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Out of This World
Cold Feet
Ups and Downs

"How enchanting! Come along, Valerie."
Harry Herpst accepting Phoebe and the Bus into Herp Haven on their search for Liz

Cold Feet (Warm- vs. Cold-Blooded) is the twelfth episode of the second season of The Magic School Bus. It first released on all PBS stations in the USA on November 25, 1995.

Summary[]

Phoebe is seen rushing to the school (accidentally knocking Carlos off his skateboard in the process) to bring Liz home, only to discover that Liz has mysteriously disappeared, with the rest of the class conducting an exhaustive search around the classroom for their class lizard. All of Liz's belongings are missing, as well as her entire habitat, and Ms. Frizzle arrives wearing an alligator suit, completely cognizant of Liz's absence. The rest of the class are shocked by the teacher's seeming lack of concern for Liz, and Wanda finds a note behind the trash can, but discovers that it is written in esoteric lizard drawing and she can't understand it. Ms. Frizzle reads and translates the material Liz wrote on the note and the class is convinced that Liz moved out. Arnold comes across a sheet with the address to a place that appears to say "Herp Ha" (since the other part of the "Ha" word has been torn off). Arnold is sure that Liz went to the "Herp Ha" place, but Ralphie asks out loud what a herp is. Ms. Frizzle informs the class that a herp is a reptile, and since Liz is a reptile herself, Phoebe suddenly desires to know what it is like to be a reptile to get an experience of how Liz feels so that the class can figure out where Liz is.

This prompts Ms. Frizzle to lead the class to the Magic School Bus and drive off to find Liz. Arnold can't help asking if they're on a field trip or a rescue mission, or both. Regardless, they arrive a place called Herp Haven, and Ralphie views a sign that says "Alligator Crossing". Just then, the gate opens, and a limousine enters and stops inside the place. A chauffeur exits the limousine and escorts a woman named Mrs. Westlake out front the back with her large ponderous pet turtle. When Mrs. Westlake arrives at the front door of the house, she tells the owner she wants the turtle "toasted and stuffed", which convinces the fearful class that the turtle is about to be killed and served for dinner, and Liz might be next. Wanda rings the doorbell dressed in a pink baseball uniform and tries to persuade the man who answers the door if she could get her lost baseball from his yard. The man says that she needs the optimum body temperature and scales without hair in order to enter his home and turns her away.

Since Herp Haven only accepts reptiles, Phoebe and Dorothy Ann come up with the idea to transform the Bus into into the Busigator, a "Trojan alligator", which the students hide inside while Phoebe walks it to the building. She knocks on the door and the man invites Phoebe and the Busigator (which Phoebe calls Valerie, after Ms. Frizzle's first name) inside. The man takes "Valerie" inside a secret room and tells Phoebe that he will "let her know when she's done", much to Phoebe's horror, as she fears the Busigator will soon be killed.

Phoebe sneaks into a hallway to search for Liz, and the Busigator is taken to a large room with a habitat for reptiles. "Valerie" swims in the water and the class sees different types of reptiles crawling around the room, including a Jackson's Chameleon that Dorothy Ann says greatly resembles Liz. Ms. Frizzle then transforms the class into reptiles to look for Liz incognito with the exception of Arnold and Dorothy Ann who volunteer to stay behind and look after the Busigator. Ralphie becomes a turtle, Carlos becomes a caiman, Keesha is turned into a snake, Tim turns into a gecko, Wanda becomes a chameleon, and Ms. Frizzle becomes a frill necked lizard. After figuring out how to use outside heat sources to warm themselves, they continue their search for Liz and open a mysterious door. When they exit the room, the Busigator Arnold and Dorothy Ann are inside is confronted by a real alligator. Dorothy Ann, through her research, informs a frightened Arnold of how rare alligator attacks on humans are. Arnold, still frightened, reminds Dorothy Ann that they are shrunken humans inside the Busigator, though he does say that he hates to have to tell her that.

Meanwhile, Phoebe, still searching the corridor for any sign of Liz, comes across the kitchen where a chef (the same man who greeted her at the front door) is cooking food for the reptiles. Phoebe enters the kitchen as soon as the man leaves and is appalled by the low amount of food servings each reptile is getting. The rest of the class then comes into a hot boiler room and, despite the heat, end up not sweating due to reptiles not having any sweat glands. Ms. Frizzle pushes a bucket of water across the room to allow the class to cool themselves down, but Wanda reminds them not to get distracted, since they still have to find Liz.

