#because pun is a disaster gay who should not give advice

[heretherebedork]

Me, going into episode 7: even if it works, taking advice from Pun just seems like a bad idea.

[stephadoodles]

DOAFP Episode 1x03 Review - “Disaster Relief”

I had more to say about this episode than I realized! A lot of great metaphors and another themed episode, although this one only focused on two of the three story lines in regards to the theme.

Sasha sets up the main idea of the episode by talking about her raison d'être, mispronouncing it as raisin. In short, her reason for being. This starts Elena off on thinking about what her raisin is (and I’m going to feel silly typing that every time). They show the school announcements and how awkward the principal is at giving them, easily foreshadowing what Elena’s going to end up doing by the end of the episode. However, she decides that being the Hurricane Watch person is her calling instead.

Throughout the episode, Elena works on her speech for the competition, and seeks advice from a variety of people. When we do get to finally see her speech, she throws a little bit from everyone in, with an anecdote like her mother suggested, a splash of humor with a pun from Sam, and some hurricane-related facts, which she had been researching early on. It’s a nice reflection of how she took advice from everyone and mixes it up to make it uniquely hers.

And man, if the whole competition isn’t a giant metaphor for the state of politics (and really society in general). The girl puts together a smart, funny, and engaging presentation. She’s shown working on it for days and puts a lot of effort into it. Meanwhile, the guy gets up there, makes a few dumb comments that he clearly didn’t put any real work or effort into, and wins easily. It’s likely something that adult!Elena will have to deal with in the future, but it’s symbolized in a middle school situation as well.

Ultimately, Elena figures out that since she’s so comfortable with public speaking, and that it’s something she enjoys doing, she should take over the announcements. She excels at it, and it’s another little hint at her future.

Meanwhile, Gabi has a nice date with Sam planned, now that their relationship is out in the open. She’s shown clearly worrying about her kids and not being sure if she’s ready to leave them alone while going out on dates. It made me wonder if she never really went out before, even with friends, because her kids are definitely old enough to be on their own for an evening. I was babysitting other people’s kids by the time I was Elena’s age.

Gabi’s focus on her kids gets in the way of her dates, messing up both of them with the first being cancelled, and the second being crashed by the kids (and Monyca). While Sam seems understanding at first, and he definitely rolls with it when everyone shows up at the restaurant, he’s clearly out of his depth with the realization of how having kids impacts your life. He and Gabi have a conversation at the end of the episode where he admits that he didn’t realize how having kids would change and impact their relationship, and he’s honest about the fact that he’s not sure how he feels about that.

It’s a surprisingly honest conversation, and the fact that they’re putting that much focus on it surprised me. It’s a very adult topic to deal with, in the sense that younger kids – who are the target audience for this show – might not be as interested in it. But when it comes to adults, having kids is a huge decision and if both people in the relationship don’t agree on it, the relationship ultimately won’t work. Gabi states as much and points out that her kids are her reason for being, and that they come before anything else in her life. Sam is then faced with the choice of whether he wants to still be a part of her life, since it would greatly involve the kids. It’s left on a cliffhanger that isn’t resolved until the next episode.

And then there’s Bobby’s story line, which is the one that doesn’t connect to the reason for being theme. His is essentially focused on his burgeoning relationship with Monyca, and that apparently means getting to second base right away. This was definitely the most eye-rolling aspect of the episode for me, but teen boys are teen boys, I guess.

Considering the fact that it does look like they’re going in the direction of Bobby being gay, it’s interesting to watch his relationship with Monyca develop. There’s little build up to their actual relationship, and it’s hard to tell if they’ve even really interacted before this. At times, Bobby seems uncomfortable, and doesn’t seem super enthusiastic about it.

Bobby hears through his friends that she wants to meet up with him in a spot that is apparently a popular hook-up spot for students, and it means that she wants to go to second base with him. Clearly, none of these boys have any idea what they’re talking about, and I doubt any of them have been in a relationship or even kissed anyone before, but they’re talking a big game because they’re dumb teen boys. This leads to a sequence where they sit around in Bobby’s bedroom and try to figure out what exactly this second base is supposed to be, which leads to them practicing on one of Gabi’s bras. When Gabi catches them, this leads to her giving Bobby part four of eight of the sex talk (which she has binders for).

This whole story line, if for no other reason, is a great example of how the show is able to talk about much more mature topics. No show on modern Disney Channel would be able to get away with this. Between this and the casual swearing, it’s clear that the Disney+ platform is allowing for a lot more freedom. But it’s all still appropriate for middle-school aged kids who have likely (hopefully) had some kind of sex talk at this point and can handle some low-key swearing.

It’s all wrapped up when Bobby goes to meet her, and Monyca simply tells him that she likes him. She also points out that the whole concept of “bases” is outdated and patriarchal, which is the only valid response to that whole story line.

The main theme of the episode is finding your reason for being. It’s normal for kids to start thinking about that around middle school, and schools are definitely starting to approach the idea of “figure out what you want to do in life” a lot earlier now. The conversation that Elena and Gabi have about how you don’t have to figure it out when you’re young, and how it may take a long time for you to find your reason is a really important one. With the pressure to pick a future and figure out what you want to do with your life happening younger and younger, it’s important to have the message that it’s okay if you don’t know yet, or that it might change as you go through life. There’s no age where you just have everything magically figured out.  

A few notes:

Usually Disney shows don’t reference anything political, but the science class is clearly having a discussion about climate change, and there’s a poster on the wall referencing it. This is shown again in later episodes as well with the evolution lesson

Camila makes another reference to not having a good relationship with her parents, and I can’t help but wonder if we’ll get more of her back story and focus on her in the future

Elena had to correct another teacher on the pronunciation of her name

Similar to how Iris in Andi Mack was named after a goddess of rainbows, I’ve noticed that Monyca tends to wear a lot of clothing/accessories with rainbows on them (Coincidence? I think not).