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"Omega Kids" is the twentieth episode of the second season of Recess, which was the first broadcast on December 12th, 1998.

Plot[]



Summary[]

All the kids at Third Street School have fallen ill after eating Tuna Fish Tacos, leaving the gang as the only students in school.

Main Story[]

The episode starts with everyone playing at recess. All the playing equipment is packed. There are too many kids at the cheese box, too many kids doing jump ropes, even too many kids on the seesaw! There are also kids on the roundabout.

Gus and Gretchen are in the line to play tetherball, but the line is long. Gus points out how many kids there are in line. Gretchen tells him that there are 27 kids ahead of them. But when another kid pushes them out of their way and cuts them, well, make that 28.

Out of all of them, the jungle gym looks the most crowded. There are kids piling on to it from top to bottom. Mikey tries to get them to let him in, so he jumps in, only to get trapped in.

T.J., Spinelli, and Vince are playing baseball. T.J. gets ready to throw the ball, but there are incoming kids that prevent him from doing so. When T.J. throws the ball, Vince catches it with the glove, but only to be tackled by a bunch of football players shortly after.

Then the bell rings, and everyone goes inside. The hallways are packed with students. Vince points out that the school is getting more crowded every day. Gretchen tells him that over crowdedness is a real trend of the public school system, their school is no exception. T.J. is looking forward to lunch, but the gang and other kids find out that the lunchroom is packed with a line, much to the gang's dismay. Vince notices that they are having Tuna Fish Tacos for lunch.

The gang gets excited because there is one more kid until them. But the lunch lady announces that they are all "out of Tuna Fish Tacos", much to the gang's dismay. But Gretchen tells the gang that they are probably "cooking up a batch of Tuna Fish Tacos" as they speak, but the lunch lady instead gives them cream liver and eggplant, much, much more to the gang's dismay.

As the gang go home from school, they complain about what a lousy day it was, and they wish they could have the whole school to themselves, but then, they tell themselves and each other, that at their school, there is no room for dreaming.

The next day, as the bell rings, the gang run to school, thinking that they are late. When they see that both the entrance and the hallways are downright DESERTED, Gretchen tells them that she has the time for the Colorado region, and that it is only 30 seconds after 8:00 AM. The kids rush to Miss Grotke's classroom, to see only Miss Grotke there. Miss Grotke tells the gang that the kids who ate the Tuna Fish Tacos are home sick, to which Gretchen asks that they are all alone. Gus asks Miss Grotke if she ate the tuna fish tacos, but Miss Grotke tells Gus that "the faculty eat slightly different than the kids eat."

Miss Grotke tells them about the Faculty Lunchroom, where Principal Prickly tells the waiters what he and Miss Grotke would want to eat. Miss Grotke says that since the rest of the kids are out, they are going to spend the day exercising the creative side of their brains. Vince tells Spinelli, in other words, to which Spinelli says, "free day". And T.J. says his catchphrase, "Tender."

After the gang plays around in the classroom, they go outside at 10 o'clock for recess. The playground is all theirs, with Miss Finster checking on all the sick kids. Mikey does a Tarzan yell on top of Old Rusty, Vince plays tetherball with Spinelli and Gretchen, T.J. acts like King Bob, and Gus plays with his toy plane.

The fun gets better during lunch, when the gang learns that they are having pizza! Each of the kids gets as many slices as they want from Lunchlady Irma, and each kid gets their own table. After that, they have a food fight. By the end of the day, Spinelli is actually looking forward to the next day.

However, the next day starts to get boring as Miss Grotke makes all the gang sit in the front, and the leftover pizza is so stale it shatters on the plate. Soon, they are given a lot of homework to give to all the sick kids. On the way home they complain how their perfect dream has turn into a total nightmare. T.J. says sooner or later everyone sick will get better and come back to school. He says most of them could be back tomorrow.

The next day, the school is still deserted, and the kids wondered how bad that tuna really was. Desperate, Gus pulls out... a note! Everyone reacts to Gus' plan like he is about to commit suicide! Heck, when Vince and Spinelli take the note from him, Gus even sobs, "I could have got out! I really could have!"

