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Recap / Rugrats S 4 E 9 Dust Bunnies Educating Angelica

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The ninth episode of the fourth season of Rugrats (1991).

Dust Bunnies

The babies encounter dust bunnies as Didi cleans the house.

Educating Angelica

Angelica visits a preschool and learns about sharing.

"Dust Bunnies" provides examples of:

  • Baths Are Fun: At the end of this episode, Tommy and Chuckie are seen having a good time in the bathtub as Stu cleans them up from the dust bunny thing.
  • Cowardly Lion: Horrified at the thought of abandoning Tommy to get captured by the Dust Bunnies, Chuckie spends the second half of the episode trying to attack the Dust Bunnies hand-to-hand to rescue him. Of course, there aren't any, but it was a sweet gesture on Chuckie's part.
    Chuckie: *tussling some old clothes while blinded by his dusty glasses* Ah-ha! I've got you by the ears! Give me back my friend!
  • Dirty Coward: Deconstructed. Angelica convinces Tommy and Chuckie that the adults' talk of "dust bunnies" concerns monstrous rabbits that capture and eat them in their lair in the closet. When Tommy supposedly is "attacked" by one, Chuckie runs away in fear. He ends up regretting this decision when Angelica convinces him that Tommy has been captured by the Dust Bunnies and makes a bee-line for the closet to "rescue" him.
  • Hoist by Her Own Petard: While trying to rescue Tommy, Chuckie accidentally knocks a basketball off a shelf, causing it to launch the bucket of dust in the air, which lands on Angelica.
  • It Kind of Looks Like a Face: Stu sweeps a pile of dust underneath a desk, giving it the appearance of a rabbit.
  • Living Dust Bunnies: When Tommy and Chuckie hear about dust bunnies, Angelica tells them that they're monstrous rabbits whose long, silmy ears grab children and take them away.
  • Loophole Abuse: To get away from the Dust Bunnies, Tommy and Chuckie have to get to the kitchen. Chuckie reminds Tommy that Angelica told them the Dust Bunnies are under the carpet, so Tommy tells him that they won't touch the carpet, and they'll go on top of the furniture.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Chuckie blames himself for running away from Tommy in his time of need, believing the Dust Bunnies to have captured him.
  • Non-Nude Bathing: While the babies are being bathed in the tub naked, Angelica is washed outside in a metal tub wearing a swimsuit.
  • Sure, Let's Go with That: After "rescuing" Tommy from the Dust Bunnies, Tommy tries to tell Chuckie that he was really all right the entire time, but Chuckie keeps interrupting, saying that he defeated the Dust Bunnies despite his fear of them and saved him. He then asks Tommy if it makes him a hero, and Tommy decides to go along with it and tells him it does.

"Educating Angelica" provides examples of:

  • Comically Missing the Point: When Charlotte tells Angelica that she heard that she had some sharing problems in school, Angelica tells her that she did, as none of the other kids would let her have their stuff.
  • First Day of School Episode: In this episode, Angelica starts preschool and has to learn how to share.
  • Not So Above It All: Mrs. Appleby, Angelica's preschool teacher, encourages her students to share, but when she overhears that Charlotte is trying to get a gorilla to be the mascot for a soccer game, she reveals that she lived with gorillas in Africa for three years, and fights with Charlotte over her cell phone so she can talk to the gorilla.
  • The Permanent Record: Discussed; when Charlotte receives a note from Mrs. Appleby informing her that Angelica is not sharing in preschool, she worries that Angelica being a "Failure to Share" won't look good on her application to Harvard (keep in mind that Angelica's three and is just starting preschool).
  • Show-and-Tell Antics: After Charlotte gets a note from Mrs. Appleby informing her that Angelica is not sharing in preschool, she finds out that one of Mrs. Appleby's suggestions is to have Angelica bring her favorite toy to school for show-and-tell to share it with the class. Not wanting to share Cynthia with her classmates, she takes Tommy to school and tries to pass him off as a doll. Mrs. Appleby and the other students are not fooled, but it's Tommy who ends up having all the fun playing with the students when he shows them how to use their imaginations.
  • Victory Is Boring: Angelica ends up with most of the toys for herself and Cynthia, but she soon realizes how dull it is having nobody to play with, especially when Tommy has all the fun playing with the other students.

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