A Divided Reef

**"A Divided Reef"** is the forty-fourth episode of the first season of *Sammy & Co*. It premiered on February 29, 2016, on Netflix.

## Synopsis

When a baby shark gets caught in the reef, the village quarrels about whether the children should keep him as a playmate or return him to the sea.

## Plot

The episode opens at the reef village where Ricky, Ella, Pipo, and Annabel are playing a game of tag. While Ella is chasing after Ricky, the two both notice a shadow of a shark nearby and they start to panic. However, it turns out that the shadow belongs to a baby hammerhead shark who's lost after entering the reef. Ricky finds the shark pup to be cool and suggests to Ella that the shark should stay at the reef since he always dreamed of having his very own baby shark. Ella tells Ricky that he should get real since there's no way he could take care of a shark pup since he's going to grow up and become a large adult that won't be easy to feed. Ricky points out that Albert is a nice shark and he eats seaweed, but Ella argues that it's different since Albert doesn't have any more teeth, unlike the shark pup. Ricky wants to get close to the shark pup, but he inadvertently scares him away. Ella wants to bring the shark pup back outside the reef so that his mother could find him, but Ricky chases after the shark pup because he wants to tame him. Ricky follows the shark pup and rides on him, who gets scared and starts to swim out of control. The shark pup accidentally crashes into Ella which causes her to ride along with Ricky and before the two young turtles knew it, the shark pup panicky gives them an out-of-control ride around the reef, bumping into various reef inhabitants along the way. Nearby, Ray wakes up from his nap when he hears the commotion outside his habitat and watches the shark pup carries Ricky and Ella past the shell school before he heads to the playground.

At the playground, Ray arrives and greets the two juvenile turtles before laughing in amusement about the shark pup's stunt earlier which he finds funny. Just then, Sammy also arrives who's visibly worried about the kids because of the shark pup's presence. He scolds them for their recklessness of riding on the shark pup and that they could've gotten themselves hurt. Ray gets annoyed by Sammy's uptight demeanor and constant babying them despite Ricky and Ella both only playing around since they're still kids. However, the conversation between Ray and Sammy has to escalate into a huge argument. Sammy demands Ricky and Ella to take the baby shark back outside the reef since he doesn't belong at the village, but Ray wants Ricky to keep the baby shark since he sees the shark pup as a play companion for his grandson. This inevitably gets to the point that the two turtles have enough of each other's differences and how they raise their respective grandchild that they officially end their friendship in front of Ricky and Ella. The two former best friends even forbid their respective grandchild from playing with each other anymore since Ray refuses to let Ricky hang out with Sammy's "know-it-all" family while Sammy refuses to let Ella be around with Ray's family being a "bad influence" to her. Later at dawn, Ella laments to her grandmother about Sammy's grudge against Ray and how they don't want her and Ricky to play with each other ever again. Shelly assures her granddaughter that Sammy and Ray would forgive each other the next day and all will be forgotten between them because the two have been best friends for a very long time ever since they were hatchlings.

However, when morning arrives, Shelly is proven wrong when Ella wakes up to see Ray is placing shells to create a line to divide the reef so she alerts her grandparents about it. At the palaver tree, Ray announces to the villagers about his feud against Sammy so because of it and he doesn't want to see him again, he divides the village into two sides and he wants everyone to pick one to join. On Ray's side, it will be the zone where they have fun whatever they want without worrying about constraints and killjoys. While on Sammy's side, it will be the no-fun zone where they are going to be well-behaved and reasonable, which Ray calls it "boring". Sammy tries to reason that rules are important since chaos will reign without it, but Ray refuses to listen and makes everyone pick a side to join. Pipo and Annabel are very sad to see Ricky and Ella are unable to see each other because of the family feud so the two know that they have to do something to help their friends. When Ricky laments to Pipo that he wishes the four of them could all take care of Niko the hammerhead shark pup together despite everything between him and Ella. Pipo assures Ricky that they're going to set up a secret rendezvous with Ella and they'll do so without anyone knowing. Annabel even informs Ella about Pipo's plan for their arranged meeting later that day.

Later, Annabel, Ella, Ricky, and Pipo all arrive at the playground at the same time after managing to sneak past the other inhabitants. Ricky admits that despite it's Ray's idea to divide the reef, neither of them is going to let the boundary line ruin their friendship. But when Niko starts crying, the shark pup unintentionally causes Ricky and Ella to be proven wrong when they have an argument over whether or not they should return Niko back outside the reef, which eventually leads to Ricky and Ella ending their friendship for real too.

With the entire reef community drifting apart because of the feud, neither of the inhabitants want to interact with anyone who's not part of their side of the reef. As a result, the villagers who're on Sammy's side are forced to work hard harvesting all the seaweeds when Ray's side refuses to help out. The shell school also gets affected by the feud since Lulu has to teach the students who're on Sammy's side as well as having fun and playing games with the students who're on Ray's side. Later, the villagers who're on Ray's side are throwing a very loud party at his home that keeps on going at night which disturbs Annabel and Ella who are both at Sammy's place to study for their test that will be held the next day. Ella swims out of her home to complain to everyone to keep down the noise, but it was no use since the villagers are still partying. Ella and Annabel both swim away from Ella's home to find a better peaceful place to study, but then they hear the sound of Niko crying so they follow the sound to the playground. At Ray's place, Ricky and Pipo are both outside when they notice Niko isn't with them. They also hear the sound of Niko's crying so they follow it too to the playground.

