"A Bunch Of Smart Orphans" is the series premiere of the Disney+ streaming television series The Mysterious Benedict Society, and the first episode of the series overall. It was released on June 25, 2021.
Synopsis[]
Four gifted orphans vie for a prestigious scholarship. The final result is stranger than imagined.
Plot[]
As television and radio continue to report on "The Emergency" non-stop, young intellectual Reynard "Reynie" Muldoon reads his books at the orphanage he lives at. His peers poke fun at him, but he receives comfort in the form of his equally intellectual tutor Ms. Perumal. Thinking that he deserves better, Ms. Perumal gives him an ad for children who want to enlist in Boatwright Academy, a prestigious school for the bright minded. Reynie happily accepts, though he doubts his own intellect. The following day, he arrives at a building where he is to take an exam along with numerous other children. They are presided over by a mysterious woman, later named Number Two. Reynie manages to answer the majority of the questions, though he is slightly confused by their surreal conjectures, and Number Two announces that only Reynie has passed, much to his surprise.
The next day, Reynie meets at another building where he is told that he only bring one pencil (Number Two informed him that a pencil sharpener will be provided if his breaks). Just before entering the building, a girl named Rhonda Kazembe drops her pencil into a sewer grate. Having sympathy for her, Reynie breaks his pencil in half so that he can give her something to write with. She offers to give him the answers during the test, but he politely declines. The second test turns out to be even more difficult with one boy leaving in the middle of it. However, Reynie quickly discovers that all the questions answer each other and simply uses this knowledge to finish his test on time. Once again, Reynie is the only one to pass, with Rhonda somewhat pleased with the outcome.
As Reynie waits on what to do next, another boy named George "Sticky" Washington (named so due to his ability to remember things easily) suddenly enters. Sticky explains that he too was the only child to pass his exam and that he helped a girl named Rhonda with her pencil problem. An excitable girl, named Kate Wetherall, also enters the room. Equipped with a bucket full of tools and whatnot, she tells them that she helped Rhonda get her pencil out of the grate with her tools and, while she failed to pass the exam, she helped Number Two with getting rid of all the parents and kids who did not pass and was told to go up and meet with them. They are later joined by a perky girl named Krista and an overly confidant boy named Dewey. Soon, Number Two directs them to the next room.
They meet with the tall and mysterious Milligan who informs them that the next challenge is through a door that they must enter one at a time. The room is composed of several black and white squares and four yellow squares with a sign reading that they must not set foot on the black and white squares. Krista goes first, but refuses to do the challenge; believing it is a trick question. She fails and runs away crying. The other four children enter and succeed with different solutions. Dewey simply uses his athletic prowess to hop onto the yellow squares and make it across, Kate uses her tools to make a tightrope and walk across, Sticky gets on his hands and knees and crawls and Reynie (after realizing that the squares are actually rectangles) casually walks across the room.
Milligan leads the children into the sewers at which point Reynie and Sticky begin to realize that something is off about the Boatwright Academy auditions. They all come out in front of a lavish mansion and Milligan tells them to wait. Kate deduces that Reynie and Sticky are orphans just like her, though Sticky lived with his aunt and uncle while Dewey confidently tells them that his parents say he is a "miracle child". Kate reveals that she does not know anything about her mother and that her father left when she was three. The only thing she remembers is that he would take her to the beach and that he would lift her up and carry her, but that one day he suddenly disappeared and was left at an orphanage. She ran away and joined the circus; explaining her clothes and her bucket full of things.
Milligan takes the children inside the mansion where they reunite with Rhonda, who is actually an adult and speaks with a Zambian accent. She directs the four to their next challenge which is to navigate the corridors of the bottom floor and find the main room to ring the bell stating that the "first three" to ring it will pass. Once again, all four children perform the task differently. Reynie follows the arrows on the wall that contain braille and uses that to find the exit, Kate uses her tools to climb through the vents and make it to the main room, Sticky memorizes the layout so that he can navigate out the maze and Dewey simply follows Sticky. Upon reaching the exit, Dewey shoves Sticky to ring the bell first. Reynie helps him up and discovers that while Kate made it, she wanted to wait for them. All three ring the bell together and Number Two reveals that they passed and sends Dewey home as he rung it by himself.
The three children are lead by Number Two into the study where they meet Mr. Nicholas Benedict, the man behind the challenges. He reveals that they do have a fourth member who will join them. The last child is a slightly younger and rude Russian girl named Constance Contraire who passed each of the exams in very unusual ways (crossing out all the answers, having a coat full of pencils and sitting and eating a sandwich rather than solve the maze). At this point, Mr. Benedict reveals the sad truth is that they will not be going to Boatwright Academy as it was a ruse to find and bring all of them together. He explains that they were all lonely and that they have found one another through performing the tasks and that what he really needs them for is to help save the world.
