Elena of Avalor S3 E26

## Plot

Isabel and Naomi try to surprise Elena with a celebratory tea time, but she's not in her room. Also, her coronation is only three days away, and it's also on the day she turns twenty, unlike waiting months after she comes of age to be crowned queen like Elsa did. This means that there's a lot to do. Elena is in the grand council room, freaking out over every little detail. She's invited people she's met from all over the world and many different kingdoms, plus literally everyone in Avalor, and she wants everything to be perfect for everyone, which isn't an easy task when so many people have different tastes in everything due to their cultures, biology, personalities, etc. Doña Paloma wants to help plan the party, and still considers herself a candidate for future chancellor. Naomi and Isabel want Elena to take a break, and point out that she could at least leave some of this stuff to the palace staff. They've never seen her this stressed out before, and decide to do something about it. She meets a little boy named Leo and his parents outside. They're camping out to be first in line for the coronation, and Elena offers them front row seats. While trying to fix the banners, Naomi and Isabel tell her that she's needed in the grand council room for a party planning emergency. The other grand council members order her to take a mandatory day off while Doña Paloma and Julio take care of the party planning, in a reversal of their roles as Magister and assistant to the Magister, which Doña Paloma is clearly reveling in. Naomi, Isabel, Elena, and Ixlan are going to have a girls day. I kind of wish they had brought Carla and maybe Antonia along too, but there are already so many cameos in this episode, like Antonio and Pablo Agama, Carmen, Yolanda and Dolores, Armando, Marlena, Zoom, Estrella, Migs, Skylar, Dulce, etc. The others try to get Elena to relax and have fun, but she keeps sneaking off to check on things, so they take her to the royal lake house at the beach, where she finally starts to calm down. In reality, it's a reused asset of Armando's mother's house from season 2. Considering they were still working on these episodes while the pandemic was going on, I can overlook minor "cheats" or mistakes, like the sky changing color and then back again during a shot of Elena freaking out in the beginning of the episode, which is similar to something that happened in the season 2 finale. However, I wish the crew had an opportunity to fix things like this before the episodes went up on Disney+. I just want this show to be the best it can possibly be. Also, as an indecisive perfectionist, I can relate to Elena so much right now. Anyway, when Isabel mentions the banners and plates, Elena bribes Mingo with anoki berry s'mores so he brings her the scepter while the others do yoga. She uses Farsight to check on Doña Paloma and Julio's progress. They decided to seat King Hector at a table by himself so he doesn't bother anyone else, and so they can pretend like they did it for his massive ego. However, they decide on the bird of paradise fold for the napkins, when Elena thinks that the pyramid fold is the obvious choice. She's worried that King Toshi will be offended by it, because in Satu culture, such ornate displays are considered offensive. That may be true, but he also knows what it's like to experience the food, clothes, and music of another culture. The other girls catch Elena and take the scepter away. Ixlan decides to do this her way, and they all get mud baths. However, when Naomi jokingly says that King Toshi will be offended, back out of the trade agreement, and trigger a literal worldwide crisis, Elena starts heading back to the palace to fix it, and the others go after her in the super coach. When Naomi lassos the scepter away, Elena's anxiety finally gets bad enough to trigger her emotion magic, sending everyone into the air, and making the others do ballet, which she hated as a kid. Luckily, Elena finds the situation so funny that she laughs and forgets about her anxiety… for all of a few seconds, then she keeps heading back. However, that just makes everything so much worse, like accidentally ruining the cake, the decorations, etc. Elena finally talks to Doña Paloma, who tells her that she remembered that King Toshi might find the bird of paradise napkin fold offensive, so she changed it to the pyramid fold. They cause an accident that ends up destroying a section of the bridge to get to the palace. If no one can get in, then there might not be a coronation at all. Naomi asks Elena why she's so obsessed over every little detail. She's about to become queen, which means she'll have to make every decision on her own, without the grand council's help. What if she doesn't know what to do when a big emergency comes up? She got caught up in the little things because she wasn't sure she could handle the big ones. Naomi tells her that she has to figure out how to fix the bridge in two days, or there won't be a coronation. She uses the seal power, and while the crystals are strong enough, they're too rough for a carriage. She tells Doña Paloma to head back to the palace. She's in charge of all the coronation details. She accepts, and makes Julio her assistant party planner, as a payoff to that joke. They use rocks, mud, and water skis to make a new road, while everyone else fixes… well, everything else. Elena lets Leo and his parents see the palace a few days early. She can tell that now Doña Paloma is the one stressing out, and gives her the day off while Julio takes over.