Saved by the Knoll

Saved by the Knoll is the sixth episode of Season 2 of Clone High, and the nineteenth episode of the overall series.

Synopsis[]

After a fire destroys The Grassy Knoll, a desperate Abe spearheads a campaign to rebuild the town's beloved greasy diner and help cure Joan's infectious nostalgia for her pre-frozen years.

Plot[]

Joan of Arc mourns the destruction of The Grassy Knoll, missing it dearly for being the only place that hadn't changed since she was frozen. However, few of the other clones share her sorrows, especially the second generation clones, who had issues with the many flaws of the restaurant, from its nasty food, unkempt floors, and problematic implications. Joan tends to let her nostalgia overshadow her good judgment and raved about how much she liked things like the crappy burgers. While reminiscing, Joan suddenly has a spasm and kicks one of her legs, which suddenly fills her with worry. Mops interrupts their little funeral to remind everyone that this gathering is not to mourn the loss of the restaurant, but to mourn the death of his wife, Curly, who was killed in the fire and has now been grilled like a giant blooming onion. This comes as a surprise to many of the clones, who assumed the corpse in the open casket was indeed a giant blooming onion, which many of them ate from. Mr. Big Corporation drives up in his fancy limo to talk turkey with Mops, planning to buy the former property of The Grassy Knoll so that he can build some condos on that land, while Mops can use the money to fund his next business plan, Tony Jamaica's, a clothing store which Curly had always wanted to own. Joan looks through the contract and finds a Goonies clause, stipulating that if a group of enthusiastic teens can raise enough money to have the place rebuilt before Monday at dawn, the restaurant stays. Mops exhibits complete apathy toward rebuilding the Knoll, preferring to honor his wife's dying wishes instead and the clones all agree with him, except for Joan who completely ignored him, determined to have the knoll rebuilt.

At home, Joan looks through a photo album, displaying all of the memories she and her friends had at The Grassy Knoll throughout the late 90's and early 2000's. As she does, her legs get more and more restless, flailing around uncontrollably and kicking her cat, Patches into the ceiling. Candide comes in to tell Joan that she'll be going away on a very important business retreat for the week and will be silencing her phone the whole time, so if there's any emergency in her absence, she will not get the help she needs.

Abe takes the lead in a campaign to rebuild the Grassy Knoll diner. Confucius contributes to fundraising, receiving a $100k check from his foster mom. Joan creates a fundraising ad starring David Tennant without directly mentioning the Grassy Knoll.

Meanwhile, Candide takes Principal Scudworth on a boozy work retreat. A relationship is hinted at through some drunken banter between the two, but Candide ultimately denies her feelings for Scudworth upon sobering up the next day.

Abe breaks his promise to Joan about keeping secrets when he witnesses JFK and Harriet kissing but doesn't inform Joan due to her potentially fatal condition called Psylly Legs, which causes uncontrollable leg kicking when she experiences nostalgia. Joan is upset with Abe for keeping the secret because he broke their blood oath, and ends her friendship with him. The episode ends with Joan and her friends bonding with each other at the newly-reopened Grassy Knoll, while Abe watches in the distance, teary-eyed.

Characters[]

Major Roles[]

Minor Roles[]

Cleopatra
Topher Bus
Principal Scudworth
Mr. Butlertron
Candide Sampson
The Secret Board of Shadowy Figures
Dr. Neelankavil
Trophy Wife
Harriet's Heart
JFK's Heart
David Tennant
Psylly Heart (Cameo)
Confucius' Foster Mom (Non-Speaking Cameo)
Julius Caesar (Non-Speaking Cameo)
Catherine the Great (Non-Speaking Cameo)
Sacagawea (Non-Speaking Cameo)
George Washington Carver (Non-Speaking Cameo)
Wu Zetian (Non-Speaking Cameo)
Marie Antoinette (Non-Speaking Cameo)
Brontë sisters (Non-Speaking Cameo)
Anne Boleyn (Non-Speaking Cameo)
William Shakespeare (Non-Speaking Cameo)
Van Gogh (Non-Speaking Cameo)
Genghis Khan (Non-Speaking Cameo)
Marie Curie (Non-Speaking Cameo)
Kublai Khan (Non-Speaking Cameo)
Ivan the Terrible (Non-Speaking Cameo)
Malcolm X (Non-Speaking Cameo)
Geronimo (Non-Speaking Cameo)
Curly (Corpse)
Doug Prepcourse (Pictured)
Roberta Psylly (Pictured)
John Mellencamp (Pictured)
Toots (Mentioned)

Trivia[]

The Grassy Knoll is officially destroyed as of this episode. Mops signs away the rights to the property to Mr. Big Corporation, who bulldozes it and builds some condos in its place. However, Mr. Big Corporation does have a second (albeit new-and-improved) Grassy Knoll built in a new location, keeping the legacy of the franchise alive.
In the wreckage of The Grassy Knoll, the burnt-up sign now reads "assy Knoll".
Joan is revealed to have a medical condition called “Psilly Legs” that she’s had since childhood. This acts up when she’s feeling nostalgic.
During Joan's telling of her Psilly Legs story she mentions her foster dad taking her to the John Cougar Mellencamp concert. However, whether this foster dad is Toots or someone else is unknown as Toots only referred himself as Joan's foster grandfather.
Joan has a pet cat named Patches.
The Grassy Knoll is revealed to have been responsible for a myriad of scandals regarding food poisoning and health code violations in the past, many were documented by news articles Joan had saved in her Grassy Knoll scrapbook;
- A man once died from eating a burger there.
- There was once a dysentery epidemic that stemmed from the restaurant.
- Smoothies from the knoll were discovered to be composed of 30% blue house paint.
- A customer discovered a band-aid in one of his burgers.
- Confucius once had a tilapia burger there and the tilapia fish came back to life inside his belly, got pooped out, and swam back to the man-made farming pond, where it was first genetically engineered.
The Superior Urgent Care hospital is in between a hair salon called "A Cut Above" and a pet neutering/spaying clinic called "A Cut Below".
- In every other establishing shot, the pet clinic is renamed to "Snip 'N' Tuck" and again to "Spay It Ain't So".
Toots is mentioned in dialogue, though not by name and he isn't seen on screen.
It's revealed in Joan's flashback to childhood that her natural hair-color is brunette.
Confucius' Foster Mom makes her on-screen debut in this episode.
Harriet and JFK try French kissing to see if they’re truly in love with each other. They end up hating it and stay good friends.
Candide Sampson admits that Principal Scudworth isn't a total piece of shit. Although she was incredibly drunk while saying this.

