Dragonflies
Original Air Date: 06/12/2009
In this episode, the Honeybees are forced to challenge a rival scout troop, the Dragonflies, for reservation rights at the rec center.
Tropes in Dragonflies
- The Alcatraz: The actual Alcatraz to be specific. Chelsea marks it as the finish line for the "Chelsea Challenge".
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Recreation Center, which the Honeybees use for their meetings, for the past 30 years in fact, is taken over by the Dragonflies. The episode's plot is the Honeybees competing to save it.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: According to Bessie, the Dragonflies are notorious for attacking other scout troops, learning 64 forms of melee combat from birth, and learning long division.
- Badass Adorable: The Dragonflies. Bessie too, as usual, but this time around, several other Honeybees get to display this as well when they're tricked into fighting the Black Widow scouts. Special mention goes to Penny, who defeats several of them with just a soda can.
- Exaggerated in the case of Cherry. A flashback shows her manhandling and subduing a lion. As a baby.
- Batman Gambit: Portia, of all people, executes one, and it leads to her troop's victory. The Honeybees actually lose the race to meet Chelsea at Alcatraz. The Dragonflies then present their strawberry fro-yo to her, thinking that they've won since, according to Portia, whom they spied on earlier, strawberry is Chelsea's favorite. To their shock, Chelsea rejects it. Turns out, Chelsea hates strawberry fro-yo, but loves raspberry fro-yo, which Portia presents to her, winning the Honeybees the contest. Portia then reveals that she was lying about which flavor Chelsea loved. She anticipated that the Dragonflies would eavesdrop on the Honeybees, so she openly lied to throw them off.
- The Cameo: During the race across San Francisco Bay, the Honeybees run into Anton St. Germain water skiing.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: The Dragonflies resort to all kinds of cheating to win the "Chelsea Challenge"; damaging one of Chelsea's clues, eavesdropping on their competition, directing them to the wrong pier, and lots of physical violence. They still end up losing in the end. Portia actually anticipated their cheating and promptly turned it to her team's advantage.
- The Cavalry: During the race across San Francisco Bay at the end, the Honeybees and the seal Penny called to carry them across get swept up by the Dragonflies' ferry. The seal then calls in major backup: an entire pod of dolphins.
- The Dreaded: The Oakland Dragonflies, "the fiercest, most notorious girl troop in the Bay Area". The moment Bessie sees them at the pool, she panics and says the Honeybees need to run. As Bessie describes it, the Dragonflies are this trope because they brutally attack other scout troops and steal their territories. Apparently, even the girls' own parents are afraid of them.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Chelsea is a toxic asshole who's an even bigger Alpha Bitch than her younger cousin Portia, but here, she's revealed to hate cheaters. She tells Cherry that when she was a Dragonfly, she played rough, but not dirty.
- Exact Words: Chelsea gives 2 examples that play a major role here:
- In terms of transportation for the contest, she declared "No bikes, blades, skateboards or strollers." As Bessie points out, she didn't say "No rollerskates". So the Honeybees use rollerskates for transportation.
- She says that the goal of the "Chelsea Challenge" is to make her happy. In the end, the Dragonflies win the race to Alcatraz, but the fro-yo they give her doesn't make her happy. The one that Portia gives her does, so the Honeybees win the contest.
- Faint in Shock: Happy's reaction to Bessie's Precision F-Strike.
- Foreshadowing: The final twist that wins the Honeybees the competition is given 2 early warning signs:
- First is when Chelsea throws out her fro-yo at the pool after the water ruins it. Looking close, the color of her fro-yo is dark purple. In other words, the color of the raspberry fro-yo Portia buys for her.
- Second is after Bessie's Precision F-Strike, when Portia rapidly looks back and forth, as if she were suspicious that someone was watching her. Someone was watching her: Maude, eavesdropping on the Honeybees. As it turns out, Portia knew she was being watched.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Chelsea throws away her first ruined fro-yo at the start of the episode, when looking close, one can see it's dark purple. The same colored fro-yo that Portia buys for her later.
- Get Out!: Chelsea to both troops after her first fro-yo gets ruined at the pool, majorly pissing her off.
- It's All About Me: Chelsea, as usual. The goal of her "Chelsea Challenge", as she calls it? To make her Rich Bitch ass happy by delivering her frozen yogurt.
- I Lied: Early in the episode, Portia says that Chelsea's favorite fro-yo flavor is strawberry. It's actually raspberry. She admits to lying at the end, saying she did so to mislead the Dragonflies, correctly predicting that they would spy on their competition.
- Informed Attribute: Bessie claims that the Dragonflies are trained in "64 different kinds of hand-to-hand combat". Over the course of the episode, while the Dragonfly girls show surprising physical strength, they aren't really shown doing any martial arts. That said, Bessie mentioned she heard that from a legend, and legends aren't always true.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: After Bessie's Precision F-Strike and Portia deducing the clue (and admitting that she didn't want to let the bees down), the Honeybees get serious, to the tune of "Buzz Off".
- Penny gets a major moment when she uses a soda can like a machine gun to mow down several Black Widow scouts. Up until here, Penny had never shown any signs of being a fighter.
- Loophole Abuse: Before the challenge began, to even the playing field, Chelsea declared "No bikes, blades, skateboards or strollers." But, she never said "No rollerskates". Guess what the Honeybees use later for transportation?
- Look Behind You: Cherry uses this on the Honeybees when she gets to Alcatraz. She tells them, "Look! A unicorn." It works.
- Multi-Melee Master: According to a legend Bessie tells, the Dragonflies are this, handpicked from birth to be "trained in 64 different kinds of hand-to-hand combat".
- Precision F-Strike: Bessie gives one when none of the other Honeybees take the contest seriously: "Why don't you guys just...just...BUZZ OFF?!" Everyone is taken aback.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Chelsea of all people gets to be this. As it turns out, she's an intern for the San Francisco Parks & Recreation department, so she holds authority on who gets to use the rec center. She gives the Honeybees a fair chance to win it back from the Dragonflies, and when they win, she honors her word and gives them the rec center.
- Season Finale: Of Season 1.
- Scary Stinging Swarm: The Dragonflies can unleash this, being able to summon swarms of actual dragonflies.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Penny displays this when the Honeybees have to cross the San Francisco Bay to reach Alcatraz Island. She calls over a seal to ferry the Honeybees across the bay.
- Summon Magic: The Dragonflies display this, being able to summon massive swarms of dragonflies.
- They Have the Scent!: Happy starts the Honeybees on the race this way, using his nose to track the Dragonflies' Team Pet, Cha Cha.
- Villainous Ethics Decay: Chelsea used to be a Dragonfly herself, and said that, when she was part of the troop "...we played rough. But not dirty."
