The Kids Discover the Island's Vast TV Programming on the Latest "StuGo" on Disney Channel
The kids fall victim to the latest television binge thanks to a mutant-run TV network before Sara’s hair could destroy the universe. It’s all just another episode of the fun that is StuGo.
PANTelevision
The kids are giving the Bog Dog its medicine when the giant canine sneezes all over them. To make sure they don’t have any illnesses from the dog, the kids are all quarantined for 24 hours in their cargo boat home. However, Mr. Okay is letting them borrow a vintage television to ease with the idea of being locked up for 24 hours.
As he explains though, it only gets PANTelevision - a closely guarded closed-circuit cable system that was designed to entertain and distract the mutant population of the island to keep them from rising up against Dr. Lullah.
There you go. That’s the setup for this episode. What follows as just a series of clips and commercials from PANTelevision, including Chicho’s slop show, Catapult Kevin (who is only seen either launching or flying across screen), and Lullah-based news, though the mutant host doesn’t seem to grasp that he needs to be close to a microphone in order for it to work.
Throughout all the programming though, one program enthralls the kids - a soap opera series called “Hand Holders." The kids latch on to a story where Frogatha, who is a frog with poisonous hands might get the affection of Big Mitchell (who we’ve seen before), but has a tendency to kill whoever she holds hands with…because of the poison. As he is deciding between holding her hand or her rival’s, Mr. Okay appears to check in and make sure everything is going okay. It has already been a while so they need to make sure they haven’t caught Dog Flu or anything.
While the kids are perfectly fine, Mr. Okay says if they’re alright then he’s just going to go ahead and take the TV and let them be on their way. After all, he needs to catch up on his own viewing. Knowing this will lose their television, they all start running around and acting like dogs. Overwhelmed, Mr. Okay leaves and the kids go back to watching the TV.
After getting embarrassed by a commercial featuring her Dolphin sister, Merian insists that they find “Hand Holders" once again, and we see a number of other shows, and other subliminal screens with messages clearly geared to the mutants like “Do Not Revolt." We even get to see a cooking show starring Chip’s girlfriend(?) Rianne.
The eventually find what they’re looking for, and catch up with Hand Holders, as we see a string of loved ones that Frogatha has killed with her hand poisoning before she reaches out to Big Mitchell. Then, we get the cliffhanger that tells us to tune in later for the finale.
Mr. Okay returns and hears their excitement for the finale and wants to join in and say “yay!" as well since he gets to take his TV back. He knows they’re fine now because surely they would be entering the trash eating phase if they were actually sick. Again, the kids start eating trash in order to keep the television that much longer. As Mr. Okay panics and runs out to get their medicine, Chip suggests getting some of the ice cream sundae that he saw his girlfriend(?) on TV with. This causes Mr. Okay to raise an eyebrow as he leaves, suspecting that they are taking advantage of his generosity.
As the kids scroll through, the shows get even more outlandish. We even get super meta and get a parody version of StuGo itself, complete with mutants playing versions of the kids, save for Francis, who showed up as herself to a rising crescendo of applause from the live studio audience it seems. We cut back Francis who simply says “Oh, that’s what that was for."
As we get ready for the climax of “Hand Holders" the show is interrupted by Lullah News with a live report that shows Mr. Okay tumbling off a cliff retrieving Chip’s request. The kids, worried, run out of their boat, only to discover that Mr. Okay is right there filming the live report like he’s falling. Yes, it was a lesson since he knew they were lying to him. When the kids come clean and say they just wanted to watch the finale of Hand Holders, Mr. Okay is shocked to learn that it was tonight, and immediately goes into the ship and enjoys the show with the kids. However, we never get to the resolution because Catapult Kevin is filming his latest episode, and crashes through the ship and into the TV, destroying it.
Infinity Braid
Francis is quite the accomplished painter it seems, and is having the rest of the kids model for them, and each is getting their hair done. Whoever has the best ‘do will get to be center stage in the painting. Larry has opted for some frosted tips and a soul patch like his dad had in high school (I’m not offended or anything, that’s fine), and Merian has the tightest ponytail ever, pulling her face back so far and keeping her eyes permanently open so that she needs to spray them down every few seconds to keep them from drying out.
Chip has quite the hairdo, but it’s unintentional. It seems his head got caught under Mr. Okay’s truck, and the tires spinning out have left marks on his head and ripped parts of his hair out. The only way he got out was because he built a jack out of coconuts while he was trapped. Severely dehydrated, he asks for some of Merian’s spray bottle, but that’s face water not drinking water. She may have even given him a wet willy as some kind of punishment for even asking.
Sara shows up with what might be the best hairdo, a full sculpt of a poodle with hair. Surely, she must be the center. As she assumes her place, Pliny comes running up with a completely new style - the Rigatoni, which makes her head look like a giant pasta noodle. Pliny is now centered, with the admiration of the rest of the kids and Francis begins to paint. Sara says her hairdo was just a warmup and wants something new. Francis, however, has already started painting, and she paints line by line from the bottom up sort of like an inkjet printer.
This, for Sara, is a good thing as she can make an escape and has time to go back to her stylist - who happens to be Mr. Okay. Despite how good he is, he’s not that busy thanks to an unfortunate name for his salon which I won’t spoil here. From there, we see a number of hair attempts that are constantly overshadowed by Pliny’s single ‘do, which has a lasagna mullet and ravioli braids.
Finally, she goes back to Mr. Okay who is out of ideas, except for one and it requires not only the help of Dr. Lullah, but also the signature of a liability waiver.
Lullah has apparently long had a scheme, the Infinity Braid, that could not only retrace every hair anybody has ever grown, but go back in time through the lineage of the hair. And that’s exactly what happens. Turning Sara’s hair into a sort of braided stargate, Lullah jumps in and after a few moments, retrieves a baby mammoth.
Surely this swirling vortex of hair will get her center stage in the painting, and it does impress the kids. So much so that Larry jumps in and goes back a short distance, poking his hand out and giving Chip a wet willy (So it was him!). This gets even worse though as shortly thereafter, the mother Mammoth breaks through the vortex creating a mass of chaos between the kids and ruining Francis’s painting.
Realizing what she had done, Sara genuinely feels bad and needs to fix this, starting with getting the baby mammoth back from Lullah. That was a simple negotiation, but in front of Lullah, Sara does a flip into her own hair, potentially destroying the universe. Fortunately, she winds up back with her original poodle hair and tells her past self (and past twin, remember?) that they don’t have to be center stage, or this is what will happen, showing them the destroyed painting. As cool as it looks, it will come at the cost of her friends and she doesn’t want that. In position, Francis is ready to start painting again, this time not at the cost of the universe.
This episode of StuGo is now available on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW app. Episodes of the show are expected to arrive on Disney+ this Spring.