Episode 308: Positive Alex

In Which: Alex tries to win a guy by changing her personality (yuck) and Justin joins the basketball team and Jalex have barely any interaction (but at least they look cute in their matching uniforms).



JALEXCAP
Jalex in the opening scene. Justin and Zeke come into the station and Justin says he's got big news, which he wants Max to film with the camera. Alex snarks, "Anything about Alien Language League is neither 'big' nor 'news,' so why don't we just start over and say, 'Hey everybody, I have something really boring to say!'" Justin continues with his announcement--as part of his "quest" to experience his senior year to the fullest, he's joined the school basketball team. "Big news," he snaps at Alex, "not boring!"

Zeke explains that Justin is the first member of the Alien Language League to ever make an organized sports team. "Try and make fun of that!" Zeke challenges Alex. "You just did," Alex says.

Theresa and Jerry are skeptical that Justin REALLY made the team and didn't just delude himself into thinking otherwise. Justin swears that it's true and that they only cut one guy--Zeke. But Zeke says he's cool with it since he's decided to be a cheerleader instead. Harper tells Alex that they should come up with a cheer for Justin. Alex excitedly agrees. Harper and Zeke get into it while Justin just stands and watches skeptically.

Alex: Give me an "R"!
Harper and Zeke: R!
Alex: Give me a "U"!
Harper and Zeke: U!
Justin [suddenly excited]: Oh, she's gonna spell "Russo"!!!
Alex: Give me a "kidding me?"
Justin, Harper and Zeke: Kidding me--hey!

Max announces that he caught it all on film, but Justin pouts at Alex and tells Max, "That's it, we're hiring someone else to play her in the video."

At Justin's first basketball game, Alex is on the sidelines as a cheerleader, but she and Justin don't interact.

Later they meet up at home:

Alex [seeing Max's video camera]: Hey, is that from today's game?
Justin: All right, Alex, go ahead and make your jokes about me getting bench-butt from sitting on the bench all game.

I love how Justin automatically expects Alex's focus to be 100% on him. And I hate that this time it's not--she's only interested in using the video as evidence that George (see AlexCap below) has a crush on her:

Alex: He is like an elf to my flame.
Harper: Don't you mean like a MOTH to your flame?
Alex: Nope. I don't like moths. They fly like they're broken. [and she flaps her hands to demonstrate]

Later at school, Alex tries to convince Harper and George that she can be positive and cheerful rather than mean all the time. Cue Justin, Zeke and Max, who are trying to get video of "Scare People Wednesday"--perfect opening for Alex to prove how positive she can be, right? Right?

Justin [to Alex]: Boo!
Alex: You're not gonna scare anybody with your STUPID videos. Oh, is it STUPID WEDNESDAY again?
Justin [to Zeke]: Maybe we should have tried it on someone easier.

Justin seems particularly beat down by Alex in this episode for some reason.

At the next game, at least Alex acknowledges Justin. After casting a "be positive" spell on herself, Alex gets really, really, REALLY into the spirit of cheering.

Really.

She even joins in on Zeke's special Justin cheer, despite the fact that Justin's only the waterboy.

Zeke and Alex: Here come the Turkeys! Justin's got the water! They can't win without him!
Zeke [all by himself because I guess Alex can't come up with a rhyme for water]: So let's applaud her!

Poor Zeke.

The game is going so well for the Turkeys that the coach allows Justin to go in (as Justin awkwardly walks onto the court, Mr. Larritate assures the crowd, "Don't worry...we're REALLY far ahead..."). Alex freaks out: "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, Justin's finally getting the moment he's been waiting for!! I'm SO HAPPY FOR HIM!!" Then she leads Harper, Zeke and the other cheerleaders in the "happy-yay jump." Everytime Justin scores, Alex starts jumping up and down and cheering, and then at half-time, shrieks across the court, "Yaaaaaaaaay GO JUSTIN!!!!!!!" (And then later in the episode she calls Justin out on a penalty, but that wasn't nearly as funny.)

That's it for the Jalex.

AlexCap: Alex has got the main plotline in this episode. Let's try to sum up: Alex is still a cheerleader, but she doesn't like cheering the team--instead she spends all her time making up fake cheers, which only Jerry and Theresa find funny ("All for the turkeys stand up and WOBBLE [gobble]," "Let's EAT [go] Turkeys!" and "Dribble it, pass it, we want a casket [basket]," while imitating a corpse). When Harper says that all cheerleaders are required to go to the homecoming dance, Alex doesn't really want to go, but finally settles on asking George, the conductor of the pep band. Unfortunately for Alex, George hates her because she spends all her time being negative about everything. As Harper explains, George is a "Happy" and Alex is a "Maddy," so they don't mix. And here's where things get ugh--Alex decides to win George over by casting a spell that will change her personality into one George will find more positive/upbeat and therefore more pleasing to him. Anyway, Alex casts the spell by writing "be positive" on her arm with a magical marker, and it instantly transforms her attitude. Harper is thrilled at first, since the new Alex is nice and upbeat and appreciative of their friendship. The new Alex also throws herself into REAL, peppy cheerleading 100%. Even George is impressed, and agrees to go to the dance with her. Except it doesn't take long for the new Alex to realize that TRUE positivity means cheering for both teams. This causes George to dump her (surprise) and causes Mr. Larritate to ban the cheerleaders from all future sporting events until further notice. Fed up, Harper forcibly washes the "be positive" message off of Alex's arm and Alex returns to normal. Interesting that instead of going for the "everyone realizes they miss the old Alex" message, they went for the "positive Alex is great until her actions ruin basketball season" message. And BTW Harper: George = "a Happy"? More like George = an angry, judgemental jackass.

JustinCap: Justin's plotline this episode involves his new position on the basketball team. During his first game, he sits on the bench all game and then, realizing Max needs something good to film, resorts to passing out water to the other players (who ignore him) while Cheerleader Zeke flails around spastically cheering, "Great assist Justin, great assist!" Of course as you read in the JalexCap, Justin DOES nearly lead the Turkeys to victory during his second game--it turns out he has a really great shot. But poor Justin--when he goes to look at Max's video after the game, expecting to find a recording of all of the three-pointers he shot, instead finds out that Max spent the entire time filming Jerry, Theresa and the other fans in the bleachers.

[All pictures are from these YouTube videos, uploaded by WizardsOfWaverlyWOWP]