The Uncondemning

### Storyboard by

Ashlyn Anstee, Katie Hood, Nathanael H. Jones, Sam Lane, Maha Tabikh and Mariana Yovanovich

### Directed by

Angelica "Jelly" Russell, Carder Scholin and Nick Sumida

## Episode guide

### Previous

Alro

**The Uncondemning** is the nineteenth and final episode in Season 1 of *I ♥ Arlo*.

## Synopsis

Desperate to rescue Edmee, Arlo and his friends travel to the swamp, where they must battle a formidable foe known as the Bog Lady.

## Plot

Having responded to Edmée's distress call and Ruff and Stucky's ransom demand for her release, Arlo and his gang have since set off on Ansel's yacht to head back to the swamp should he save her. Marcellus comes over to the bow to see him moping to himself, and Arlo tells him since he was so busy working on Seaside, he never devoted any of his attention to Edmée and worries she wouldn't want to see him because he forgot her. He begins singing about his determination to save Edmée before Bertie reassures him that Edmée will be happy she has someone coming to save her and he has a cavalry of misfit friends who will stand by no matter what.

The following day, the yacht pulls into the swamp Arlo grew up in during his childhood, but he is shocked to see everything all gloomy and dark. Edmée's shack appears, somehow surrounded in tree roots and damaged, just before the trees fasten shut with vines behind them. Tony suspects Ruff and Stucky are holding Edmée inside, and Bertie reveals they have an element of surprise and chooses to enter from the back door rather than go right through the main entrance. Marcellus then decides to use some GPS tracking devices with a bunch of stuff for no reason, one in particular being a fan boat he finds on the front porch.

While preparing to go in, Furlecia surprises everyone with her ability of camouflaging from her makeup skills; Arlo then breaks into the shack with the others following behind, only to stop and find a gigantic root where he hears muffled screams, thinking Edmée is in it. He tries to pry the root loose, but it's too big, so Tony uses a chainsaw to break it apart. The captives are revealed to be Ruff and Stucky, but Edmée is nowhere, so Arlo demands they tell him where she is. When they try to escape, they are blocked by Bertie and Furlecia, thus the two are forced to tell the truth.

Ruff and Stucky admit even though they did write the ransom letter, broke in and kidnapped Edmée, it was not their idea, and they were working for someone else. The true culprit is a mysterious creature known as the Bog Lady, and the ransom note and kidnapping were an order from her. Alia notices various leftover twigs from the root hopping sentimentally out the window to the voice of the Bog Lady calling Arlo's name. Ruff realizes the Bog Lady is calling the twigs back to her home, and when Bertie asks what's going on, the two hunters break into a song number where they proceed to tell Arlo and his gang about the Bog Lady; she's a supernatural plant-coated swamp goddess with dark magic who devotes her life to protecting everything in the swamp and wanting everything going the way she wants it, and should anyone leave, this angers her, and it's Arlo especially whom she is after.

After the song, the two tell Arlo the Bog Lady took Edmée to her domain, the Heart of the Swamp, and flee the swamp in a haste. When Alia suggests going after them, Arlo refuses, as they cannot help them any further and Edmée is trapped in the Heart with the Bog Lady, realizing this was all his fault and he shouldn't have left for New York in the first place. When he hears the voice of the Bog Lady again, this prompts him to follow it to find Edmée, but the others are worried about letting him go alone. While Bertie and Alia go to follow after Arlo, Marcellus, Tony and Furlecia stay behind to catch up in the yacht.

Sure enough, Marcellus' group ends up getting lost in the fog, having lost the yacht in return. After being bothered by Furlecia's disguises again, Marcellus witnesses the yacht before them, having been sunken and destroyed by the Bog Lady's dark magic, leaving them stranded with no way to go home. Meanwhile, Arlo has reached the Heart of the Swamp, but Bertie and Alia are not behind him; turns out, the Bog Lady created an Arlo doppelgänger to throw them off, leaving them stranded and alone as well.

