At the Royal Woods Cemetery, the Mortician's Club is holding a meeting, where the leader, Bertrand, states that he must step down because his father has gotten a job as a lifeguard on a cruise ship and has to leave to join him. Before he steps down, he states that he needs to appoint a new leader for the club, and he immediately chooses Haiku. Lucy, feeling betrayed, bemoans to Lincoln that she should have been appointed as the leader instead of Haiku, and Lincoln states that tomorrow, she should go up to Bertrand and state her thoughts on why she should be the leader, and Lucy accepts Lincoln's idea.
The next day, Lucy tells the Mortician's Club members that she should be the leader, since she made several accomplishments in the club. Seeing her point of view, Bertrand decides to hold a vote: whoever gets the most votes from the club will be appointed the new leader. Throughout the day, Lucy and Haiku try to convince the other members to give them their vote, which results in a tie with three votes each. Needing a way to win the election, Lucy manipulates Lincoln into joining the club, and Lincoln, wearing a goth-punk outfit, immediately places his vote on Lucy, and Bertrand is forced to accept the vote since he's in the club, making Lucy the new leader.
The next day, as Lucy ponders what to do with her role as president, she hears Clyde (later Principal Huggins) crying in the bushes because the school's mascot, Ricky the Rooster, had died. Lucy sees Ricky's death as the perfect opportunity to hold a school-wide funeral procession. Arriving to the cemetery, Lucy discovers that no one but Lincoln is present, and Lincoln present her with a scroll saying that because she was appointed the new leader, everyone quit. Thinking that she doesn't need them, Lucy proposes that she and Lincoln will hold the funeral themselves.
Lincoln and Lucy attempt to hold Ricky's funeral, but things go awry very quickly. The ice sculpture Lucy commissioned has nearly melted due to how hot it is (something she didn't know about), the food being severed is chicken nuggets, football players are tackling people because of the funeral taking place on a football field (which Lincoln and Lucy failed to reserve due to one believing the other was going to do it), and when Lucy attempts to give Ricky a proper send-off by flinging him into the sky via trebuchet, Ricky's coffin ends hitting a passing airplane. As everyone in the audience boos at Lucy, the Mortician's Club members leave due to how atrocious the service was. Lucy catches up to them and apologizes for her selfish behavior, and the members, feeling bad for Lucy and because she was only doing what what best, decide to step in and fix things.
Sometime later, another funeral service is being held, and the Mortician's Club manage to make things work by sending Ricky off by tying several balloons to his coffin, which floats him away, while crows form a heart around the ascending coffin, and Luna singing a song to honor Ricky's legacy. The service is met with overwhelming applause from the audience. When Lucy states that Haiku is the better leader, Haiku states that it would be better if they ran the club together, a proposal that Lucy gladly accepts.
A day before the episode's release, Nickelodeon promoted this episode by releasing a tweet on Twitter that read "the goth e-boy we didn't even know we needed" with a picture of Lincoln wearing his goth punk attire. The tweet was heavily lambasted by users, who criticized the use of the term "e-boy", which describes a boy "wearing skater clothes, nail polish, and a single dangly earing, with his hair parted down the middle." A day later (the day of this episode's release), Nickelodeon deleted the tweet.
Trivia
The title of this episode is a reference to the fact that it's about the Mortician's Club, and their fascination with the dead.
Prior to this episode's release, Darin McGowan said that "without giving anything away", Lincoln is in the episode so he can support Lucy.[1]
This is the first episode to show Royal Woods Elementary's mascot, Ricky the Rooster.
According to Lincoln, Lucy has been planning funerals since she was only 2 years old.
References
A Grave Mistake - The title of this episode is a phrase that means a really bad mistake.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis - According to Darin McGowan, the funeral outfit Lucy wears in this episode is based on the funeral dress worn by this late First Lady of the U.S. when her husband, president John F. Kennedy, was killed.[2]
Running Gags
Boris playing his keyboard, often out of time.
Ricky the Rooster's funeral being mentioned.
Principal Huggins getting sad over Ricky the Rooster's death.
