“ | ...After 4 years of being on television and saying things like, 'I love the surprise ending of Titanic', people think I'm dumb in real-life. | ” |
— Liv, confessional
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Brain-A-Rooney is the eighth episode in season 1 of Liv and Maddie. It aired on November 10, 2013 and received 3.0 million total viewers.
Overview[]
Ridgewood High is hosting the annual "Brain Olympics," and Joey is intent on forming a team in hopes of winning. Liv, in an effort to shed part her Stephanie Einstein image asks to join the team. Meanwhile, Maddie holds a yard sale to raise funds for the French Club's trip to Montreal.
Episode Summary[]
The episode begins with Joey at Ridgewood High after school. Pete comes up to him and Joey reveals he is using an app called “PinPoint Your Parents” to track wherever his parents go, so he knew Pete was coming. He then tells Pete he is staying after hours to sign up for a team: the Brain Olympics, a statewide science competition. Later on, Joey meets with his rival, Artie, in the Ridgewood halls to ask him to join his Brain Olympics team. Despite their rivalry, Artie agrees and the two spit shake on it (only to sanitize their hands regretfully after they do so). In the next scene, Maddie is in the living room with a load of boxes everywhere. She is putting together a yard sale so she can raise money for her school trip to Montreal for French class, which is the only trip sophomores are allowed to go on. However, Karen chastises Maddie for wanting to sell certain things such as her scooter. Maddie reveals in a confessional that her mother thinks she’s sentimental but she really is just a packrat. Karen is most serious about Maddie not selling her cat toilet crush holder who she named Isis. Karen reveals in a confession that she had Isis since her first apartment and it was always just them against the world. Liv bounces into the kitchen to tell Joey she heard him practicing his speech in the bathroom for the Brain Olympics and she thinks she has the perfect addition to the team: herself. In a confessional, Liv tells that her character on her hit show “Sing It Loud!” was named Stephanie Einstein but she was an airhead when it came to intelligence. After playing a dumb character for four years, people think she is dumb in real life and Liv wants to change that. Joey, however, doesn’t think Liv is smart enough for the Brain Olympics and doesn’t believe she is a true geek, so he doesn’t allow her to join the team. At Ridgewood the next day, Joey and Artie are trying to get geeks to join the “dream team” and are giving out free pretzels to lure them but no one is signing up. Liv reveals in a confessional that she went around to a bunch of geeks in the school and lowered Joey and Artie’s credibility so they wouldn’t join, saying things like “Artie doesn’t believe in time travel” and “I saw Joey and Artie in the gym lifting weights.” Back at Ridgewood, Liv walks up to Joey and Artie and asks if they have a member yet, which they, of course, say no. Liv says her offer still stands and then slowly begins walking away, trying to tempt the boys into asking her. Artie tells Joey that he refuses to miss out on Brain Olympics but Joey still doesn’t want to sign her up, saying they might as well sign up the next person who walks up. Willow ends up walking up to Joey next, who Joey is obviously scared of, so he immediately asks Liv to join the team. Liv signs up, dotting the I in her name with a smiley face, and then Willow drags Joey off to art class. At the yard sale in the next scene, Karen is trying to keep customers from buying things and tells a lady she can’t buy something she picks up. Pete walks up to her carrying a box with Maddie’s old scooter, old toothbrushes, and Isis in it, the same box he said he found in their shower earlier. Karen tells him that a lady asked her to hold it since she had to go home and get some cash but Karen really only wanted to keep the items. Karen takes the box and says she’ll put it somewhere safe then walks off. Maddie and Willow then walk into view and Maddie thanks her for helping out with the sale. Maddie then asks her dad to put an item on the table somewhere and Pete says he’ll put it in the Joey section. When Willow hears that there is a Joey section, she excitedly runs off to do some shopping there. The next scene takes place at the Brain