When the boys make it to the playground, they see Ella comforting a weeping Niko and Annabel informs the boys that he must have been scared of the noise from the party. Ricky realizes the error of his ways after seeing how unhappy Niko is at the reef that he decides it's time for the four of them to let him go. He even apologizes to Ella for being selfish earlier to which she returns his apology for not being very nice to him either about letting go of Niko. Just then, Albert arrives and says to the kids that he has heard Niko's crying from miles away at Ray's home. When Pipo asks how Albert can hear Niko's crying from so far away, Albert informs and realizes to his horror that the mother shark can find the little one from far away. Just right after Albert finishes talking, Niko's mother angrily arrives at the reef after hearing her baby crying which causes everyone in the village to all scream in a panic about her presence. Albert realizes his mistake that he should've been guarding the entrance to the reef instead of playing around since Niko's mother has arrived and terrorizes the villagers while searching for her missing baby.

As the villagers all frantically swim around to find a place to hide from the shark, the kids arrive at the center of the village and inform both Sammy and Ray that Niko's mother has come to get her baby. When Niko sees his mother, he swims to her, and the two cuddle after their reunion. However, Niko's mother is still mad at the villagers for supposedly kidnapping her son. Albert tries to calm her down and explain to her that the villagers have no intention to take her son away from her, but she's so blind with rage that she refuses to listen and roars at him instead. The kids know that they have to get both Niko and his mother out of the reef before the mother shark can take out her anger on the innocent villagers. Ricky immediately swims to Niko and rides onto him, making the hammerhead shark pup swim to the exit of the reef which lures the mother shark out. Ella, Pipo, Annabel, Sammy, and Ray all follow the three to the exit of the reef.

On the outskirts of the reef, Ella arrives and apologizes to the mother shark for taking in her baby as well as reasoning with her that she and her friends did it because he was lost and they need to save him. The mother shark growls at her since she's still mad and doesn't believe Ella at first, but her son immediately cuddles her which makes her calm down and realizes that the young green turtle is telling the truth. Knowing that neither of the reef inhabitants is threats to her baby, she and her son both swim away together. Sammy and Ray are both proud of the kids for using their wits and courage to get the mother shark and her baby to leave the reef inhabitants alone. The two elderly turtles forgive each other for their petty argument over their differences after learning that they should accept both "a little bit of wisdom and a little bit of wildness" to solve all their problems. And with that settled, the two reunited best friends and the kids all swim back to the reef to remove the boundary to restore peace and balance for the inhabitants.

## Characters

### Major characters

* Ricky
* Ella
* Pipo
* Annabel
* Sammy
* Ray
* Niko

### Minor characters

* Lulu
* Shelly
* Glitz
* Crudd
* Babbles
* Albert
* Alpha
* Margaret
* Niko's mother
* Jimbo (background)
* Billy (background)
* Mika (background)
* Sea snake (background)
* Crabs
* Reef inhabitants

## Trivia

* In the French version, the episode is called "Un récif divisé".
* Despite this episode is the forty-fourth to aired on TiJi like its US airing order, it's the forty-first episode to aired in France on M6.
* The way Pipo and Annabel arrange a secret meeting for Ricky and Ella to see each other because they're not allowed to see each other because their respective grandfather feuding each other is an allusion to *Romeo and Juliet*. But while Ricky does have a secret crush on Ella, it is more of a platonic friendship meeting for the four kids instead of being romantic for the two juvenile sea turtles.
* The episode conflict might be a reference to the division of Germany that happened from 1945 to 1990. Just like what happened to the reef village, Germany was divided because of a political disagreement (West Germany should be run as a capitalist community, while East Germany should be run as a communist state). The way Ray divides the reef by placing various seashells to form a boundary is a metaphor to the Berlin Wall that separates the two sides of Germany. The reference can also be applied to other countries that are divided because of a political disagreement, such as North and South Korea currently, North and South Vietnam in the past, the United States and the Confederate States during the American Civil War, etc.
* If Niko never gets lost and enter the reef village, then the entire episode conflict wouldn't happen because Sammy and Ray have an argument over whether or not the kids should keep him as a playmate or return him to the outskirt of the reef.
* During his feud against Sammy, Ray has the reef divided into two sides.
	+ Some of the known inhabitants who're on Sammy's side include Ella, Shelly, Annabel, Alpha, Billy, and Mika.
	+ Some of the known inhabitants who're on Ray's side include Ricky, Pipo, Alert, Glitz, Crudd, Babbles, Jimbo, and Margaret.
	+ Lulu seems to be on a neutral side since he needs to teach his students from Sammy's side as well as having fun with Ray's side.
* The orange fish tourists from "The Tourists" can be seen on Ray's side as well as partying at his place.
* This episode reveals that Albert is in charge of guarding the entrance to the reef. Margaret is also in charge of guarding it, as revealed on the official *Sammy & Co* website.
* This is the second episode in which one member from both Sammy's and Ray's family have a fight after "A Pretend Fight".
* This is the first episode to show a predator entering the reef village.

### Errors

* When the reef is divided, Ray's side is on the left side while Sammy's side is on the right side if an inhabitant arrives at the reef from the entrance. However, the seaweed garden is actually located on Ray's side so it's unknown how anyone who's Sammy's side can come to harvest the seaweeds when they're not allowed to cross the boundary.
* Despite Jimbo is on Sammy's side, he can be seen partying at Ray's place later in the episode.

## References

1. ↑ https://instantwatcher.com/title/80042306
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/m6/22-12-2014/
3. ↑ https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/tiji/29-03-2015/
4. ↑ https://www.netflix.com/title/80042177
5. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20160117051345/http://www.sammy-series.com/en/characters