Central Park – Live It Up Tonight

By: Paige Zinaman

Bitsy (Stanley Tucci) is in a car outside the Brandenham Hotel where music is playing. She unfastens her seat belts and starts dancing on the seat when Helen (Daveed Diggs) and Mayor Whitney Whitebottom (H. Jon Benjamin) arrive and get inside. As they pull away from the hotel Bitsy notices that another hotel replaced their old door man and tells her driver to pull over and rolls down the window to do a horrible knock knock joke and tells her drive to go. As they drive away Helen asks Bitsy if they are going to have the meeting with the Mayor or prank the doorman more to which Bitsy tells her that they can do both. Mayor Whitebottom asks Bitsy why they had to meet in her car and she tells him that she has to get her hair done and get back to the hotel for the award ceremony that night. Birdie (Josh Gad) is on the street and informs the audience that Bitsy wanted the Mayor to give her an award they made up called “The Businessperson Humanitarian and Role Model of the Year Award.” The Mayor tells Bitsy that he looked up speeches and replaced the Seal Team with her name. She then tells him that he’ll be mentioning the “wrong doings” in the park and with the park managers. It turns out that the Mayor did not audit the park like he was supposed to so that Bitsy would be able to buy it.

Cole (Tituss Burgess) and Molly (Kristen Bell) are sitting at the kitchen table when Cole suddenly starts excited about a “Home Alone 2 Tour,” which confuses Molly who asks if he’s still doing homework. Birdie once again shows up to clarify what has gotten Cole so excited by getting a tad excited himself. He also says that it happens at night and that Cole and Molly were about to ask their parents if they could do it by themselves. Owen (Leslie Odom Jr.) and Paige (Kathryn Hahn) say a quick no to their children, to which Cole starts to plead telling them that this is his favorite movie. Molly backs this up by saying that it’s a one-time thing and that she will be with him. Birdie tells the audience that Molly thinks that if she can prove that she can take care of Cole outside the house on their own that it will lead to more advantages for her. Owen and Paige have a “conference” and discuss if the kids should go to which Owen says that they shouldn’t be able to go out at night until they are forty. Paige and Owen let the kids go out on twenty-five conditions with the last one being that they text each of them every four minutes. Owen reminds Cole that it gets dark at night and sometimes Cole still gets scared of the dark. Paige and Owen get very excited that they are alone and decide that they are going to catch up on cleaning and house chores. This leads into them starting to clean the bathroom only to realize that they are young and that they decide to go out.

Bitsy and Helen arrive back at the hotel as Bitsy is grilling Helen on if she looks truly fine and ready for the award ceremony. Helen assures her that she is in fact fine and hands Bitsy her earrings to which Bitsy drops one causing Helen to move the dumpster and making her go down the grate in search for her earring. Paige and Owen are taking their date night to the Tipsy Giraffe where a couple are getting up to leave which opens Paige and Owen up for a great seat. Owen’s phone starts ringing. He pulls it out of his pocket to find that Elwood (Rory O’Malley) is calling him. Paige tells Owen not to answer to which he responds that he has to because he never calls when he’s off duty unless it’s an emergency. Elwood tells Owen that there was an auditor at the park which confuses Owen who tells Elwood that their regular guy Windell was already there. Elwood says that it’s not Windell, but his boss Anita (Robin Thede) and she’s carrying a big thermos. Owen tells Paige that they have a problem and that they will go to drinks later. While all of this is happening, Molly and Cole are on their Home Alone 2 tour where they had to sign a waiver before the tour even starts. Cole asks Molly if she’s noticed how totally cool he’s being with it being totally dark. When she agrees he tells her that they should pay attention now. Zoom (Fred Armisen) starts a song about his Home Alone 2 deleted scenes tour that included “facts” about the movie which causes Cole to have Molly take photos of everything Zoom is telling them. As the tour group starts to walk away, Cole sits down wanting to take in the “bigness of it all.”

