"Me and Rico Down by the School Yard" is the first episode of Season 2. The episode title is a reference to the Paul Simon song "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard".
Plot[]
Miley sings a song at a concert and urges everyone to get up early to go to school as the beginning of the school year is the next day. However, she herself only reluctantly gets up after Robby threatens to dump a bucket of ice water over her, as he did with Jackson. Miley and Lilly start their first day of high school at Seaview High School. Lilly discovers that Miley brought her teddy bear, causing her to overreact, asking Miley what this would do to her rep. She receives an anonymous text message on her cell phone that says someone knows her secret and has a picture that proves it.
Miley and Lilly are instantly worried and believe Oliver is behind this and go off to find him, but he didn't do it either as she gets a message from the mysterious person 3 seconds after she berates him. Lilly narrows it down to anyone texting and Miley looks at a nearby table filled with freshmen and exclaims "Great, that narrows it down to everyone!"
Miley finds out that it was Rico who sent the message, as he becomes a new student in her class and asks her if she got his messages. Miley, Lilly and Oliver drag him out of class. To keep Rico from exposing her secret, he makes her pretend to be his girlfriend. Miley is humiliated all day. Lilly and Oliver try to get Rico's cell phone. They find Rico's because it was the only locker with a foot stool underneath it. The only problem is there is monkey gaurding the locker.
Rico then wants Miley to kiss him. Lilly tries to help by telling Miley, "It'll be over before you know it." Miley replies by saying that Rico will hold the secret over her forever. She says that if he wants to send the picture, she'd let him but nothing could be much worse than what he was putting her through. Rico hands over the phone and says he was always the smallest in his classes and that he wanted to be liked. As Miley feels sorry for him she starts to kiss him on the cheek, but Rico turns his head and kisses Miley on the lips. He screams, "He shoots, he scores!" Miley gives him a mad look and says "He's toast." and she begins to chase him, as Oliver says he never saw Miley so angry. Running from Miley , Rico calls on to the monkey in his locker and it drops a banana on the ground causing Miley to drip over.
Lilly realizes that the secret that Rico knew was that Miley had brought her teddy bear to school, not that she is also Hannah Montana.
During the credit the monkey is seen serving ice cones from it's ice cone machine in Rico's locker.
In a subplot, Jackson makes a new friend at school, a Minnesota native named Thor who‘s too friendly and won’t leave Jackson alone. Thor embarrasses Jackson in chemistry class when he tries to get a beautiful girl to sit next to him. Jackson goes home for lunch and tells his dad that Thor thinks that he’s his new best friend and won’t leave him alone for a second but, his dad said that it reminded him of another certain new kid (Jackson) had the same problem and to give Thor a second chance. Later, back at school Jackson‘s friends told him that they told Thor that California girls like it when guys make butter but, didn’t noticed that everyone was laughing at him. Jackson stood up for Thor and told everyone in the classroom that it doesn’t make them cool to make fun of someone it makes them jerks. He said that Thor was just trying to make some friends and decides to make butter with him. Jackson pumped the butter churn too hard and accidentally hit the air bubble and got blasted with butter.
Continuity[]
As the first episode of the second season, the episode introduced new plot-lines and characters to the series. Jackson's friend Cooper is no longer on the show and his role is replaced by Thor. Thor is a recurring character throughout the season. The episode also had Miley and her class move on to high school. Rico, having skipped a few grades, is now in Miley's class, and is introduced in the credits as one of the stars of the show. Rico's role in Miley's classes is explored more in later episodes through the season. The episode introduces new sets for the season, such as Miley's room.
Production and critical response[]
In order to establish Miley and her friend's entry into high school, the Disney Channel premiered this episode along with four others in one week, calling it Hannah Montana's Freshman High-Five. This episode premiered on Monday of the week. Although the episode beat only one other throughout the week in ratings, it still placed 12 in cable viewing in the United States for the week with 3.51 million viewers
Main Cast[]
- Miley Cyrus as Miley Ray Stewart
- Emily Osment as Lilly Truscott
- Mitchel Musso as Oliver Oken
- Jason Earles as Jackson Stewart
- Billy Ray Cyrus as Robby Ray Stewart
- Moises Arias as Rico
Goofs[]
- Jackson's glasses are gone when the camera switches to Thor.
- The stool in front of Rico's locker disappears when Oliver gets a snow-cone from the monkey, then appears again a little before Oliver asks for more syrup.
- The picture on Rico's phone shows Miley kissing Beary the Bear on the other cheek.
Trivia[]
- The opening title has changed to "Disney's Hannah Montana," adding the Disney name.
- Beary the Bear's first appearance was in "O Say, Can You Remember the Words?".
- This episode introduces the song "Make Some Noise".
- The line “get your stinkin’ paws off me, you darn dirty ape” is lifted from the film Planet of the Apes, with “damn” replaced by “darn” due to the series’ young audience.
- The title of the episode is a reference to the song Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard, which is actually a song about homosexuality.
- This is the first time Miley's room is seen.
- Miley, Lilly and Oliver are now in High School.
- Moises Arias is now in the opening tittles.
- This episode aired after a 24 day hiatus.
Quotes[]
- (While Oliver and the monkey are fighting over the phone)
- Oliver: Get your stinkin' paws off me you darn dirty ape!
- Lilly: Use your muscles!
- Oliver: They're in my book bag!
- Lilly (to Miley): There you are! I've got great news.
- Miley: Unless it involves a time machine and Rico's parents never meeting, I don't wanna know.
- Miley: (imitating Robbie) You know, bud, you can always be home schooled. (as herself) No, Daddy, I want to go to school like a normal kid! What was I thinking?
- Jackson (while churning butter): Hey butter, butter, butter! Hey butter, butter, butter! Hey butter, butter, churn.
- Thor: Oh, slow down there, buddy, you don't want to hit the air.. (interrupted by the butter exploding)...bubble.
- Jackson (while covered in butter) Sweet nibblets! I got butter in all my nooks and crannies.
- Miley (to Jackson): Hey bro!
- Jackson: (points to himself) Junior...(points to Miley)...Freshman. No, bro, gotta go.