Demson's recipe.
- Hesitation Equals Dishonesty: Martha says, "Uh..." when lying that she's Mariella impersonating Martha, then again when claiming Mariella lost the use of her legs.
- "I Can't Look!" Gesture: Martha covers her eyes when the cooler bounces towards her.
- Last-Second Photo Failure: Helen's school photo looks bizarre because she sneezed while it was being taken.
- Lost Food Grievance: Discussed when Martha yells grumpily, "Who ate the cake?!" when impersonating Danny.
- Mistaken Identity:
- When Mrs. Demson first talks, Martha and Mariella think it's Polly talking.
- When Polly shouts, "Help!" (copying Martha, who said, "You need help!"), Mrs. Demson thinks it's Mariella calling for help.
- Noodle Incident: Mariella mentions that Polly is loose "again".
- Not in Front of the Parrot!: When Martha says to Polly, "You need help!", she echoes, "Help!", which causes Mrs. Demson to think Mariella is in danger.
- Oh, Crap!: Martha gasps and says, "Oh no!" when the slip gets drenched.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Mrs. Demson is correct that Martha is lying, but she thinks that she's lying about Mariella being no longer stuck, when actually Mariella was never stuck in the first place.
- Priceless Ming Vase: When the dogs are moving the end table, a vase falls off and breaks.
- Say My Name: Mariella shouts Martha's name in a mix of shock, annoyance, and confusion when she enters to see the police cleaning and making lemonade.
- Slapstick: At one point, the hose goes haywire and drenches Mrs. Demson.
- Split-Screen Phone Call: The phone call between Mrs. Demson and Martha is shown on a split screen.
- Unexpected Kindness: Martha and Skits fear that the police will arrest them when Mrs. Demson tells them to "do [their] duty", but instead they clean up the water and make the lemonade.