Meanwhile, underground Bitsy climbs down to see what’s taking Helen so long. Once she’s down on off the ladder, Helen tells her that she can’t find her earring. Bitsy says that it can’t have gone far. As they begin to look again they see the grate being put back down and the dumpster placed back trapping them down there. Bitsy realizes what the tunnel truly is and they start walking towards a door. Back in Central Park Owen and Paige arrive back to the management building to meet with Elwood and Anita as Birdie explains that Owen isn’t freaking out because Owen has nothing to hide. Inside, Owen hands Anita the last of the files and tells her he’s not sure why she needs them because everything is as it should be. Anita tells everyone that every once in a while city employees get what they refer to as a cavity search audit.

Anita gets to work going through all of Owen’s paperwork. As he keeps pulling folders she spots a cost for worms that is over eight hundred dollars to which he tells her that it’s a big park. She explains she needs a big receipt which Owen isn’t afraid to hand her. As he goes to get the receipts he can’t find the receipt for the worms. Owen turns to Elwood and asks him if he got the last shipment. Elwood gets really nervous and tells Owen that he may have bought a worm as pet. Owen doesn’t care and presses Elwood about where the receipt is for the park worms. Elwood tells everyone that he made it into a temporary worm house to get “Dianne” home. Owen presses on questioning Elwood if he brought the receipt back to the office. Elwood explains that he really wants to say yes but he threw it away. Owen turns to Anita and wonders that since they know there was a receipt and it got thrown away what they do now. She says that he either produces the receipts or produces the items. Owen tells her that the worms are in the ground except for “Dianne.” Anita tells them that if that is the case, she is going to have to report that as a possible misuse of funds. Owen is quick to tell her where he gets the worms from and that he’s sure he can get another copy of the receipt to her the following morning. Anita informs the group that’s not how it works. She explains she finds stuff and that she was going to file her report that night and go to her salsa class. Owen tells her that he can have a copy of the receipt to her in an hour. He and Paige head to the store. As they leave Paige tells him that he sounded pretty confident to which he says that he is in fact freaking out.

Back on the Home Alone 2 Tour, Zoom is singing to the group about a possibly scary part of the film that was deleted confusing Cole causing him to start to freak out a little. Molly tells Cole to not freak out but is a lost cause as bats come flying out at the group causing Cole to run off. Bitsy and Helen, who are still stuck underground, happen upon a room full of bottles and another locked door. As Bitsy lets the other door shut, she traps them inside that room as cockroaches come crawling out of the drain. Bitsy tells Helen to fight them with her big feet. Molly chases after Cole and manages to catch up with him telling him that he can’t run off like that because he is her responsibility and that she knows how creepy the bats were and that one bumped into her. Cole notices that Molly is scratching the back of her neck and calls her a vampire as he runs away again. It starts to rain as she has to chase after Cole again. She starts a song about not being prepared for anything that’s happened. Paige and Owen are having an experience of their own as they try to make it to Brooklyn. The song ends and Paige and Owen arrive at the store where they are pointed in the direction of Roz (Jamie Denbo) who is leaving for the night. Paige stops her, but she tells them that she has to help her kid sell the scented candles or his class won’t go on their trip to Gettysburg.

Bitsy and Helen are still in the room surrounded by bottles of alcohol to which Bitsy looks at and notices that they look new mentioning that they must belong to the hotel next door. She starts to smash them. Molly chases Cole and finds him stuck upside down on the fence. She helps him before letting him check her neck for bite marks. They notice that they are in a part of the park they don’t recognize and make a plan to find a way home. Bitsy starts having a panic attack as she’s still stuck in the storage room where she mentions that there’s a knife in her boot. Helen uses it to open the doors and gets them out. Anita tells Elwood that it’s late and that she’s leaving to file the report. She is unhappy that she’s missed her salsa class. Elwood tries to defend Owen but as Anita starts to call the Mayor. He panics about how they could try to find jobs together. Birdie, who is outside the window, starts playing what he knows of salsa music to stall Anita from leaving. Molly and Cole make it home only to find that their parents are not home. As Anita and Elwood salsa dance when Owen and Paige return with a copy of the missing receipt and two bags of scented candles.