TV Recap: Plagiarism, AI, and Pocket Poetry - Electric Bloom’s Moral Dilemma

Electric Bloom makes the right choice to stick to their morals in the twelth episode of Disney Channel’s musical sitcom series. This episode deals with a familiar theme to students - turning in work that isn’t your own, whether it comes from another source of artificial intellgence. Here’s a recap of this special episode.

Episode 12: “How We Pulled A Song Out of Our Pocket" - Ron Rappaport

Posey (Lumi Pollack), Jade (Carmen Sanchez), and Tulip (Ruby Marino) gather for another Ask Us Anything, and this time a fan wants to know if they’ve ever found songwriting challenging. Posey and Jade look at Tulip, who tells the story of how her first song almost ruined the band!

A college radio station, WNJC, was hosting a songwriting contest and the winner would have their song played for a month. Recordings needed to be submitted by mail that Friday, and Jade suggested that Electric Bloom enter with a new song. The night before, Tulip had a dream where she wrote a song and the girls thought it could be fate. They agreed that Tulip would write the song, and they gave her space to do it.

Tulip was plagued by writer’s block and self-doubt, shelving all of her efforts to write a song. Taking a break, she cleaned out her closet and donated the items to her favorite thrift shop, Modern Vintage. Lucas (Nathaniel "Nate" Buescher) was there shopping for a gift for his girlfriend Shelly Sharp to commemorate their three week anniversary. Tulip tried to help him pick a gift for his picky girlfriend, but she found something for herself instead, a cool green jacket. Inside the breast pocket was a handwritten poem that matched her own lyrical ambitions.

Tulip wrote a melody for the poem with the intention of writing new lyrics for it, but Posey and Jade walked in on her singing it and fell in love with it. Tulip tried to tell them she found the lyrics, which they took to mean she had an inspirational muse. When she put her hand over her jacket pocket to say it came from “in here," they thought she meant her heart. They rushed to record the song so they wouldn’t lose the magic.

With the song recorded, Tulip thought she talked Posey and Jade out of submitting this song, deciding instead to submit one of their old ones. But behind Tulip’s back, they mailed it to the radio station anyway. When she learned what happened, she told them she didn’t write the lyrics. Posey freaks out that they might be accused of plagarism. They decide to go to the radio station to try and get it back.

We see Lucas give Shelly Sharp (J’Adore Elizabeth) a blue shirt from Modern Vintage, with Shelly LeBrock (Trisha Macaden) attached at her hip. As soon as the other Shelly said she hated it, his girlfriend had the same opinion. Lucas offered to exchange it for something else.

At WNJC, DJ Kim (Heather Lynn Harris) was in the middle of playing the submitted songs when Electric Bloom showed up to try and swap their song. Unable to interrupt the broadcast, they got excited to hear themselves on the radio, and also were surprised to hear a good song from The Two Shellys. When DJ Kim was done with the show, they asked to swap songs and she told them that’s against the rules. However, she shared that they had the best shot of winning, inviting them back for the live finals in two days.

At school, the girls observes The Two Shellys using AI to not only write a new song, but also perform it with approximations of their voices. They let it slip that they used this same process for their contest entry. In response, Electric Bloom convinced themselves that what they didn’t wasn’t that bad. They have no idea who the poet was, and for all they know, spreading their work through song could be honoring their legacy. But when they go to confront The Two Shellys, they realize that they were being disingenuous.

Back in their rehearsal room at Tulip’s house, Jade caught a look at some of Tulip’s own rejected lyrics. While they didn’t all make sense on their own page, she realized that combining fragments created some really original lyrics. Posey and Jade also told Tulip that songs never come out fully formed and that they usually have to go back and change lyrics during their songwriting process.

Returning to WNJC for the live competition, Electric Bloom announced live on air that the lyrics for their song submission weren’t their own and have been changed, but DJ Kim disqualified them. They were bummed, but tried to encourage The Two Shellys to also come clean. They didn’t, and when the other entrant - Lil’ Howdy (Chris Bey) - disqualified himself by being the station’s owner’s son, The Two Shellys were the obvious winners. But Jade had one other trick up her sleeve, getting them to admit on microphone that they used AI to write their song.

Lucas was waiting in the green room, congratulating Posey, Jade, and Tulip for their bravery and honesty. He’s disappointed in The Two Shellys for not being truthful. When they come out, he tells Shelly Sharp they need to talk.

Finishing the story, Electric Bloom shows their fans the framed lyrics to “Wolf Pack Energy," which was stitched together from Tulip’s lyrical efforts. The episode ends with their live performance of the bop.

Next Episode: “How We Tried to Crash a Party"

The first 13 episodes of Electric Bloom are now streaming on Disney+. “How We Pulled A Song Out of Our Pocket" will have its broadcast debut on Friday, October 12th, at 8/7c on Disney Channel.