Baddies(?) At A Science Fair and Some Wonderful Bedtime Bowling Stories Make Up This Week's "Kiff" on Disney Channel

The latest episode of Kiff on Disney Channel takes us into a wondrous world of bedtime bowling alley stories, before we ask the important question: Is Patty a Baddie?!

Stories Before Snories

First off — what? There is no opening sponsor for this episode. I don’t see a reason why, other than (small spoiler) most of the episode takes place in the imagination of our characters, and not the real world of Table Town.

Either way, Kiff is in bed and video calling (keeping it legally distinct here) Barry, talking with him well beyond their mutually agreed to bedtimes. She can’t sleep, so why should he get to? As part of their conversation, they start talking about their confusion/disgust with sand. And her annoyance by glass? That’s a whole other story.

It’s that realization that gets her to call her Dad, Martin, into the room, tucking her phone behind her pillow with Barry still on the call.

She wants some “stories before snories," (bedtime stories) but Martin is hesitant, as he knows there was a reason they stopped doing this and now she might be a bit too old. What kind of story does she want? Well…she seems to know but is vaguely specific with her story requirements, and they’re all ones that parents are sure to be familiar with. It seems that this might be the reason that they stopped.

Regardless, Martin comes up with a story about a squirrel named Puimm, and we journey into the imagination to see this story play out. It seems that their kingdom is a wonderful place, complete with a bowling alley and Puimm’s dad is ready to compete in a bowling tournament.

An old man with sand (one of Kiff’s rules was no sand) shows up and Martin has to backtrack during his story leading to him being banished from the kingdom, and quickly tries to wrap up the story by sending Kiff back to the land of pillows with the dragon to get some sleep.

Wait a minute, what dragon? Martin never established a dragon. This is confusing. Now, Beryl (Kiff’s mom) gets involved and establishes a past with the dragon, who became a good friend of Puimm’s.

She also introduces a one-eyed giant who comes in and destroys the kingdom, laying waste to the bowling alley so Puimm’s dad could no longer compete in a bowling tournament.

Okay, clearly there was some kind of debate earlier about Martin’s participation in a bowling tournament and it was getting carried over into stories before snories.

As such, we try and rectify the situation and Puimm calls her dragon friend to help get rid of the giant and save the kingdom, but the bowling alley is gone, and the kingdom’s contractor can’t do anything to rebuild the bowling alley, as there are no supplies left in the kingdom. As such, the dragon takes the family back to the land of pillows to get some sleep.

Kiff is still unsatisfied with how this story has played out, until Barry chimes in. He was still on the phone this whole time, and knows how to give this story a satisfying ending. The old man that Puimm kicked out of the kingdom? He was a keeper of all the sand, which is needed for a good foundation for a new bowling alley. Now that he has returned, the bowling alley can be built. Once rapidly completed, the tournament can take place and Puimm’s dad wins, and with all the sand, they can make a spherical glass trophy.

The giant returns and explains that he is mad because he has an eyepatch, and keeps getting confused for a pirate. So, they give him the glass trophy to serve as a glass eye.

Not only that, it turns out that the old man was the sandman, and he also has sleep sand, of which he gives a bag to Puimm and her family, on the house. Now, they can all fall asleep with ease.

Do the Chatterley’s like that story? It seems so, as they are all asleep and Barry is pleased, except for the fact that he can’t fall asleep now.

Is Patty A Baddie?

It’s time for the school’s science fair, and the kids are trying to come up with a project that will score themselves second place. Why second place? Because we all know that Reggie will have the first place prize, because Reggie is a science nerd. In fact, there’s a whole song about it.

Miss Dear Teacher even chimes in, saying that it's a good thing that all the kids are realists as she too knows that Reggie getting first place is a lock.

At the Buns household, Kiff and Barry are eating ice cream and trying to figure out what to do for their science fair project, getting all the bad ideas out first - like “how long does a candle burn?" Barry is seized with inspiration and comes up with an idea for a helmet that prevents brain freeze when you eat ice cream. It’s a genius idea, and it will surely get them that second place spot.

The next day, they are back in class presenting their ideas when they see Patty Hoot struggling, offering some words of encouragement. Later at lunch, she still doesn’t have an idea and while Kiff and Barry are telling her where their inspiration, Barry shares their brain freeze helmet idea, suggesting that inspiration can come from wherever. Patty takes the advice.

Later, it’s her turn to present her idea for the Science Fair, where she says that she is working on a helmet that will prevent brain freeze when you eat ice cream.

Kiff and Barry are aghast. That was their idea. Even worse, now it's their turn to present an idea and they are scrambling, defaulting back to that original terrible idea - how long does a candle burn?

After class the question remains - is Patty a baddie? They can’t discern, and when they approach her about it, Patty doesn’t seem to know what they are talking about.

Now, it’s time for the science fair and Reggie, as predicted, is taking the win with a homemade particle accelerator, and it now comes down to who gets second place, and right now all eyes are on Patty. Even the news is ready to talk to her after the finish up with Reggie, and Kiff sneaks away to listen to her interview. Patty says that her idea came thanks to two special friends. Could this be where she thanks Kiff and Barry? No. Her two special friends: Her Brain and Her Heart. This miffs Kiff, who gets a text message from Barry asking for any kind of update as to whether Patty is a baddie.

The text message. That’s it! There’s a previous text message showing off a conversation from days ago that shows they had the idea first! Kiff immediately runs to Principal Secretary to show her that they deserve the second place ribbon when the text messages suddenly disappear. Turns out, Trevor’s project is a way to delete old text messages using compost, and it is pulling from Kiff’s phone. This is the last straw.

Kiff finally erupts and screams across the whole science fair that Patty has stolen their idea. She doesn’t seem to remember until it all comes back to her. She did inadvertently steal their idea forgetting it was theirs.

It’s around this time that Terri Buns shows up again, delivering pizzas to the fair. Hearing all the hubbub, she explains to Barry and Kiff that it was never their idea in the first place. She had won a second place badge herself for that same idea when she was their age.

Then, it all comes back to Barry. While they were eating ice cream earlier in the episode, Terri walked by and got something out of the fridge, where a picture of her winning the prize for her brain freeze helmet is proudly displayed. It was never their idea to begin with.

Reggie explains that this is Cryptomnesia, a memory phenomenon where someone mistakenly believes a thought or idea is original, when in fact it's a previously encountered memory that they've forgotten the origin of. Nerd.

They go to apologize and explain the situation to Principal Secretary, but he is already giving out the second place ribbon to Trevor and his text-message-deleting compost heap.

This episode of Kiff is now available on Disney Channel, the DisneyNOW website, and Disney+, where you can also catch up with the rest of the series.