User blog:Justsomeordinarydude/Friend or Faux Episode Reaction

Friend or Faux

This was a very fun episode. It pretty much does everything you would expect it to. Given Lisa’s anti-social, almost emotionless, career-driven personality, it turns out she herself is the titular subject. It’s Lisa who only sets out to make a friend in the 1st place because she is an academic nut who cannot comprehend or accept having an imperfect report card. She selects a girl named Darcy to be her friend so this academic blemished can be rectified, and once it is, she begins to revert to her solo tendencies and exclude Darcy from all activities. Lisa may be the protagonist of this story, but her actions and motivations are heavily antagonistic. Lisa is the faux in question, and the narrative is very much about her learning to be a genuine friend rather than someone who only acts as one for personal gain. Lisa does undergo a character growth experience in this episode, as she finally realises by the episode’s conclusion that you should not take advantage of someone who is your friend, and treat them in a kind and respectable way, rather than shut them out because be unwilling to open up to them and be around them. While Lisa initially only used Darcy for her own ends, she finally forms a genuine bond with her in the end, which was a satisfying note for the narrative to end on. Before that point, Lisa’s behaviour was rather jerkish. She constantly brought up how she was obsessing over her report card while befriending Darcy originally, then once the teacher rectified her grade, she constantly turned away Darcy’s attempts of joining her in various activities. Then after she admitted to Darcy her intentions to enhance her grades, Darcy is visibly upset and even tells Lisa outright that she hurt her feelings, but while Lisa is sitting sadly in the corner, she still seems more concerned with her academic record than her friendship. I know Lisa is obsessed with science and research, but that was pretty selfish and uncaring of her. Fortunately, however, given that she is given a second chance to befriend Darcy thanks to the latter’s exceptionally kind  and forgiving nature, she proves she has learned to be a better person and a better friend by once again opening up and demonstrating meaningful platonic affection even though she didn’t need to, as she could’ve simply used her newfound knowledge of how to make friends with someone to make another friend in order to regain an ‘A’ in social skills, and there was little to no material gain from reforming her relationship with Darcy.

As for Darcy, she is a cute, sweet little girl who instantly takes a liking to Lisa when the former attempts to befriend her. It was rather enjoyable to watch the two characters interact as they contrasted each other quite strongly. Darcy is the exact opposite of the intelligent, stoic, anti-social and unconventionally minded Lisa. She’s kind, outgoing, affectionate, happy and cheerful, and acts her age. She functions as an efficient foil to Lisa in this regard. Darcy enjoys playing, has stuffed animals, doesn’t understand complex words and finds them amusing, and likes cats. She’s basically your typical 4-year-old girl, which serves to emphasise how out of touch Lisa is with the rest of her class, as well as age group in general. It also demonstrates why Lisa is in the predicament she is, as someone that divergent from the norms of her social group would naturally struggle with social interactions. Darcy is incredibly irie, welcoming, warm and even forgiving, which is ultimately what saved Lisa’s day in the end. Let’s face it, Lisa treated Darcy pretty poorly. After obtaining her ‘A’ grade, Lisa ceased to return any of Darcy’s devotion, rejected her friendship gestures, such as when Darcy made Lisa a friendship bracelet or tried to eat with her or play with her, and then even went as far as to tell her, bluntly and without restraint, that she was only using her to get her grades up and that she had outlived her usefulness as a friend. At that point, Darcy was upset and had every right to be. Darcy would have been completely justified in leaving Lisa to dwell in her own self-pity after the brainy Loud sibling was punished by the teacher for hurting her feelings, but Darcy still went over and tried to cheer Lisa up, despite all of that. Had it not have been for Darcy being kind and forgiving, perhaps even to a fault (as admirable as this is of Darcy, I can’t help but fear that she may become a pushover in the future, and not only to Lisa, but to any other friends she may make in time), Lisa’s little character arc in this episode may not have been dealt with a satisfying ending. It’s a good thing for the introverted scientist that her new friend has enough tenderness and amicable nature for the both of them.

Let’s briefly run through a few other points of noteworthiness. This is perhaps the episode featuring the least screen time of Lincoln to date. He and Clyde literally only take up one scene, and it’s a scene with a purpose as it serves to show how Lisa approaches the task of making friends, through relating it to her niche of undertaking research, which of course is fitting given her association with scientific activity. Speaking of which, it was also cool to see Margo make another cameo appearance, as it shows the writers are not blatantly ignoring the previous side characters they have introduced in previous episodes. This limited use of the Clincoln McCloud duo reflects on how the writers have improved when it comes to knowing where to place focus in a given story. In Patching Things Up, the duo took up a lot more screen time than necessary due to their pointless subplot, but here, they only feature in a single short scene and there is actually a purpose behind it. Lincoln clearly had no major relevance to this narrative, so he was appropriately left out and featured only when his presence served a purpose. Also, Lynn Sr’s cowbell returned. Yay, continuity… always a good thing.

So, this was a very strong episode overall. Lisa received some much-needed character development, given how she has always been one of the less popular Loud siblings, as well as a strong focus episode, which was also needed considering she is one of the siblings with the least of them (before this episode, she and Lily were the only sisters with 2 or less focal episodes, while the other sisters had either 3 or more). Darcy was a pretty likeable new character and her interactions with Lisa were both amusing and adorable. I enjoyed watching some of Lisa’s misguided attempts at being friendly, such as how she gave Darcy a flavourless food substance containing all the necessary nutrients the human body requires. It probably sounded like a kind gesture in the mind of the purely clinical, logical Lisa Loud, but of course, it only served to assault Darcy’s taste buds. And while it could be argued Lisa treated Darcy in a far too despicable manner to be let off the hook so easily, at the very least, she seemed to learn her lesson and came to see Darcy as a genuine friend, rather than just a means to an end, by the end of the story. Honestly, I would actually appreciate more appearances from this new character in the future, as she could be a recurring friend of Lisa’s who shows up in future episodes, rather than yet another one-shot who never returns after their debut (seriously, did Maggie, Tabby, Giggles, Rocky, Paige and the other one-shots just get put on a bus to hell at one point, which is why they never came back after their initial appearances?). Anyway, this was another home run for The Loud House.

Final Rating: 9/10.



P.S. Didn’t that scene near the end where Darcy explains to Lisa what friends do for each other remind you of something…



Lisa: Oh, yeah? Well, if I treated you so bad, how come you came back?

Darcy: Because that's what friends do! They forgive each other!

Lisa: Oh, yeah. You're right, Darcy. I forgive you... for stabbin' me in the back!

Lisa then goes to the toilet and shuts out Darcy…

Darcy: Hey, wait a minute, you were the one who stabbed me in the back!