Recap: All four Facts gals are crammed in the bathroom, jostling for enough space to wash up, primp, and brush their teeth. When Blair starts blow drying her hair, Jo irritably shuts off the blow dryer, but Blair insists her hair needs poof and turns it back on. Mrs. Garrett peeks inside and asks if there's any chance she can get in there and take a shower, but Tootie informs her there's no more running water. Mrs. Garrett doesn't seem as bothered by that as I would be and informs the girls she's cooking them a special dinner tonight, but won't reveal the reason for their celebration. Blair complains that the temperature in their room was way too high last night, and Mrs. Garrett smilingly promises they're not going to have any more problems with heat. In the next scene, Tootie and Natalie are shivering under a blanket in the lounge, trying to study. Blair and Jo enter the room, complain about how frigid it is, then join Natalie and Tootie under the blanket. Soon the four are arguing and snapping at each other...and Jo mocks Blair's sighing and accuses her of doing it just to irritate her. Blair barks, "I don't have to take this!" and storms off, dragging the blanket along with her. Jo complains to Mrs. Garrett that she can't deal with Blair like a civilized person...and Blair, who's standing nearby wrapped in the blanket, argues that Jo is the one who's uncivilized. Mrs. Garrett says they've all been on edge lately 'cause of all the heating/lack of heating/water problems and reminds them it's only temporary. Jo snaps, "The problem is Blair!" and Blair snaps back that she's the one who's being totally unreasonable. Mrs. Garrett breezily assures them they'll work it out as they have in every other episode, but Blair bellows, "I can't take it anymore! Not one more day!" and Jo ups the ante and screeches, "Not one more hour!" She implores Mrs. Garrett to tell her how long she's going to have to pay for one lousy mistake, and Mrs. Garrett replies, "Not much longer" and decides to fill them in on what was supposed to be tonight's special surprise. She pulls out a bill for the damage to the school van that occurred during the Season 2 premiere and shows Jo and Blair that the bill is finally marked "paid in full". Blair and Jo are stunned, then overjoyed that they no longer have to work in the kitchen and share a room. Mrs. Garrett tries to dampen that sentiment by saying, "Whoa, you girls have become like a family. Families aren't that easy to come by", but her words are drowned out by Jo and Blair jumping up and down and shrieking, "We're freeeeeee!!" LOL. Blair is trying to finagle a way to get her own private dorm room, while Jo is looking forward to breaking in a new roommate. Natalie and Tootie seem sad at the idea of splitting up their foursome - until Natalie brings up how irritating it was when Tootie always left her books atop her bed. Tootie looks insulted and says she should have mentioned it earlier if it bugged her so much, and then the two start bickering like an old married couple. Mrs. Garrett enters the lounge and reminds them that living together entails lots of compromise...and after a few seconds of awkward silence, Jo coldly announces, "I'm moving out." A few seconds later, those words are echoed by Blair, Natalie, and Tootie...and an irked Mrs. Garrett snaps, "Fine!" and storms out. Some time later, Jo drops by the cafeteria to say hey to Mrs. Garrett, who tells her it's been hectic without having four extra hands helping her out. It's interesting that the administration seems to rely on slave labor from naughty students instead of hiring support staff to help run the kitchen. Jo says her new roommate is a pure soul, kinda like Mother Teresa, and pretends she's happy living with someone who's so close to sainthood. When she ambles off to wash up, Blair enters the cafeteria and waxes on to Mrs. Garrett about her spacious new dorm room. Mrs. Garrett tells her she just talked to Jo and learned how delighted she is with her new roommate...and Blair sadly contemplates her fantasy lesbian crush that seems forever destined to remain unrequited. She quickly shakes it off and tells Mrs. Garrett she has so much in common with her new friends and that they sit around for hours, pleasantly agreeing with each other. Natalie drops by with her new roommate: a humorless, bespectacled girl named Brenda. Natalie jokes to Brenda that Mrs. Garrett is her "French bread connection", but Brenda doesn't crack a smile and stonily retorts, "That's funny" before wandering off. Cue Tootie, who breezes into the cafeteria to inform Natalie that she's super busy with her new friends...and somehow this segue ways into an argument and the two start bickering loudly. Mrs. Garrett tells them to knock it off, then corrals the four of them so they can reflect on their time apart and realize how much they miss each other. They insist they don't and start to disperse - but Mrs. Garrett shrieks, "Hold it!" and informs them that their four replacements will be taking over kitchen duty and sleeping in their vacated bedroom. However, before they can move in, the room needs to be painted, cleaned and swept...and since the school doesn't appear to have any sort of maintenance or custodial staff, this has somehow become the responsibility of the Facts girls. All four gals are dressed in frumpy dungarees, grumpily cleaning up the bedroom. Natalie says she'd much rather be rock hunting with Brenda, and