Big Mama

**"Big Mama"** is the thirty-fourth episode of the first season of *Sammy & Co*. It premiered on February 29, 2016, on Netflix.

## Synopsis

When Big Boss's mother comes to visit, she seems to be her mean son's opposite, but beneath her mask of kindness lurks a tyrant with an evil plan.

## Plot

The episode opens near the entrance of the reef village where Ricky, Ella, Pipo, and Annabel all notice a large shadow of someone about to enter the reef. The kids didn't know who's coming to the reef, so Pipo and Ella both suggest they should hide when they think it's a threat, but Ricky and Annabel both think they're overreacting. Before the kids could think about what they should be doing next, the large shadow of the sea creature arrives at the reef and it turns out to be a rather small female seahorse whose name is Lucille. After greeting the kids, Lucille remarks that "[her] little darling wasn't exaggerating" with the reef being a magnificent place. Ella asks her if she came to see someone who lives in the reef and Lucille said she does and she has "come to visit [her] son [who's] the boss of [their] superb reef". The kids are confused since they don't actually have a "boss" at the reef and they only know one seahorse who has a desire to conquer it multiple times, which makes them immediately guess the female seahorse is none other than Big Boss's mother. But while Big Boss is the most tyrannical seahorse they know, the kids notice that his mother is noticeably a lot nicer than him after she accepts a young fish's apology when he nearly runs into her. Ella informs Lucille that her son doesn't live in the reef so the kids all take her to the shipwreck that's located on the outskirts of the reef.

But when the kids and Lucille are about to enter the shipwreck to see the tyrannical seahorse, Marco and Philippe both block their way and refuse to let them in even after Ricky asks them to tell Big Boss he has a visitor. But then Lucille suddenly starts calling out "Bibou" which causes her son to come out of the shipwreck and he's very surprised to see her sudden arrival. Marco and Philippe, however, are both even more surprised to discover that Big Boss's real name is actually Bibou, which Philippe starts teasing him about it being a ridiculous name. While the kids all head back to the reef to leave Big Boss alone with his family reunion, Big Boss, Marco, and Philippe all take Lucille inside the shipwreck to give her a tour. Unbeknownst to the kids, however, Lucille reveals her true colors when she is disappointed by her son's constant failures to take over the reef village and she berates him for being a loser who lied to her into thinking her son manages to successfully conquer the reef. But while Lucille is still upset by her son, she assures him that since she's visiting him, she'll help do whatever she can to finish his conquest once and for all.

Back at the reef, the kids are explaining to Sammy about Lucille and how they notice she's super-nice unlike her own son after they first met her. Suddenly, they all heard the sound of sobbing so they look up and notices Lucille have returned back to the village looking very sad. After Ricky asks her what's wrong, Lucille tells Sammy and the kids that she has "traveled across leagues to see [her] little Bibou, and he doesn't even want [her] to sleep at his place". The kids all feel bad for Lucille, but when she dramatically mutters that "[she]'ll just set off again without bothering anybody and cross predator-infested oceans with [her] feeble fin, [her] poor eyesight, and [her] bad hearing", Sammy also feels bad for Lucille "poor" health that he allows her to stay in the village as long as she likes, much to both Pipo and Ella's surprises and suspicions.

Throughout Lucille's time exploring the reef, Ella and Pipo both notice there's something amiss about her. When a reef inhabitant lost his coin at the playground, Lucille assures him he doesn't and points to the coin nearby, despite she claimed earlier that she has "poor eyesight" which Pipo and Ella both take notice that she sees just fine. When Lucille is hanging out with Rita and have a conversation with her, Pipo and Ella also notice that Lucille has heard everything Rita said despite Lucille's claim that she has "bad hearing" earlier.

Later, Sammy is at the seaweed garden where he has a situation in his flippers and it is the crab workers are all going on strike. When the kids and Lucille all arrive, Lucille agrees with the crabs' reason for being on strike as being unacceptable since it's them who nourish the whole village and she suggests they should deserve a celebration in honor of their hard work of harvesting the seaweeds. The crabs are all proud to know Lucille is agreeing with them that they immediately end their strike and start praising her, much to Sammy's relief since he's worried that the crabs' strike would prevent the seaweeds from being harvest to feed the villagers for a whole week. Just then, Lucille starts to become weaken like she's going to collapse and she claims that she starts to feel "more sensitive to the cold" because of her old age. When a crab grabs her after she faints, Ricky instructs him to get her to the top of the palaver tree since it's closer to the surface and the water is warmer. Ella reminds her grandfather that he forbids her and her friends from playing on the tree, but Sammy assures her that he doesn't mind allowing Lucille to rest on it for a while.

After Lucille is being placed on the palaver tree, the villagers are crowding around it to ask for her advice, which Ella and Pipo both watch the crowd from afar. After Sammy orders the crowd to wait in line to see her, Annabel and Ricky are tending for Lucille while she's giving the villagers her advice to them as well as helping them with their situation. After Lucille "helps" a crab by making Annabel untangle him from a fishing line, she announces to everyone that she's "closing" since she's very exhausted after helping so many villagers and she'll see them again the next day. Once the villagers who're in line all swim away, Ella and Pipo both voice their displeasure to Sammy about Lucille isn't what she seems and she might be preparing a dirty trick after she sucks up with the other villagers, but Sammy rationalizes Lucille's behavior as "a good old woman" that wants to help others and that they can trust her. Suddenly, Lucille voices out her frustration of missing her son so much, which she proclaims he "isn't perfect, but deep down he's a good soul" and starts sobbing very desperately. Feeling bad for Lucille despite Big Boss is the most fearful enemy of the reef, Rita suggests that she and the rest of the turtles could make an effort and let Big Boss come to the village to see his mother again. And after the crabs all pressure him to let Big Boss come to the village, Sammy allows it since it'll help Big Boss to reconcile with his mother, much to the surprise of both Ella and Pipo. Pipo and Ella are bewildered about how serious everyone is for wanting Big Boss to come to the village while the two already know Lucille and her son are both really up to something sinister. Ella has a bad feeling about Big Boss coming to the reef to conquer it since Lucille has everyone sucking up to her, but she assures Pipo that she has an idea to expose the tyrannical seahorse family's scheme.

