MSB S2E07: In a Pickle

I'm now going to take chances, make mistakes, get pickled, just by tackling the episode that teaches kids about microbes and how they pickle food. Blog, do your stuff!

20. In a Pickle.
Topic: Microbes.
Written by: Jocelyn Stevenson, Brian Meehl & George Arthur Bloom.

Aired: 19 November 1995.

The kids have just come back from vacation and found that the vegetables that had won a contest have rotted. Keesha is particularly distressed, not because her first prize cucumber has rotted, but because it is gone and has been replaced with a pickle. Keesha reasons that the door to the classroom was locked over vacation and Ms. Frizzle had the key. To everyone's surprise, Ms. Frizzle admits that she did do something to Keesha's cucumber. The kids put Ms. Frizzle on trial and make Liz the judge. The Friz claims that Keesha’s cucumber was turned to a pickle by a group of microbes, which she nicknames "The Mike Robe Gang," and she takes the class on a field trip to prove it.

"I don't know about you, Phoebs, but I can't stand vacations."

"Why not? I mean how can you not like vacations?"

"'cause they always end! That's why!"

Good joke, Wanda. As a kid, that was my flaw with taking school breaks. 

Strange that Keesha thought that someone stole her prized cucumber. And funny that Wanda said that the one who stole Keesha's cucumber left her a pickle.

Funny that Ralphie immediately figured out that Keesha was already accusing him of stealing her cucumber, especially considering he loves eating the veggie.

"I admit that your cucumber is gone, but it isn't missing."

How could something be gone, but not missing? 

Funny that Ralphie and Carlos high-fived after hearing Arnold say Ms. Frizzle has the right to dismiss the class.

Something that is strange in this series. A classroom court room. With Liz as Liz Ard, a judge. A clever pun considering she's a lizard.

Further proof that Liz is partly here for comedic purposes, especially considering she never spoke in this series, although she did speak in some of the CD-ROM games.

"We're taking the court on a field trip! A field trip?! What am I saying?!"

Arnold further expressed his dislike of some field trips. Typical Arnold Perlstein. 

"As Sherlock Gherkin once said, cucumber thieves always return to the scene of the brine."

Ms. Frizzle makes puns a lot, yet she seldom gets called out for them, unlike Carlos. 

This is ascomycete, a type of fungus.

"I'd rather find one on your seat than my seat!"

"Carlos!"

Another Carlos pun, especially since ascomycete rhymes with seat. 

Who'd have thought we'd see Liz up close?! Considering she's a lizard, there are a lot of scales.

"I knew I should've stayed home today."

Arnold, if you did stay home today, then you wouldn't be able to help prove Ms. Frizzle's innocence. 

This is pickle bacteria. They help preserve pickled vegetables from microbes like fungi.

And there we go. Ms. Frizzle was innocent after all. She make the Mike Robe Gang turn Keesha's cucumber into a pickle. Cucumbers come, cucumbers go, pickles go on forever.

This is an interesting thing. Tim sketched up a picture of Keesha's cucumber as a pickle, showing it'd turned into a prized pickle.

Nobody would want to put rotten tomato on a pizza, not even Liz.


It's amazing that as Wanda and Phoebe returned to school after school holidays, they heard Keesha scream. I'm amazed Phoebe figured out it was Keesha, and she was right, and all because her cucumber was pickled.

This episode shows all kinds of microbes, like ascomycete that grow nearly everywhere, the bacteria in the hamster's water, such as amoeba and the bacteria they eat called paramecium. And there were fungi in Arnold's tomato. Maybe there were fungi in Wanda's carrot? And the pickle protectors killing the fungi.

It was funny how Liz tasted the tomato, and she hated the taste, and her wig hit the fresh cucumber, causing it to land in the pickle jar.

Also, The Magic School Bus got into a pickle, literally, as Carlos stated.

Luckily, the caller in the producer segment said there are other microbes, such as germs that make us sick. Luckily, Inside Ralphie covered that.

This episode was mysterious in its own way. Keesha thinking someone stole her cucumber drove the plot, revealing to later realise it'd turned into a pickle. And trust me, if Arnold did stay home in this one, he wouldn't have been able to help Valerie out with her testimony. I wanted to rush this review because as Dorothy Ann said as she returned from holiday, "Time waits for no vegetable!", but I wanted to make this long. And here's a saying to wrap this up. Cucumbers come and cucumbers go. Pickles go on forever!

My rating: 9/10.

Season 2 scorecard:

1. Blows its Top: 10/10.

2. Flexes its Muscles: 10/10.

3. The Busasaurus: 10/10.

4. Going Batty: 9.5/10.

5. Butterfly and the Bog Beast: 9/10.

6. Wet All Over: 9.5/10.

7. In a Pickle: 9/10.

Season 2 so far: 9.5/10.