"The Weird Kid" is the second segment of the twenty-first episode (and the forty-first story overall) of Close Enough.
Synopsis[]
After worrying that she and Candice are growing apart, Emily magically becomes a kid again – and tries to befriend Candice at school.
Plot[]
Lately, Candice has been ignoring Emily and giving her the cold shoulder, even putting a sign on her bedroom door saying "No Emilys Allowed", and getting Randy to guard her door.
Alex shows the others a Viking pendant that was believed to have granted wishes.
However, Emily isn’t paying attention and sighs loudly. She’s upset about Candice not wanting to talk to her for the past week. The others reassure her it’s probably a phase, and Bridgette tells her they should get blackout drunk and go on Amazon and see what shows up the next day, or as she calls it “Wine and Prime". As they all leave the room Emily wishes she can be closer to Candice. The pendant then starts glowing.
The pendant turns Emily into a kid.
The next morning Emily wakes up, which we see from her point of view, but she appears to be shorter as she struggles while reaching for and putting on her sweater in the closet. She looks in the mirror and she discovers she now looks like a little kid. She realizes it must have had something to do with Alex's pendant.
She goes into his closet with the pendant. Initially he thinks she’s Candice, but she convinces him it’s her by saying last year she caught him using her compact mirror to look at his own butthole. He says the pendant must have interpreted her wish as making her closer to Candice in size. As she leaves Emily demands he figure out how to undo it. He chastises her for not being more specific, and that she should’ve said something like “I wish I was emotionally close to my offspring”. The pendant, having heard this as an actual wish, starts glowing again, to the concern of Alex.
In an effort to use her appearance to get closer to Candice, Emily gets on the school bus after Candice boards it. Candice, not recognizing her, lets her sit next to her when she asks. Emily refers to herself as Emma after Candice introduces herself, but Emily’s awkward behavior as she tries to relate to her/not blow her cover and get her to tell her secrets puts her off, and Candice moves seats.
Alex is driving through town worrying about his wish, and wondering if the pendant can give him offspring. The radio station he’s listening to starts playing The Offspring's 1999 hit "Pretty Fly For A White Guy". Disliking 90s rock he goes to turn the station, but the pendant makes him turn the volume all the way, and to his horror Alex realizes he’s become emotionally close to The Offspring.
At Camomile Elementary, Emily, who is thought to be a new student by Mr. Campbell, introduces herself to the class, but her awkward behavior of trying to relate to young children, including saying moms are great and sticking a pencil in her ear, makes everyone call her “weird kid”, they even been chanting it as she sits down.
Alex frantically arrives at a concert venue where The Offspring are performing and he goes to the box office to buy tickets, and he talks to himself wondering how many to buy, before deciding to get two so he can hang one on his wall and keep one in his wallet. The bored salesperson says he must really love The Offspring, and Alex angrily shouts to just give him the tickets.
Emily sits by herself on the swings when she sees a crowd around Jade bullying Candice for not wanting to throw rocks at a beehive. Emily intervenes and tells Jade off, saying at the last PTA meeting her mother said she sleeps with a night light, and her dads not on a business trip and he moved in with his Pilates instructor. The other kids are impressed by her insults as Jade runs off in tears. Candice is impressed and asks “Emma” to be friends with her. We then see a montage of the two “kids” having fun. Candice gives them matching friends ship bracelets.
They sit together at lunch, where Candice reveals she and Jade used to be friends, until last week where Jade told her babies are made by two adults touching butts and then a baby falls out - Candice told her mom and she told Jade’s mom and Jade got in trouble, which made her mad at her, which is why Candice hasn’t been telling Emily anything. When Emily asks if she wants her baby carrots, saying she “stans” them, along with the fact she’s wearing her mom’s sweater Candice realizes Emma is her mom, as Emily says she stans baby carrots too. Emily apologized and tries to explain, but Candice is mad that she was spying on her. She removes her friendship bracket and decides to go make up with Jade by throwing rocks at the beehive, and tells Emily that she won’t talk to her ever again.
Outside, Jade stands next to Candice as she is about to throw the rock. Emily runs up to her and tries to talk her out of it, but Candice tells her she’s not her mom. Emily says she is and tries to wrestle the rock out of her hand as kids gather around them, but it ends up flying into the beehive. It falls down and a swarm of bees fly out towards the students as they run away.
At The Offspring concert Alex, against his will, is jamming along to "Pretty Fly For A White Guy", questioning why he knows all the words. He decides enough is enough.
The bees break into the school. To protect Candice, Emily covers her with a box and lets herself get stung by the bees.
Alex gets on stage and takes Noodles the guitarist's guitar, to the anger of the crowd who begin booing him. Alex shouts it’s the only way to end the curse.
Candice attends to a badly stung Emily, who apologizes for lying to her, saying she only wanted her to be close as she falls unconscious. Candice puts Emily’s friendship bracelet in her hand and cries while holding her.
At the same time, Alex uses the guitar to destroy the pendant. Emily then transforms back to normal and is healed. She and Candice embrace and she promises she'll never betray her confidence again, and she can always tell her anything. Candice tells her she’s not wearing pants. An embarrassed Emily pulls her sweater down over her bottom and awkwardly walks out, saying she’ll see Candice at home.
Alex, while carrying a boom box, arrives home later that night to find Emily and Candice sitting together on the couch. Alex questions how she’s back to normal, and Emily says it’s because she learned her lesson, and now things between her and Candice are fine. Alex says that probably why smashing the pendant didn’t stop his curse. He smiles and goes "Oh Well!", then turns on the boom box. "Pretty Fly For A White Guy" plays as he rips off his clothes to reveal a "The Offspring" tank top, and leaps into the air as he sings along, having seemingly grown accustom to being emotionally close to The Offspring.
Characters[]
- Emily Ramirez
- Candice
- Alex Dorpenberger
- Jade Cartwright
- Timothy Campbell
- Josh Singleton (minor role)
- Bridgette Hashima (minor role)
- Randy Watson (minor role)
- The Offspring (voices only)
- Radio Announcer (minor role; voice only)
- Ticket Counter Worker (minor role)
- Maddie (non-speaking cameo)
Trivia[]
- Thanks to the pendant's wish granting powers, and him not learning any sort of lesson from his ordeal, Alex is now emotionally close to the American punk rock band The Offspring, despite the fact that he apparently hates '90s rock.
- Their 1999 hit song, "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" is played a few times during the episode, and Alex references the part of the song that counts backwards in Spanish when he’s trying to figure out how many tickets to buy.
- One time during the previous year Alex used Emily's compact mirror to look at his own butthole.