Each week, we're recapping the first season of Fuller House episode by episode. Time to make some volcanos erupt.
Up until this point, our main grievance with Fuller House has been the pre-emptively desperate cameos of the Elder Tanners. This was most notable in the last episode, when Joey traveled all the way from Las Vegas to babysit for one night. By bringing in a man who is nearly 60(!) and helped raise our main sisterly trio, it disoriented the premise that these are now grown-ass women with lives all their own.
However, the show bounces back in a big way during episode four, with a storyline that actually intertwined, especially between the grown-ups and the kids.
After being uprooted to live with the Fullers in a big, beautiful, multi-million dollar house, Kimmy's daughter Ramona still can't quite shake her angst, thanks to lonely days at her new school. DJ's oldest son Jackson, while in the same class, apparently hasn't been much help in making her feel welcome, either.
After a half-hearted attempt to introduce her to a gaggle of cool kids, he instead offers to help her bust out so she can go hang with her old friends. During science class, a volcano project (that's still a thing?) provides a perfect means to light up the joint, set off the sprinkler system and give Ramona a chance to jump out the window amidst the chaos. The problem? The entire school is now lining up outside that very window, leaving her totally busted.
Meanwhile, with DJ and Kimmy working, Stephanie is left with Baby Tommy at home. Somehow, as a ~*world renowned DJ*~ who was about to travel to Brazil not long ago, she's super broke. Huh? The music industry ain't what it used to be, but you'd think that going from living in London to freeloading off your sister would leave you with some extra pocket change. At any rate, after holding up a coffee shop line to rifle through her maxed out credit cards, she meets a hunky gent named Darren (Steve Talley.) After he assumes that Baby Tommy is hers, she decides to run with it, because all great relationships are built on lies.
Elsewhere, DJ also encounters a hunk of her own, who looks a lot like Stephanie's dude, so that's confusing. He's the son of another vet at her pet clinic, who is coming in to cover his Dad's duties while he's on leave. A stuttered greeting means they're obviously going to fall in love, so it's like why did she even bother to get out of her PJs go to out to the club that one time? Exactly. Moral of the story: Just don't try, guys.
Both Dad and son leave DJ on her own, and shortly after, the receptionist has to bolt out for an emergency as well. This leaves her stranded, so she calls up her slacker sister to come in and help at the desk. Her middle son Max is also there, tasked with picking out a puppy from Comet Jr. Jr.'s litter. Honestly, anything he did or said doesn't really matter because OMG PUPPIES.
Kimmy arrives to pick up Baby Tommy and everyone is getting settled in when DJ and Kimmy get calls that Jackson and Ramona have been suspended for their antics. They dart out the door, leaving Stephanie alone with a lobby full of people with pets who should probably be told that there are zero vets in the office. Had they just closed up shop, they wouldn't have had a woman drop in with a "cat" that was actually a skunk, spraying young Max and all those adorable puppies that we care more about, TBH.
DJ returns back to the clinic to find Steph, Max, Tommy, and the puppies bathing in barrels of tomato juice. What? How do you even find that much tomato juice? Who was watching the clinic? But seriously, how are the puppies, are they okay? So many questions. Instead of being even remotely weirded out by her naked sister in a barrel with her young sons, she decides to snap a photo for Facebook, because don't forget, it's 2016, y'all! #socialmedia
Everyone returns home, including the two middle school rascals. Faced with three days at home, DJ immediately pulls a Danny Tanner, piling on a list of chores to be completed as punishment. Kimmy, however, lets her guilt guide her, offering instead to take Ramona to get her nails done and go to her old school to visit. The two Moms have a heart-to-heart on setting boundaries, and when Ramona finally fesses up that the only reason Jackson is in trouble was to help her, she's tasked with helping him with his to-do list.
Finally, Stephanie's date Darren drops in and after looking around, assumes that the other children in the room must be hers, too. Nope, this definitely won't backfire. Stephanie, we love you, but you're bringing us down.
Biggest Highlight: Middle school cool girl Lola is in the middle of her volcano presentation during the great sprinkler escapade. However, she keeps "accidentally" sharing that her Mom built the whole thing, most notably at the end when she says it was based of a volcano in Hawaii that she saw "on my honeymoon."
Also: PUPPIES
Biggest WTF: At the beginning of the episode, Jackson comes downstairs, lamenting that he was "up all night erupting my volcano." Stephanie (like most of us,) jumped to the other scientific conclusion and told him TMI. It's a totally real thing that teenage boys do, but do you really want your aunt even thinking about it? NOPE.
Most Egregious Call-Backs: Without the Elder Tanners, there actually weren't very many at all. R.I.P "How Rude!" (We hope.)
On the nostalgia tip though, we'd like to take the opportunity to give props to pop princess turned unlikely hipster favorite Carly Rae Jepsen for crushing it at the helm of the new and improved theme song. Homegirl knocked it out of the park.