While last week’s episode of The Neighbors focused on the adults of the families, this week took a closer look at how the alien-human culture gap affects the children.
It was, after all, the kids’ first day of school.
In the opening minutes of the episode we find out that the Weavers are attempting to help the Zabvronian kids prepare for the big day, though the task of helping Dick Butkus has been delegated to Max Weaver. And how does the middle Weaver go about this? By putting Dick through tests of what bullying is like — namely, having his head dunked in a toilet. This prompts a warning lecture from the Weavers that in human school it is the smallest and weakest that is instantly picked on by tougher kids and Dick will be that picked-on kid.
When the actual first day arrives Debbie Weaver finds herself torn between her daughter Amber’s eruption over the appearance of a zit on her chin and the pomp and circumstance that apparently comes with sending Zabvronian children off to school for the first time. Just as the brood of children is attempting to leave, the entire alien community show up with what appears to be a small marching band to see them off.
And these aliens are just a tad unpredictable. That idea that Dick was going to be the one picked on? Just when he enters his classroom with Max, Dick turns on his friend, punching him in the gut to prove to the tougher boys that he is not the weakest. Of course, this lands the boys and their parents in the principal’s office, where Larry proceeds to proclaim his pride in his son’s actions, and basically tattles on the Weavers for putting the idea in their heads that the boy would be picked on in the first place and that telling the principal in advance would be a bad idea.
Meanwhile, over at the high school Amber is a little preoccupied with figuring out how to impress the most popular boy in school, while Reggie is just occupied with impressing her. The poor boy is quite obviously love-struck and fascinated by her, and actually succeeds in setting up a reputation for Amber that gets her noticed.
The dilemma of the younger boys’ behavior comes to a head when Jackie and Debbie get into an all out fight in between their two homes, with the entire neighborhood as witness (and support for Jackie). However, the pair of parents learn to put aside their differences after Dick stumbles upon the group of bullies attempting to dunk Max’s head in the boys bathroom at school, looses his cool and reveals his alien-self. The principal of the school implies that Jackie and Larry are not great parents, but Debbie comes to their defense and makes the boys promise that such an incident will never happen again.
The Weavers apologize for overstepping their boundaries with Dick and Reggie by bringing an orchid for the Zabvronians’ bathroom garden. They assure the alien parents that they’re not trying to tell them how to parent — the Zabvronians pride themselves on their parenting skills — but that they are there for help when it comes to relating to human culture.
I thought “Bathroom Etiquette” was a funny episode. Though, at first I wasn’t sure what the point of showing the Zabvronian bathroom garden was, it became clear that it was yet another method of showing the differences between the species, as well as set the theme of the episode, which was apparently, bathrooms (in a non-“ew” sense). There was also excellent development in this episode, showing that the Weavers have gotten considerably more used to their alien neighbors, even like them, and will defend and protect their secret when a problem arises.
Yeah, ‘bathrooms’ as a theme may be strange, but the show is about aliens, how much normalcy do we really want to see? And of course, watching Larry try to master sarcasm, and those final seconds in which Larry and Jackie question how Reggie Jackson is supposed to breathe after they’ve grounded him (actually in the ground), were particularly laugh-worthy.
The Neighbors airs Wednesday nights at 8:30 on ABC.
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