Friend or Faux?

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**"Friend or Faux?"** is the thirty-eighth episode of the second season and the ninetieth episode of *The Loud House*.

## Plot

When Lisa's report card reveals that she has failed social skills, she must make a friend in order to bring up her grade.

## Sypnosis

At school, the kindergarteners play around, while Lisa works with her science equipment. Suddenly, Ms. Shrinivas announces that she's going to give everyone their first report cards. Lisa is given hers and is happy with the fact that she has an "A" in every subject (math, science, vocabulary, etc.). Suddenly, she discovers that she has an "F" in social skills. Lisa asks Ms. Shrinivas if there was an error in printing her report card, but Ms. Shrinivas says that it's not an error. She gave Lisa an "F" in social skills because she hasn't made a friend yet. Lisa tries making a robot called "FriendBot 1000", but Ms. Shrinivas says that Lisa needs to make a *human* friend in order to bring up her grade.

At the Loud House, Lisa tries to do some research on how friendship works but eventually decides to settle on observation. She spies on the bondings between Lincoln and Clyde, Lynn and Margo, Lori and Leni, and Lynn Sr. and Kotaro. The next day, Lisa, now using the information she collected yesterday, decides to make friends with the first person who enters the classroom. She rejects the first two students (due to one eating paste, and the other being a biter), but eventually settles on a girl named Darcy Helmandollar. Lisa gets along with her after she compliments on her LED light up shoes, and they play on the see-saw together, provide her with a flavorless dish with all the necessary nutrients, and sleep next to her during nap time. As a result, Lisa's grade in social skills is raised to an "A".

Happy now that her academic record is perfect, Lisa goes back to work with her science equipment. However, Darcy continues to show Lisa her signs of friendship, but Lisa politely declines her offers, showing that she doesn't want to hang out with her anymore. Later, Darcy has made a friendship bracelet for Lisa, but Lisa, no longer able to hold it in anymore, admits that she only became friends with her just so she can boost her social skills grade up, and admits that she doesn't have the time for friends, and gives back the friendship bracelet. Unfortunately, Darcy hurt at realizing that Lisa lied to her, and because Lisa no longer wants to be friends, begins crying and runs off. Lisa, realizing what she has done, tries to apologize, but Darcy has told Ms. Shrinivas what happened. When Ms. Shrinivas offers to read a story to Darcy to make her feel better, Ms. Shrinivas tells Lisa that she lost her "A" again, for hurting Darcy's feelings, and for missing the whole point of friendship. As a result, she sends Lisa to the time-out corner, so she can think about what she has done.

 File:S2E20B Darcy hugs Lisa.png
As Lisa sits sadly in the time-out corner and reflects on her now imperfect academic record, Darcy arrives, offering a cookie out of sympathy. Darcy says that she's doing this because Lisa looked sad, and is offering her a cookie to cheer her up since that's what friends do for each other. This statement causes Lisa to learn the true meaning of friendship: it makes your life better. Touched at Darcy's kind gesture, she decides to let Darcy sit next to her, and eat half of the cookie. Ms. Shrinivas, seeing Lisa and Darcy getting along, decides to boost Lisa's grade. Lisa asks Darcy if she would like to come over so they can play with her CAT scanner, and Darcy, thinking Lisa's referring to a real cat, happily obliges.

## Cast

* Collin Dean as Lincoln
* Catherine Taber as Lori
* Liliana Mumy as Leni
* Jessica DiCicco as Lynn
* Lara Jill Miller as Lisa
* Grey Griffin as Lily / Kindergartner
* Caleel Harris as Clyde
* Brian Stepanek as Lynn Sr.
* Angela Malhotra as Ms. Shrinivas
* Mariel Sheets as Darcy

Kotaro, Petey Wimple, and Charlotte Yang have no lines in this episode. Although being listed in the credits, Margo has no lines in this episode, but she was heard grunting while playing with Lynn.

## Trivia

* Kyle Marshall considers this episode one of his favorites.
* Luna, Luan, Lucy, Lana, Lola, and Rita are absent in this episode.
* This is the first episode to have an X in its title, although that letter did not appear in any Season 1 episode titles.
* It is revealed in this episode that up until the events of the episode Lisa had no friends due to her boorish, uptight, anti-social, and condescending attitude.
* It is revealed in this episode that Lisa's favorite animal is a giraffe.
* Since this episode aired in 2017, Margo did not speak properly in this episode.
* This is the second appearance of Ms. Shrinivas in the series.

## References

* ***Friend or Faux?*** - The title is a pun of the phrase, "friend or foe", with "foe" being replaced with the word "faux", meaning "fake", or "false".
* ***Template:W*** - The title card features a silhouette image of Lincoln and Lisa sitting on a bench and watching the sunset, similar to the closing shot of various 1980's commercials for the retail chain, with Geoffrey the Giraffe and a little girl. Even the music sounds similar to the famous "I don't want to grow up" jingle.
	+ Coincidentally, Darcy has a stuffed giraffe in this episode.
* ***Template:W*** - The FriendBot 1000 resembles the famous humanoid robot.
* ***Template:W*** - During the scenes in the class, a board shows lookalikes of SpongeBob, Patrick, Mr. Krabs, and Squidward Tentacles.
	+ They were first seen in "Making the Grade".
* ***Template:W*** - The recorder's face is similar to the face of various dolls from this franchise.
* ***Template:W*** - The image in the title card resembles the promo poster for the special.

## Errors

* Despite having a question mark in the title, several TV providers spell this episode without the question mark.
* There are a couple of instances where Ms. Shrinivas' eyelashes are disconnected from her eyes.
* When Darcy is trying to read her cat book next to Lisa, if one looks closely at the sentence "The cat sat", there isn't a space between "cat" and "sat". As a result of the sentence instead reads "the catsat".

 File:S2E20B Ice vision.png
* When The FriendBot 1000 shows off its ice vision, Ms. Shrinivas' lipstick is missing.
* In the credits, Jessica DiCicco's name is misspelled as Jessica DeCicco.

## Running Gags

* Lisa observing her family members to get a better understanding of how friendship works.
* Lisa trying to win Darcy's friendship.
* Darcy trying to make Lisa join in on activities, which Lisa turns down.
* Lisa fretting over being accepted to the Interplanetary Council.

## Clip

The Loud House Making Friends Nickelodeon UK
## Sources

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1. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BWYh\_F9gAI2/?hl=en&taken-by=kylessandwichesandicecream