"Paige Bugs Out" is the twenty-fourth episode of Bizaardvark. It premiered on July 14, 2017.
Synopsis[]
Paige and Frankie find themselves questioning whether they should make a new video based on Paige's crush.
Story[]
In the lobby of the Vuuugle studios, Paige and Frankie are producing another Bizaardvark video called "The No Thumbs Challenge," where they try to perform every day tasks without using their thumbs. The first task is texting, where Frankie tries to text a message to Frankie, but misspells one of the words she wrote. The second task is Sandwich Eating, which both girls fail at. The third is Braiding Hair, specifically a failed attempt by Frankie to braid Paige's hair, which only results in a slightly tangled ponytail. The fourth is Painting a Painting, which both girls also fail at, although Frankie does slightly better. Finally they try thumb wrestling, but Paige reminds Frankie that it's impossible for either of them to do so.
At Sierra High, Frankie talks to Paige about a pungent odor coming from her locker, which she believes came from one or more previous students. Paige isn't paying attention to her best friend, and instead leans on her own locker fawning over a boy she has a crush on named Reese Maynard. When Frankie discovers this, she tries to convince her friend that she should stop staring at the boy from a distance (as she had been doing since the first day of school), and simply ask him out on a date. Failing to deny that she has been staring at the boy, she agrees to approach him. Frankie offers to help her by making her look good and acting weird by comparison. Paige and Reese talk to each other in the halls, often interrupted by Frankie making ridiculous and crazy statements about herself. The two would be lovers agree to go on a date, under the condition that she doesn't use any aspect of their relationship as material for their Bizaardvark videos. She agrees to his promise, and Frankie interrupts them one last time, before she tells her friend that the date is sealed. Frankie takes a bow and walks off to her next class.
Meanwhile Dirk has revisited the school for lunch so he can eat fish sticks served by a lady at the cafeteria named Wanda. Just then Bernie approaches him to announce that he joined the Sierra High School wrestling team and boasts about it by wearing the team jacket around school, despite having yet to participate in a match. When Bernie exposes his membership as well as his jacket from the wrestling team to Dirk, he reveals that his jacket gets him attention from shallow girls. Just then, Amelia sees him wearing the jacket, and is suddenly impressed with him, only to be turned off by him when Dirk hides the patch on his jacket. After this test, Amelia invites him to a party, and suddenly, Bernie begins to imagine himself and Amelia entering a standard teen party interrupted by the caption "Perfect Party." During this outlandish fantasy, he suddenly finds out (thanks to Dirk) that Amelia had left.
While Paige anxiously awaits her date with Reese, Frankie struggles to come up with new material for Bizaardvark. Just then she recommends using their date for material for their show, but Paige refuses, insisting on having a real date. Frankie pretends to comply but urges Paige to wear a wire.
At the wrestling match, Bernie spends most of his time on the bench, because none of the other wrestlers are in his under 79 pound weight class. While Dirk cheers him on he gets too excited and lifts his friend in the air. Struggling to break loose from his arms, he accidentally knocks the master dare head on the floor, which draws the attention of Coach Carlson. Impressed with what he thinks are phenomenal wrestling moves, he insists that Bernie participate in the sport he has been bragging about being part of lately. Bernie tries to remind the coach that putting him in matches against opponents above his weight class is a violation of district rules. The coach carries him over to the scale to reveal that he is now 82 pounds, which he realizes he got from his consumption of energy bars and protein shakes while sitting on the bench. Bernie starts to fantasize about his first match where he's defeated by a sumo wrestler, and Amelia invites him to the perfect party he had dreamed about earlier.
The would-be couple have their first date at a restaurant named "Boba Fest", which specializes in selling boba as their key beverage. Paige is nearly charmed to death over his compliments, and becomes convinced that there's no possible way that the date could inspire Bizaardvark material. Then suddenly, he introduces her to Roger, a pet caterpillar that he keeps in his shirt pocket. Immediately she beings to imagine a potential sketch where she and Reese are sitting on a couch at night watching a movie on TV, when Frankie barges in dressed in a caterpillar costume, speaking in a gravely, mannish voice, spoils the ending of the movie, and rummages through their popcorn bowl, spilling some of it on the couple and the floor as "he" takes some popcorn for himself. Paige now finds herself torn between continuing to see the boy despite this one quirk, or using that quirk as a new sketch.
