Wild Snake

**Wild Snake** is the thirteenth episode of season two, and the 40th episode overall of the Comedies for Kids series *WildSide*. It first aired on May 11, 2012.

This episode was the fourteenth episode to be filmed in Season 2. Primary production took place between December 5-9, 2011.

## Overview

Gary finds a snake on the street and decides to sell it online. His plan backfires when the snake goes missing in the house. It is now up to the friends to track Slitherz down before its too late, and before Rachel's new date arrives home. Meanwhile, Bill consumes an energy drink that makes him hyperactive.

## Episode Summary

The episode opens with Jacob, Rachel's new boyfriend, feeding her strawberry yogurt with an disapproved Justice nearby. Jacob manages to shove a spoonful of yogurt into Rachel's mouth, before realising that the two were suddenly out of yogurt. He decides to excuse himself to get more yogurt out of his car, which prompts Rachel and Justice to have a conversation about his bizarre interests. They're quickly interrupted by Dean entering the scene, who makes a comment about Gary taking too long at doing the weekly shopping. Almost on cue, Gary immediately enters the house, carrying a few shopping bags in his left hand and a cage in his right hand. His friends immediately draw their attention towards the cage, which prompts Gary into telling them all about his new pet, Slitherz, for whom he found on the street. The friends then peer into the cage to be greeted by the face of a snake, which promptly makes them leap backwards in freight. The friends immediately disapprove, however Gary chooses to ignore them. He eventually changes the subject by producing a rolled up copy of the local newspaper and dumps it on the couch; before running off upstairs with his new snake. Justice and Dean immediately respond to the newspaper by attempting to grab it at the same time. The two share a small argument and begin fighting over it, which eventually leads them to crashing into the kitchen off-screen. Rachel then asks the two if they were okay, and the two respond with a "we're good!" unanimously.

After the opening credits, the scene opens to Gary sitting on Justice's bed with a P-Pad; revealing his real motive to sell Slitherz on the internet. He begins to ask Slitherz about his possible selling price, before letting him out of his cage to discuss "business". He's soon interrupted by Rachel, who enters the scene curious as to what Gary was planning on doing. He tells her his plan, before the two are once again interrupted by Jacob. Rachel begins to introduce Jacob to Gary and reveals her idea to resume their date, before Jacob suddenly notices Slitherz in Gary's hands. Gary begins to tell Jacob all about his plan until Rachel decides to pull him away; leaving Gary in peace.

In the kitchen, a noticeably thirsty Bill begins to ask Dean about the drinking options at the house, and Dean suggests for him to drink water. Bill immediately refuses, with the presumption that he doesn't drink water. The two begin to have a short conversation until Bill suddenly notices a six-pack of cans on the floor. Dean reveals to him that it was an energy drink called *Big Bang*, and Bill immediately asks him about what was in it. Dean begins to list ingredients like caffeine and sugar, which prompts Bill into finally taking a sip of it. After his first sip Bill appears to enjoy it, and ultimately decides to take the rest of the cans.

Back in the bedroom, Gary appears to be filling out a product profile for Slitherz, which asks for his name, age and size. The later immediately makes Gary furious, and prompts Gary into finding a measuring tape. In doing so Gary decides to leave Slitherz out of his cage on the bed, and leaves the bedroom to retrieve the measuring tape from the living room. Unfortunately, Slitherz doesn't remain in one place, and is shown slithering off the bed and into the hallway.

In the living room, Rachel and Jacob are shown sipping juice boxes together simultaneously; presumably having a race. Jacob ends up finishing his juice box first, making Rachel slightly annoyed. After the race, Jacob mentions the fact that him and Rachel were going out for two weeks and suggests for them to have a celebration. He proposes that the two should share a "date cake", and immediately rushes off by himself to purchase one from the store. Soon after Gary enters the living room looking for the tape measure, and Rachel tells him about its whereabouts in the supply closet. After a quick conversation with Rachel, Gary heads back upstairs to measure Slitherz, only to discover that he was suddenly not where he had left him. He then decides to grab a flashlight off the wall to quickly look under his friends' beds, before realising that Slitherz was actually missing. In a panic, Gary rushes down the stairs to tell his friends all about it, which understandably makes them, especially Rachel, furious. This prompts Dean with an idea.

