When the house is infested with termites, half the family stay with Pop-Pop and the others stay with Aunt Ruth.
Synopsis[]
The siblings are playing football on the second floor. As Lynn runs past her siblings, she suddenly crashes right through Lincoln's bedroom wall. While observing the damage, Rita and Lynn Sr. discover termites roaming around in the walls, and declare that they have to stay somewhere else while the house gets fumigated. When the idea of staying at a hotel together gets shot down due to the large amount of family members, they say that they should split up. One half of the family stay with Pop-Pop, while the other half stay with Aunt Ruth. Almost immediately, the siblings call dibs on Pop-Pop, but Rita calls no dibs, and decide to draw names from a hat. After the drawings, the results are in: Leni, Luan, Lucy, Lana, Lisa, Lily, and Rita go to Pop-Pop's, while Lincoln, Lori, Luna, Lynn, Lola, and Lynn Sr. go to Aunt Ruth's.
While fixing up his damaged wall, Lincoln tells the viewers that he has a plan to go to Pop-Pop's regardless. He goes to Lana, who's hosting a party for a group of termites she saved, and convinces her to switch over when talking about all the gross things she'll miss out on. While packing, Lola discovers what's in Lincoln's suitcase, and tattles him out to the other members on his side. As Lori, Luna, Lynn, Lola, and Lynn Sr. complain, Lincoln says that they too can come to Pop-Pop's if they can convince the others to switch. Taking his words, Lori, Luna, Lynn, Lola, and Lynn Sr. manage to convince the opposing side to switch. After Leni, Luan, Lucy, Lana, Lisa, Lily, and Rita are dropped off at Aunt Ruth's, Lincoln, Lori, Luna, Lynn, Lola, and Lynn Sr. quickly rush over to Sunset Canyon.
Upon arriving to Sunset Canyon, problems already arise. The pool is closed due a pool noodle jamming the filter, the shuffleboard court is closed when a flock of geese attacked one of the elders (and is now labeled as a crime scene), Scoots steals all of the pudding, their dinner is a mysterious mush, Lynn Sr. can't add salt to his meal, they have to go to bed at 6:00 PM, no drinks before bed, and the AC is broken. The family calls up the others in hopes that their misery would make them feel better, but to their disappointment, the ones staying with Aunt Ruth are actually having a great time, since Aunt Ruth took them to a lake house.
Unable to take it anymore, and out of jealousy, Lynn Sr. and the siblings call up the others so they can switch places by making promises. They all agree, and both halves of the family switch places. As Lynn Sr.'s group begin to celebrate that they now have somewhere more tolerable to stay, Lynn decides to practice football, but upon crashing into the wall, it is revealed that the lake house has termites as well. While observing the damage, Lincoln discovers a miniature disco ball present, meaning that Lana brought them along with her just to spare them from being killed during their house's fumigation. Realizing they can't stay at the lake house, the family is forced to stay at Aunt Ruth's house. The family decides to call up the others, hoping that their misery would make them feel better. Unfortunately, they are disappointed to learn that the retirement home has rented out a cruise ship, making Lincoln, Lori, Luna, Lynn, Lola, and Lynn Sr. furious yet again that they still got the short end of the stick.
According to the episode's storyboard artist, Sarah Johnson, she designed the title card, while Amanda Rynda colored it in.
This episode's title card has the exact same color scheme as the one for "Lock 'n' Loud".
Despite Ruth appearing in the episode, as well as the title mentioning her name, she does not speak in this episode.
According to Pop-Pop, salt is prohibited from Sunset Canyon because of a high blood pressure epidemic that occurred in 2013.
Lisa and Lily are the only roommates to be in the same group.
Lola is the only younger sibling who is part of Lynn Sr.'s group.
The deals Lynn Sr.'s group make with Rita's group to switch places with them:
Aunt Ruth's house with Sunset Canyon
Lincoln - Bribes Lana with the possibilities of scooping cat litter, eating expired food, and popping Aunt Ruth's boils.
Lori - Offers to give Leni any piece of clothing from her side of their closet.
Lola - Initially offers to give Lisa her desserts for a month, but gives her cash instead when she mentions having lost some of her grant money.
Lynn - Offers to be an open casket cadaver for Lucy's practice funerals.
Luna - Offers to let Luan saw her in half for her magic show.
Lynn Sr. - Offers to personally change 100 of Lily's diapers, including blowouts, as well as potty train and teach her how to drive for Rita.
Sunset Canyon with Aunt Ruth's house
Lincoln - Agrees to give Lisa a pint of his plasma after bribing her with meeting a 118-year-old male resident for her to study.
Lola - Agrees to give Leni her hair crimper after bribing her with meeting Seymour's grandson by claiming that he is a "total hunk".
Lori - Agrees to give Lana five rides to the dump with no blackout dates after bribing her with a plumbing crisis in the pool for her to fix.
Lynn - Agrees to let Lucy's bats take her side of their closet after bribing her with meeting a female resident who is a psychic she likes to watch on TV.
Luna - Agrees to detangle all of Luan's clown wigs after bribing her with providing entertainment for the residents due to the TV in the rec room being broken.
Lynn Sr. - Agrees to attend 20 parent-teacher conferences, including Lola's, after bribing Rita with using the life stories of the residents as a source of inspiration for her writing.
Lily is the only member of Rita's group who did not make a deal with anyone in Lynn Sr.'s group due to her being a baby (though she was used in her parents' first deal). Also, Rita's group has an odd number of people (seven) while Lynn Sr.'s group has an even number of people (six), so there was nobody with whom she could have switched anyway.
This episode reveals the following about Aunt Ruth:
Her house number is 1521.
When she gave Lori yogurt the last time she visited, she got botulism.
Her cats hate Lucy, even the black ones.
Her water has unsafe levels of chromium-6, a carcinogen.
Irony:
Lynn Sr called out the kids by saying "You can make the best of any situation" but whined like a baby when he got Aunt Ruth.
Lynn Sr.'s group trades places with Rita's group in order to avoid having to stay at Aunt Ruth's house, but they ultimately end up having to stay there anyway when termites destroy Ruth's beach house.
References[]
Ruthless People - The title of this episode shares its name with a movie from 1986.
It's a Wonderful Life - Lana knocking off the staircase knob is similar to the house falling apart in this 1946 Frank Capra film.
Errors[]
When Pop-Pop tells Lincoln and the others that it's almost lights out after they enter Bernie's room, Luna is missing.
It is possible that Luna might've appeared off-screen.
In the Latin American version, when Lori convinces Lana to go to Pop-Pop's, she isn't voiced by Fernanda Robles, being the third time this mistake happens.
In the Brazilian version, Luna once pronounced Luan as "Looân" instead of "Looén", since Luan is a male name in Brazil.
When the Loud siblings start playing football in the hallway, the shadow under Leni's foot overlaps her sandals.
Videos[]
The Loud House Aunt Ruth's Nickelodeon UK
Lincoln Visits Pop Pop at the Retirement House! - "Ruthless People" Full Scene - The Loud House