Nice Day

Nice Day was the Ninth Episode of the Second Season of the Land of the Lost.
==Summary==
When Holly gets sick, Rick turns to the Pakuni for help.
==Plot==
Cha-Ka is wandering through the jungle by himself. He sees Spike and quickly hides behind a tree to avoid being seen. He also spots a strange carnivorous plant, similar to but larger than a Venus fly-trap, just as one of its traps opens and it drops bones from a small mammalian creature.
At High Bluff, Rick Marshall is assembling an animal trap while Holly is feeding indigenous plants to guinea pigs, determining if they're safe for human consumption. Will then appears from the cave, proudly showing a fishing pole he has crafted out of indigenous materials. When he announces his plans to go fishing, Holly wants to come along. Will, obviously opposed to this idea, asks if she still has chores to do, but Holly responds that her chores are done. Will then persuades Holly to make smilax cakes instead, a laborious task that would take her most of the day to make. When Holly points out that Will hates her smilax cakes (as he vigorously disparaged them as "cement cakes" in One of Our Pylons is Missing), Will insists that his withering assessment was not in earnest. 
Probably recognizing that Will does not want Holly tagging along, Rick invites her to help him set up his animal trap instead, saying that he spotted some roots from the smilax plants she would need for the cakes. Holly is finally persuaded to make the cakes instead.
In his trip to the fishing hole, Will encounters Cha-Ka. Will proudly shows off his hand-crafted fishing pole, but Cha-Ka cannot seem to understand the concept. When Will demonstrates casting a line, he hands the pole to Cha-Ka to let him try. Cha-Ka throws the entire pole away, necessitating repairs.
As Rick sets up his trap, Holly is pulling out the smilax roots to make the flour for the smilax cakes. The roots are stubborn and requires all of Holly's strength to pull them out. "Will Marshall, you just better like this. You just better," she mutters.
At the fishing hole, Will hasn't caught anything yet and Cha-Ka needs to be reminded to be quiet. Will efforts to explain the concept of fishing to Cha-Ka are unavailing. Will concludes that since Pakuni are vegetarians, they probably don't even have a word for "fish."
Holly has finally collected enough roots and is now pulverizing them into meal, a task every bit as laborious as pulling them out of the ground. At the fishing hole, Will still isn't have any luck catching fish, explaining to Cha-Ka that the fish are taking his bait without getting hooked. He tries switching the bait, but still has no luck. Cha-Ka is getting bored and Will is becoming discouraged. Finally, when Will stands up to stretch his legs, leaving Cha-Ka to hold the pole, a fish bites. Will is able to land the fish, but Cha-Ka recoils in disgust, gagging. He then vehemently insists (based on Will's translation) that the fish is "poison." Will tries to explain that while the Pakuni are vegetarians, humans eat meat and that fish is good for humans. Cha-Ka then charges Will, seizes the fish and Will's fishing pole and throws them both into the swamp.
In the meantime, Rick's trap has sprung. When he and Holly investigate, they discover that the trap has caught a large pig. While pigs in the Land of the Lost are multicolored, it is unmistably a pig. Holly contemplates all the culinary options they have from the pig, but Rick estimates the pig's weight at 300 pounds, and that because the pig is too large, they will have to let it go. Holly doesn't understand why, but Rick points out that, lacking refrigeration, they couldn't possibly consume the entire pig before most of the meat would spoil, attracting unwanted scavengers to their area. Holly is disappointed but concedes the point.
Will and Cha-Ka are now returning from their failed fishing expedition, and avoid Spike. Through Will's translation of the Pakuni language, Cha-Ka believes he saved Will's life and is demanding a reward. So, for Cha-Ka's "reward," Will invites him to join the Marshalls for dinner.
At the trap, Rick and Holly are trying to coax the pig out of the trap, but it seems content to stay where it is. Will and Cha-Ka then arrive. Cha-Ka sees the pig, and, with a Pakuni's characteristic excitability and skittishness, goes into a panic and charges into Will and Holly, as if attempting to push them out of the way. Rick and Will finally manage to convince him that that pig isn't dangerous, but Cha-Ka has knocked Holly into one of the carnivorous plants that Cha-Ka had seen earlier. She then lies unconscious on the ground. Rick quickly realizes that the plant must have been venomous. Cha-Ka then tries to explain that Ta has magic that can save Holly, but Rick, apparently not understanding what Cha-Ka is saying, is dismissive. Rick then sends Will back to High Bluff to get the first aid kit, specifically a snake venom pump and smelling salts (ammonia). 
