Nicole finishes Zoey's
coffee - that Zoey never even got to taste.
The teacher comes in, and tells the students that today is the deadline for
nominations for class president. Just on the spur of the moment, Chase
nominates Zoey, and Nicole seconds the nomination. Zoey - who is just a
little bit annoyed - responds by nominating Chase. Melissa seconds his
nomination, so both are now on the ballot.
Between classes, Zoey and Chase are talking about the nominations. Zoey
wants to know why he nominated her and vice versa. Chase really thought
she would be the best candidate - Zoey nominated him for pretty much the
same reason, but also to get back at him for his nomination. The conversation
is going well, but Zoey scares Chase a bit when she asks "are you afraid you
will lose?" And later "so you think you can beat me?" But she is just
messing with him - and they make a pact. No matter what happens, they won't
let it affect their friendship. Chase tries to do a spit shake - which
grosses her out - but Mr. Edwards, a friendly teacher shakes hands with both
and gets the spit shake!
In the girls' lounge, Nicole is making a poster - "Yo Yo Yoey, Vote 4 Zoey!"
and after a pause says " What? It's not my fault nothing good rhymes with your
name." Lola has made a picture of Chase wearing a wedding dress - you have to
make your opponent look bad. Quinn comes in and they ask her if she wants to
help - but she has a surprise: her boyfriend Mark is running for class
president. She shows a poster - Mark does not have the best expression on his
face! Mark comes in with buttons and with a bored tone says "Vote for me.
I'll make things better." The girls didn't even know his last name was Del
Figgalo, which Quinn explains as meaning "of the fig."
In the boys' dorm room, Logan is his opinionated self. He really wants Chase
to be class president, because that means power, and power attracts girls (it
would prove to be the opposite in Chase's case). Logan goes on to explain
that PCA has always had guys as class president, and he doesn't want to change
that tradition. He will do whatever it takes to get Chase elected, but Chase
makes it clear he doesn't want to humiliate Zoey. He makes Logan promise not
to help.
Nicole is staring at a piece of chocolate cake - and has a dilemma. It looks
soooo good but has sooooo many calories. She tries to get Zoey and Lola to
take it, and all three are tempted, but nobody wants it. So they agree to
each have one bite - and it is so good that they end up devouring it! Quinn
comes to the table with polling data on her laptop. She is depressed because
Chase and Zoey are tied at 49% each, and Mark barely shows up on her poll:
"poor sweet baby, look at that face!" - which is the same expression as on the
poster. Three girls come up excitedly - there are free smoothies on the quad
- but the cups have Chase's face on them!
At the quad, Logan has drawn quite a crowd around his smoothie machine. He
has a bullhorn - encouraging people to vote for Chase and get their free
smoothies. There is a life size cutout of Chase. All 4 girls come up to the
booth to see what is going on, and Chase and Michael arrive. It is obvious
that Chase is surprised and annoyed, but Zoey doesn't pick up on it. He just
heard about the free smoothies and will put a stop to it. Chase confronts
Logan out of sight of the girls, and he is really mad. He reminds Logan he
didn't want the help - but Logan lied when he said he wouldn't - welcome to
politics! Chase goes back to Zoey and promises he will stop it. But Logan
keeps it up - "what do you get with Chase?" to which the crowd shouts "free
smoothies" and "what do you get with Zoey?" to which one person says
"nothing." Zoey is really
mad and walks off while Chase tries to
call after her to reconcile.
Back at the boys' room - Chase is having an argument with Logan, who says "who
cares - what about your pact?" - which he heard about. It is obvious that the
pact is breaking down, and Chase tells Logan that the election will wreck his
friendship with Zoey - girls don't always say what they mean. Michael
recounts a story about a girlfriend he had, who told him one time that she
didn't want anything for her birthday. He took her at her word, and she was
so upset she cried for three days, then moved to Wisconsin. That story
doesn't make Chase feel any better, and he makes Logan promise "no more
smoothies."
At the quad, Logan keeps his word. No more smoothies – but instead "cash" is
flying everywhere - not real money, of course, but 'Chase dollars.' Nicole
and Zoey are handing out flyers, and arrive at the quad to see the crowd.
They confront Logan - who doesn't care about their objections – and tells them
that Chase dollars are redeemable everywhere. Real money would be illegal -
but not Chase dollars.
