What happened to Rudy's fern?
"The Mysterious Fern" is episode 31. It first aired Feb 16th, 2010.
Premise[]
Something strange is going on with Rudy's prized ferns and he was to have them photographed soon. Can Alfred figure out what happened to it?
Summary[]
Alfred, Milo and Camille are cleaning up the weeds outside of school. Cynthia sneaks outside, just to hear Camille mention that a photographer is coming to take a picture of Rudy and his prized Fern. This catches her attention and she goes on to ask them about it when Rudy comes running their way in an uproar.
He brings them back to his ferns and worriedly voices that someone jealous must have burned them. But he has no sort of suspects, or any reason why they would. Alfred finds no presence of ash or that there was a fire here, so he doesn't believe the ferns were harmed. Cynthia remarks it probably died and tells him to get over it when they see the photographer in the distance. Camille suggest they just tell him what happened, maybe he can come back some other time. Realizing this could be an opportunity, Cynthia offers to distract the photographer for them in order to buy time.
With that the trio begin the investigation, they start by questioning Rudy. He explains that he took proper care of them, giving them enough sunlight and everything. Camille theorizes that someone could have poisoned them, so Milo and Alfred collect a dirt sample beneath the ferns. The four of them head to Hedgequarters, and Alfred begins his testing. They don't find anything but Milo sneezes, and while he insists he is fine, Alfred curiously wonders what made him suddenly sneeze like that. They look at the soil again to find little white things in the seeds; neither fertilizer or plant food residue.
After marking that as their second clue they return to the ferns while Cynthia tries to persuade the photographer to look her over and get pictures of her. As the four begin to overlook the flowers nearby she yanks him in another direction to keep him from spotting them. They take note of how the white seeds are only near the ferns when Camille spots a puddle. Rudy mentions that the ferns are wild plants, so they don't require water.
With that, they try to make sense of the clues. With some thought and elimination, they determine the white seeds are actually spores. While Milo overlooks the ferns, Alfred is convinced the ferns may not actually be dead. Camille wonders if they may have died due to a lack of water, but Alfred disagrees. He believes they are still missing something, and they begin to study the fern species.
Back at school, Alfred pours water on the ferns and suddenly, it appears to spring back to life. He explains that they did need some water, but they didn't die from a lack of it. The resurrection fern is a breed that shrivels up when its holding in water to stay alive. By giving it a little more water it will flourish once more.
It's then they see the photographer being chased by Cynthia, who continues to try to convince him to take her picture. He insists he doesn't want any of her, until he sees the fern. This impresses him and he starts taking pictures, causing the others to laugh.
Quotes[]
- Milo: She's...trying to help...?
- (pause)
- Camile and Milo: "Impossible!"
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- Cynthia: "Get over it Rudy..."
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- Camille: Alfred is very pedantic about these things...
- Milo: Pedanta-what?
- Camille: It means he likes to be exact.
- Milo: Oh... I knew that.
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Trivia[]
- Many clips from this episode were used in the Qubo commercial for this series.
- This is one of the few episodes to specifically bring up death.
Goofs[]
- When Alfred goes to look up the species of Fern, he walks through Camille's tail.
- Notice how thick Cynthia's arms are when she is shown up-close during the investigation of the Fern.
- In one shot, Rudy looked cleaned-up and organized. But in the next seen he looks messy, and he remained that way for the rest of the episode.
- As Rudy approaches the trio at the beginning of the episode, the upper-part of his tie flashes a different color.
- The button hole that Rudy didn't fasten vanishes a few times during the episode.
Gallery[]