A little while later, Dean puts his plan into action by suggesting all of his friends to search for Slitherz individually in different parts of the house. He assigns April the backyard, Rachel the family room, himself (and eventually Justice) the kitchen and dining room, Mr Leopron and Bill the living room, and Gary the entire first floor. The friends eventually split up to look for Slitherz, and search sequences are displayed. April, Rachel and Gary are all seen calling for Slitherz in their designated areas, and Mr Leopron has issues with Bill in the living room when Bill's hyperactive self decides to tackle Mr Leopron onto the couch.

In the kitchen, Dean is seen attempting to search for Slitherz by himself, with no effort from Justice at all. This understandably annoys Dean, and he begins to voice his distaste to Justice about this. Justice attempts to contribute to the work by suggesting for Dean to search for the snake under the table. Despite already searching there over five times, Dean obeys her anyway; bending over in front of her. At this moment Justice shoves a thumb tack up his butt, making him scream really loudly. His scream ends up being so loud that it attracts the attention of the Duncan family (from *Good Luck Charlie*) several streets away. During this small crossover sequence, all of the family members question each other on where the scream is potentially coming from. Meanwhile back in the The House kitchen, everyone else rushes in to Dean's aide. Here Dean tells them all about what Justice just did to him. Fed up, the friends ultimately decide to set up electronic motion-censored traps (invented by Dean) in order to catch Slitherz. The traps get set up with "snake bait" (leftovers from Chris' Kebabs) however Bill ends up eating one of them, forcing them to set up the trap again. They are then asked to wait patiently for Slitherz to take the bait.

Several hours later, the friends begin to complain about their little success, before trap number 7 lights up in front of them. This prompts them to go up to the bathroom, and surely enough, Slitherz ends up being located in there. Gary then attempts to catch him, but accidentally sneezes, causing the snake to get away once more. The friends decide to chase him down the stairs and into the living room, with no luck. Slitherz ends up slithering away into the kitchen, and at this moment, Jacob comes home with his and Rachel's "date cake". Rachel interrupts him, and she suggests for him to use the bathroom while she sets the cake up in the dining room. While in the kitchen/dining room, Rachel sets up her cake on a stool while her and her friends attempt to chase Slitherz around. She ends up joining them, but accidentally falls down head first into her and Jacob's cake. While her friends follow Slitherz out into the backyard, a shocked Jacob enters the kitchen to find Rachel in the cake. Rachel doesn't attempt to provide him with a logical explanation, and instead encourages him to buy them another cake. After he leaves, she joins her friends out in the backyard.

A furious Rachel eventually joins her friends outside, who can be seen stealthily following Slitherz still. He ends up slithering away to the front of the house, before slithering his way through the front door. At this the friends decide to give up trying to catch him, and they decide to call in an "expert" to help catch him.

A short while later an Australian reptile expert named Reptile Rick shows up at their door looking for Slitherz. He ends up catching him several minutes later. After a while, he then begins to ask Gary about why he got the snake to begin with and threatens to take him away; claiming that he was too dangerous. Gary reveals the truth about him, before telling Reptile Rick that he wished to keep him as a pet. Reptile Rick adores his sentiment with his friends, and agrees to let him keep him under one condition - that if he gets lost again, he must call Reptile Rick and he will take him away for good. At this news, Gary and his friends share a warm embrace with one another.

That night, Gary can be seen talking to Slitherz in his cage in the kitchen; expressing his enthusiasm that the snake was back in there. At this comment, Bill enters the room wearing a choir robe, singing a verse to the tune of *Oh When the Saints Go Marching In*. Gary is annoyed by this, before Bill prompts the rest of the friends to add to his tune. Rachel, Justice, Dean, April and Mr Leopron then appear wearing their own choir robes, singing the song with Gary. After the song concludes all of the friends except Gary leave, who decides to add to the end of the song himself. A few seconds later Mr Leopron comes back into the room annoyed, making Gary finally stop singing.

## Continuity

### WildSide

* This episode marks the third time a character has come home late after shopping and ended up buying an item that the rest of the house approves of. The first two times occurred in Wild Air Freshener and Wild Haunted House, when Dean brings home a bag of air fresheners and a *Ghosts in the House* rental DVD.
* This episode marks the second time Bill mentions to Dean that he doesn't consume "healthy" items. In this episode he tells him that he doesn't drink water, where in Wild Oh No! he tells him that he doesn't eat fruit.
* This episode marks the third time (second episode in a row) where one of Dean's inventions are shown. In this episode, he showcases his electronic bait-trap system. His previous inventions of an advanced engine motor and "time machine" were shown in Wild Tennis Tournament and Wild Bully.