Zoey is furious. She barges into the boys' locker room to confront Chase, who
obviously doesn't know what Logan is up to. She shows him the Chase dollar,
and Chase is mad enough to slam his fist on the locker - but it hurts. Chase
offers to drop out, but Zoey thinks that would be condescending and would be
like saying she couldn't win against the dirty tricks. She warns Chase not to
drop out, or she will be really mad. She leaves, saying it again!
Nicole, Zoey, and Lola are looking at the polling data on Quinn's computer
again, when Quinn tells them that there is a commercial on PCA TV that they
need to see. They go inside and watch:
"Announcer: Chase Matthews wants to be your class president. But how well do
you really know Chase Matthews? For example, do you know he eats out of
garbage cans? Or that he shaves his legs? Or that he picks on little girls? Is
this the kind of guy you want for class president? No! On Tuesday, vote Zoey
Brooks for class president. She's awesome!"
Everybody thinks Zoey made the commercial - and it was really mean of her.
Especially Melissa - who likes Chase. Zoey goes looking for Chase, and
everybody she meets says that her commercial was really low. At the boys'
room, Logan tells her the commercial was out of control.
Zoey finds Chase, and apologizes so he won't think she made it – and when she
finds out who did, she will hurt them. Chase, though, admits it was him! He
never wanted to be president - but making good on her promise, she hits him on
the shoulder. She is mad because now everybody thinks she made the commercial
and feels sorry for Chase! His plan backfired ----
At the girls' lounge,
Lola and Quinn are playing cards. Nicole is sitting by
herself and Zoey tries to join her - maybe they can go get some sushi at Sushi
Rox. Nicole doesn't want to, because she doesn't want to handle being scorned
by everybody mad at Zoey for the commercial. Meanwhile - a PCA press
conference comes on the
television. Chase announces to the whole school that
he made the commercial, because he thinks Zoey is the best candidate. And -
he is dropping out of the race. Nicole says "how cute is he?!"
Chase has made a small refuge on the roof of the dorm - sun chairs, etc. -
really nice. Zoey finds him up there, of course she is welcome. They share
some orange slices - obviously she isn't mad. They apologize to each other in
unison - Zoey for blaming Chase because Logan was out of control. Chase
apologizes because it is the smartest thing to do when a girl is mad. Chase
explains he dropped out because it was the only way to make sure Zoey would
win. But Zoey has a surprise - she dropped out just before he did! The
friendship was more important to her than the election. But with both of them
out - who is president?
Mark, the only remaining candidate, has won the election, and is giving his
victory speech at the amphitheater. There is not much applause - because only
Quinn and two others attended!
Later, Chase and Zoey are on the roof of a dorm, and see Logan on his
skateboard. They yell to
get his attention - he wipes out BIG TIME, and they
laugh as he looks around to see who called.
CLOSING LINE - Nicole: "Is that freaky or what" - when she is looking at
horoscopes trying to find coincidences that are true.
ANALYSIS
It has been 4 1/2 years since the Lizzie McGuire "Election" episode –
time flies! There are
some interesting comparisons / contrasts.
--- Gordo nominates Lizzie so she will be a normal candidate – a voice
of the people - instead of the popular Claire Miller. Chase nominates
Zoey so she will be a
good voice of the people, and she does the same
for him. They are not running against a popular opponent, however,
because Zoey IS the most popular girl at school.
--- Lizzie McGuire had a comical underdog candidate for president -
Larry Tudgeman - who ate a worm for each vote. Zoey 101 had a comical
underdog candidate - Quinn's boyfriend Mark. Both underdog candidates,
incidentally, won the election.
--- In Lizzie McGuire, it was Lizzie herself who went overboard in
trying to get votes - by
aligning herself with only the popular groups
and ignoring the less popular groups. Logan went too far in trying to
help Chase to win.
--- In both epsiodes, the central issue was politics vs. friendship.
In Lizzie McGuire - Lizzie almost lost her two best friends. Chase and
Zoey almost mutually lost each other's friendship.
--- The Lizzie McGuire episode features a very young Sara Paxton
(Darcy's Wild Life) as
the outgoing class president Holly. Her
reaction to Larry Tudgeman shows she had her characteristic "gross-out"
style even that long ago - it serves her well on Darcy!
--- In Lizzie McGuire, Lizzie and Claire stayed in the election until
they lost. Chase and Zoey
both withdrew from the race.
--- One mistake: Logan says it would be illegal to give out money for
votes. That would only be true for a federal, state, county, or city
election. While it wouldn't be illegal for a school election, it would
probably be against PCA policy.