Unfortunately, when Will gets the first aid kit, he accidentally breaks the vial of ammonia. As he races back to his father and Holly, he runs into Ta and Cha-Ka. Ta is dressed in some sort of ceremonial finery. Will apologizes then races off. Seconds later, he delivers the first aid kit to his father. Not able to use the ammonia to attempt to revive Holly, Rick instead cleans the wound with alcohol.
Ta arrives and Cha-Ka tries to explain that Ta can cure Holly with magic. As Rick's efforts have been unavailing, he agrees to let Ta try, despite Will's objections. Ta, having adopted a haughty and condescending attitude, is willing but demands a reward. Further, Rick and Will must prostrate themselves before him as Ta works his "magic." After Rick agrees to the reward and both Rick and Will are face down on the ground, Ta then passes a foul-smelling plant beneath Holly's nose, and Holly is suddenly fully recovered, protesting the pungent her being brushed on her face.
At first, Rick and Will credit Ta with saving Holly, but Holly reveals she was awake and recovered even before Ta passed the plant under her nose. Realizing that Holly would have recovered on her own, and that Ta attempted to con them with a ineffective but showy display of ceremony, the Marshalls then present Ta with his "reward." Inducing Ta to cover his eyes, Will positions Ta before the trapped pig. Will then raises the trap's door, and when Ta opens his eyes, he is panic-stricken by the pig, just as Cha-Ka was. The Marshalls, laughing, leave with Cha-Ka.
That evening, Cha-Ka dines with the Marshalls, having only Holly's smilax cakes. Will is feigning delight over them. Rick wonders how Ta is doing.
At that moment, Ta is standing on top of the Marshalls' trap, afraid to come down since the pig is still there.
==Message==
*"Never take more than you can eat."
==Cast==
* Spencer Milligan as Rick Marshall
* Wesley Eure as Will Marshall
* Kathy Coleman as Holly Marshall
* Phillip Paley as Cha-Ka
* Scutter McKay as Ta
==Dinosaurs==
* Spike
==Quotes==
*Coming Up
==Trivia==
*As Will walks to the fishing hole, just prior to his encounter with Cha-Ka, he is heard to be singing to himself, ". . . now I need to find my way . . ." which is from the closing theme of the show. This inside joke of having a character singing the series theme song is made doubly ironic, as Wesley Eure (billed as just "Wesley" during the first two seasons), who plays Will Marshall, also provides the vocals to both the introduction and closing theme songs.
*Will's not having a good day. He is overly unkind to Holly in his desperate attempts to avoid her company on his fishing expedition. And for his cruelty, he later reaps the karma. So, she would be too occupied to join him on his fishing trip, he persuades her instead to make smilax cakes, which he knows is an all-day, disagreeble task for Holly. This is especially desperate on his part, because Will obviously hates them, but for the sake of avoiding her company, he pretends to love them, even claiming they remind him of home. But on his fishing trip, he is accompanied by Cha-Ka, who creates a series of mishaps that Holly (who obviously knows much more about fishing than Cha-Ka) would not. Cha-Ka damages Will's fishing pole, makes too much noise, not knowing that it will scare away the fish. Further, when Will finally gets a catch, Cha-Ka panics at the sight of a live fish and throws both it and Will's fishing pole into the water. Finally, because the animal trap didn't catch anything suitable for the Marshalls' dinner, all that was available was Holly's smilax cakes, which Will is forced to choke down, feigning delight the entire time. He seems to have gone through a lot just to avoid having to take his sister with him on a fishing trip.
*Cha-Ka seems to be emulating his older brother. Believing he did something good by throwing away Will's fish and fishing pole, he demands a reward for "saving" Will. Just as Ta demands a reward for "saving" Holly. 
*Cha-Ka has acquired some knowledge of English, as he serves as translator between the Marshalls and Ta. He is also heard to be adopting certain English expressions, as he uses "Okay" several times in conversation with Will.
*Considering that Cha-Ka is the author of almost every instance of misfortune experienced by the Marshalls in this episode, not all of them accidental, the Marshalls are very magnanimous and patient with him.
*Ta's witch-doctor get-up is rather elaborate, considering the Pakuni have not invented even basic clothing.
*The Marshalls, or at least the children, seem to be gifted with wondrous recuperative abilities. Holly, for instance, goes from unconsciousness to fully recovered and standing in a matter of seconds. In the episode Survival Kit, Holly is fully recovered from an unspecified illness after a single round of antibiotics. In the episode Cornered, Will seems near death and in a delerious state, then fully recovered, even dancing, singing and playing his guitar that very evening.
*It seems ridiculous for Rick Marshall to build such a large animal trap, then complain that the animal they trapped is too large to eat. It would have made more sense to build a smaller trap if he was determined to catch something smaller.
*
Category: 1974-1976 Episodes
Category: Season Two Episodes
Category: Episodes
Category: Pakuni Episodes