Central Park – Garbage Ballet

By: Paige Zinaman

Birdie (Josh Gad) is trash talking and by trash talking he is explaining that over two hundred thousand visitors come to the park and they leave behind over fourteen tons of trash a day. He then lists all sorts of trash that the park goers leave behind and explains that Owen (Leslie Odom Jr.) is the reason the park doesn’t look as bad as it would. He goes on to say that Owen created a system of dividing the park into forty-nine zones where people then take pick up the trash and drop it off in designated drop off zones where garbage trucks then take it to the sanitation department. Birdie explains it as a sight to behold saying, “It’s like a garbage ballet” It’s at this point Owen and other park members start to sing about the trash and the place that it goes. The scene plays out like a very fantastically done animated garbage ballet. Once the song ends Birdie is back and saying that the dance isn’t happening this week because Owen’s system is breaking down when a week ago Owen had a phone conversation about how the sanitation trucks were rerouted and not picking up the trash from Central Park and it was all to do with Bitsy (Stanley Tucci).

From her perch at the Brandenham Hotel Bitsy watches as Central Park fills with garbage with delight. She is giddy as she tells Helen (Daveed Diggs) that it was all her and one phone call to the mayor that has caused Central Park to fill. She hands a piece of garbage to Helen and tells her to throw it into the park. Meanwhile, Birdie gives a glimpse at Owen who is living his very own nightmare about the trash. He also shows Molly (Kristen Bell) who is still not over the disaster of a first kiss with Brendan (Eugene Cordero). Sadly, she has still not heard from Brendan. Molly is sitting on her bed once again taking to her drawing book to get her feels out only to find there was no solution in which Brendan didn’t end up with an allergic reaction to the peanuts. As her comic doesn’t go the way she wants she rips the page from the notebook, crinkling it up and tossing it to the floor. Owen walks by reminding her about a trash crisis and asking that she try to get the drawing right on the first go which makes her upset. Owen tries to back track his previous comment. Not helping, Owen leaves to take medicine to Paige (Kathryn Hahn) who has come down with a cold and using a ton of tissues. Paige insists that she’s fine and can go to work. She mentions taking cough medicine a few minutes prior asking if there’s a thing as too much cough medicine. She freaks out and points to a sock on the floor telling Owen that there’s a rat. Owen points out that it’s Cole’s (Tituss Burgess) sock and that he’s going to make her some tea. Paige continues to complain about not wanting to stay home with rats in the house. As Paige and Owen continue their conversation, Molly and Cole come into the living room. Paige threatens to kill the rat, which starts Cole to fake sick so that he can stay home so Paige won’t kill any and all animals. Molly catches on to it quickly before leaving for school.

Outside at the dumpsters Owen is trying to squish more trash inside as Elwood (Rory O’Malley) and others brings a truck load more. Owen is scrambling to find a place to put all the trash when his walkie talkie goes off asking if it was bad a bus a tourist just took a picture of the trash. Back at the Brandenham Hotel Bitsy is talking to Shampagne when Helen comes in telling Bitsy that the cleaning staff refuse to clean anymore rooms on the seventh floor because they believe it’s haunted. Bitsy asks what the “ghost” is doing this time and once Helen tells her she informs her to round the staff up because she’s going to give them something to be scared of. Helen replies that they are already scared of her.

At Molly’s school Molly’s science teacher explains they will be paired up to discuss the items they received only for Molly to be completely distracted as a group starts talking about the “guy and girl who kissed and the guy almost died.” It’s at that moment that Hazel (Ester Dean) finally gets her attention to talk about their project. Molly can’t focus and asks Hazel if she knew what everyone was talking about to which Hazel tells her the rumor about a girl at their school kissing a guy from another school and how he “died” over the weekend. Hearing this from Hazel makes Molly unable to focus on their project. Back at home Paige is going paranoid about the rats and leaving food on traps all over the house. Cole follows along to get rid of them. Paige begins singing about how the rats should show themselves if they dare as she sets another trap. Cole starts to sing with her pleading with Paige to stop setting the traps. They sing two different points of views of how rats feel. Paige leads Cole to the couch as he begins falling over revealing that he has now truly caught the cold that Paige had to begin with.

Meanwhile, inside the park Owen and Birdie meet up when Owen’s walkie goes off. Own is told that the truck is stuck and has no way of getting there. As Elwood tells him this, a biker comes by with a bike trailer attached which sparks an idea for Owen that may work to get the trash out of the park. He tells Birdie that there is one thing better than a trash truck…a trash train. While all this is happening Molly is once again at it with her comic book creating another scene where Kiteboy is wearing a mask because his face is ruined. Hazel interrupts again her while she’s drawing to try and get her back and focusing on their science project that hasn’t gotten done at all. But as they start to work again Molly trails off on the kiss, leaving no room for work to get done.

Back at the Brandenham Hotel Bitsy has the cleaning staff on the sixth floor so they can talk about the “ghost.” Bitsy explains to them that the sixth floor is just like every other and that if they can do their job on that floor they can then do it on any floor including the seventh. Bitsy asks if anyone feels anything supernatural and when Helen answers a negative Bitsy walk over to the sixth-floor sign and pulls it down to reveal they are actually on the seventh floor. This causes everyone to freak out and try to get away in the elevator. When the elevator won’t work they start to run to the stairs only to find out Bitsy blocked them and stopped the elevators from working so she could prove a point. Bitsy raises her voice over the panicking people as she tells them that they are just going to have to confront their terrible fears and Helen tells everyone to quiet down.

At home Cole gets angry at Paige as she tells him that getting sick is what happens when he fakes sick. So, instead of fighting more he asks Paige to stop her hunt for the rats so they could both take a nap. This ended up being both of them pretending to be asleep while also checking to make sure neither one moved. While at school Molly is once again drawing out the worst-case scenarios in her drawing book. This leads to a song about maybe it’s time for her to step away and stop trying to help because she just ruins everything. But the song is quickly stopped when Hazel gets annoyed for the last time and takes Molly’s book to see what’s so important that she won’t help with their project. Back in the park Owen gets all the park workers to make a train out of the dumpsters and they head to the sanitation center.

Cole wakes up from his nap to find out Paige woke up hunting for the rat. As they fight over the broom the flashlight drops and they see a dozen or more rats and run upstairs slamming the door. Cole agrees with Paige to call an exterminator. After study hall is over Molly and Hazel go home to work on their science project where they find Cole and Paige on the couch away from the rats as the two girls run upstairs away from them. Back at the Brandenham Hotel the cleaning staff still refuse to clean. Bitsy threatens to fire them all to which Helen intervenes reminding her about certain things that would make it hard to fire them. Bitsy gets aggravated stating that there were no ghosts. One of the women tells her if that’s so she should stay the night in the room to which Bitsy agrees – only if they clean the room the next day.

Owen and crew make it to the sanitation department only to find that it wasn’t over capacity like Esposito (Fred Armisen) said. Owen confronts him about the crews not picking up the trash at Central Park. Owen starts to talk to him manager to manager only to find out Esposito’s orders come from the mayor as they decided that they could find a loop hole to go against the mayor’s orders. They find one to which Esposito tells him that he didn’t know how bad it’s gotten and that he can dump his trash and he’ll have the trucks rerouted.