Taking Care of Plant Life is More Difficult Than it Seems on This Week's "StuGo"

Francis discovers the joy(?) of taking care of plant life before Merian discovers the stress of creating a new business venture on the latest StuGo on Disney Channel.

Plantcis

It’s a crazy day on the cargo boat the kids call home on Dr. Lullah’s island. Larry and Sara are dealing with a centipede that is loose, and the Pliny and Merian have to go rescue Chip from a spelunking adventure gone wrong. But while Pliny is on the mission, she asks Francis to watch her plant and make sure it gets everything it needs for it to bloom properly.

Francis is reluctant. She likes rocks. Rocks aren’t like those needy little plants, and on top of that, Francis knows that there is no way she can know what that plant needs. Fortunately, Dr. Lullah has a special device that gives plants a voice so that they can tell you what they need. Nothing like Pliny originally suggested - sticking a finger in the plant’s dirt and letting them tell you. No. All Francis felt was that it was damp.

Either way, she is now responsible for this plant and stick’s Lullah’s device into the flower pot only to hear the plant scream that “they were out to kill him." Who? Francis looks around and when she looks back, there are two killer cacti flanking the plant on either side. Where did they come from?!

The plant cries for help and for Francis to get it out of there, and she lifts it up and runs out of the boat with it. The whole time, the needy plant is complaining. Is she running too fast, too slow? Just like watering the plant, there can be too much or too little. Everything has to be just right and it’s annoying Francis to no end. Especially since the plant, which we come to know is known as “Moe," is asking her to take it back to the greenhouse - a good twenty minutes away!

The two are clearly not fond of each other while the other potted plants pursue. Escaping, Francis explains why rocks are so much better than plants as they cross a river, when Moe suggests that if rocks were so good why are they wiggling their ears and about ready to harm them? Oh, those are hippos and they’re charging at them now. Fortunately, Moe hits them with spores of pollen and makes the hippos sneeze, which Francis finds cute. The two stop in a part of the jungle and enjoy some sunlight and the nice breeze.

While talking, the two realize they had a lot more in common than they might have originally thought and continue on their nice little walk to the greenhouse. Once there, Francis discovers the truth. Moe is in a line of royal plants and his evil brother sent out assassins (the cacti) to kill him so he can take the throne. It’s quite the dramatic situation in the greenhouse, but it’s too much for Francis and she’s ready to leave, despite Moe’s pleas for her to help him dethrone his brother.  Moe suggests that she’ll be back anyway, as she likes the drama. Back at the boat, she discovers that her rocks are a bit more boring and far less talkative - Moes comment appears to be true. She does like the drama and heads back to help.

Once at the greenhouse she discovers that Moe’s brother has taken the device and is now talking to all the plant subjects in the greenhouse, and all of the plants that were loyal to Moe are about to be eliminated. Francis finds Moe in a little jail cell nearby, tipped over out of his planter and wilting in the darkness.

Francis doesn’t know what he needs without the device, but remembers Pliny’s advice and sticks her finger into his soil. Still nothing…for a moment. Then, she begins to hear Moe. But how? Francis is a plant girl now. Not only can she hear Moe without Lullah’s device, she can hear every other plant.

Not only that, the plants are far more lively than they were earlier. She rescues Moe and puts him in the sunlight so that he can bloom (over the course of hours, of course) and resume his place on the throne.

It’s been a crazy adventure, and Francis is back at the boat. Everybody’s situations have been resolved, and after catching up with everyone Pliny asks where her plant is… it seems that there is a lot to be caught up on.

Big Ol’ Heads Egg Salad Venture

Merian is having a bit of a panic attack because she realized she is behind on her life plan. To catch up, she needs to invest emotionally, and maybe financially, into a new business. As such, some of the kids present business ideas. Chip suggests a revolutionary new device, but all attention goes to Pliny when she jams a spoonful of delicious egg salad into Merian’s mouth. The secret ingredient? A special gunpowder aioli that Pliny makes. Merian is ready…together they will open an Egg Salad stand on the island.

As the two are getting ready to open the stand, gathering supplies and what not, Merian is visited by a giant head from the future. It’s herself at age 30. She is telling herself not to go through with the stand or something terrible will happen, and advises young Merian to do what she can to stop it. As she is ready to do that and listen to herself, she gets another visit from herself at age 60. She MUST go through with the opening of the egg salad stand. But why? Everyone is being so vague.

Also, how did this happen? Oh, it’s through a device that Chip invented. So now we know they all stay close well into the future. That’s pretty cool. Also, this Time Phone device must have been what his presented business plan was all about.

This back and forth continues for a bit, making Merian an indecisive wreck when the whole Egg Salad venture was the only thing she had been sure about in a very long time. At one point, she is told to sabotage Pliny’s Aioli sauce by unplugging the cooler which is sitting out in the sun. She does that before she is visited by 60-year old Merian who tells her to leave everything alone and not worry about anything. Again, frustrated, Merian gets back to helping and fails to plug the cooler back in.

At this point, she and Pliny are at odds because it seems that she just wants to ruin the whole venture. And ruin it while there are a line of mutants chanting with excitement over the egg salad. It all comes to a big ol’ head when the two giant heads from the future start arguing with each other, further frustrating and confusing Merian.

Finally, she stops and says they’re opening the egg salad stand, and the mutants have gathered around. When serving up some egg salad, Pliny goes to the superheated Aioli which promptly explodes and blasts the stand away, leaving a wave of egg salad destruction in its path.

30 year old Merian says this is what she was afraid of happening - this explosion that killed Chicho! But it didn’t kill him. He’s just fine. 30 year old Merian suggests that it must have been a different explosion that she caused that killed him. Uh oh. Foreshadowing?

On top of that - that reveal was too specific per the laws of Chip’s time phone. So his head appears - normal sized - and warns them that this is a misuse of his tech. Wait so what happens that makes Merian’s head so big?! Now, young Chip has created a prototype to show to Merian who promptly destroys it, making all the talking heads disappear. Does that mean he gave up the idea?

Either way, the main takeaway is that time travel stories always leave lots of questions.

This episode of StuGo is now available on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW website. It and other episodes of the series are expected to debut on Disney+ this Spring.