Welcome back to Teeny Bopper TV Breakdown! Today we recap Breaker High, episode 41, “Lord of the Butterflies.”
We start out with the class finishing watching a “Harrison Pitt” movie (guess whose names that’s combining) that Alex has fallen asleep to, and Ashley is bemoaning the fact that her boyfriend is not the least bit romantic (watching the stars is nice but talking about the NBA Draft while doing so? Maybe not so much). She’s resigned to it and tells Alex she likes him the way he is, but Alex takes it as a challenge and says that when they dock in Costa Rica, he’ll show her a romantic weekend she’ll never forget.
These episodes may have aired out of order, because after the theme song we see Sean and Tamira feeding each other ice cream. Jimmy wonders aloud when something like that will happen for him, and Denise assumes he’s talking about the mushy, lovey-dovey stuff, but all Jimmy meant was that Nigel gave Sean extra whipped cream. Cassidy then greets Max with a hug, which just makes Denise want to get out of the love nest even more, so she decides to go on a nature walk and invites Jimmy to come along with her.
To get Ashley in the mood, Alex reads her a sonnet on the pool deck (as his jock buddies laugh) and then insists he carry her to their first excursion, horseback riding on the beach. Except then he can’t lift her so starts calling her heavy and asking what she weighs, which brings the romance meter right back down. Once they get to the beach, Cassidy and Max have snagged the last two horses, so Ashley is stuck with a donkey that Alex will be leading with a rope. This is going to be a day full of misadventures, isn’t it.
On the nature walk, Jimmy rustles a plant, which makes a butterfly fly out that a nearby research intern named Yvette has been searching for for three months (Jimmy name-dropped an Yvette an episode or two ago, which also makes me think this should have come earlier). She asks if he wants to come back to her campsite to meet her supervisor; Denise almost comes along too but realizes she’s stumbled on yet another brewing romance so heads back to the ship. At the site, Jimmy is celebrated like a hero, but then immediately lets the butterfly escape after accidentally leaving its cage door ajar, and Yvette takes the fall - since no one saw Jimmy open the cage, Yvette’s supervisor is sending her home to do lab research as he no longer trusts her to do fieldwork, and she’s devastated.
Alex’s next trick is an attempt at a romantic picnic, but it’s quickly interrupted by Tony taking the rest of the class on a hike. Just when they think things can’t get any worse, thunder rumbles and it starts to rain. And then once that passes, they can’t go watch the sunset from atop a volcano because the roads have been washed out. Backup plan: Mud baths! Ashley had actually mentioned her interest in those to Cassidy and Tamira earlier, so finally, this one works out.
Jimmy has rustled up the rest of the friend group to look for the missing butterfly (who cares that it took three months to find it the first time and even that was pure luck?). After about twenty minutes, he realizes the fruitlessness of the endeavor, but it still takes some convincing from Denise for him to tell Yvette the whole thing is his fault - he doesn’t want Yvette to hate him, but at least she’ll be able to keep her job. Denise walks back to the campsite with him and he tries to blame her at first, but it turns out the same species of butterfly they’re looking for has landed on him again?! Must be some pheromones. Yvette and Jimmy start talking about how they can look for butterflies together every day now that Yvette will be able to keep her job, but realist Denise reminds Jimmy they’re leaving for Panama soon (oh yeah, this was definitely switched with last episode). As Denise leaves the other two alone, Yvette tells Jimmy he takes her breath away and kisses him on the cheek, leaving him dumbstruck, a feeling he carries all the way back to the ship.
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