T.J. reads the note:

"Dear Miss Grotke,

Please excuse our son Gus from school, he is so sick he should probably stay home until all the other kids are better.

Signed... My Mom?"

This gives T.J. an idea. When Spinelli asks if it involves sick notes, T.J. replies that that would be too obvious. Instead, they will give the school nurse the idea that they are sick.

They start by sending Gus to the school nurse, having him pretend he's sick while Gretchen gets a book on childhood diseases. As soon as she finds a good one, T.J. gives the signal, and Gus suddenly "gets better."

Later, Gretchen colors dots on the others' faces with green markers while having them eat blue candies. The result: the nurse is shocked to see that the whole gang has green spots and blue tongues. When Gretchen and T.J. tell her to check the medical text, the nurse cries out "Good Sweet Mike!" for she is led to believe that the children are seriously ill. T.J. asks if they can go home, but the nurse says that it is "much worse than that." Shortly after T.J. asks what she means by worse, the CDC comes to quarantine the gang!

Spinelli sarcastically calls Gretchen "Einstein," while Gretchen apologizes, saying that she thought that the disease's symptoms were green spots and blue tongues instead of blue spots and green tongues. T.J. is optimistic that the CDC cannot keep them in forever. But a CDC man tells them that they will all pull through before walking away, crying. The episode ends as Gus, Vince, and T.J. wish they were outside with all the other kids.

Goofs[]

  • Animation/continuity error: While the gang members are walking towards the closed door to the cafeteria, there is a crowd of kids walking beside them. Once they all open the door to the cafeteria, some of the kids who were previously walking beside the gang are already inside.
  • Animation/continuity error: After the gang walk into the door frame of the deserted school, they are shocked to see that the school is deserted. When the perspective changes to show Gretchen and Gus talking, they are outdoors again. In the next scene, they are already walking inside the school.
  • Animation/consistency error: While Gus is flying with his plane model over the deserted playground, the plane flies over the top of the basketball hoop despite being farther and lower.
  • Animation/continuity/consistency error: After Spinelli climbs to the top of the platform at the deserted cafeteria, she walks past the rails and sits down. For a few frames, she seems to be sitting beyond the edge. In the next scene, she is sitting behind the rail, instead.
  • Animation/continuity/consistency error: While the gang members are sitting on front row close to Miss Grotke, she mentions that this way she can give each the attention they deserve. In the next scene, the kids are shown shocked and standing up instead of sitting. In addition, all chairs and tables have disappeared.
  • Animation/consistency error: After Vince gets bored from playing tetherball and while Spinelli suggests invading Ashleys' clubhouse, the ball Vince was playing with appears behind the wire fence.
  • Coloring/consistency error: There is a poster on the wall of the nursery that has a label written "dairy" with a drawing of a glass containing a liquid. This content was supposedly milk, but it is colored blue.
  • Continuity/consistency error: While Gretchen is sneaking for the bookshelf, there is a wall and a sink by the left side of the bookshelf. After perspective changes to show Gretchen reaching for the bookshelf, there is a window by the left side instead.
  • Coloring/continuity error: While Gretchen is reaching for the bookshelf, each shelf of the books has books of a single color. After perspective changes, the colors are then varied.
  • Animation/continuity error: Once Gretchen touches a book at the bookshelf, this book appears in front of other books way before it is out of the shelf.

Trivia[]

Regular[]

  • During lunch, when T.J. asks Vince for another pepperoni, Vince instead gives him his entire pizza.
  • In reality, the school would have been shut down while all the students were recovering from poisoning, or simply canceled class. It would also have been sued by their parents and custodians.
  • The CDC should have very easily been able to tell that the kids were faking.

Continuity[]

  • This is the first episode where T.J. uses his catchphrase, "Tender".
  • This was the first episode written by Steve Bannos.

Cast[]

Gallery[]

Photos The Recess Wiki has a collection of images about Omega Kids
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