Adventures in Care-a-lot Episode 10

At last, the long awaited Episode 10. The first part is very good, the second part, not so much.

Grizzle-ized
This ep opens with a shot of Grizzle's lair underscored by organ music. That, right there, is win. Sadly, the organ music doesn't last, but we do get right down to Grizzle's latest plan. This time around, he's created a machine that will turn all of Care-a-lot into a replica of his "beautiful lair." But how to get it into Care-a-lot? Down in the land of the Care Bears, Oopsy's helping Grumpy work on something or other, with things predictably taking a turn for the worse, ending with the two of them making a break for it before being crushed by basically everything in Grumpy's garage. Funshine and Cheer are summoned by the destruction, and they try to find something Oopsy can do without ruining anything too much while Grumpy stews and fixes his garage.
Meanwhile, Grizzle tries to get ahead of the game by watching the latest episode of AiCal, and sees Funshine and Cheer giving Oopsy a job painting the fence just outside of town. This inspires him: what better way to get his machine into Care-a-lot than to use an actual Care Bear?
Oopsy, easily influenced, at first jumped at the chance to paint the fence since Funshine called it important, but covered in paint, he can't help but question the actual importance of the job. Grizzle plays on both of these points when he approaches Oopsy, saying he needs "an important bear for an important job." Oopsy instantly assumes Grizzle is up to no good, but Grizzle claims to have turned over a new leaf and has a gift to prove it. When Oopsy demands to know what kind of gift it is, Grizzle does some quick thinking and tells him it'll make Care-a-lot smell like flowers. Oopsy still isn't sold, so Grizzle makes him a deal: Oopsy can bring the machine to Care-a-lot personally to make sure it's perfectly fine. Oopsy still isn't sold, so Grizzle hooks him by saying he'll just find someone more important. Oopsy takes the bait, of course, and goes to get a Cloud Car.
Up in Grizzle's lair, Oopsy identifies Grizzle's "gift" by its scent, throwing Grizzle off for a moment, but he recovers. And it turns out that Oopsy really just smelled the paint, which he brought with him for some reason. He shows it to Grizzle and ends up dousing the machine. Oops. Back in Care-a-lot, Grumpy's garage is almost as good as new, so Cheer decides to go see how Oopsy's doing on the fence. Grumpy implores her to keep Oopsy over there are long as possible, but she's not having any of it. Back at the lair, Grizzle cleans off his machine and claims it's working perfectly, although I wonder how he can tell. Obviously, it isn't working, as it lets loose a gush of paint right on Grizzle. Oopsy gets inspired by this, and goes to get more paint to paint the machine. Grizzle protests, and Oopsy tries to stop, but slips on some paint, and accidently activates all of Grizzle's robots! They all go haywire, even UR-2, but the hammer-bot from Ice Creamed does actual damage to Grizzle's machine. Cut to commercial.
By the end of the commercial break, Grizzle and Oopsy have mostly cleaned up the resulting mess. Although he's stewing inside, Grizzle thanks a self-deprecating Oopsy for helping him discover and correct "design flaws" in his machine. Now it's ready to go to Care-a-Lot. Oopsy promises to be extra careful, and pulls this off by taking each step extra slowly and keeping an eye out before making a move. The slow going, or possibly the annoying sound effect of each step, frustrates Grizzle, and he tells Oopsy to get a move on, startling the Care Bear, and naturally ending with the machine in pieces. A few more adjustments and the machine is now drop-proof, if a little heavy. Oopsy takes off with it as Grizzle crows of his plan's imminent success.
Unfortunately, the machine is too heavy for Oopsy, so he goes to Grumpy's garage (Grumpy is conveniently absent) and borrows a handtruck (I think that's what they're called), making it easy to move the machine from place to place. Until it gets away from him and rolls downhill, of course. The machine falls off the handtruck and bounces around the town square a little before falling into the fountain and shorting out. Meanwhile, Grumpy, Funshine, and Cheer survey the fence Oopsy painted (ah, so that's why they weren't at the garage). Funshine thinks Oopsy did a good job, while Grumpy snarks on how the fence wasn't all that got painted. Despite a snarky Grumpy being the cutest Grumpy, Cheer quickly shuts down his attitude by pointing out that he wouldn't like hearing Oopsy say that about him, now would he? Grumpy admits she's right, and remarks that Oopsy did actually do a good job on the fence. This revelation is short lived as a new one crops up: Grizzle's footprint in some spilled paint! They quickly jump to the conclusion that Oopsy is with Grizzle, and Grumpy is the first to say they need to save him. Funshine calls him on this, since he's just wanted Oopsy out of the way this whole episode, so Grumpy explains that despite being Oopsy being Oopsy, he doesn't want to see him in trouble. So off they go to launch a rescue mission!
During all that, Oopsy brought the machine back to Grizzle, who is understandably exasperated by this time. But he fixes the machine yet again, making it waterproof, and sends Oopsy off once again. Back in Care-a-lot, Grumpy rallies the others to help Oopsy, unaware that Oopsy has already arrived with the machine. Grumpy greets him cheerfully, but does not hug him, and then asks about the machine. Oopsy explains that it's from Grizzle, and as he goes to turn it on, everyone else runs for cover. But in the process of making the machine waterproof, Grizzle inadvertantly blocked the on switch, and Oopsy can't get it to start working. The others are relieved, but curious as to why it would be waterproof in the first place. So Oopsy tells them about how he helped Grizzle find all the design flaws, and Grumpy tells him that he ended up saving Care-a-lot. Cheer points out that he did something important in the end (and Love-a-lot is looking at his butt for some reason). Grumpy congratulates Oopsy, apologizes for being impatient with him lately, and gives him a pat on the shoulder. He also mentions another important job...
The two take Grizzle's machine into the garage, but we don't get to see what goes down, although we do hear the sound of more destruction. But as Grumpy says, "That's just what I wanted to hear." Up in his lair, Grizzle continues watching the episode, getting antsy because he knows the episode's almost over, but nothing has happened to Care-a-lot yet. While he implores the TV, Grumpy and Oopsy show up bearing the results of the latest design flaw: a single spring which proceeds to bounce all around the lair, eluding Grizzle's grasp. And the episode is over.



