Ella's Ego

**"Ella's Ego"** is the fiftieth episode of the first season of *Sammy & Co*. It premiered on February 29, 2016, on Netflix.

## Synopsis

When Ella, the reef's best student, loses a school competition to Annabel, she decides to leave the reef, and Big Boss takes advantage.

## Plot

The episode opens at the palaver tree where the villagers are waiting for the award ceremony that's about to begin. The four kids are all excited for the ceremony since they know Ella is going to earn yet another trophy since she always wins every single contest they've ever had at school and always get the best grades because of how studious she is. Ricky wonders out loud why they even have the ceremony when everyone knows that Ella is going to win, to which she remarks that maybe he should have tried a little harder instead of playing all the time so he could have an award too. After Lulu calls upon Sammy, the village chief does his speech by explaining to his audience that presenting the Coral Cup to the student has obtained the highest score in the annual school exam fills him with pride because he or she who wins it is an excellent student and has shown great intelligence and has worked hard to obtain it. Before the elderly turtle says the name of the winner, Lulu whispers something to him and Sammy announces Annabel as the winner of the trophy, much to the surprises of both Ricky and Ella since they're expecting the latter instead. Annabel is also surprised at winning the trophy since she wasn't expecting it at all that she becomes nervous when she's about to grab her trophy. Sammy congratulates Annabel for winning before he announces to everyone that the student who has come in second place in the exam is actually Ella. After Lulu places a medal on Ella's neck, she is expecting everyone to also congratulate her, but the villagers are cheering for Annabel instead and Glitz happens to call Annabel "the best student" who deserves the Coral Cup. Ella is surprised to see everyone paying attention to Annabel instead of her and when Ricky and Pipo are both also ignoring her to praise Annabel, she feels sad that she has been left out.

After the ceremony, the kids are helping Annabel carry her Coral Cup home. Annabel comments that it's the first she has "ever won anything in all [her] life" and Pipo even remarks who would've ever thought she's the top of the class. Ella's enviousness towards Annabel grows when several villagers arrive to continue praising Annabel and admiring her trophy. When Ella overhears someone commenting that Annabel must be "very smart", she sadly swims out of the reef after being ignored all day.

At Big Boss's shipwreck, the seahorse is disappointed by both Marco and Philippe after they're ordered to plug up all the holes in the shipwreck, which they stupidly used rocks to cover them. Ella arrives to see the commotion and suggests to them her solution to their problem by finding some boards in the hold of the shipwreck and fasten them to the walls. Philippe comments on how "super intelligent" Ella is despite being only a child, but Ella expresses her doubt about it. After being asked by Big Boss to tell them what's wrong, Ella informs him that while Annabel is her friend, now it's all about her ever since she won the Coral Cup. Big Boss pretends to take pity on her and suggests she should work for him since "it'd be a real change for [him] to have someone as clever as [her] on [his] team". Ella knows that Big Boss is trying to manipulate her into working for him so he can gain control over the reef village, so she tells him to just forget it and there's no way she's helping him do that. Ella is about to swims away from the shipwreck to get back home, but Big Boss follows her and claims that he "gave up on [his conquest] a long time ago" so he persuades her to help him fix his shipwreck since he needs "someone intelligent enough to handle the really important tasks". Ella accepts to help Big Boss fixing the shipwreck since she figures she wouldn't be doing anything bad by helping him out a little bit, unaware that she has become a pawn to Big Boss's newest scheme under his manipulation. After Ella hands him her medallion when he asks her to do, Big Boss and Philippe both heads to the reef to initiate the second phase of his evil scheme while Marco and Ella both stay behind to fix the shipwreck.

Back at the reef, Sammy is talking to Margaret, Ricky, and Pipo near the palaver tree. He expresses his worry about Ella being too disappointed for not winning the trophy before asking them if they know where she is. Big Boss and Philippe both arrive and the tyrannical seahorse answers his question for them. He falsely informs them that Marco is "holding her prisoner somewhere" and if they ever want to see her again, Sammy has to give what Big Boss demands. Sammy sarcastically answers that he must name him the leader of the reef like how he always does whenever Big Boss shows up at the village. However, the tyrannical seahorse informs that it's not what he has in mind and what he really wants is that all the inhabitants who are bigger than Philippe must leave the reef and never come back.

Since everyone sees that Philippe is wearing Ella's medallion on his neck, they believe she really is being held prisoner so they're all forced to comply with Big Boss's threat. Among the large inhabitants who're forced to leave are Albert, Sammy, Shelly, Ray, Rita, and Margaret. Ricky decides to join them too since he doesn't want his grandparents both getting taken away from him. Sammy announces to everyone that all of the large inhabitants and Ricky who are gathered at the exit have solemnly sworn to never return to the reef again. Big Boss is glad he's won and he orders the large inhabitants and Ricky to go visit the shipwreck because "when he sees [them], Marco will let [Ella] the little one go". Ricky thinks it's a trap and Ella isn't there, but Sammy tells him that neither of them doesn't have a choice so they're all forced to leave together. But before the turtles swim out of the exit, Annabel arrives and happily announces her mother that she finally found a place to put her trophy. But since she misses the entire announcement, Annabel asks out loud why does everybody look so sad all of a sudden, before Margaret sadly grabs her daughter and she carries her to the exit.