Olympics which is being held in the Ridgewood gym and being hosted by Johnny Nimbus. Liv is getting annoyed with Joey because he is constantly throwing her off to the sidelines, referring to her as “other,” but Liv is very serious about the competition and showing people that she is smart. Artie, however, believes that Liv is there because she has a thing for him. He tells her they’ll need to put what they have on pause for the sake of the Brain Olympics. He still continues to hit on Liv, just unpausing when he does so, but Liv tells him to put it on forever pause, only unpausing to thank him for his compliment. Johnny Nimbus then announces that the task of the Brain Olympics this time is to make a machine that can paint a portrait on a given canvas, using only the materials on the table that’s in the center of the gym. Liv is excited to do the task but Joey is outraged, saying he didn’t sign up to paint pictures. At the yard sale, Karen confronts Maddie about putting up her first MVP trophy to sell but Maddie tells her that is was from second grade, and literally, everyone got one, even Liv. Karen tells Maddie she’s going to regret selling all of these old items but Maddie tells her that she is just a hoarder, Maddie doesn’t care about that stuff like she does. Pete then comes in holding the same box as last time. Maddie takes the box and tells her mother that’s where the healing begins. In a confession, Karen says that Maddie just needed some schooling. The scene skips over to Karen holding Liv and Maddie’s “Sisters by chance, friends by choice” arts and craft portrait they made in second grade. She calls it junk and says they should sell it, trying to get Maddie to budge and see her point of view. Maddie reveals in a confessional that she knew exactly what her mom was doing so Maddie puts a 50 cents sticker on the portrait and allows it to be sold, not wanting to give in to her mother. Back at Ridgewood, the Brain Olympics participants are about to run for the table, having 30 seconds to grab what they want for their machine. Liv is complaining about the outfits they’re wearing while Artie likes them. Johnny Nimbus counts down and then the participants run for the table. Liv begins to take a piece from the table but Joey tells her not to take it because it doesn’t fit with the idea he has planned. Liv, however, has an idea in her head that will fit that piece but Joey tells her she’s just not smart enough for it. Liv grows angry and tells him she’ll build her own machine if she’s not smart enough for him. Joey says him and Artie will just build their own, too. The buzzer goes off for everyone to stop taking pieces from the table and then Johnny Nimbus announces they have 2 hours to build a machine that will paint a portrait. Back at the yard sale, Willow is wearing a “Happy Birthday Joey” shirt that she bought, which Pete finds a little weird. Maddie rushes up to Willow and tells her they’re almost up to $400. The two do their handshake in excitement. Since Karen is not looking, Maddie wants to sneak the “Sisters by chance, friends by choice” picture back upstairs to her room and asks Willow where it is. Willow tells her she sold it and Maddie begins to freak out, saying it’s one of the most important things she owns. Willow truly thought that Maddie wanted to sell it but Maddie was only trying not to give in to her mother. The Brain Olympics only has seven minutes left and Johnny Nimbus is showing the inventions of two other schools that are already finished, both turned out really great. Joey and Artie are disappointed with their slingshot machine and doubt that it’ll even paint a picture on the canvas. They go over to see what Liv is doing, to “feel better about themselves.” But, they are surprised to see that Liv has created a very good machine. It is a catapult designed to shoot paint balloons onto a canvas. Joey and Artie are amazed. Liv just doesn’t know how to trigger the last stage. Joey suggests they add their machine to trigger the last stage but Liv asks him if he’s smart enough, mimicking what he said to her earlier. Joey takes back what he said about her and tells her they can win together. Liv reluctantly agrees. With 16 seconds left to paint their canvas, Liv puts the chain reaction catapult into action. In the end, the catapult splatters the paint balloons onto the canvas and then a piece of the page on the canvas