Pipe Dreams

"Pipe Dreams" is the eleventh episode of the third season, and the one-hundred-twelfth episode of The Loud House.

Plot

Mom and Dad decide to build a secret bathroom after they become sick of waiting in the long bathroom line.

Synopsis

Early in the morning, Rita and Lynn Sr. hurry to the bathroom for urgent reasons. However, the line for the bathroom is incredibly long, and they must wait no matter how long it takes. Tired of the long waiting time--and refusing to use a bucket Lana uses named Old Sloshie as an alternative--Lynn Sr. recommends that he and Rita have a bathroom of their own. Rita initially denies, saying that the kids have a habit of taking things that they buy just for themselves, but she and Lynn Sr. agree to build their own bathroom in the closet and keep it a complete secret. However, just when Rita has second thoughts about the plan (as they would have to lie to their children), she and Lynn Sr. discover that the bathroom has become a messy wreck due to the kids' use--which promptly leads to them agreeing to build their own bathroom.

Later, as the siblings go on with their day, Rita and Lynn Sr., donning construction equipment and some tools, attempt to prep up their bathroom without making their kids suspicious. They get their work done through various means, such as making loud noises to block out the noise of their construction, keeping their kids out of their room, and hiring some extra workers. After a lot of hard work, Rita and Lynn Sr. finally complete their secret bathroom, and love how they now have something all to themselves.

The next day, the siblings are in a hurry to get to school. Lana is running behind trying to find her lucky chicken bone, but Lori forces her to get going when they're about to be late for school. Upon leaving, Charles runs into the parents' secret bathroom, and coughs up Lana's lucky chicken bone onto the floor. Rita and Lynn Sr. discover the bone later on, and fear that their kids know about their secret bathroom--prompting Lynn Sr. to add on locks to the door. Just as Lynn Sr. applies the locks, Cliff runs in and unravels the toilet paper roll. Assuming Lynn broke in and created the resulting mess, Lynn Sr. adds on even more locks. However, Hops, who is chasing after a fly, climbs through the air vents and enters the secret bathroom--landing in the toilet and splashing water all over the seat. Thinking Lincoln broke in, Lynn Sr. applies even more security features to the bathroom, ranging from surveillance cameras, motion sensors, a laser grid, and a security panel inside, which will lock them in if they ever get caught.

Later, as Rita and Lynn Sr. do their business in their secret bathroom, Lynn Sr. attempts to exit but finds out the door is locked. He tries to put in the passcode, but it's incorrect. After several unsuccessful attempts, they end up getting locked in the bathroom. Realizing their dilemma, Rita turns off the shower but ends up breaking the handle off, causing water to start flooding the bathroom. Rita tries to pry the door open with a toothbrush Dr. Feinstein gave her, but the cheap toothbrush quickly snaps. Attempting to escape through the vents, they realize too late that they wired them with electrical cables. Realizing that they're out of options, Rita and Lynn Sr. call for their kids, who succeed in breaking them out when Lynn rams a coat rack into the door. Suspicious as to why their closet was full of water, Rita and Lynn Sr. admit that they were tired of having to wait so long to use the bathroom, and wanted their own bathroom all to themselves. With the truth revealed, they agree to let their kids use it. But because of the flooding, the secret bathroom is completely destroyed, and they can't afford to fix it since they used the rest of their budget to put in the security features. Despite this, the kids still allow their parents to use the upstairs bathroom, even if it means going back to just one bathroom.

The next day, Rita and Lynn Sr. attempt to race to the bathroom, but there's another long line. Not wanting to wait any longer, Lynn Sr. asks Lana for Old Sloshie.

Cast

• Collin Dean as Lincoln
• Catherine Taber as Lori
• Liliana Mumy as Leni
• Nika Futterman as Luna
• Cristina Pucelli as Luan
• Jessica DiCicco as Lynn / Lucy
• Grey Griffin as Lana / Lola / Electronic Voice
• Lara Jill Miller as Lisa
• Brian Stepanek as Lynn Sr. / Hunter Spector
• Jill Talley as Rita

Lily, Sammie, Whitney, Kevin, Mike, and Karla have no lines in this episode. Lucy also has no lines, but was listed in the credits as she was heard arguing with her siblings.

Trivia

• This episode reveals that whenever Rita and Lynn Sr. buy something just for themselves, the kids have a habit of taking it over. This is explained when they once bought an adjustable bed and immediately afterward, the kids played on it, inevitably damaging it within mere seconds.
• As was revealed in "The Price of Admission", Lola goes to sleep with her parents when she has a nightmare.
• When talking on her phone, Lori mentions two people named Miguel and Todd. This is most likely a reference to storyboard artist Miguel Puga, and character designer Todd Oman.

• Each of the crewmen helping Rita and Lynn Sr. prep up their bathroom are all writers of the show (Sammie Crowley, Whitney Wetta, Kevin Sullivan, Michael Rubiner, and Karla Sakas Shropshire). They were even referenced by first name.
• According to Lana, she uses a bucket named Old Sloshie as an alternative for a bathroom.
• This episode reveals that Lana has a lucky chicken bone.
  • This is also the second of her lucky charms, the first being a booger from "Snow Bored".
• According to Lynn Sr., Lincoln always forgets to put the toilet seat up.
• This episode reveals that Lynn is always "aggressive" with toilet paper rolls, meaning she unravels them and leaves them unraveled.
• Lisa mentions her tinnitus from "The Sweet Spot".
• Innuendo: After Rita and Lynn Sr. install a security measure that locks in whoever breaks into their secret bathroom, Rita says that they'll "catch them with their pants down".
• Irony:
  • While it appeared that Leni was embarrassed at the fact that the mirror was open the whole time she thought it was "broken", she was actually referring to a chin hair on her face that was embarrassing. It's also worth noting Lori's reaction since it appeared that she was sympathetic about Leni doing something foolish, but was proven wrong when Leni was referring to something else.
  • Rita and Lynn Sr. used security measures to protect their bathroom from intruders, but they became their biggest obstacles when exiting.
  • Rita and Lynn Sr. tried to prevent their kids from destroying their secret bathroom, but in the end, they destroyed it by themselves.

References

• Pipe Dreams - The title of this episode is a term that means "an unattainable or fanciful hope or scheme."
• Itsy Bitsy Spider - The book Lynn Sr. was reading in his and Rita's faux book club was this popular nursery rhyme.
• Teen Titans - A medley of the beginning of the theme song can be heard.

Errors

• When Rita and Lynn Sr. call for help when trapped in their secret bathroom, the Closed Captions misspelled Lori's name as "Laurie".
  • In that same scene, for one frame, one of the rolled-up sleeves on Rita's robe is disconnected.
• When Lori approaches Leni when the latter thinks the mirror is broken, the rest of the family appears to be missing.
• When Lynn Sr. was drinking out of the flower pot, his sideburns next to his nose are missing.
• When Lynn Sr. opens the closet, his head was rotated, except for the top thinning hair.
  • Also, his patches on his sleeves are missing, but they're back again when he screams.

• Lily can be seen waiting in line for the bathroom, despite the fact that she still wears diapers.
  • She also waits in line for the bathroom in "In Tents Debate", although in that case it was perhaps because she was not entering the bathroom to use it, but rather to deliberately make him wait to put him off Dairyland.
• Plot hole: When the construction crew was at the Loud House, their vehicles can clearly be seen in front of the house, so there's no possible way Lincoln and the younger sisters arrived home without noticing them.

Clip

The Loud House Book Club Nickelodeon UK

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