Pulp Boot Camp

"Pulp Boot Camp" is the thirtieth episode of The Proud Family.
==Synopsis==
The episode begins in media res with Penny explaining to the audience that every person has two inclinations that prompt him or her to good or evil. She admits that she never strayed from the straight and narrow until then. As she is vocally chastised by Sergeant Snelly, the proprietor of the boot camp she is in, she reveals herself to be in the Gross Sister’s ashy blue skin.
Penny reveals in flashback that she took a news article writing class. Her teacher Mr. Moody, the advisor to the school’s newspaper The Checkered Flag Times rejects her article “The Good Things About Good People” because it was not as interesting or as compelling as he imagined it to be. After some mass begging on Penny’s part, he agrees to let her improve. She sets out writing articles about Oscar, Trudy and Suga Mama, each one starting with “Well, Penny, it all started when I was two years old…”. All are rejected. Penny notices the Gross Sisters being dragged off to detention and decides to start her own expose called “The Diary of a Bad Girl”. After three unsuccessful attempts to get into detention, Penny finally gets her wish when she turns up late for class. There, she intimidates a fat boy by verbally fighting over whose seat it is. The Gross Sisters, impressed by her brevity, tempt her to join them in ditching detention to steal some cheddar from grade school kids. While initially reluctant, Penny agrees to join them. Two weeks later, a concerned Trudy asks Penny about all the detentions she has been receiving. She lies, implying it was a computer error.
Penny pledges herself to the Gross Sisters and rechristens herself as “P Gimmie”. She and the sisters issue out a series of bullying methods like selling protection, taking food and stealing money. With her skin turning blue and getting a new outfit reminiscent of the Gross Sisters, Penny denounces her own friends as easy targets to victimize and gathers enough money to start her own newspaper, but she never writes a word down as she is too busy counting her loot and going out doing who knows what at night, diminishing Trudy, Oscar and Suga Mama’s faith in Penny. For this, they decide to send her to boot camp.
While standing on her head, Penny stands up to Sergeant Snelly and declares herself Queen Bee of boot camp, running the candy concession and ticket stand for the weekly movie (“I was the Wizard Kelly of boot camp, y’all,” she narrates). Her reign unfortunately, is short lived, as Sergeant Snelly confronts her over stealing some chocolate chip cookies that another girl received from her mother. Snelly then decides to make life miserable for Penny by forcing her to do latrine duty, peeling potatoes and washing the car. By nightfall, she decides to escape, tricking the guard with a shadow puppet play. When she returns to the neighborhood, she meets up with the Gross Sisters, but Nubia has already renounced her as she explains that she and her sisters don’t associate with “real criminals”….like Penny. Next, she visits Dijonay, asking for help. Dijonay, however, wants her money back and Penny gives her five candy bars in return. Zoey, Sticky, Micheal, and LaCienega, still irritated that Penny destroyed their dignity, also refuse, so Penny returns home to find her family (plus the twins and Uncle Bobby) eating cobbler for dinner. When she sees Puff licking the spoon of ice cream usually reserved for her, Penny is agonized that her family has forgotten all about her. She bids a sad goodbye to Bebe and Cece, but she ends up making them cry and they throw their milk bottles at her. Penny manages to rush outside just as Trudy enters and escapes to a nearby tree, which leads to her falling into a bush.
With her last shred of hope and love now gone and her mind broken by the realization she brought this upon herself, Penny returns to boot camp, determined to become “all that she can be before six a.m.”. Snelly disagrees with Penny, stating that she has to work 24/7. In the end, Penny, after telling the sergeant that he is mistaken, is sent to the obstacle course in the rain, leading to the episode’s opening.
Some time later, Penny has reformed and presents her paper to Mr. Moody, who congratulates her that she is now on staff, as long as she decides not to go undercover again. Penny keeps her promise…until she decides to write her next byline “The Diary of an Extreme Skateboarder.”
==Trivia==
*Morals:
**Do not fall in with the wrong crowd, because you could end up worse than them.
**There is a difference between bullies and criminals.
==Gallery==
==External Links==
*Pulp Boot Camp on The Proud Family Wiki
Category:The Proud Family episodes