Bee Day (Phineas and Ferb)

“Bee Day” is the first half of the 5th episode of the fourth season of the American television animation series Phineas and Ferb. It originally aired on Disney Channel in the United States on April 26, 2013. The episode was story by Dani Vetere, directed by Sue Perrotto, and Russell Calabrese is an assistant director.

The boys make a giant inflatable wading pool for Mom. Meanwhile, Candace reveals her “Emo” side, and Doofenshmirtz attempts to become ruler of all bees.

Plot summary
After the Bee Day Festival opening ceremonies, Linda (Caroline Rhea) is driving the family home. While the family is making bee-related puns, she sees some children playing in a wading pool, reminding her of when she used to do the same with a young Candace (Ashley Tisdale). Phineas (Vincent Martella) immediately knows what he and Ferb (Thomas Sangster) are going to do today: build a giant wading pool.

Perry (Dee Bradley Baker) enters his lair still wearing his bee headband from the festival. He gets his mission from Major Monogram (Jeff “Swampy” Marsh): Dr. Doofenshmirtz (Dan Povenmire) has acquired high amounts of bee pheromones, and it is unknown what he plans to use them for. Perry leaves on a bee-themed jetpack designed by Carl (Tyler Alexander Mann).

Back home, Candace is just finishing a “teen identity” test in Heather Magazine while talking to Stacy (Kelly Hu) on the phone about it. Candace screams to her that according to the test, her true identity is an emo teen. Stacy quickly researches the characteristics of an emo teen, and heads over to the Flynn-Fletcher house to help Candace with her new look.

In the backyard, Ferb has finished inflating the giant pool when Isabella (Alyson Stoner) comes over, asking for Phineas’s help; the Fireside Girls are trying to earn their beekeeping patches. Isabella gets lost in Phineasland again after he agrees to help; Ginger (Michaela Zee) shakes her out of it.

Perry flies over to Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated, where he is trapped by a giant flyswatter. Doofenshmirtz expounds about the bee hierarchy; while there is a queen bee, there is no king bee, a power vacancy which Doofenshmirtz intends to fill. His plan is to use his Arom-inator to spray himself with bee pheromones, thus making all the bees attracted to him; once he has been crowned king bee, he can quickly jump to ruling the entire Tri-State Area.

Stacy is helping Candace sort out her wardrobe in order to embrace her emo identity, and Candace quickly emerges with a new emo look. Stacy puts her through one final emo test; she has to resist the urge to bust her brothers and settle into ennui. After a push from Stacy, Candace quickly accepts the inevitability of her failure, saying that “No one understands me anyway.”

Isabella leaves the Flynn-Fletcher backyard with the sorbet machine, repurposed to turn people into bees. Phineas invites her and the Fireside Girls to come back after their patch ceremony and play in their wading pool.

Meanwhile, Baljeet (Maulik Pancholy) has been talking to Ginger about bee dancing, and Ginger asks him to tell her more. However, Phineas calls him over for some help, and before he can continue talking to Ginger, she is gone.

Linda spots Candace passing through the kitchen, and points out that she went through a similar phase as a teen. She suggests that Candace write poetry.

At Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc., having attracted the bees to the balcony, Doofenshmirtz captures them with a vacuum cleaner, but almost activates its self-destruct button. In demonstrating that he puts self-destruct buttons on everything, Doofenshmirtz accidentally self-destructs his underwear.

Back at the giant wading pool, Buford (Bobby Gaylor) has joined Phineas, Ferb, and Baljeet, and suggests they get started. Phineas points out that he said he’d wait for Isabella, to which Buford by mocking Phineas’s voice. After the others point out how accurate the impression was, Phineas decides that they can all test the pool to make sure it’s up to their usual standards, which they do.

On Doofenshmirtz’s balcony, the evil scientist decides to test out the sprayer, and blasts himself in the face with the bee pheromones. Charlene (Allison Janney) stops by to pick up Vanessa’s (Olivia Olson) headphones, and comments on how the pheromones do make Heinz more attractive. She leaves after he reminds her of what caused them to break up: a tomato hand puppet.

At the same time, the 4 kids finish testing out the wading pool, which ends in Candace’s old wading pool. Watching them from under the tree, Candace writes some emo poetry, which Phineas calls “pithy.”

Back at D.E.I., as Doofenshmirtz sprays himself with the pheromones again, Perry uses his hat to set the vacuum cleaner on reverse, ejecting the bees, which completely cover Doofenshmirtz. Perry uses his tail to saw himself out of the trap, and activates the Arom-inator, spraying the rest of the pheromones, causing the bees to go after them instead. Doofenshmirtz thanks Perry for saving him, but Perry immediately self-destructs the Arom-inator after Doofenshmirtz is stung on the tongue. Doofenshmirtz tries to say “Curse you, Perry the Platypus!”, but is muffled by his swollen tongue, and points out that Perry should know what he’s saying from the context.

The pheromones end up landing on the giant wading pool, and the swarm of bees, attracted to the pheromones, lift the whole thing into the air. The bees pop the pool, causing water to drench Candace, as Candace’s old wading pool, the only part unaffected, lands safely in the backyard and is refilled by some of the water. Linda emerges with iced tea and points out how sweet it is that Phineas found Candace’s old pool. Isabella and the Fireside Girls arrive, and start wading with Linda.

Meanwhile, Stacy comes out, having re-checked Candace’s test results. She reveals that Candace added up her score wrong, and that her true identity is “the busting and crush-obsessed older sister type, who can’t do math.” Candace immediately starts “but-but-but”ing, but now fully in tune with her identity as an Emo, she resigns herself with a single “Whatever.”