"There's Something About Rene" is the thirty-fourth episode of The Proud Family, written by Michael Carrington and directed by Douglas McCarthy.
Synopsis[]
Trudy comes home to find her house in complete disarray. BeBe and CeCe are throwing mud balls, Puff is chomping on Suga Mama’s nails, Penny has her friends over for pizza and Oscar is working on a strawberry pork rind recipe. After cleaning the mess up, Trudy, tired of doing everything by herself anymore, personally suggests hiring a full time house keeper to look after Oscar, the kids and the house, especially since her veterinarians convention is coming up and she will be away for two weeks. Following a series of colorful applicants, including a prison guard, a guru, a strong man and a lovable woman who can’t keep her head straight, all hope seems lost for Trudy until one interviewee, Rene, shows up. Her seemingly perfect record and her skills in French cooking, child psychology among other things (like touring with JLO), gives her an instant liking from the family, with the exception of Trudy, who is cautious of her good qualities, but still hires her.
The next day, Rene arrives a little late to see Trudy off. This leaves Trudy a little worried over how Rene will take care of her family and when she gets to the convention, she imagines her family as a family of bears in a nature documentary being careless and as messy as ever, even with Rene around. Frightened, she rushes back home to find her house clean and the Prouds and Rene being out all day at the amusement park. Penny tells her mother how Rene helped her with her algebra, Suga Mama giving her toes a pedicure and Oscar with his new recipe. Rene is even planning to take the family out to the Wizard's Wings and Sings karaoke bar restaurant, but Trudy thinks the family has had enough fun for one night. Even so, she still tags along, undeterred by Rene's performance of "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" by Aretha Franklin.
In the days to come, Trudy comes to the awful conclusion that Rene is trying to steal her family away from her, so she enlists the help of Sunset to follow Rene throughout the city, hoping to catch her at something illegal. Instead, they catch her doing altruistic deeds, such as saving an old man from choking on his dentures, rescuing a man from being run over by a truck, giving food to homeless people, helping a cat out of a tree and assisting the fire department with a burning building. "The woman is an angel," says Sunset. "We ought to check her back for wings."
Now accepting Rene for who she really is, she converses with Oscar in bed that night to let Rene go. Oscar gives in, warning Trudy that the kids and Suga Mama will hate her for it, but she tells him that he was the one who fired her. At the agency, Trudy learns from a receptionist that Rene's clients have suffered from her case before and the only way to dispose of the "Rene syndrome" it is to bring in somebody so bad that it will make Trudy look good. Trudy politely declines, telling the woman that she'll clean up the mess on her own. The episode ends with Trudy finding her house a mess again and this time she accepts it with a smile, saying: "It's good to be home."
Trivia[]
- The song "Respect" by Aretha Franklin is sung by Rene in this episode.
- The episode's title is a play on the 1998 romantic comedy film There's Something About Mary.
External Links[]
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