At the shipwreck, the banished inhabitants all arrive and they're all relief to see Ella alive and well. Ella asks everyone what they're all doing at the shipwreck, Ricky informs her that they all promised they would never set foot in the reef again because they thought she's being held, prisoner. Marco laughs out loud that Big Boss fooled Ella real good, only to get angry glares from both Sammy and Ray. Realizing that he has stupidly said too much, Marco swims out of the shipwreck and heads to the reef. The banished inhabitants and Ella are all unhappy that Big Boss has successfully tricked them all as part of his scheme and since Sammy is a man of his word, they're all no longer allowed to go back to the reef so they all have to wait until morning to look for a new one to move in. Ella apologizes to Annabel for holding her jealousy against her after winning the trophy and it is her fault that her jealousy gets the better of her which indirectly led to her friends and family is forced to leave forever. She sadly wishes she could just disappear and hide for a long time out of shame. But when Annabel camouflages herself and starts tickling Ella to make her feel better, it gives Ella an idea of how they can get Big Boss to give back the reef and free them from the promise they made.

Back at the reef, the villagers gather up at the palaver tree for a meeting that Big Boss is going to host. Nearby, Ella arrives at where Big Boss who is rehearsing his speech. When Big Boss asks her what she's doing back at the reef,
Ella snatches the medallion from him and informs him that she came to get her medal back. Big Boss lets her get her "stupid" medal back before ordering her to leave him alone since he needs to prepare his speech. As soon as Big Boss swims to the tree, Annabel arrives and worryingly tells Ella that her medal isn't "stupid". But Ella assures Annabel not to worry since it's up to her to go through with her plan to restore balance to the reef. While Big Boss is doing his speech, Annabel camouflages herself and she gets next to him. She then tickles Big Boss which makes him laugh and he's unable to be taken seriously by his audience. Ella threatens Big Boss that he wants his tickle torture to stop and not pass himself off as a fool, he must give back the reef and go back to his shipwreck. Big Boss refuses and when Annabel continues to tickle him again, he is forced to comply with Ella's deal since the villagers all think he's a crazy lunatic when he starts laughing like a fool.

Big Boss and his moray eels all retreat back to the shipwreck since no one in the reef wants to take him seriously as their new leader. Upon arriving at his home, Big Boss orders the banished reef inhabitants to go back to the reef since he doesn't want it anymore. And when Sammy reminds him of the promise he made earlier, Big Boss gives the banished inhabitants permission to go back on Sammy's word and allows them to return the reef.

Upon returning to the village, Sammy congratulates both Ella and Annabel for outwitting Big Boss and restore the reef back to the way it is. Annabel says that it's all thanks to Ella since she's the one who came up with the plan, but Ella credits Annabel who did everything as planned.

## Characters

### Major characters

* Ella
* Annabel
* Big Boss (antagonist)
* Marco (antagonist)
* Philippe (antagonist)

### Minor characters

* Ricky
* Pipo
* Sammy
* Lulu
* Glitz
* Crudd
* Babbles
* Margaret
* Billy
* Ray
* Shelly
* Mika
* Albert (non-speaking)
* Jimbo (non-speaking)
* Rita (non-speaking)
* Arthur (non-speaking)
* Aroun (background)
* Reef inhabitants

## Trivia

* In the French version, the episode is called "L'égo d'Ella".
* Despite this episode is the fiftieth to aired on TiJi like its US airing order, it's the fifty-first episode to aired in France on M6.
* This episode reveals that Ella used to be the top student of her class since she has the best grades and always won every single contest the school held. However, her winning streak comes to an end when her title is taken by Annabel after she won the Coral Cup trophy.
* The reason why Annabel won her trophy is that she is able to obtain the highest score in the annual school exam. In real life, cephalopods are known for their intelligence because of their large, well-developed brains.
* This is the sixth episode in which Big Boss managed to temporarily take over the reef village after "The Abominable Seamonster", "Ricky's Betrayal", "Fortune and Fib Telling", "Big Mama", and "Game Crazy".
* Despite César is also one of the largest inhabitants of the reef, he doesn't appear in this episode and he isn't seen being banished along with the turtles, Albert, Margaret, and Annabel.
* Ella and Annabel are both allowed to come back to the village since they weren't present when Sammy made his promise to Big Boss that those who are gathered at the exit have solemnly sworn to never return to the reef. Because of this, they both take advantage of the loophole and foils Big Boss's scheme.
* Ella's medallion is made by fashioning a piece of seaweed like a cord around a coin. The coin happens to be the same one she and her friends use for their coin toss game.

## References

1. ↑ https://instantwatcher.com/title/80042306
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/m6/06-03-2015/
3. ↑ https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/tiji/29-03-2015/
4. ↑ https://www.netflix.com/title/80042177