First Impressions, Separate Stews, and an Overwhelmed Waiter Fill Out This Week's "Big City Greens"

The latest Big City Greens shows off the power of a first impression, and proves that the big city that is Big City might not be for everyone.

Locked In

It’s time for the Community Center Lock In! What’s that? Yeah, I didn’t know either. But thankfully, Community Sue is here to tell us that it’s a special event when they lock all the kids in the gym at the community center overnight, like one big sleepover with all your friends.

It seems like it’s going to be a fun night filled with antics, with everyone on scene. Cricket, Remy, and Tilly of course, as well as Wheezy, Benny, Kiki, and even Gregly. However, there is a new kid in the community center - Jagger -  and his reputation as one of the cool kids has already preceded him. Everyone has already heard some kind of story upon meeting him, save for Tilly, Cricket, and Remy who still need to introduce themselves.

Being the cool kid, Jagger is hanging out along a far wall watching everyone else have fun, when Tilly approaches and introduces herself, promising to be a good friend. Jagger rebukes this offer, politely mind you, but Tilly is still taken aback. Is she not a good friend to all? Cricket tries to help out and in turn stumbles around and finds himself wrapped in a chair, with Jagger pointing out that Cricket must be the Klutz of the crew. Both first impressions have been awful, but Remy has somehow earned the title of “The Funny Guy." Not wanting to lose this as his first impression, he vows to make it his last impression, that way Remy will always be thought of by Jagger as the funny guy, and attempts to hide for the remainder of the evening.

Cricket and Tilly try to save face and shape their image into a better one in the eyes of Jagger, but somehow they keep perpetuating their new titles, making them question who they’ve truly been this entire time. Is Tilly not a friend to all? Is Cricket not a cool stuntman himself?

As they go up to their other friends, somehow their identity crisis spreads among the gang with everyone questioning themselves in a full-blown identity crisis.

As morning approaches, Community Sue returns and discovers each of the kids having an existential crisis and decides to pull out a ropes course for everyone to participate in. This ropes course, high in the upper reaches of the gym, is known to help kids realize who they truly are. Though, I must agree that Sue probably should have put some mats down underneath it or something.

Cricket goes first, and finds himself dangling just beyond the first step, catching a rope on his way down and inevitably making his way across swinging like a monkey beneath the proper bridge. No Klutz could ever do that. This continues with everyone else making their way across until the last kid left is Jagger, who is petrified in fear.

Turns out, Jagger might not be as cool as everyone thought - and his name isn’t even Jagger! It’s Allen! Turns out he wanted to make a good first impression himself when he arrived at the community center and created his whole persona. Well, now he’s outed - and the kids are ready to welcome him for who he is - but alas, the whole thing is botched. It’s time for him to make his way to another community center and try there instead.

City Wayne

It’s time for Cricket and Tilly to leave Smalton after visiting their mom, and they are going to take the train back. At the station, they discover Wayne (remember? The waiter from the diner in town?) who likes to sit at the station and watch the trains come and go. It’s soothing for him. To Cricket and Tilly’s surprise, Wayne has never climbed aboard one of the trains to visit Big City. In fact, he’s never left Smalton. This prompts an idea from Tilly and Cricket - Wayne should come to Big City with them today! Hesitant at first, Wayne agrees and our episode really begins to take off.

But back in Smalton, Nancy is working hard on the farm and doesn’t have time to make Dinner, asking her dad (Nick) to do it just for tonight.

Nick, who is against work of any kind, complains with neighbor Trey while they are enjoying their Splish on the porch and comes up with a brilliant scheme: He’s going to make dinner. But he is going to cook something so awful that it will make Nancy never want him to cook again. It’s a foolproof plan. Let’s see how it plays out.

Cricket, Tilly, and Wayne make it to Big City just fine, and the idea that Wayne can see some true excitement takes off as soon as they get off the train. He immediately spots a resident skating by on Wheelies - those tennis shoes that have wheels on them allowing them to skate freely as appropriate. When is it appropriate? You be the judge, as that is a discussion for a different time. As they go to cross the street, Wayne is also impressed by the voice coming from the traffic signal, though he thinks it’s a tiny man inside the light telling him when it’s safe to walk.

Ironically, it’s at this point that Cricket and Tilly decide to blindfold Wayne, as he is getting excited over things that they find mundane and boring. They decide to take him to Times Circle, some place that they find exciting.

At the house in Smalton, Nick has carefully manufactured an awful stew for dinner that includes (at minimum) fish, salt, chicken(?) and mayonnaise. He tricks Trey into trying it first, and his green face and disgusted reaction proves that this truly is bad and he’ll never have to cook again. But wait - wouldn’t Nick have to eat this for dinner too? He can’t just serve it to Nancy and not eat - that would be suspicious. So, in a fun twist since it means that Nick is now doing twice the work that he never wanted to do in the first place, Nick cooks up a whole other delicious stew, possibly the greatest thing he’s ever cooked. It just needs a bit of hot sauce, and thankfully Trey has a bottle that they can go get back at his place.

In Times Circle, Wayne is getting overwhelmed by the large amounts of people, giant screens, and loud noises. Cricket and Tilly, used to this, don’t see the problem and point out the human statues and the Croblins characters meeting nearby. Well, Wayne isn’t quite used to this and snaps, running into the nearby miniature museum, which has a fully realized miniature version of Big City. Ever seen King Kong? Get ready for the parody as a panicked Wayne is now terrorizing the small version of Big City, complete with remote control airplanes trying to scare him off one of the bigger buildings that Wayne has found himself mid-panic climbing on. Eventually, Tilly realizes that the model has a tiny train that comes and goes, and gets Wayne to look for that, considering he finds the trains soothing (remember?) and he calms down and they all leave a basically destroyed museum behind them. Before Wayne heads home though, he needs to stop at one place in particular - and we finally see Wayne back home with his own pair of Wheelies.

In Smalton, Nick has returned, ready to eat the rest of his delicious stew with the hot sauce and as you could have guessed - Nancy is there cleaning her plate after eating the delicious meal. It seems that Nancy has loved and eaten every drop but doesn’t understand why Nick is upset, considering he made so much. Nick, now having to eat his garbage stew, turns ill while eating it but Nancy suggests that she’s not buying that show. The stew is delicious, and Nick will be cooking dinner from now on.

This episode of Big City Greens is now available on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW website. You can also catch up with earlier episodes streaming now on Disney+.