In the Heart, the Bog Lady appears before Arlo and sultry welcomes him back to the swamp. Arlo is surprised she knows his name, as she had been protecting him ever since he was a baby and felt lonely without his presence. She then asks him to apologize for leaving her and promise he'll never leave again; naturally he refuses, and demands where Edmée is, to which the Bog Lady reveals her trapped in a vine cage as bait. In song, the Bog Lady attacks Arlo as he tries to free Edmée, but he is unable to do so, and she ensnares him in her roots; she then demands he owes her an apology for leaving, but he refuses again. Thus, the Bog Lady hypnotizes Arlo so that he never leaves her. Now fully under the Bog Lady's control, Arlo lets her cuddle him while the swamp, his friends, and Edmée are all still in danger.

Meanwhile, Alia and Bertie are still lost on the way to the Heart, and Alia notices Bertie meditating upside down; she explains this is because she "changed her perspective" to think. When Alia notices the treetops, she realizes what Bertie was talking about and tries an alternate method by having Bertie toss her overhead, where she finds the Heart in the distance. The girls swing into the Heart and call out to Arlo, causing him to snap out of the Bog Lady's hypnosis and bite himself free of her grasp. While the girls fight the Bog Lady, Arlo manages to free Edmée from her cage, and they escape with the girls, leaving the Bog Lady furious.

Bertie manages to get everyone in the same fan boat from the shack, driven by Marcellus, Tony and Furlecia; Marcellus then reveals he planted a tracking device to Bertie so he can use the boat to find them. Just when they return to the shack, the Bog Lady seizes control of it, becoming a giantess who holds the boat in her grasp, angrily demanding Arlo belongs to her. Arlo apologizes to Edmée for everything that happened up to now was a result of him leaving, and he never should've left the swamp nor her. Edmée understands Arlo's sadness, knowing there's nothing wrong with him going off to see the world and he cannot leave something behind if it's part of what's in his heart.

Realizing what Edmée is talking about, Arlo confronts the Bog Lady, giving a full-fledged apology admitting she was right and he's a part of her like the swamp, and even though he doesn't live there anymore, he can't really leave because where he was originally from will always be a part of where he's going. He then asks the Bog Lady for forgiveness and to let everyone go, but she refuses and decides to eat them instead to his shock. Luckily, Edmée reveals a backup plan; she rigged her shack with a self-destruct to blow it up and hopefully they'll make it out clear. The second the Bog Lady swallows everyone, the self-destruct goes off, blowing up the shack to bits right under the Bog Lady, causing her to explode along with it and release Arlo and the gang, sending them flying through the air over Willow Button and landing on the same train where Arlo met Bertie. In the swamp, the Bog Lady sinks and melts into nothingness in the flaming Heart, never to be heard from again.

On the train, Arlo is upset he lost his old home for good when Edmée comes over to share a reunion hug. Arlo apologizes for not coming sooner, but Edmée doesn't mind, as all that matters is he came to save her, and is introduced to his friends. Arlo was surprised that she knew they'd be blown clear instead of being blown up, she adding it was a 50/50 chance. Bertie enjoys the sunset, causing Arlo to realize they're going to be late for the Uncondemning, so Bertie has an idea how they can get back fast.

Back in Seaside, the Uncondemning ceremony is well underway with Elena giving the introduction; all of a sudden, the fan boat with Arlo and company bursts out of one of the subway entrances, soaring through the air and dropping them off onstage. Arlo then gives a speech to the Seasiders over how far he's come and how much he accepts Edmée's lesson on where he was originally from will always be a part of where he's going.

Bertie then proceeds to start the festivities by playing the song she wrote some time earlier, before it turns into a celebratory song-and-dance number led by Arlo. The party begins with the ribbon cutting, followed by all the Seasiders encountered up to now enjoying the fun, as well as Edmée introducing herself to Ansel. Arlo and his gang dance happily at the fountain before gathering for a group hug, embracing each other as a true family.