the other three laugh about how boring and made up that sounds. They remark on how pleasantly surprised they are that the room is now the perfect temperature, and that the running water situation has been sorted out. They seem a bit put off that four strangers will be moving into their room, and reminisce about the first night they spent in it. Natalie points at Tootie's growth chart on the wall and remarks that she's grown two inches since they first started measuring. Yep, Tootie's come a long way since the producers made her wear roller skates in Season 1 so she'd appear taller. As they get to work, Jo places a paint tray on the chair Blair was just sitting on...and mayhem predictably ensues when Blair sits back down and gets a paint covered ass. She remains on the chair, trying not to laugh too hard while the cameras are rolling - but Jo can't contain herself and laughingly says it was an accident and that she's sorry. Blair grits her teeth and says, "Sure you are" then picks up a nearby paint roller and rolls it up and down Jo's face while Jo just mutely stands there and lets her. Blair sweetly says, "Will you forgive me? It was an accident" and an irked Jo replies, "No hard feelings" and sticks out her hand as if to shake on it...but when Blair stretches her hand, Jo quickly swaps out her hand for the wet paint roller and this is what Blair accidentally shakes. After that, Jo and Blair abandon any pretense of civility and start wrestling each other with wet paint rollers. Natalie barks at them to stop 'cause of the giant mess they're making and indignantly barks, "Show some decorum!" Jo and Blair respond by attacking her with their wet rollers, and she happily shrieks in fake protest. Tootie, meanwhile, tries to slink out of the room...but Jo stops her and asks Blair and Natalie what they should do with her. They rush over and cover her with paint, and then all four clump together and throw paint at each other like an out-of-control pack of feces flinging chimpanzees. A few minutes later, Mrs. Garrett peeks into the room and gasps in fake horror. They all turn around, and Blair sheepishly squeaks, "Uh, hi Mrs. Garrett." When Mrs. Garrett demands to know what the hell they're doing, they cheekily tell her they're throwing themselves into their work. She sternly says they've gotten themselves into "a considerable mess" and now owe the school for the cost of the paint and the re-refinishing of the floor. Jo exclaims, "You're talkin' big bucks!" and Natalie wails, "Where are we going to get that kind of money?" Mmm...I wonder. Mrs. Garrett tells the messy girls they're going to have to come up with some way to pay for all the "damage" that a thorough cleaning in one afternoon can't accomplish. Blair says she just had one of her brrrillllliant ideas...but then grimaces and says it's too horrible for words. She meekly suggests that the four of them move back into their old room above the cafeteria and work off their debt, since it's a formula the producers seem to feel is working for the show. Everyone fake grumbles about what a hideous idea it is and bickers back and forth...and while they're doing that, a relieved Mrs. Garrett joyfully skips out of the room. Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying TVofYore's recaps, consider thanking me by buying me a "coffee"!
7 Comments
Brandon
12/3/2020 11:27:21 am
That final scene was really a dumb excuse to make the girls stay in that dorm. How do you damage a floor when it's all covered up?
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ChrisW
3/26/2021 12:34:41 am
1: What is Blair doing? She's sitting in a chair, untying hand towels? That's worse than being outright lazy, she's focusing on something that makes no sense.
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ChrisW
4/2/2021 03:30:09 pm
And what happened to the girls who were supposed to get that room? They must have been in trouble and now Mrs. Garrett would still not have the privacy that resident Eastland staff are entitled to.
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ChrisW
6/6/2021 09:21:54 am
And as the episode begins, they're sharing a bathroom and presumably getting ready to head down to the kitchen to serve breakfast. They've been doing this for months but now, for the first time ever, Blair suddenly realizes she needs Puff? Not once in this school year or the previous year has she ever had to maintain her trademark on the spot, first thing in the morning? The other three girls were right there every single month and they never ever saw this coming?
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11/24/2022 04:59:30 pm
Were they using gold and diamond-encrusted paint cans to redecorate the room or something? There is no way the "damage" to the room or spilled paint cost that much. Lord!
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RitSchard
2/10/2023 12:35:17 am
I thought it interesting to clear out the room just have them back in it. Just like Friends did when they switched apts.
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Charles Richard Welsbacher
10/11/2023 06:12:54 pm
As I understand it, when Mrs. Garrett told the girls that they needed to paint the room, that was her plot to get the girls to move back into her place, as she figured they'd make a mess with the paint, and so, would consequently have to move back in and work in the cafeteria.
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