Stuck with a Bad Influence

**"Stuck with a Bad Influence" is** the tenth episode in Season 2 of ***Stuck in the Middle*** and the twenty-seventh episode overall. It first aired on June 2, 2017, to 1.31 million viewers.

## Summary

Harley tries to save Ellie from boarding school.

## Plot

Harley invents the "Grocer-Whee!" - a high-speed grocery shopping cart. She just needs someone to test it. Daphne, Lewie and Beast refuse to test it unless she starts paying them. So, she turns to her best friend, Ellie Peters. But Ellie is afraid of everything, thanks to her overprotective mother, Bethany. Harley promises to help Ellie get out of her comfort zone by trying other less scary things first. When ready, Ellie offers to drive Harley in the Grocer-Whee! Unfortunately, she loses control and knocks down Bethany's mailbox.

Ellie and Harley don't think it's a big deal until Bethany tells Ellie that she's moving her to a boarding school, called Radistone Academy. Ellie mentions her mother has talked about sending her there for awhile, but now is actually going through with it. The girls conclude that Bethany thinks Harley is a bad influence on Ellie. To save Ellie, they agree to fake a fight in front of Bethany because if Ellie is not hanging out with Harley, then Bethany might let her stay. The girls come up with a drama script and even agree to pay, Daphne, Beast, and Lewie by giving them lines to make the fight seem more real. When Bethany comes over to the Diaz house, the girls put up the fake fight.

Bethany returns later and tells Harley that she knows the fight was fake, although she realizes that Ellie does not want to attend Radistone Academy, and she has cancelled her enrollment. She also tells Harley that she is not the villain, and just wants what's best for Ellie. As Ellie had mentioned earlier, Bethany had been considering sending Ellie to Radistone Academy for a while, and a last-minute slot had recently opened up for admission, but none of it had anything to do with Harley or the mailbox incident. Afterwards, Harley looks up Radistone Academy, and sees that it's nothing like the reform school she had imagined, but rather an opportunistic exciting place with wonderful facilities and activities that Ellie enjoys. Harley realizes that it would be perfect for Ellie, and even though she wants her friend around, she shouldn't stand in front of such a big opportunity.

Harley agrees to let Ellie go. They throw her a big go-away party.

Meanwhile, Rachel wants to join Ethan's film club so that she can come home late without being punished for breaking curfew. Ethan doesn't want to be an accomplice at first but agrees when Rachel promises to bring cute girls that Ethan has a crush on. So, they start hanging out together at their dad's store after close so that they can throw parties and lie that it was a film club activity.

Tom and Suzy become suspicious of Rachel and Ethan's unexpected friendship. After confirming their suspicions, they agree to wait it out to see how far Ethan and Rachel will go. So, the next day, the parents offer to stick behind for the film, forcing Rachel and Ethan to struggle the last minute to find people to pretend they're in the film club. When Rachel is unable to introduce the film, she gives up and comes out clean. They're both punished.

## Cast

### Main Cast

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

### Recurring Cast

* Lulu Lambros as Ellie Peters
* Lauren Pritchard as Bethany Peters

## Continuity

* Harley and Ellie reference the events of Stuck in the School Photo when Ellie pretended to be Harley Diaz for a day.
* The Grocer-Whee is seen in later episodes including Stuck in a New Room.
* Harley's friend, Ellie Peters leaves in this episode. Harley mentions it in Stuck with a New Friend.
* The parents have used the same tactic multiple times where they know the kids are up to something but play along just to see how far the kids will go. This is seen in Stuck with No Rules, Stuck with a New Friend.
* Lewie, Beast and Daphne complain about Harley using them to test her inventions which was first seen in Stuck in the Sweet Seat.
* Ellie said she'd like to try horseback riding in Stuck in the School Photo as well.

## Trivia

* Ellie got sent to boarding school in this episode.
* Harley and Ellie staged a fake fight.
* Out of the cast, Georgie was the only one missing for this episode.
* Lewie and Beast were shown working with Daphne in this episode.
* This is the last episode that Ellie appears with Bethany.

## Goofs

* Rachel says in this episode that she may have learned a little French from the movie, however in Stuck with Rachel's Secret, Harley and Georgie mention that Rachel has taken three years of French.

## International Premieres

* June 20, 2017 (Israel)
* June 30, 2017 (Hungary)
* September 9, 2017 (Latin America)
* October 9, 2017 (Spain)