| “ | Wow, now I know you're mad, 'cause you're usin' my government name. | ” |
| — Raven to Chelsea. | ||
"Vending the Rules" is the eighth episode in Season 1 of Raven's Home. It first aired on September 15, 2017 to 1.47 million viewers.[1]
Plot[]
Summary[]
When Booker and Levi want expensive virtual reality goggles, the boys come up with a plan to make money by selling black market snacks at school.[2]
Full Plot[]
Booker and Levi want money to buy some cool VR goggles. So, they ask their parents to pay them money for all the little chores they do around the house. To their disappointment, Raven and Chelsea turn on the kids and remind them of how they carried them in their wombs for nine months, then have to feed them and take care of them every day. And now they want to be paid? Please. If anything, it's the kids who should be paying their parents. After the harsh speech, Booker and Levi are out of options. Levi says that if his dad was still around, he would buy the VR goggles for them.
After noticing that Chelsea still likes to make Garrett (her ex-husband) look good in front of Levi, Raven confronts her and urges her to tell Levi the truth about his dad. Chelsea tells Raven that she wants to protect Levi. So, she's not comfortable telling him that his dad is a thief, arrested for financial fraud. While the kids are at school, Raven takes the time to train Chelsea into confronting Garrett. She does a prison-visit scenario hoping Chelsea would learn to face Garrett. It doesn't help.
At school, the kids find the vending machine broken. Tess offers to give them the one piece of candy she has. Levi takes it and comes up with an idea to make money. He suggests that they should start a business selling snacks at a very expensive price. Since the vending machine is down and the other kids don't have a place to buy, they would be forced to buy the expensive snacks. When the vending machine gets fixed, Levi doesn't want his business to go out. So, he places an "OUT OF ORDER" sign on the machine to trick the other kids. It's a trick he learned from his dad. This forces the kids to start buying from Levi's business. Needless to say, Levi, Booker, Nia, and Tess find themselves running an illegal candy business. Levi hopes he can make enough money from the business to buy the VR goggles he wanted.
When the substitute Coach Spitz busts a kid carrying a snack that's clearly not from the vending machine, he gets the kid to tell him about the illegal snack ring. But the only helpful information he finds is that the money is being kept in a red backpack. Coach Spitz starts conducting a raid to catch the criminal. Levi, Nia, Tess, and Booker toss their red backpacks around, trying to avoid getting caught. This slows Coach Spitz around as he has to go through all the backpacks without finding the right one. It turns out that Levi used glue to attach all of the money on his body.
Later that night, Levi asks Booker, Nia, and Tess to help detach the money from his body. As they forcibly remove the money, Levi screams in pain. Chelsea and Raven hear the screams and rush to Booker's bedroom to see what's going on. The kids explain themselves. Levi says that he came up with the idea because that's what his dad would have done.
It's at that point that Chelsea faces the reality that she needs to tell Levi the truth about his dad. That he was not the good dad she painted him to be. That he's a thief who ruined their lives before getting arrested for financial fraud.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Raven-Symoné as Raven Baxter
- Anneliese van der Pol as Chelsea Grayson
- Navia Robinson as Nia Baxter
- Issac Ryan Brown as Booker Baxter
- Jason Maybaum as Levi Grayson
- Sky Katz as Tess O'Malley
Recurring Cast[]
- Anthony Alabi as Coach Spitz
Guest Cast[]
- Nicholas Jabonero as The Snack Snitch (uncredited)
Continuity[]
- More information about Levi's dad is brought to light in this episode after being hinted at in a few other episodes including The Baxters Get Bounced.
- The substitute Coach Spitz was first introduced in You're Gonna Get It. In this episode, he is cracking on the illegal snack ring hoping to impress the school and become a full-time teacher.
Trivia[]
- This was the seventh episode of the season filmed before a live audience.
- This episode was filmed on July 14, 2017.[3]
- The title is a play on the 2012 buddy cop action-comedy film Bending the Rules.
- Much of Chelsea's past was revealed in this episode. She majored in Interpretive Dance in college and minored in Theatre Arts. She made a fortune by selling her invention, the "Schmop" (a collapsible mop) which was stolen by her ex-husband Garrett. All she has from her marriage is Levi and a dozen China dinner plates. She doesn't consider Garrett a bad person, but rather a person who did a bad thing.
- Nicholas Jabonero ("Yogi" from Girl Meets World) made a cameo appearance as the student whom Coach Spitz interrogates.
- Garrett is apparently British as Raven's impression was "spot on".
- Levi yells "Whoopi Goldberg!" one of Raven's former co-hosts on The View.
- Levi and Booker were trying to save up for Virtual Reality Goggles. But they didn't have enough money, so they launched a snack ring in the school, selling snacks to students.
Visions[]
- Booker gets a vision of himself throwing lots of one-dollar bills.
Gallery[]
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The image gallery for Vending the Rules may be viewed here.
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Transcript[]
A completed transcript of this episode may be viewed here.