'Toon Reviews 13: The Loud House Season 2 Episode 6: Patching Things Up/Cheater by the Dozen

Patching Things Up

At this point in the series, we’re so used to the twins’, Lola and Lana’s, relationship mostly consisting of constant petty squabbles mostly due to how they’re total opposites.  With this cartoon, we start seeing a different aspect of their relationship. Even with their differences, they can get along splendidly.  The opening scene perfectly establishes this as Lola and Lana happily prepare for the Bluebell Scouts tryouts looking forward to making it in together.  Even all throughout the tryouts, they’re fully supportive of each other as they set out to get at least five patches by the end of the day, which is required to become a Bluebell.  However, even with this more prominent friendly layer to the twins’ relationship, there’s still acknowledgement of how their differences can create tensions between them via the patch challenges hosted humorously by the over-motherly scout leader.  Lana excels at any challenge that requires her to get her hands dirty while Lola lags along with a well-staged freak-out whenever she gets near or hears about something gross.  However, since Bluebells are said to always be prepared for anything, there are challenges about looking nice and fashionable which Lola is very good at.  Lana’s edgy reactions about how pointless and dumb these types of challenges are don’t have the same humor factor as Lola’s reactions to her disagreeable challenges, but they still get the main conflicting point across.  The other twin’s inability to do certain challenges builds frustration which gets in the way of them becoming Bluebells together and they split up.  The selling point to the tension is that it was gradually built up with enough nice moments to start out that diminished as the cartoon progressed.  Speaking of nice moments, Lola and Lana’s conflict goes in a pleasing direction where even though they’re annoyed with the other twin preventing them from being Bluebells together, they have enough love for each other to resolve everything.  When they each have a chance to become a Bluebell on their own, they come across good luck charms they gave each other earlier, and decide that staying together is more important than being Bluebells.  It’s a bit cheesy since the reveal involves them saying near identical dialog as they find the charms, but that doesn’t stop the overall resolution from being cute and satisfying which includes both of them becoming Bluebells anyway, which is fine since there’s no reason they can’t be Bluebells and stay together.  Almost everything about Lola and Lana’s plot works, but not everything about the entire cartoon works.  A lot of time is devoted to a subplot of Lincoln and Clyde trying to sneak Bluebell Scout cookies which don’t even exist anymore.  Their attempts are enjoyable enough, but it’s dumb of them to not get all the facts before learning about them being discontinued, and they seem more like padding that can be dropped and not affect the story at all.  Still, since what’s truly important to the story works so well, this cartoon gets a patch for being a good watch. 9/10

Cheater by the Dozen

This season is going to give us a lot of plots about misunderstandings. A character or characters involved catches sight of something, believes it means something drastic, reacts to it without directly asking what’s going on, and only finds out the meaning of what was seen near the end.  They’re mostly done better in this season than in Season 1’s “Ties that Bind” in which the truth of the matter was revealed to the audience near the beginning while the characters hearing what was stated basically reacted to nothing for the whole runtime, but it’s crazy to see that this plot happens so many times.  I do have to give credit for the truth of what the characters believe not being revealed until the end, and the scenes that make them believe what they do are constructed convincingly enough.  For this cartoon, Lincoln and Clyde notice Lori’s boyfriend, Bobby, hanging out with another girl and conclude that he’s cheating on Lori.  I would question why that’s a big deal since Lori once cheated on Bobby, but that would drift away from the focus of this review.  One smart thing about this cartoon is that it stresses the importance of getting enough facts about the issue before jumping to conclusions particularly when the rest of Lincoln’s sisters barge in.  I will say that when the boys’ initial claim proves false, it’s concerning that they say they wasted their time (and their salmon) when they themselves actively chose to join them in their investigation.  Still, it gives credibility to what happens for the rest of the cartoon as Lincoln and Clyde discover more proof in the favor of Bobby cheating on Lori when they see him hang out with more girls. Each instance of this has him get more intimate with them, and includes some that are disturbing to say the least when one investigation involves a grown woman and another involves a dog.  Anyway, it’s enough to convince the sisters that something’s up and everyone proceeds to confront Bobby at the date he’s set to take Lori on.  What follows shows that even with convincing proof, it’s better to directly ask what’s going on before acting when Bobby flat out says that all the girls he was with were there to help him set up for the date, and he hasn’t cheated on Lori at all.  In addition, when Lori discovers what the group is up to, she nicely concludes that she appreciates them all looking out for her, which is a good sign of her growing out of her constant temperament from earlier in the series.  It is unfortunate that only Lincoln and Clyde have to clean up a mess that was made during the confrontation when Lincoln’s sisters had as much involvement as them, but the sting is hardly that bad since most other parts of this cartoon are well executed.  This cartoon may be a part of a somewhat tiring trope and some character moments are hit or miss, but the management of the trope and noticeable bits of humor and heart make it good for what it is. 8/10

The Ranking

1. 11 Louds a Leapin’
2. Baby Steps
3. Suite and Sour
4. Back in Black
5. Patching Things Up
6. The Old and the Restless
7. Intern for the Worse
8. Cheater by the Dozen
9. Making the Grade
10. Vantastic Voyage
11. Brawl in the Family

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where the Louds put their own spin on home security in "Lock n Loud," and subjects turn to pictures once again in "The Whole Picture."

If you would like to check out other Loud House reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.