Continuity[]

This episode continues the destruction of The Grassy Knoll at the end of "Some Talking but Mostly Songs", where the establishment was burnt to the ground thanks to a helicopter knocking over flammable fluids onto the diner and igniting it.
- It's also established that Mops' wife, Curly died in this fire.
Joan claims that The Grassy Knoll is the only place that stayed the same since she was frozen in "Changes: The Big Prom: The Sex Romp: The Season Finale".
Joan's scrapbook contains several callbacks to the original series.
- A photo of JFK beating up Gandhi, while Abe tries to break up the fight, from "A Room of One's Clone: The Pie of the Storm". Gandhi is not seen in the picture, as it's implied he's on the ground.
- A photo of Abe telling Joan to make a film that comes from her heart from "Film Fest: Tears of a Clone". This photo is dated "January 25th, 2003".
- A photo of Abe watching JFK and Cleo drinking a smoothie together from "Escape to Beer Mountain: A Rope of Sand". Despite having been in this scene, Gandhi is also omitted from this image too, supposedly being blocked by the chair he was sitting in.
- One of the misprinted names on Joan's receipts is "John Dark", making a callback to her male alter-ego from "Homecoming: A Shot in D'Arc".
- A tiny little photo of Doug Prepcourse from "Sleep of Faith: La Ru D'Awakening" is also seen.
- A news article says that smoothies from the Knoll were made of 30% blue house paint, suggesting the smoothies from The Grassy Knoll were made by the same company that makes X-Stream Blu, which was revealed to be made entirely out of pancake batter and blue house paint in "Episode Two: Election Blu-Galoo".
Harriet and JFK still struggle with their feelings for each other, after kissing in "Some Talking but Mostly Songs". They resolve this by kissing again and finding out that they don't love each other after all.
Mandy Moore from "Snowflake Day: A Very Special Holiday Special" returns, now living in a different garbage can than the one before. She still denies being Mandy Moore.

Cultural References[]

The title is a reference to the 90's teen sitcom, Saved by the Bell.
- Interestingly, Saved by the Bell also had a 1950's-themed diner in it, albeit called The Max.
Frida Kahlo points out how every teen sitcom has a 50's diner in it. Notable examples of this include Pop's Chock-lit Shoppe from Riverdale, Peach Pit from Beverly Hills 90210, the aforementioned The Max from Saved by the Bell, and Arnold's from Happy Days. Many of these television restaurants are what The Grassy Knoll was initially based on.
Mops opens a clothing store called "Tony Jamaica's", which is a nod towards real-life clothing retailer Tommy Bahama. JFK points this joke out, but Mops doesn't get it.
Joan finds a "Goonies Clause" in the contract, which references to the 1980's movie The Goonies, wherein a bunch of enthusiastic teens fought to have their home saved from a corporation that was trying to tear it down to build a country club in its place.
Joan had saved receipts from The Grassy Knoll, where her name was misspelled. This is a joke on how Starbucks is notorious for getting people's names wrong on their coffee cups.
Joan calls Confucius a "Rockefeller" for wanting food that doesn't give him diarrhea.
Joan's flashback to the 90's is presented in the format of a Little Golden Books story called "A Little Cloney Book".
Joan's psylly legs started in 1991, when she went to a John Cougar Mellencamp concert, where the latter announced he'd be dropping the "Cougar" from his name.
- This meant that Joan would have gone to his concert at Carnegie Hall in New York on September 16th, 1991, as this was the only concert he performed in that year. It was also his last live performance before the release of his album, "Whenever We Wanted", which was his first album to credit him as John Mellencamp, minus the "Cougar". Naturally, this would have been where he made the announcement of his name change.
David Tennant has a starring role in Joan's film, Film Du Fundraising.
Joan is nostalgic over a lamp that resembles the Leg Lamp from A Christmas Story, but Abe doesn't think that movie holds up anymore.
Mandy Moore re-appears and has a This is Us poster (hastily vandalized to "This is NOT Us") in her garbage can.
Joan is glad that she won't turn out like Jamie Sullivan in the 2002 movie A Walk to Remember. In the movie, Jamie dies of breast cancer at the end of summer.
Mr. Big Corporation is the ex-stepfather of Cleopatra.

Historical References[]

Abe says that he hadn't seen Joan care this much about "passed-out fliers", since Amelia Earhart drank all the peach schnapps. Apparently, there was an incident where the clone of famous airplane pilot, Amelia Earhart, overdosed on peach schnapps, thus being a "passed-out flyer".
JFK's hypothetical statement about if one were to "drive off a bridge and accidentally kill a gal" is a reference to the Chappaquiddick incident from 1969, when the real-life JFK's younger brother, United States Senator Ted Kennedy, drove off a bridge while leaving a party, left his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne to suffocate, and did not immediately report the incident. It is considered to have ruined his chances of becoming president in the future.