"Gets Eaten" is the fourth episode of season one of the animated children's series The Magic School Bus. It originally aired on October 2nd, 1994.
Summary
Arnold and Keesha were supposed to do a "Two-Things-That-Go-Together-Report," but they both completely forgot about it. Keesha only brings a tuna fish sandwich, and all Arnold brings is "scum" he got on his shoe when he stepped in a pond on his way to school. The two don't have anything in common...or do they? Ms. Frizzle takes the class on their beach trip, but once there, it quickly becomes a field trip when she shrinks the bus to explore the ocean food chain.
Plot
The students are prepared to go to the beach this afternoon for their Two-Things-That-Go-Together-Report. Dorothy Ann and Carlos brought a crab and sand, Phoebe brought a tube grass in a pot, Ralphie brought "the sun" (When really it's just a yellow balloon to simulate the sun), and Tim and Wanda brought portraits of mussels. When Keesha enters the classroom and is reminded of the report, she panics when she doesn't have anything to bring for the report other than a tuna fish sandwich. Just then, Arnold enters the classroom and is shown to have stepped in a pond on his way to school, and his shoe was covered in slimy green scum. He, too, had forgotten all about the report and hasn't brought anything either. The rest of the class get an idea, but later reject it when they realize that tuna and scum don't go together. Just when Arnold is ready to quit, Keesha tells him that the two have to work with what they have. Valerie Frizzle enters the classroom to discuss the report. Phoebe and Ralphie are first to present their report, and to Keesha and Arnold's dismay, Valerie Frizzle calls them up to present their report. So the two show her the tuna fish sandwich and the scum on Arnold's shoe. To their surprise, Valerie tells them that it is fantastic. She asks them to explain how the two objects go together, to which Arnold hesitantly responds that they both have adjectives. Just then, the bell rings, and Valerie takes the students to the beach.
During the bus ride, Arnold and Keesha have a conversation on the work they have to do for their report. They conceive ways on how each of their items complement each other. Valerie overhears heir conversation and tells them that it is up to them to look for connections. The Magic School Bus finally arrives at Mussel Beach, to which Carlos jokingly calls a regular "Muscle Beach" while flexing his muscles. Once there, the students view the things that they had for their report. A seagull then flies down and grabs the crab with its beak right before flying back in the air. While Arnold and Keesha think of ways the sandwich and the scum go together, Valerie arrives via bus and picks up the rest of the students. Once everyone hops inside, The Magic School Bus transforms into a dolphin and dives into the sea.
The Magic Dolphin Bus then transforms into a glass bottom boat and it continues floating in the sea. Keesha and Arnold are still thinking about their report. The students take a look down to the glass floor to view seaweed and sea urchins underwater, the latter of the two eats the former. A sea otter then swims down to take the urchins to which Carlos jokingly asks if they "otter" to which Ralphie replies "Bad, Carlos.". When Arnold looks through the floor to view green slime, Wanda says that it's "scummy", giving Arnold an idea. Valerie uses a fishing net to scoop up the green scum and tells the students that it is phytoplankton, which are tiny plants. Valerie then offers Keesha her modeled magnifier to view the phytoplankton up close. She finds sea scum on the phytoplankton in the net and shoe scum of the phytoplankton on Arnold's shoe. When Keesha agrees with Valerie that they should take a closer look, The Magic Glass Bottom Boat shrinks down to a microscopic submarine and dives underwater. Valerie offers the students underwater breathing gear and they explore through the underwater sea on a search for connections. They come across a pink sea creature, who eat phytoplankton. Valerie rescues them and brings them back on the bus. She then expands The Magic Busmarine's size so that it would be just as big as the pink sea creature, which is called the zooplankton. The students swim back into the sea to search for connections. They then come across some anchovies (which Ralphie states that they're the same kinds of anchovies that his father pulls off his pizza). They also learn that anchovies eat zooplankton, which Valerie states leaves them to lunch. They return inside The Magic Busmarine, which changes to the size of the anchovies. During lunch, Keesha asks Arnold what is inside a tuna fish sandwich, which Arnold responds with tuna fish while explaining the other ingredients, which gives Keesha an idea. The Magic Busmarine then come across a tuna, which eats anchovies. The tuna then proceeds in eating The Magic Busmarine as well.
The Magic Busmarine is now inside the tuna and Keesha tells Arnold that they had finally found the connection to their report: phytoplankton gets eaten by zooplankton, which gets eaten by anchovies, which gets eaten by tuna. As a result, tuna and phytoplankton belong in the same food chain. Valerie also tells the class that they are now studying the tuna's digestive system. But she decides to leave it for another day so Keesha and Arnold can present their report and successfully manages to exit the bus out of the tuna using a fishing hook, which reels in the bus. The fisherwoman takes the microscopic Magic School Bus and throws it back into the sea. It then changes to a wide surfboard and Valerie and the students surf to shore.
Back in school, Arnold and Keesha present their report on the ocean food chain. Carlos compliments the report, saying that it's so "e-fish-iant". Valerie then presents the class a land food chain, where a mouse eats grass seed, a snake eats the mouse, and a hawk eats the snake. The hawk is at the top of the food chain while grass is at the bottom. The class then learns that phytoplankton and grass are both plants, for all food chains begin with plants. Arnold then realizes that his shoe is missing. Back inside the ocean, the tuna coughs up the microscopic shoe, which is caught in the fisher's hook. As the fisher reels it in, she tosses it along with the other junk in her boat. A hawk then swoops down and grabs it with its beak and drops it down to the school. The shoe returns to normal size and lands in Arnold's hands. Arnold states that "Nature never ceases to amaze me", to which Valerie responds "If the shoe is clean, wear it", which elicits laughter by the other students.
Watch Episode
Magic School bus 04 Gets Eaten
Trivia
- Keesha says "Oh, bad, oh, bad, oh, bad, bad, bad!" for the first time.
- Arnold says "I knew I should have stayed home today" twice in this episode.
- Ralphie mentions his dad in this episode.
- Arnold remembers the shoe algae in Takes a Dive.
- This is the first time The Magic School Bus shrinks with Liz.
Goofs
- At the end of the episode, when everybody is laughing, Ms. Frizzle is wearing a green dress. When the camera zooms out, she's wearing a purple one.
Here, Ms. Frizzle is wearing a green dress.
Here, she's wearing a purple one.