Stacey has been hiding her type 1 diabetes and her insulin pump from her friends. The girls are threatened by the Baby-Sitter's Agency, a group of older teens who can drive and stay out late. Kristy gets the idea of of bringing kid kits to their clients, but their business keeps declining.
At a meeting at Kristy's house, Stacey develops a crush on Kristy's older brother Sam, but feels faint and her mother schedules an emergency consultation. After the Club finds a child they've watced, Jamie, in the street because his Agency sitter neglected him, Stacey tells Jamie's mother. In retaliation, the Agency digs up an old video of Stacey collapsing at her old school due to insulin shock. Stacey comes clean about her diabetes to the Club and to the Club's clients. Charlotte's mother Peggy, an endocrinologist, stands up for her, and the other parents admit that the Club is comprised of good sitters. Stacey agrees to stop hiding her insulin pump and the club gets their clients back. The girls go to visit the new Newton baby.
Tropes:
- Absurd Phobia: One of the fathers at the parents meeting wonders aloud if a child coming "into contact" with Stacey's insulin pump could be dangerous. Given that at this point she wears the pump under her clothing, that seems unlikely, though it's implied he simply doesn't understand how the device works. He was probably unaware of the existence of the insulin pump, and was more familiar with the idea of diabetics having to inject themselves with needles, and so was concerned about his child coming into contact with needles, used or otherwise.
- Adaptational Villainy: The Baby-Sitters Agency in the original book were still antagonists, but other than being very negligent babysitters the worst thing they do is have two of their members infiltrate the BSC and flake on their jobs to make the club look bad. Here, the Agency is still made up of negligent sitters but have escalated to Lacy Lewis being openly hostile and upfront about having stolen the idea, threatens to run the BSC out of business, and then has the Agency circulates to the parents of Stoneybrook a video of Stacey having a seizure as revenge for Stacey telling the Newtons about Jamie being left to play in the streets.
- Adaptation Distillation: The book sub-plot of the Baby-Sitters Agency infiltrating the BSC and flaking on an appointment to make them look bad was dropped, and instead they troll the BSC's phone line, sending them on fake jobs.
- Age Lift: In the book version Liz Lewis is 13, just one year older than the BSC members. Here, while Lacy's age is never explicitly stated, she's clearly in high school.
- Allergic to Love: Played with. Stacey thinks her body is reacting badly (breaking into a sweat amongst other things) when she meets Sam because she's swooning over him. While she is indeed crushing over him, her body's actually reacting because her blood sugar levels are falling. Being well into managing her diabetes by this point, she really should have recognized the signs.
- Alpha Bitch: Lacy Lewis. She's completely unapologetic about ripping off the Baby-Sitters Club idea for her Baby-Sitters Agency, and quite nastily threatens Stacey - a girl at least four years her junior - that she intends to run them out of business.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When some of the parents of the Club's charges are still unsure that they can trust the girls with their kids, the sitters ask if they want girls who are bullying Stacey for having a medical condition just because she reported one of their sitters who neglected a four-year-old to be their children's role models.
- Ascended Fridge Horror: In the book version of "The Truth About Stacey", the club frantically worries about what would have happened to Jamie if they hadn't found him and gotten him properly dressed and securely in his backyard. In the episode, they literally find him seconds before he would have gotten hit by a car.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: When she first meets Sam, a smitten Stacey asks Kristy where's she's been keeping him, and a confused Kristy retorts, "High school?" Stacey is embarrassed to find out from the other girls that she actually pondered that out loud.
- Distracted by the Sexy: The girls discuss why they can't afford to lose the club when the Baby-Sitters Agency becomes a threat. Before Stacey can speak up (she was going to say she needs the club because she'll otherwise have no friends), Sam enters the room and Stacey loses her train of thought because she's too busy swooning over him.
- Dude, Not Funny!: When Stacey finally confesses that she has diabetes and was worried that the club would make fun of her, everyone tries to comfort her and Kristy wittily ponders if she's overreacting because her blood sugar levels are dropping. Claudia scolds her by saying, "Too soon."
- Foreshadowing: Another BSA-related example. When Stacey and her mom run into Mrs. Newton, she says they're excited to meet the baby and take care of Jamie, but Kim only says they can "come visit".
- Hiding the Handicap: It's finally revealed why Stacey always wears jackets or poofy blouses: she's using the extra room to disguise an insulin pump clipped to her undershirts. After this episode, she switches to wearing it on her waistband like a smartphone holster.
- Hint Dropping: Kristy tells the BSC they need to differentiate themselves from the BSA, and after the others just look at her blankly, she asks the implied question before snarkily answering herself.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Agency spread the video of Stacey having that seizure to humiliate her and discredit the BSC by implying she's not fit to look after children. Kristy later points out to all the concerned parents that these teenagers, who claimed they were more capable of looking after kids because they're older and more "responsible," engaged in cyberbullying a twelve year old girl for her disability.
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: When Stacey's having diabetic issues and needs to immediately go home to treat herself, her excuse to the club is that she needs to walk her new (nonexistent) "round" dog. The girls are unconvinced.
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: Stacey's diabetes is exposed by the Baby-Sitters Agency finding a video of her having a diabetic seizure and circulating it to the clients, and she mentions that this also happened at her old school and drove her away from all her other friends who also shared it.
- Internal Reveal: Stacey finally tells the others the truth about her behavior: she has diabetes.
- Law of Disproportionate Response: When the BSC finds Jamie Newton playing alone in the street - while a Baby-Sitters Agency member is supposedly 'watching' him - they immediately confront the older girl and call Jamie's mother to tell her what happened. The BSA then digs up a video showing Stacey having a diabetes-induced seizure and send it to all the parents both organizations have sat for, with a message implying that Stacey is unfit to be a baby-sitter. While this does concern some of the parents, in the end they're swayed by both Stacey's honest explanation and Kristy's pointing out that a bunch of high schoolers are basically cyberbullying a twelve-year old girl.
- New Baby Episode: The BSC are all excited about the impending birth of the Newton baby. Elizabeth tries to temper Kristy's enthusiasm by pointing out that Mrs. Newton will probably want a more experienced sitter for a newborn, but Kristy brushes this off only to be disappointed when her mom is proven correct.
- Rhymes on a Dime: The boyfriend of the BSA sitter assigned to Jamie Newton tries to freestyle a diss against the BSC. It's bad enough that even the painfully shy Mary Anne doesn't hesitate to say so.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: When Kristy notices Elizabeth's engagement ring, she asks if Elizabeth will now be walking behind Watson when they're together. Elizabeth answers that in addition to that, she'll be changing her name to "Ofwatson".
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: After the BSA begins taking most of the BSC's business, Kristy begins reading "The Art of War" to try and strategize a way to strike back.
