The Gecko's Tale

**"The Gecko's Tale"** is the twenty-second episode in Season 1 of *Elena of Avalor*. It premiered on August 18, 2017.

## Synopsis

Elena and Isabel must learn to appreciate each other's differences, and work together in order to help a famous Avaloran explorer undo a curse.

## Plot

The Royal Family of Avalor is taking a vacation on Ophidan Island, which Francisco calls the most perfect vacation spot in the seventeen seas. Francisco is rowing Luisa and Elena to the island while Gabe is rowing Isabel to the island. Francisco is having an easy time rowing Luisa and Elena to the island but Gabe is having a hard time rowing Isabel to the island since he's rowing the luggage to the island too and Isabel has packed pretty much everything she owns for the sake of being prepared. Francisco and Luisa set up camp and then take a hike up Mount Ophidia. While they do so, Elena and Isabel go swimming. Elena happily dives into the water but Isabel would rather calculate her jumps to make her dives as smooth as possible. Elena tells her the best way to learn how to dive is to just dive and Gabe tells her he's also an excellent lifeguard and there's nothing to fear. Suddenly, Isabel spots and fawns over a gecko, which scares Gabe to the point where he goes in the drink. Embarrassed, Gabe tells Elena and Isabel to just forget that to the amusement of both Princesses who can't believe he's actually afraid of such a tiny and harmless lizard. Gabe tells them he's only afraid of lizards only to get startled by a bottle in the water. Upon opening the bottle, they find a message inside about a mysterious treasure on the island from Antonio Agama. Gabe tells the Princesses that Antonio Agama is one of his all-time heroes: He was an Avaloran explorer who set out all over the world having adventures and finding lost treasures until he went out on a quest to find the Golden Gecko and hasn't been heard from since until now. Realizing that he's in trouble and after finding a map of the island on the back of the note, the group sets out to help him, after Isabel is finished packing of course.

Elena, Gabe, and Isabel follow the map each at their own pace. They finally arrive at the spot where Antonio Agama's boat is. They find large prints that look like a gecko's, which Isabel says makes no sense since geckoes are tiny. They follow the prints into the jungle where sure enough they encounter a giant gecko who chases after them. During the chase, Isabel falls into a ravine but the gecko saves her. However, Gabe drives it off because of his phobia and shoves the Princesses inside a nearby tent. Gabe goes back out to fight the gecko with Elena going after him to stop him. Isabel stays inside when she sees a book with Antonio Agama's crest on it and, upon reading it, makes an important discovery. Back outside, Elena tells Gabe not to hurt the giant gecko on the grounds it saved Isabel but Gabe insists it only did that because it wants to eat her. Isabel refutes this by revealing her discovery: The giant gecko is Antonio Agama. As proof, Isabel shows them the book, which turns out to be Antonio's journal, where she made her discovery. Reading it, Elena and Gabe learn that the Golden Gecko is a cursed artifact that turns anyone who removes it from its pedestal into a gecko and the only way to return Antonio to normal is to put the Golden Gecko back.  Together, they hitch a ride down a basket elevator down into the temple.

On the way down, Isabel reveals that the Ophindans worshipped lizards especially geckos and built temples like this one to worship the majesty of the gecko. When they arrive, Elena rushes toward the entrance. Isabel warns her big sister that the Ophindans built booby traps that go off if you step in the wrong place or touch the wrong thing to protect their temples. The warning comes too late when Elena makes one of the booby traps go off. Isabel scolds her sister for this. Elena protests that there's no way she could know where every booby trap is, to which Isabel tells her to slow down and be more careful. In the next room, they start to cross a bridge. Suddenly, sand starts to pour on two big levers in a way that causes the bridge to retract. Isabel realizes that this is an Ophidan color puzzle and figure out which key they need to open the door, but not in time for by the time she realizes which key it is, it is already beyond the group's reach. Elena grabs Isabel's Ophidan book and throws it into the gears, causing the bridge to halt. However, they still can't get through the door for which Elena complains about Isabel not grabbing the key when she had the chance. Isabel reveals there's another way out since the Ophindans built secret tunnels in their temples so they could get around without triggering their own traps. Using the torch, Gabe finds one and they climb down to it using rope from Isabel's Go-Pack. They reach a spot where the floor has caved in. Elena and Gabe jump over but Isabel wants to calculate her jump first, to which Elena jumps back over, grabs her little sister, and has her jump over with her. The impact of both landing at the same time causes the floor to cave in more, but the group runs to safety. Afterward, Elena asks her why she didn't just run over when she told her to, to which Isabel tells her she wanted to be sure of her jump before she made it. Elena tells her sometimes you just have to trust yourself and go for it. The group then continues on.

When they get to the heart of the temple, Elena, despite Isabel's warnings, runs across the room and pulls the Golden Gecko out of the hole Antonio Agama dropped it in. However before she can put it back, Elena causes another booby trap that makes a giant corn maze. Elena tells Isabel to run but Isabel is afraid of triggering another booby trap. The maze cuts Gabe off from the others and traps Elena and Isabel together. Isabel scolds her sister for setting off the trap to which Elena protests it was an accident and her way is better than double-checking every little thing which is why they're trapped in here. This hurts Isabel's feelings to the point where she starts crying. Elena apologizes to her little sister and tells her sometimes her way is the solution and sometimes her way is the solution and Isabel apologizes too. Working together, the Princesses get out and return the Golden Gecko to its pedestal and break the curse. With the curse broken, Antonio Agama returns to normal. After Gabesets off yet another booby trap, the group runs to safety. When they get to a bridge that starts to roll up, Elena tells Isabel to jump and Isabel does so this time. After they get out, they head back to the beach, where Antonio meets Francisco and Luisa. When Elena spots another message in a bottle, Gabe throws it away. Elena protests that someone else might be in trouble, to which Antonio decides to make that his next adventure.

## Cast

* Aimee Carrero as Princess Elena
* Jenna Ortega as Princess Isabel
* Jorge Diaz as Gabe
* Danny Trejo as Antonio Agama
* Emiliano Diez as Francisco
* Julia Vera as Luisa
* Dee Bradley Baker as Gecko

## Gallery

*The image gallery for **The Gecko's Tale** may be viewed here.*