A Grave Mistake

**A Grave Mistake** is the eighteenth episode of the fourth series, and the one-hundred-sixty-seventh episode of *The Loud House*.

## Plot

Lucy and Haiku compete to be the new president of the Young Mortician's Club at school.

## Synopsis

At the Royal Woods Cemetery, the Mortician's Club is holding a meeting, where the leader, Bertrand, states that he must step down because his father has gotten a job as a lifeguard on a cruise ship and has to leave to join him. Before he steps down, he states that he needs to appoint a new leader for the club, and he immediately chooses Haiku. Lucy, feeling underappreciated, bemoans to Lincoln that she should have been appointed as the leader instead of Haiku, and Lincoln states that tomorrow, she should go up to Bertrand and state her thoughts on why she should be the leader, and Lucy accepts Lincoln's idea.

The next day, Lucy tells the Mortician's Club members that she should be the leader, since she made several accomplishments in the club. Seeing her point of view, Bertrand decides to hold a vote: whoever gets the most votes from the club will be appointed the new leader. Throughout the day, Lucy and Haiku try to convince the other members to give them their vote, which results in a tie with three votes each. Needing a way to win the election, Lucy manipulates Lincoln into joining the club, and Lincoln, wearing a goth-punk outfit, immediately places his vote on Lucy, and Bertrand is forced to accept the vote since he's in the club, making Lucy the new leader.

The next day, as Lucy ponders what to do with her role as president, she hears Clyde (later Principal Huggins) crying in the bushes because the school's mascot, Ricky the Rooster, had died. Lucy sees Ricky's death as the perfect opportunity to hold a school-wide funeral procession. Arriving to the cemetery, Lucy discovers that no one but Lincoln is present. Her brother presents her with a scroll saying that because she was appointed the new leader, everyone quit, making them the only two members of the club. Thinking that she doesn't need them, Lucy proposes that they will hold the funeral themselves.

Lincoln and Lucy attempt to hold Ricky's funeral, but things go awry very quickly. The ice sculpture Lucy commissioned has nearly melted due to how hot it is (because she did not check the weather forecast), the food served by Lincoln is chicken nuggets, which is relatively inappropriate, football players are tackling people because of the funeral taking place on a football field (which Lincoln and Lucy failed to reserve due to one believing the other was going to do it), and when Lucy attempts to give Ricky a proper send-off by flinging him into the sky via trebuchet, Ricky's coffin ends hitting a passing airplane. As everyone in the audience boos at Lucy, the Mortician's Club's former members leave because of the atrocious service. Lucy catches up to them and apologizes for her selfish behavior, and the members, feeling bad for Lucy and because she was only doing what's best, decide to step in and fix things.

Sometime later, another funeral service is being held, and the Mortician's Club manage to make things work by sending Ricky off by tying several balloons to his coffin, which floats him away, while crows form a heart around the ascending coffin, and Luna singing a song to honor Ricky's legacy. With the funeral being a success, Lucy states that Haiku is the better leader and deserves the role more than her, but Haiku states that it would be better if they ran the club together, a proposal that Lucy gladly accepts.

## Cast

* Tex Hammond as Lincoln
* Nika Futterman as Luna / Boris
* Cristina Pucelli as Dante
* Jessica DiCicco as Lucy
* Grey Griffin as Cheryl
* Lara Jill Miller as Persephone
* Andre Robinson as Clyde
* Richard Horvitz as Morpheus
* Georgie Kidder as Haiku
* James Arnold Taylor as Bertrand
* Stephen Tobolowsky as Principal Huggins

Liam, the Cheerleaders, Stella, Mazzy and Rusty have no lines in the episode.

## Controversy

A day before the episode's release, Nickelodeon promoted this episode by releasing a tweet on Twitter that read "the goth e-boy we didn't even know we needed" with a picture of Lincoln wearing his goth punk attire. The tweet was heavily lambasted by users, who criticized Nickelodeon's use of the term "e-boy" as an excuse to act cool and modern to people. A day later (the day of this episode's release), Nickelodeon deleted the tweet.

## Trivia

* The title of this episode is a reference to the fact that it's about the Mortician's Club and their fascination with the dead.
* According to Darin McGowan, the cemetery gate is modeled after the gate of the cemetery where his grandmother is buried.
* The mascot of Royal Woods Elementary is revealed to be a rooster named Ricky.
* According to Lincoln, Lucy has been planning funerals since she was only 2 years old.
* This episode reveals that Haiku converted to a Gothic lifestyle one year ago.
* The time cards in this episode were designed by David King.
* This episode takes place after "Absent Minded", since Clyde is revealed to still have his position as the school's junior administrator.
* **Innuendo**:
	+ Lincoln serves chicken nuggets at Ricky's first funeral.

## References

* ***A Grave Mistake*** - The title of this episode is a phrase that means a really bad mistake.
* ***Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis*** - According to Darin McGowan, the funeral outfit Lucy wears in this episode is based on the funeral dress worn by the late First Lady of the U.S. following her husband President John F. Kennedy's assassination.
* ***Edward Gorey*** - According to Darin McGowan, the time cards in this episode were designed after the illustrations of this writer and artist, whose pen-and-ink art style was known for its unsettling appearance.
* ***Keep Calm and Carry On*** - According to Lucy, she was the one who came up with the Mortician's Club motto "Keep calm and embalm", a reference to this motivational phrase used by the British government to keep their citizens calm in the impending World War II.

## Errors

* Lincoln's height throughout the episode is shown to be inconsistent, with some scenes showing he and Lucy are the exact same height, while others show him to be a little taller than her.

## Videos

The Loud House- "A Grave Mistake-Leader of the Rack" promo -1 - NickelodeonThe Loud House- "A Grave Mistake-Leader of the Rack" promo -2 - NickelodeonThe Loud House- "A Grave Mistake-Leader of the Rack" promo -3 - NickelodeonThe Loud House- "A Grave Mistake" promo - NickelodeonThe Loud House - Terrible News - Nickelodeon UK