Elena of Avalor S2 E12

## Plot

Isabel is taking her first college class that day. Both she and Elena are excited, nervous, and worried. She'll be going to school with kids twice her age. Luisa points out that it's just one class once a week. Oddly enough, *Elena* thinks about sending a royal guard unit with her. She's persuaded to drop her off herself. At the school, Professor Ochoa gives Isabel her own science academy lab coat. The place is huge, and Elena worries about Isabel getting lost. Professor Ochoa gives them a tour. There's many fields involving science, including but not limited to: Astronomy, math, physics, chemistry, biology, inventing, engineering, etc. There's many references to past episodes, like Gwen from Sofia the First making a cameo, a model of the Cordoba bridge, and a version of Isabel's ExerGroomer, which she and Elena notice. Isabel thinks college is going to be harder than she thought. Elena and Professor Ochoa assure her that she's going to do great. She doesn't want Elena to leave yet, and she walks her to class. A young boy is telling the class how to calculate the conservation of momentum. He wants to teach the class, and has a big ego. His name is Javier, and he's one of the students. A girl with black hair fangirls at the sight of Elena and Isabel. She doesn't want Elena to leave, and says she can be Professor Ochoa's assistant for the day. Elena and Ms. Ochoa agree. Isabel's lab partner will be the fangirl, Tomiko. Everyone goes outside for their mental warmup. Javier says that Isabel is lucky to be in the class. It's reserved for the best, but he thinks Professor Ochoa made a royal exception. Elena tells him that her sister is there because Professor Ochoa was impressed with her ExerGroomer. Javier calls it cute, but says it's not a scientific breakthrough. He tells Isabel not to feel bad if she has trouble keeping up, because everyone does when he's in the class. Tomiko tells them that Javier is just jealous, because he was the youngest student in the class before Isabel came along. She says that royal or not, she belongs in the class like everyone else, and she's going to prove it. Each team has ten minutes to design and build an apparatus that will protect an egg from breaking as it falls from the bell tower. Isabel and Tomiko make a rubber sling out of Avaloran rubber. Javier and his partner, Cheryl, made a parachute and a basket. It works, and the egg has no cracks. The same goes for Luke and Giselle, who made some sort of pyramid thing. The rubber sling works initially, but it keeps bouncing, and the egg falls out of the bag and hits Professor Ochoa in the head. Javier tells Isabel she's not the only one with egg on her face. Isa apologizes, and Ms. Ochoa appreciates it, but tells her that she has to do better. Javier tells her not to feel bad, since she's not a real college student. Elena and Tomiko assure her that she'll do better on the next experiment. Back in the classroom, everyone has a model of Mount Diablo on their workstations. The academy is building a new observatory on top of the mountain, and they've asked for their help. She shows them a model of the proposed observatory. Javier says he could do better. No one likes him, including his own partner. Even Ochoa seems annoyed with him on occasion. The boulders on the mountain make access to the top difficult. They have to figure out how to get the building materials to the mountaintop. Isabel says they can use the boulders as the building blocks. Javier points out that it still doesn't solve the initial problem. Now they have to figure out how to get the boulders up the mountain. Elena wants to help Isabel, but she doesn't understand any of the science and engineering stuff. However, she does give her the idea to build a giant mechanical claw to lift the boulders up the mountain. Tomiko draws it, and she and Isa make a list of materials they need. Elena heads to the supply room to get them herself to save time. However, Javier takes the last spring coil and throws it away. Luckily, Elena found some gears they could use instead. They finish their machine first, and are ready to demonstrate it for the class. Javier takes a rock and throws it at the mountain with the model, causing all the rocks to fall. While everyone else is distracted, he removes the clamp holding the claw and ties it with a piece of string instead. When the girls demonstrate their invention to the class, the rock is too heavy for the claw, and it falls apart. Elena suggests rebuilding it, but Isabel doesn't see the point, because it didn't work, and she did worse, not better. She's worried that Professor Ochoa will kick her out. Elena tells her that Isabel belongs in the class, and she agrees, but asks her if Isabel knows that. She left the class, and her lab coat is on the floor. She thinks Javier is right about her, and that science academy students don't make mistakes. Elena tells her that if she wants to quit, it's her choice, but she should tell Professor Ochoa in person. She apologizes for letting her down. She failed all day, and she'll probably keep on failing. Professor Ochoa tells her that yes, she'll keep failing, but that's how you succeed. All of the other students failed too. When she tells her students to do better, she means they have to learn from their mistakes and try again. Trying again is what makes a scientist a scientist. The only way Isabel could let her down is if she quits. Isa agrees to give it another shot. She thanks Elena for always being there for her, but she can't do this for her. She needs to prove that she can do it. She and Tomiko see that the clamp is missing, and think it broke off. Before they can get a stronger one, Javier tells them that there's no more left. Isabel uses the rubber sling to turn the claw into a catapult. They try again. They successfully get the rock onto the mountain. Javier points out that it shattered, but Isabel explains that was the point. They did it on purpose so it'd be easier to carve the rocks into building blocks. Professor Ochoa is impressed, and decides to use their machine to help build the observatory. Javier is mad, and says Isabel is just a kid. Um, so are you, jerk. When he sits down at his workstation, the force moves a book, which reveals that he hid the clamp under it. The girls realize that he took it, and that's why their first machine broke. Professor Ochoa suspends him from the observatory project indefinitely. Isabel figured out that Elena knew she would come back if she said she could quit. Elena may not know much about science, but she does know her little sister. Class isn't over yet, and Isabel tells Elena that she's okay now, so she can go.

## Review

I thought this was a cute episode. When it originally aired, I was going through a lot of stress about college, which was only a month away at the time. It was rough, but nothing compared to what my sister was going through. Sis, if you're reading this, I love you! Anyways, regardless of whether or not college is for you, you can't deny the subtext from Javier, a guy, trying to sabotage Tomiko and Isabel, two girls. I'm definitely not a science expert, or my sister, and if you are, that's fine. It's what you're good at and what comes naturally to you. Maybe you're good at reading, writing, building, problem solving, math, science, working with your hands, etc. The point is, you'll never know if you don't try, or if you give up just because you make a mistake.