Beyond a Reasonable Scout

"Beyond a Reasonable Scout" is the first segment of the fifty-ninth episode of Recess.
==Synopsis==
Mikey and Gus want to join the Woodchuck Scouts.
==Plot==
Mikey and Gus are playing on the teeter totter only to find that Mikey is weighing his end down. Mikey offers to get off but Gus fears to be slammed down from three feet into the sand. Fortunately, Phil comes to their rescue by using his Woodchuck Scout training to tie a rope to stabilize their teeter totter. Mikey and Gus are impressed by Phil's tales of adventure with the scouts and decide to go to his house to request to join the Woodchuck Scouts. Phil is surprised by their request and tries making up excuses to discourage them but they notice he's in his pajamas and assume he's having a scout party. Realizing the two weren't going to give up, Phil instructs them to meet him tomorrow behind the playground to put their skills to the test.
Next day at recess, they tell their friends about their upcoming meetup with Phil, though Gretchen finds his behaviour from last night most unkind. T.J. relates that he and Vince once Woodchuck Scouts only to be kicked out for scaring elderly birdwatchers. Nevertheless, their friends support their dreams. Phil then appears to show everyone a proving ground he set up before school. However, while Mikey and Gus are allowed him, he refuses to allow the others to observe, even refusing to be intimidated by Spinelli, saying that if she injures him, he could easily treat himself with first aid. Gus assures their friends they'll be fine as he quote from the Woodchuck handbook from the organization founder Edmond P. Edmonton that a scout is brave and fearless. Phil quickly loses his patience and uses the bush to obscure the others from view.
Phil starts by going on about how tough a scout's life is but since the two boys are still determined, he resorts to putting pails on their heads, spins them around and puts compasses in their hands, telling them to imagine being lost in the forest and to come find him. After bumping into a couple of trees and each other, they end up colliding into Phil. Next, he has them perform a flag raising, which ends with Gus pulling Mikey up to the pole's height by the seat of his pants while he was holding the flag. Phil then shows them a chopping axe but decides to skip it in favour of a hike. He purposely gives them the slip but they catch up to him by taking the canoe across the lake. Frustrated by their persistence, Phil orders Gus to take three steps forward only to suddenly trip him, claiming it was a first aid test much to the boys' shock. When they call him out on his actions, he takes their refusal to act as a means to disqualify them for his troop.
When they return to the others to tell what happened, they are outraged, but Gus reminds that so long as Phil is leader of the local troop, he decides who gets to join. However, Gretchen decides to go over Phil's head and has Galileo send a complaint to the Woodchuck Scouts headquarters in Washington, who telephone an outpost of theirs in the wilderness to drum a message to Edmond P. Edmonton himself, pulling him off his hunt for the Sasquatch. 
After a week trekking through the wilderness, a disheveled Edmonton arrives at Third Street, asking the gang where to find Phil. Upon confronting him over why he rejected Mikey and Gus, he claims their character was not up to Woodchuck standards, drawing rebuttals from T.J. and the others. Phil then begins to react nervously, claiming that his troop is full but when Edmonton presses him for how many other scouts were in his troop, he confesses that there are no other scouts. He explains that since he's the only Woodchuck Scout at school, it made him feel special and that to allow other kids to join up would make him another regular kid. Edmonton counsels him with metaphors, comparing him to a redwood and a lone wolf who are never truly alone in the forest. He refers to the gang as a example of how good it is to stick together and encourages him to learn from them and he might make a better scout for it. Phil then assumes that Edmonton was going to kick him out for everything he did. However, Edmonton points out that he managed to uphold the Woodchuck principle of honesty and that he'd be willing to share a bag of trail mix with him any time.
Later that night, around a campfire, Phil and Edmonton oversee Mikey and Gus taking the scout pledge when they hear Mr. Coyote howls in the night. Mikey asks for a translation. Phil starts off by boasting of how more senior he is than them, but, catching Edmonton's stern gaze, humbly explains that Mr. Coyote says, "Congratulations and welcome to the Woodchuck Scouts." The boys then start yelping into the night.
==Cast==
* Andrew Lawrence as T.J. Detweiler
* Rickey D'Shon Collins as Vince LaSalle
* Pamela Adlon as Ashley Spinelli
* Ashley Johnson as Gretchen Grundler
* Jason Davis as Mikey Blumberg
* Courtland Mead as Gus Griswald
==Trivia==
*On Disney+, this episode is first next to "The Army Navy Game".
*The title is a play on the phrase "Beyond a reasonable doubt".
==External links==
*Beyond a Reasonable Scout at the Recess Wiki
Category:Recess episodes