On Perfect Perfection with Amelia, Miss Duckworth announces Dirk and Bernie to join her in the Box Ball Challenge, which involves taping empty tissue boxes to the back of your waist, filling them with eight ping-pong balls and shaking them until they all come out. Bernie's box is secretly taped closed not only so they can't come out, but so that his actions can also be edited into other videos in order to make fun of him.
Paige comes back from her date, boasting about how wonderful Reese was, and briefly slipping in the fact that he also had a pet caterpillar. Frankie is now determined to make this a news sketch, and nothing will stop her from even trying. Paige reminds her friend that she doesn't want her to make the video because Reese will know it's about him, and she's too fond of him to do anything that will offend the boy. Frankie ignores her and reveals that she came up with 15 ideas for videos about the unorthodox pet, and two more when Paige reveals it's name and the fact that the boy fed it some of his beverage. Later she offers to scrap the idea if her normally braided friend can convince her she didn't come up with any material based on the bug, and she eventually confesses that she did.
Paige reveals that she tried to break up with him without hurting his feelings, which is cut to a flashback indicating she claimed her mother had forbid her from seeing him. After the break up, Frankie is putting material back into her locker, when she's approached by Reese. During this exchange, she finds out the boy is actually perfect for Paige, because he requests that he give her friend a series of gifts intended for Paige that he knew she would love. Frankie now realized she made a mistake by talking Paige into choosing between their web show and a boy. One of the Roger the Caterpillar sketches at the studio involves Paige in a wedding dress and Frankie in the caterpillar costume. As the two girls are rehearsing for the sketch, Paige notices that Frankie is chuckling nervously over one of the lines. Paige casually makes a statement about making the right decision over breaking up with Reese, but detects some nervous doubts in Frankie's voice. This time it's Frankie who cracks and admits she should've stayed with him.
Coach Carlson reveals to Bernie that his first opponent will be a boy who is known as "The Brick," not because of his size, but because he actually ate a brick. When he tells Dirk about his opponent, the master dare head reveals another terrifying tale about him. The tween Bizaardvark manager becomes so nervous that he sweats to the point where nobody can get a grip on him. This gives Dirk an idea. On the day of the match with The Brick, Bernie becomes less nervous until he tells him that he sent an e-mail to the entire school that he's guaranteed to win, invited Amelia to the front row, and then calls the Brick to claim that Bernie insulted his mother. The Brick tries to grab him but only winds up getting Bernie's perspiration all over people in the front row. Dirk wears a poncho to the match to protect himself, but Amelia is nauseated as she finds herself unable to escape the splash zone. Bernie wins the first round, but makes the grave mistake of drying himself off with a towel. The Brick easily defeats him in the second round, and Amelia disinvites him from the party she wanted to go to. Coach Carson demands that he turn his jacket, and claims it will fit her four year old daughter.
Paige and Reese have a second date at Boba Fest. During this date she reveals that she lied about her mother telling her to stay away from him, and admits that she thought of a really good series of Bizaardvark sketches based on his pet caterpillar, and didn't want to ruin their relationship for the sketch. Reese barely coaxes her into revealing the idea behind the series, and not only thinks it's hilarious, but recommends that she and Frankie continue to make this and other sketches. Frankie is elated that she can make the sketch and still see Reese, and the scene is cut to none other than the first Roger the Caterpillar sketch. Paige and her new beau play a young couple at a fancy restaurant, where the boy (Reese) plans to introduce her to one of his friends. The girl (Paige) is convinced that he'll be a total gentleman because he associates with the boy, only to find a slovenly caterpillar (Frankie), shove her affectionately on one shoulder, asking her about a rash he has, and eats the flowers that the boy used for their date. Roger hocks up his "food" and announces he has to go to "the little caterpillar's room," a.k.a., the booth in the corner. Briefly the two discuss his friend, only to be interrupted by Roger again, who uses two chopsticks as part of a one-sided game of charades. The girl assumes he's supposed to be a walrus, but he obnoxiously reveals he's merely a caterpillar with crud up his nose. The boy gives Roger a few high fives, when suddenly he starts to retreat into a cocoon. Convinced she can return to her date, the girl strikes up a conversation, only to be interrupted again by Roger who flaps his new butterfly wings and boasts that it "feels good to stretch 'em out."