Share and Share Alike
It's another fine day in Care-a-lot, and Oopsy leaps from his upside-down house to go help Share with her garden, even drawing a flower on his belly. But Share just barely stops him from crushing the flower of her Rootbear plant, which makes a drink that makes you float. I'd just like to point out that I don't like root beer. Not really relevant to the episode, but if I seem less than enthusiastic during this post, that's why. Also, apparently the plant only ripens once a year. So they go and invite the rest of the core five to share the floats with them later on (Grumpy makes a pun that is utterly lost on Share). Harmony happens to be with Cheer when Share invites her, so Harmony gets an invite, too. Share foreshadowingly tells them she'll have just enough for everyone she's invited. Just as she exits the scene, Love-a-lot shows up and hears about the floats, but gets disappointed when she hears there won't be enough for her. She starts to walk off, but Harmony tells her that one more probably won't make a difference.
Later, Share and Oopsy stick the root into a machine (hopefully, they washed it first) that makes the floats, and Share lets Oopsy have the first one. He goes floating off, and Share tells him it's okay to go outside, so I guess it's not that powerful after all (not like the Fizzy Lifting Drinks from Wonka's, y'know). Share's about to have a cup herself when Grumpy and Wingnut show up, and she gives up her cup. Later again, there's a montage of the rest of the core five floating around. Wingnut, being a robot, doesn't get a float, but Share's just about to have hers when Love-a-lot shows up. Although she doesn't remember inviting her, Share shares anyway, reasoning that she still has enough left.
But it's not just Love-a-lot who shows up uninvited. Enough bears show up to make Share wonder where they come from. Hate to break it to ya, honey, but you live in Care-a-lot. Word gets around. More and more bears partake of her floats, and soon she's down to just two cups. She tells Wingnut that she needs to be able to say no, but of course, she's incapable of turning down Surprise and Tenderheart. Upon realizing that it is all gone, she rants to Wingnut about how she waited a whole year for this and didn't get any. She goes out and takes out her anger on the floaters and then storms off. The others wonder what caused that, Harmony confesses that she was the one who invited all the other freeloaders. Oh, Harmony, don't be so hard on yourself. Word would have gotten out one way or another. You know Care Bears can't keep a secret. Still, she feels bad that Share feels bad, and so do the others, so they come up with a plan to cheer her up...
Up on the thinking cloud, Share sits in a snit. Harmony approaches her, but gets snitted at. She admits they were wrong to drink all the floats, but Share says she wanted to share (it's her namesake, after all), so maybe she's just being selfish. And there's a lot of lessony stuff that I really don't want to write up here. And then the others show up with balloons so she can float, too, and everything ends happily. Finally.

The downfall of the second episode, IMO is that it showcases a rather odd lesson. And, I hate to say it, but I didn't really care about Share's plight. Ah well. Interestingly enough, the first episode didn't really have an overarching lesson, which might be why I liked it better ^_~ Sure, it had a bit tacked in at the end, but the majority of it was just fun at Grizzle's expense (but not in a bad way).