He explains that "The Emergency" is the result of an evil organization whose goal is to spread misery through the news and radio. He wants to save the world, but in order to do that he must need very special and smart children to do so; adding that he understands if they do not want to be involved, though it is greatly implied that the four of them are willing to help. At that moment, an alarm goes off as someone has broken into the mansion. As everything goes into lockdown, Mr. Benedict (who suffers from a form of nervous narcolepsy) suddenly falls asleep as the four children find themselves thrust into adventure.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Tony Hale as Nicholas Benedict
- Kristen Schaal as Number Two
- MaameYaa Boafo as Rhonda Kazembe
- Ryan Hurst as Milligan
- Gia Sandhu as Ms. Perumal
- Mystic Inscho as Reynie Muldoon
- Seth Carr as Sticky Washington
- Emmy DeOliveira as Kate Wetherall
- Marta Kessler as Constance Contraire
Co-starring[]
- Josh Zaharia as Dewey
- Krista Magnusson as Concerned Mom
- Jalen Saip as Another Concerned Mom
- Seth Ranaweera as Genial Dad
- Gabriel Jacob-Cross as Child
- Matthew Mintsis as Karl
- Madeline Angel as Daphne
- Everett Adams as Sidekick #1
- Logan Zenith Oung as Sidekick #2
- Clint MacCarthy as Sidekick #3
- Gabrielle Quinn as Krista
- Angela Galanopoulos as Hall Mother
- Robbie Segulam as Headmaster
- Siena McCleery as Girl
- Anita Wittenberg as Official
- Leo Chiang as Sewer Foreman
- Oscar Davila as Sewer Worker
- Perssia Perrie as Groaning Girl
- Leia Bajic as Young Kate
- Marko Bajic as Kate's Dad
- Liza Huget as Sticky's Aunt
- Craig Erickson as Sticky's Uncle
- Justyna Bania as Rhonda's Friend
- Zachary Nabi as Crying Boy
- Teja Sangha as Circus Newspaper Man
- Emily Leung as Test-Throwing Girl
- Ash Gruter-Andrew as Boy
Songs[]
- "Livin' Thing" by Electric Light Orchestra
- "Genius of Love" by Tom Tom Club
Trivia[]
- This episode is dedicated to Jamie Tarses, one of the producers of the show, who died on February 1, 2021, due to complications of a cardiac arrest.
- The title is what Mr. Benedict refers to the main children he finds.
- This episode covers the first five chapters of the first book.
Book comparisons[]
- Reynie's life at the orphanage is not shown in full as it is in the book. For example, the head of the orphanage, Mr. Rutger, does not appear.
- Ms. Perumal shows Reynie the ad, in the book Reynie discovers it and informs Ms. Perumal.
- In the book, Reynie does not learn what the exams are for to begin with. The series expands on this by having it so that the children are mislead into thinking that they are trying for an entry to Boatwright Academy, which was invented for the series.
- Number Two immediately leaves the exam after announcing Reynie's name. In the book, she is visibly trying to escape out the window before simply taking the back exit so as to avoid angry parents.
- When Reynie takes the second test, Rhonda sits in front of him. In the book, Reynie tries to avoid this exact thing and sits in front of her, though she still tries to slide the answers to him (book: she drops it on his desk; series: she drops in on the floor). Additionally, Reyine realizes that she is trying to draw attention to herself.
- Number Two corrects herself after accidentally saying "executed". In the book, she says "escorted" and in the series she says "excused".
- The exchange between Reynie and Number Two after the exam is longer in the book. Number Two is vague on whether she actually called Ms. Perumal or not.
- Sticky only gives a very brief detail as to how he helped Rhonda. In the book, he explains that he had her hold onto his feet as he was lowered down into the grate, though he failed to get the pencil back.
- Sticky lives with his aunt and uncle while his parents died. In the book, his parents are very much alive.
- Kate's actions for getting Number Two away from the parents is radically different. In the book, she tricks the adults into running towards a door that she removed the door knob to as she and Number Two hid in a closet. In the series, she claims to have started a small controlled fire and they escorted everyone off the premises.
- Kate's ability to eyeball weight and length is neither mentioned nor referenced in the show.
- Kate's bucket has a lid on it. In the books, Kate did not add a lid until the second installment The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey.
- The other two who passed the second test, Dewey and Krista, are not from the book and were invented for the series.
- The checkered room remains the same except it was black and blue squares as opposed to black and white.
- Reynie went through the room first, followed by the others, while in the book, Sticky went first and Kate went last. Additionally, Kate was forced to go through the room twice as she was not told she could not use her bucket. She simply performed a handstand across the room.
- Milligan puts on a disguise as soon as the kids make it to the house.
- One minor detail in Kate's story is that she and her father played at the beach. In the book it was a mill pond.
- The maze setup is different. In the book, Reynie, Kate and Sticky go through it one at a time. The arrows were different colors and Reynie figured out that the "wiggly" ones lead the right way. He and Sticky had to go through twice due to the length it took them. Each child simply rung the bell as soon as they arrived. In the series, Reynie, Kate, Sticky and original character Dewey go through the maze at the same time. The arrows are all bronze and the correct ones are laced with brail. Reynie, Kate and Sticky ring the bell together after being told that the "first three" who rung it will pass. Dewey is disqualified for ringing it by himself and presumably for harming Sticky.
- Reynie, Kate and Sticky are treated to a dinner after the maze. In the series, they are immediately taken to Mr. Benedict.
- In the book, Rhonda mentions that she too went through the maze as a child and later Mr. Benedict mentions that Number Two also went through the tests. Both were intended to be part of the team, but years had passed and they stayed with Mr. Benedict out of loyalty. These details are never brought up in the series.
- Mr. Benedict goes over the things that Constance had done to pass and even mentions her poetry.
- Mr. Benedict mentions how each of them arrived to take the exams, but this is left out of the series. Constance was living in a library and took numerous modes of transportation to arrive, Kate took a boxcar and Sticky took a river barge. In the next episode, Sticky states he was living in a library while Constance is presumed to have lived in an orphanage like Reynie.
- The sequence of events are somewhat twisted around between this episode and the next. In the book, once the four children come together, they are immediately sent to bed and awaken the next morning for breakfast. Mr. Benedict then tells them about his machine and the hidden messages before the mansion is attacked by the mysterious men. In the series, Mr. Benedict shows the children the machine immediately after they meet, only for the men to attack. The next episode follows this event with Mr. Benedict finally explaining how his machine works and then sends the children to bed, followed by their breakfast conversation.
Gallery[]
External links[]
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