At Big Boss's shipwreck, the four kids are there to invite him to come live in the village with his mother. Big Boss tells them that he'd love to, "but that means [his] mother succeeded in" something before he suddenly changes his mind and stating that he's not so sure. He reveals to the kids that his mother is "the most manipulative fish in the sea" whose only goal is to "take control over everything" and it's not only the reef village and its inhabitants by manipulating everyone with her false "niceness", but her own son as well. Big Boss doesn't want to get involved with his mother's scheme to control him just like how she now takes control of the reef. But when Ella stated that she "always thought that a boss as courageous as [him] would stand up to his mother in front of the whole village", Big Boss, feeling his ego is being challenged, changes his mind and he swims to the reef village to stand up to his mother, with the kids and the moray eels all following him.

Upon arriving at the village, Big Boss notices a crowd of villagers is awaiting him and they've created a clean path right through the middle of the crowd for him to get to the palaver tree. Big Boss and the kids all parade to the palaver tree where Lucille is at the tree waiting for her son. Big Boss places himself next to his mother but before he could chew her out for her controlling behavior, his desire to conquer the village gets the better of him and he instead asks her if they have to split the reef in half since they both obtain ownership to it. Ella gets angry at Big Boss for being too coward to stand up to his mother and she's wrong to trust him. Ricky, who now wants to help her get rid of Lucille and Big Boss, assures Ella that they need to help him a little bit. He even mentions how Lucille can't stand it when someone doesn't speak with proper grammar to her, which gives the two an idea.

Ricky and Ella both swim to where Lucille and Big Boss are and the two started intentionally speaking in bad grammar as well as calling Big Boss "Bibou" which annoys the two seahorses that it escalates into an argument between the mother and her son. Lucille angrily demands her son to make Ricky and Ella be quiet when she notices they're trying to ruin her scheme, only for Big Boss to argue with her that he'll do whatever he wants without her ordering him to do so as well as demanding her to call him "Big Boss" instead of his real name. Their argument reaches to the point that they accidentally reveal their scheme to take over the reef in front of everyone when Lucille blurts out that "without [her], these dimwit villagers would've never let [Big Boss] out of the reef" as well as calling the crab workers "numbskull". Big Boss and Lucille eventually realize that with their scheme exposed as well as offending everyone during the argument between them, the two seahorses are forced to retreat to the shipwreck at the outskirt of the reef. With the defeat of Big Boss and his mother, Sammy thanks the four kids for helping to expose Lucille and Big Boss as frauds for wanting everyone to fall into their grips. Ricky tells Sammy that it's especially thanks to Ella and Pipo since "they proved that sometimes appearances can be misleading" with Ella adding that it's "especially when it comes to Big Boss's family".

At the shipwreck, while Big Boss is disappointed that he fails to gain control of the reef again, his mother admits that she's proud of him for standing up to her and gaining more self-confidence as a result. She tells her son that she's certain that one day the reef will be him and before she leaves the shipwreck, she addresses him as "Big Boss" instead of his real name. As soon as Lucille left, Big Boss tells Marco and Philippe that he's more determined to take control of the reef next time. Marco and Philippe are both proud of their boss that they blurt out, "Long live Bibou", much to Big Boss's annoyance.

## Characters

### Major characters

* Ricky
* Ella
* Pipo
* Annabel
* Lucille (antagonist)
* Big Boss (antagonist)

### Minor characters

* Marco
* Philippe
* Sammy
* Rita
* Jimbo
* Billy
* Aroun
* Mika
* Shelly (background)
* Leonard (background)
* Arthur (background)
* Ray (background)
* Crabs
* Reef inhabitants

## Trivia

* In the French version, the episode is called "Big Mamma".
* Despite this episode is the thirty-fourth to aired on TiJi like its US airing order, it's the thirty-fifth episode to aired in France on M6.
* It's revealed in this episode that Sammy forbids Ella and her friends from playing at the palaver tree. Though, it's implied the rule was established after the incident of "Vengeance Under the Shell" when Ricky deliberately destroyed a part of the tree to blame the Rockfish.
* Lucille makes her first appearance in this episode after she was mentioned by her son in "Fortune and Fib Telling".
* This episode reveals that Big Boss's real name is Bibou.
* This is the fourth episode in which Big Boss managed to temporarily take over the reef village after "The Abominable Seamonster", "Ricky's Betrayal", and "Fortune and Fib Telling".
* The scene where it shows two crabs playing the coin toss game is a recycled clip from "Wild Life".
* Both Arthur and Leonard can be seen in line while waiting for Lucille at the palaver tree.

### Errors

* At one point, Ella calls Sammy by his real name instead of "Grandpa" when she reminds him that he forbids her and her friends from playing at the palaver tree.

## References

1. ↑ https://instantwatcher.com/title/80042306
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/m6/01-12-2014/
3. ↑ https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/tiji/22-03-2015/
4. ↑ https://www.netflix.com/title/80042177