The final shot of the season is the words "The end" being washed up on the beach.

## Cast

* Michael J. Woodard as Arlo Beauregard
* Mary Lambert as Bertie
* Jonathan Van Ness as Furlecia
* Haley Tju as Alia/Crowd
* Brett Gelman as Marcellus
* Tony Hale as Teeny Tiny Tony/Crowd
* Vincent Rodriguez III as Ansel Beauregard
* Jessica Williams as Elena
* Annie Potts as Edmée
* Flea as Ruff
* Jennifer Coolidge as Stucky
* Santigold as Bog Lady
* Michelle McMillan as Random Crowd Person/Crowd
* Mark Whitten as Townsperson/Crowd

## Songs

* Back To You
* Ruff And Stucky (song)
* The Bog Lady (song)
* As Long As We Got Each Other

## Trivia

* This is the first double-length episode.
* Santigold, the voice of the Bog Lady, was also the voice of Judge Jacket on *Centaurworld*, another Netflix show.
* This episode features several call-backs to the movie:
	+ It starts with Arlo leaving the city for the swamp, which is the reverse of what he did at the start of the movie.
	+ A seagull feeds Arlo like how it did when he was lost at sea.
	+ Arlo hopping through a Disney-acid version of the swamp is similar to his song "Beyond These Walls".
	+ In the movie, Arlo left Edmée for the swamp; here, Edmée leaves the swamp for Arlo.
	+ The Bog Lady sinks and destroys Ansel's yacht like how Alia parks her bus in a no parking zone, resulting in it towed.
	+ Arlo is imprisoned by the villain both times; in the movie, he is caught by Ruff and Stucky to use as a tourist attraction; while in this episode, he is hypnotized by the Bog Lady into never leaving her again.
	+ Alia "changing her perspective" by having Bertie toss her over the treetops to locate the Heart of the Swamp is similar to Bertie finding Arlo's half of their "best friend rock", flying her in to where Arlo is.
	+ The trip back to Seaside uses the same Willow Button train ride.
	+ Both installments end with a musical number where Arlo celebrates with everyone.
* Edmée now lives with Arlo.
	+ Her shack has been destroyed in order to defeat the Bog Lady.
* Ansel does not speak aside from a few non-verbal vocalizations.
* When Arlo is hypnotized by the Bog Lady, it is similar to when Mowgli got hypnotized by Kaa in the 1967 Disney movie, *The Jungle Book*.
* When Arlo and Edmée are talking over the train, an instrumental of the final part of "Beautiful Together" can be heard.
* Arlo's sigh just before "Beyond These Walls" begins in the movie is used twice throughout the episode, first when he is on the yacht in the beginning before Marcellus talks to him, and again when he sees Edmée trapped in a cage by the Bog Lady.
* In the final scene as the main characters hug, the music played is the same from the movie when Arlo is singing Bertie's name on the train.
* This is the first time the end credits are altered; the credits are at night instead of during the day, and there are lights costing the boardwalk and gazebo to accommodate the Uncondemning.

## Errors

* When Arlo is talking with the Bog Lady in the Heart, the water closes to the middle goes up to just below his hips; however, when he demands to know where Edmée is, the water only goes above his feet.
* When the Bog Lady ensnares Arlo in roots and drags him away, Arlo shouts "Edmée!" but his mouth doesn't move.
* When Arlo is trapped in the Bog Lady's roots, the amount of them and their thickness changes from scene to scene. Also, the roots cover Arlo's body completely leaving just his legs and feet exposed in most shots, but when Arlo gets hypnotized, the roots come to just below his shoulders.
* When the Bog Lady attacks Arlo and Edmée, Arlo gets caught in her roots with Edmée hanging from his hands; when they are released when Alia scratches the Bog Lady with her claws, both Arlo and Edmée are caught in the roots before they untangle.