### Good Luck Charlie

* In the Good Luck Charlie character scene, Teddy can be seen wearing the same pink swan sweater and hairdo that she previously worn in the episode "Bad Luck Teddy". It is a known fact that "Bad Luck Teddy" was being filmed at the same time as this episode, so it is highly likely that the character scene was filmed directly after the scene where Teddy wears this outfit.
	+ Bad Luck Teddy aired 5 days before Wild Snake (on May 6), making this a reference to Good Luck Charlie.

## Future References (contains spoilers)

* This episode marks the first appearance of Gary's pet snake, Slitherz. Slitherz later appears in several episodes, including Wild Situation, Wild Animals, Wild Celebration, Wild Child, and Wild Talent.
* After Slitherz gets let out in Wild Animals, Justice warns Gary that Rachel would get mad at him in reference to this episode.
* In this episode, Reptile Rick mentions that if Gary loses Slitherz again, he will be forced to take him away. Gary does in fact lose Slitherz in Wild Talent, and manages to call Reptile Rick again to take him away. The scenes that take place in both episodes are also identical.
* Several events from this episode are shown as flashbacks in Wild and Bad Memories.
	+ Rachel falling face-first into her and Jacob's cake is displayed in Rachel's bad memories. The event is also brought up by Rachel after her memories finish replaying ("falling into a cake") when she expresses her argument about her memories "not happening to normal people".
	+ Gary realising that Slitherz isn't in his cage, and Dean getting a thumb tack shoved up his butt by Justice, is displayed in Gary and Dean's combined bad memories.
	+ Reptile Rick allowing Gary to keep Slitherz as a pet and the group hug that followed is displayed in Rachel's good memories.

## Cast

### **Main Cast**

* Sierra McCormick as Rachel Norman
* Chloe Moretz as Justice Leonardo
* Kyle Massey as Gary Fisherman
* Zachary Gordon as Dean Ford
* Rebecca Graham as April Haden
* David St. James as Mr Leopron
* Ryan Gornman as Bill

### **Guest Cast**

* Brendan Meyer as Jacob
* Nick Meaney as Reptile Rick

## Trivia

* Many fans and critics of the series has expressed that this episode is one of the most memorable and iconic episodes of the whole series.
* Production of this episode began in December 2011.
* This episode was directed by Bob Koherr, who worked as a director on the Disney Channel series *Good Luck Charlie*.
* The service that Gary uses to sell Slitherz on, *iBay*, is an obvious parody of the online service *eBay*.
* We learn that Bill is not a fan of water.
* In this episode, Justice tells Gary that snakes do not have ears or butts. These facts are actually surprisingly true!
* This episode is the first of many episodes to feature characters from the Disney Channel series *Good Luck Charlie*, thus beginning the *Wild Luck Charlie* arc.
* Sierra McCormick and Chloe Moretz met their future Wild Luck Charlie Girls (and later In the Beat) band member Bridgit Mendler while on the set of this episode. Prior to this episode's production, Sierra was a massive fan of Bridgit after being an avid fan of *Good Luck Charlie*. Bridgit on the other hand, had no idea who Sierra was, and never knew about *WildSide's* existence despite the show being on the air for over three months by the time production of this episode took place.
* During a 2021 livestream, Bridgit revealed that being introduced to a snake during the table read of this episode was a highlight of her professional career.
* Reptile Rick previously appeared on the Disney Channel series *That's So Raven* in the season one episode "Party Animal". This makes this episode a crossover with two Disney Channel shows; a first for the network.
* A full version of the closing song The Snake Is Back features as the opening track to WildSide's second soundtrack *WildSide: Wild Trax! 2*, recounting the events from this episode.

## Goofs

* Rachel claims that Jacob is two years older than her at the time of this episode. During this episode, Rachel is thirteen, which would make Jacob fifteen. This doesn't seem likely, as it is heavily implied that Jacob drives his own car, meaning that he would be at least sixteen. There are a couple of explanations to this:
	+ It is known that Rachel drives, despite being only thirteen. If she could drive at her age, what could stop Jacob from doing the same?
	+ Jacob could've also lied to Rachel about his age.