peels off to reveal an outline of Paulie the Porcupine. Everyone cheers for the success of the invention and then Ridgewood High wins the Brain Olympics. In the next scene, Maddie walks into the house and sits on the couch with Willow, upset that the “Sisters by chance, friends by choice” picture is gone, even after she went door to door throughout the neighborhood and asked if anyone had it. Willow apologizes for selling Maddie’s picture but on the brighter side, she earned the $400 to go to Montreal, a good amount of it from Willow buying Joey’s stuff. Willow then heads out, trying to figure out how to fit Joey’s retainer in her mouth. Karen comes in and tells Maddie she heard she earned the $400, but Maddie is still bummed out the picture. She tells her mom that she was right, you can’t put a price on memories. Karen then shows Maddie the picture, revealing she found it. Maddie is very happy and Karen tells her she saw a woman walking with it and she tackled her. She finally reveals to Maddie that she thinks she has a problem. In a confession, Karen reveals that she also got Isis back. At the end of the Brain Olympics, Liv, Joey and Artie are being given gold medals for winning. They have changed into gray tracksuits with the Brain Olympics logo on them. Joey apologizes to Liv for underestimating her and says she’s officially a geek. Then he offers her a pretzel stick and the two take bite together in unison. Artie tells Liv that they can continue their romance now that the Brain Olympics are over but Liv tells him they are as likely to happen as cold fusion, which Artie takes as meaning it’s theoretically possible. The next day at Ridgewood, Joey and Artie approach each other and are back to their old rivalry ways. Artie has slept in his gray tracksuit which Joey calls uncool. The two argue for a bit and then Artie leaves. Once gone, Willow walks by decked out in her Joey gear and Joey is obviously weirded out by it. |
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Dove Cameron as Liv and Maddie Rooney
- Joey Bragg as Joey Rooney
- Kali Rocha as Karen Rooney
- Benjamin King as Pete Rooney
Recurring Cast[]
- Emmy Buckner as Liv #2
- Shelby Wulfert as Maddie #2
- Jessica Marie Garcia as Willow
- Jimmy Bellinger as Artie Smalls
- Kurt Long as Johnny Nimbus
Absent[]
Memorable Quotes[]
Artie: I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the deafening sound of my own epicness, BOOM! Joey: Hey! That's my line! |
Willow: Hey Joey. Joey: Hey Willow... dear.. |
Artie: These uniforms are pretty sweet, huh? Liv: Ugh, I feel like a mix between Barney and a NASCAR driver. |
Karen, confessional: Oh, I was gonna heal something. It was time for Maddie to get some schooling! |
Maddie: But that's because I was trying to get her to stop being a wack-a-doo! Have you never had to look into the eyes of a wack-a-doo?!? Willow: Not until right now! |
Trivia[]
- Tenzing Norgay Trainor (Parker Rooney) didn’t appear in this episode. This was his first and only episode absent in the whole of Liv and Maddie.
- This is the first episode where Liv and Maddie don't interact at all.
- Their body doubles, however, were erroneously credited.
- It's revealed that Liv portrayed Stephanie Einstein in Sing It Loud!.
- Due to the rise of the terrorist group of the same name, the episode was edited after its premiere so that Karen would call her cat toilet brush holder "Aces" instead of "Isis".
- References are made to Titanic, Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who and Barney the Dinosaur.
- This episode is similar to Austin & Ally's "Dancers & Ditzes", as Ally (Liv) wants to stop being known as a "sweet piano-playing singer" (dumb blonde) and wants to put up a dancing routine (participate in the Brain Olympics), while Austin, Trish and Dez (Joey) underestimate her efforts, even though at the end, she proves them wrong.
- Liv trying to prove to Joey that she’s smart enough to compete in the Brain-Olympics is a reference to the 2001 movie Legally Blonde when Elle was trying to prove to her boyfriend Warner that she was smart enough to be in Harvard Law School and that she was more than just a pretty face.
Gallery[]
To view the Brain-A-Rooney gallery, click here.
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Video Gallery[]
To view the Brain-A-Rooney video gallery, click here.
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