Back in the reptile habitat, Arnold and Dorothy Ann feel cold due to being inside the Busigator, which is in cold water itself. They can't start the Busigator's ignition, so they attempt to move the heat lamps to warm the Busigator, only to get followed by the other reptiles, whom Dorothy Ann thinks are angered by she and Arnold stealing their only heat sources. They run back inside the Busigator to avoid the reptiles' potential wrath. The rest of the class then enters a room called the "Quiet Room" and finally find Liz sleeping inside a tank. They try to wake Liz up, but the sleeping lizard doesn't budge, and Keesha says that she can't even hear or feel her heartbeat. The rest of the class begin to worry.

The class believes that Liz is probably frozen and learn that since reptiles can't shiver like humans do when they're cold, their bodies are dramatically slowed down, which is tantamount to hibernation. The rest of the class begin to slow down as well and fall into stupor due to the cold. Phoebe enters the quiet room and, though initially surprised to see the class's reptilian transformations, picks up Liz and uses her own body heat to warm her up, finally waking her. Phoebe then picks up the rest of the class and runs through the hallways toward the door, only to run into the man from the front, who chases her back down the hallways. Phoebe hides inside the reptile habitat room and finds that the Busigator is hibernating too, and Arnold and Dorothy Ann are trapped shivering inside it. The rest of the class moves to the heater and hops inside of the bus so Phoebe can haul it over to the heater, where it finally gets enough energy to regain consciousness.

The Busigator makes it out the back door, only for a trio of real alligators to approach them. Phoebe, fearing the gators are coming to attack them due to not having eaten for a month, begs Ms. Frizzle to do something about it. Ms. Frizzle transforms the Bus into a giant, bus-sized Komodo Dragon, turning herself and the rest of the transformed class back into their normal forms, and attempts to escape, only for the man named Harry Herpst to return Liz's habitat to them (which Herpst is revealed to have built for her), which he was repairing to make Liz feel cooler and more comfy. Ms. Frizzle explains to the class that Liz was staying at the Herp Haven to get her habitat fixed and she wanted the rest of the class to find out for themselves, since she almost told them herself.

Trivia[]

  • This is the second time the students (except for Arnold, Dorothy Ann, and Phoebe) are transformed into animals.
  • This is the first time a Bus form is named in the TV series. Its alligator form was given three names: Trojan Alligator, Busigator, and Valerie.
    • Arnold and Dorothy Ann stayed with the Bus to keep it warm.
    • Phoebe went around the sanctuary to look for Liz.
  • The book, "Liz Finds a Friend", from the Liz series is a direct sequel to this episode. It takes place during the weekend that Phoebe had spent with Liz.
  • Wanda wears her baseball uniform from “Plays Ball”.
  • During the opening sequence for this episode on the Region 1 DVD releases The Magic School Bus: The Busasaurus, The Magic School Bus: The Complete Series, and The Magic School Bus: Season Two, the Bus appears a lighter shade of yellow.
  • The shot of Liz hammering and the producer receiving a phone call was re-used for the second half of the Holiday Special.
  • The TV tie-in book is titled "Gets Cold Feet".
  • We learn how Liz's habitat was built.
  • Arnold does not say "I knew I should have stayed home today." in this episode.
  • When Phoebe says "We turn The Bus into a Trojan alligator!", production artifacts (a circle with A/L inside) is seen at the top right.
  • On DVD and streaming, the soundtrack of the episode (except the theme song, Producer Says intro, and credits) is played at a lower pitch. The key is normal again on other platforms.
  • A sequence of screenshots showing Phoebe pulling a "knock, knock, ginger" on Mr. Herpst is used to demonstrate the Ding-Dong-Ditch Distraction trope on TV Tropes.

Goofs[]

  • When Phoebe says "Oh, no!" after retrieving Liz, when she notices the alligators are about to approach her and the Bus, she appears to be smiling, yet she should have a concerned look on her face.
  • When Wanda gets off the bus at Herp Haven, she says, "I told you it wasn't Herp Ha!" to Ralphie, despite telling Arnold (the only student to actually say "Herp Ha") that it wasn't "Herp Ha".

Gallery[]

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