TV Recap: "Electric Bloom Takes" on Trolls and Jazz in “How We Learned to Love Our Haters”
Electric Bloom has some profound wisdom about dealing with negative comments online in the 11th episode of the Disney Channel sitcom. For fans of their music, this episode also has some jazzy reinterpretations of some of their biggest hits. Let’s recap!
Episode 11: “How We Learned to Love Our Haters" - Jess Pineda
In the present, Posey (Lumi Pollack), Jade (Carmen Sanchez), and Tulip (Ruby Marino) just got back from the Music Icon Awards, where they took home four trophies! “How do you handle haters?" a fan asks during their Ask Us Anything. It’s a skill they had to learn in Freshman year.
The girls were helping Mr. B (Clayton Thomas) with a school fundraiser to buy new instruments for the music class. Electric Bloom was scheduled to perform at the event and was working on promoting it to their followers. But while on social media, they saw a comment from someone named The Edi$on Troll, using trash can and puke emojis and saying “Electric Bloom stinks." They tried to counter the criticism by making a calm video drinking tea and encouraging their followers to “choose love."
The next day at school, they confronted The Two Shellys (J’Adore Elizabeth and Trisha Macaden), accusing them of being their troll. But the duo reminded them that they say what they think to their faces and have no reason to hide behind an anonymous account.
Jade’s boyfriend Dante (Van Brunelle) is worried about how down she seems. He recruits Lucas (Nathaniel "Nate" Buescher) and The Vince (Luke Busey) to figure out who The Edi$on Troll is. The Vince guarantees he will find them, bragging that he has a 100% success rate.
At rehearsal, Posey, Jade, and Tulip are all distracted by their phones, doomscrolling. Posey decides they need a break, suggesting they go somewhere fun with poor cell service. Tulip knows just the place - Eddie’s, a jazz club known for their soup where the trio are the youngest patrons by decades. Tulip is such a frequent guest that the owner, Eddie (Bruno Amato), knows her by name. He laments that there won’t be music tonight as his singers didn’t show up. Tulip suggests they perform. They improvise with the band, delivering a jazz interpretation of “No Limits."
Electric Bloom was such a hit at Eddie’s that they were booked for regular gigs. In elegant lounge attire, they treated the soup slurping crowd to “One Little Spark," “The One," and “My Beat My Drum." When they got off the stage, they were congratulated by three women - Dolores (Carolyn Hennesy), Georgie (Cleo King), and Ethel (Leo Garlington) - who were known as The Lounge Ladies until another act took their spot and got them fired - Electric Bloom! They asked Eddie to give them their jobs back, but he refused.
The online hate gets worse for Electric Bloom when The Lounge Ladies make a video about how the teens got them fired. They make a response video about how they didn’t mean to get anyone fired, but The Lounge Ladies edit it and make them look even worse. Students begin putting fliers around school, urging everyone to boycott Electric Bloom. Worse, Mr. B. tells them that no tickets have been sold for the fundraiser. He suggests they get offline and try to fix things in real life.
The Vince, Lucas, and Dante dine at Eddie’s, where The Vince is also a regular. They’re not any closer to finding out who is behind The Edi$on Troll, who just came up with a nickname for the group - “Electric B-losers!"
The girls invite The Lounge Ladies to the school for a public apology, giving them a cake while students watch. But The Lounge Ladies have a trick up their sleeve, saying that Electric Bloom gave them their performance spot at the fundraiser. Mr. B. tells them he’s proud of them, and the girls worry that speaking up will just cause more drama. But privately, Posey whispers “You stole our gig" to The Lounge Ladies. “What goes around comes around, sweetheart," Dolores quips back.
However, The Lounge Ladies have a change of heart, finding Electric Bloom in the music room to talk. The girls tell the seasoned performers about their issue with haters. The Lounge Ladies share stories about being heckled during live performance and give them some sound advice - never let anyone take away your joy. They encourage Electric Bloom to ignore trolls, and give them their fundraiser gig back.
The Vince has his first failure, accepting defeat over the identity of The Edi$on Troll. But Lucas has a good idea - report the account and get their hate posts taken down. The Vince does it and it works.
When Mr. B. introduces Electric Bloom at the fundraiser, someone boos. Emboldened by The Lounge Ladies, Electric Bloom brush it off and welcome their friends to the stage for a collab. “There’s Still Some Dreams I’m Gonna Chase," they sing. Later, Eddie gave The Lounge Ladies their gig back, and they welcomed Electric Bloom to share the stage with them there.
Finishing up their story, Posey, Jade, and Tulip reveal that they never learned the identity of their first hater, but it doesn’t matter. “We know who we are," Jade says with confidence.
Next Episode: “How We Pulled A Song Out of Our Pocket"
The first 13 episodes of Electric Bloom are now streaming on Disney+. “How We Learned to Love Our Haters" will have its broadcast debut on Friday, October 5th, at 7:30/6:30c on Disney Channel.