Stuck in the Slushinator

**"Stuck in the Slushinator"** is the sixth episode in season 1 of ***Stuck in the Middle'**. It aired on April 8, 2016 to 1.6 million viewers.*

## Summary

Harley uses her creativity to convince her dad to hire her at his marina store & she unveils her newest invention, the "slushinator."

## Plot

Whenever a Diaz kid turns 13, they get the opportunity to work at their dad's store. It's Harley's turn now and she has a cool idea of turning the Snack Shack section into Harley's Slushy Shack with a cool slushy machine. To Harley's disappointment, Tom says that he is no longer letting any other kid work at the store after past experiences with Rachel, Georgie and Ethan who all messed up.

Harley comes up with 101 reasons to convince Tom to hire her. When Tom refuses to listen, she places the notes at convenient places for Tom to find. When she hacks Tom's car radio with a Harley station asking him to hire her, Tom gives in and lets Harley in. However, he refuses to pay for a slushy machine. So, Harley invents her own slushy machine and calls it "The Slushinator" that requires human pedaling to run. She convinces Lewie and Beast to run the machine by pedaling it. At first, everything is perfect, and Harley is making a lot of money from the slushies. But then, Lewie and Beast get bored and decide that they want to play outside instead.

Since Harley still doesn't have enough money to buy an actual slushy machine, she needs Lewie and Beast to come back to work for her. She tricks them by telling each one of them that they're better than the other and if they continue working hard, they would get special recognition next to great legends in the slushy world. So, the twins return to work for Harley. However, they start fighting over who is the bigger slushy star and who will get better recognition. The fight intensifies, making it impossible for them to work together. Harley is left with no one to power the Slushinator.

With Beast and Lewie broken up, it becomes a nightmare for everyone in the family. They start bothering the rest of the family who are otherwise too busy preparing for a family church photo. Suzy has been rallying the kids all day to prepare to take the perfect church photo. Rachel is trying to choose a hot outfit for the photo but Suzy keeps rejecting them for being too inappropriate for church. After learning that all the Catholic schools would see the photo, Georgie tries to find the perfect outfit to impress the mascot from St. Joseph's. During all this preparation, Lewie and Beast keep interfering with the Diazes because they have no one else to hang out with. Ethan tells Harley that it was a bad idea to split up Lewie and Beast. So, Harley makes it up to them by making a double bike that's pedaled by two people.

Meanwhile, Daphne and Ethan have been trying to get a cat they found hiding so that they can bring it home and make it a family pet. And hopefully, include it in the family church photo. Ethan spends his money to buy cat food and other things they will need for the cat. When the family is ready to finally take the photo, Daphne and Ethan sneak the cat into the house. After giving it another look, Daphne realizes that it's not a cat. It's a skunk.

Suzy advises them not to freak the skunk out but Daphne starts yelling at it. So, the skunk sprays the entire family with its skunk smell just when the photographer is about to take the photo. Needless to say, the photo does not look good.

After all that disaster, Harley gives up her dream of working at her dad's store. But Tom surprises her by buying her a real slushy machine for Harley's Slushy Shack. He tells her that he was pretty impressed by her business skills and all the effort she put into it.

## Cast

### Main cast

* Jenna Ortega as Harley Diaz
* Ronni Hawk as Rachel Diaz
* Isaak Presley as Ethan Diaz
* Ariana Greenblatt as Daphne Diaz
* Kayla Maisonet as Georgie Diaz
* Nicolas Bechtel as Lewie Diaz
* Malachi Barton as Beast Diaz
* Cerina Vincent as Suzy Diaz
* Joe Nieves as Tom Diaz

## Continuity

* Harley starts running Harley's Slushy Shack at her dad's store in this episode and continues to work there for the rest of the series.
* In Stuck with a New Friend, Ethan tells Sophie about the time they thought the skunk was a cat in this episode.
* In Stuck with a New Squad, Georgie mentions that she ended up dating the Eagles mascot from St. Josephs.
* The slushy bike that Harley made for the twins is used again during the competition for the new room in Stuck in a New Room.
* Georgie reeling in a big one when she was working at Tom's Bait & Bite is nominated for a Diaz award in Stuck in the Diaz Awards.

## Trivia

* Harley wants her dad to let her put in a shushly shack.
* Lewie and Beast work for Harley.
* This is one of the shows where a character mistakes a skunk for a cat. An incident like this also happened in the Zoey 101 episode "Bad Girl" when Michael and Logan thought they saw a cat in the bushes, only to be sprayed when they found out it was a skunk.

## International premieres

* May 9, 2016 (Australia)
* May 20, 2016 (UK and Ireland)
* August 8, 2016 (Israel)
* August 21, 2016 (Latin America, Brazil)
* September 18, 2016 (Hungary)