Here is a summary of all ten episodes in Season 1 of The Baby-Sitters Club, this post is intended to compliment the main review of Season 1 "Calling All Witches... and Wizards". There will be SPOILERS... obviously!
NOTE: The chapter numbers in the brackets indicates the chapters that actually made into the newest adaptation. I haven't read the novel Baby-sitters' Summer Vacation, but from what I heard, the last two episodes are VERY loosely based on its original source.
All pictures credits goes to Kailey Schwerman and Netflix and are used in the episodic recaps in Vulture magazine, written by Maggie Fremont. Click on each picture to see the Vulture recaps!
Episode 1: Kristy’s Great Idea
Based on the novel of the same name (Chapters 1, 3 – 6, 10, 12 – 15), Book #1 in the original series
“But to me, decorum means other things, like knowing when you’re wrong, giving people the benefit of the doubt, and most of all, being a good friend, all in order to create a more perfect union where all people are created equal.” - Kristy Thomas
Plot: After seeing her mother Elizabeth (Alicia Silverstone, aka. Batgirl in Batman & Robin) struggling to find a baby sitter, Kristy Thomas (Sophie Grace) comes up with the brilliant idea of starting The Baby-Sitters Club with her friends and makes herself president. The club’s first client is Watson Brewer (Mark Feuerstein), Elizabeth’s new fiancée whom Kristy despises. After a dispute on whether or not to take the job, Kristy struggles with her presidency. She later decides to apologize to her friends and affirms that she can’t be right all the time even as the club’s president. The successfulness of the club’s first job with Watson’s family has attracted more clients to come.
(Possible) Foreshadowing: Stacey’s reason for lying about going to New York, which might be linked to events in episode 3.
Social Issues Depicted: Gender equality, Social hierarchy
Episode 2: Claudia and the Phantom Caller
Based on the novel Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls (Chapter 7), Book #2 in the original series
“That’s when I realized, no matter who your parents are, they can always make you feel like you’re letting them down. And that feeling, the one that makes you feel sad and scared and not good enough, that’s the real Phantom Caller.” - Claudia Kishi
Main plot: Claudia Kishi (Momona Tamada), vice-president of The Baby-Sitters Club, excels at art, but is not really good at other subjects. She is recently (sort of) invited to the Halloween dance by her crush, Trevor Sandbourne, but her failed algebra test and the new suggestion made by her older sister Janine have prevented her from actually going to the dance.
Subplot: Mary Anne’s overprotective father has restricted her cell phone use after she comes home twenty minutes late. This forces Kristy to babysit for Watson’s two children, Karen and Andrew, on the night of the dance.
Foreshadowing: The ending introduces the rival company, The Baby-Sitters Agency, which will be the basis for the next episode.
Social Issues Depicted: Dependence on technologies, Family expectations and stereotypes (particularly in Asian population)
Episode 3: The Truth About Stacey
Based on the novel of the same name (Chapters 1 – 6, 8, 9, 12, also Chapter 15 from Book #1), Book #3 of the original series
“That’s when I realized I belonged. Not just to the Club, to something bigger… a community. And they liked me just the way I was.” - Stacey McGill
Plot: Stacey McGill (Shay Rudolph), treasurer of The Baby-Sitters Club, takes on the babysitting job while fighting against type 1 diabetes. She hides her insulin pump from her new friends in hopes that they will treat her normally, instead of as a sick girl back in her old school in New York. However, the competing business, The Baby-Sitters Agency, attracts clients from the club and reveals Stacey’s past after the agency’s laziness and carelessness around the children is exposed by the club. Stacey, with the help from her new friends, explains the situation to the club’s loyal clients and regains their trust, she then decorates her pump and starts to show it in public with confidence.
Foreshadowing: Elizabeth tells Mary Anne that Claudia’s grandmother Mimi is good friend with Mary Anne’s deceased mother, which prompts her to find out more at the beginning of the following episode.
Social Issues Depicted: Medical conditions, Cyber bullying
Episode 4: Mary Anne Saves the Day
Based on the novel of the same name (Chapters 1 – 3, 6, 11 – 13, 15, 16), Book #4 of the original series
“You can’t always tell from someone’s outside who they are on the inside. But if you never ask them, they never get a chance to surprise you.” - Mary Anne Spier
Plot: Mary Anne Spier (Malia Baker), secretary of The Baby-Sitters Club, always feels like a baby based on how she looks and how her overprotective father Richard treats her. After a misunderstanding that makes Richard believe the other girls in the club have bullied Mary Anne, the secretary loses all her friends but starts a new friendship with Dawn, who just moved in from California. When the transgender girl that Mary Anne babysits comes down with a fever, she rushes her to the hospital and defends her identity in front of the doctors that have mislabeled her. Richard witnesses everything and admits that her daughter has grown up. Mary Anne finally takes on a new look that matches her age and reconciles with her friends.
Foreshadowing: The revived relationship between Richard and Dawn’s mother Sharon. The two were in love with each other during high school years.
Social Issues Depicted: Helicopter parent, Acceptance of homosexual relationship, Transgender identity
Episode 5: Dawn and the Impossible Three
Based on the novel of the same name (Chapters 1 – 3, 5, 7, 9, 13, 14), Book #5 of the original series
“We don’t have a choice in who our parents are. You get who you get. If you’re lucky enough to have them at all. There are no bylaws of being a mom or dad. No rules. No written constitution you can read over winter break.” - Dawn Schafer
Main plot: After the winter break, Dawn Schafer (Xochitl Gomez) is recommended by Mary Anne to join The Baby-Sitters Club. However, before Dawn can officially become a member, she is challenged by Kristy to babysit the Barretts, a family with three messy, hyperactive children and Natalie, a recently divorced mother. Dawn succeeds on the first day, which makes Natalie depend on her more to keep the house together. When Buddy Barrett goes missing, Dawn enlists Kristy’s help. They eventually find out that Buddy went to a swimming lesson with his father, and Natalie fails to communicate that to Dawn. Kristy confides in Dawn about her desperation of needing a father figure in her life whenever she is reminded by the father-children relationships around her, and appoints Dawn as alternate officer of The Baby-Sitters Club.
Subplot: Richard approves Mary Anne to get a few pillows and a new lamp as a way to redecorate her room. When he sees Sharon and the girls tear down the already peeled wallpaper in Mary Anne’s room, he asks everyone to leave, which in turn has distanced himself from both Sharon and Mary Anne.
Foreshadowing: Richard stares at a picture of (revealed in the next episode to be) his pregnant wife hanging up a picture of Humpty Dumpty, which was taken down during the renovation of Mary Anne’s room.
Social Issues Depicted: Struggles of post-divorced family, Acceptance of homosexual relationship, Degradation of maternal roles, Attachment to nostalgia
Episode 6: Claudia and the Mean Janine
Based on the novel of the same name (Chapters 4 – 5, 7, 9, 11, 15) , Book #7 of the original series
“’The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.’ I thought that was an old Buddhist saying, too, but Janine said it was actually some guy named William Faulkner? I think it’s a good one, because the past, the good and the bad, will always be with us. We have to understand where we’ve been to know where we’re going, and the images each of us need to show the world.” - Claudia Kishi
Main plot: After an argument between Claudia and her intelligent but apathetic sister Janine, their grandmother Mimi is sent to hospital with stroke. When Claudia visits Mimi, she discovers that she gets startled when she sees or hears about peach, house and horse. Janine later explains to Claudia that all these images are linking to Mimi’s tragic childhood in Manzanar, a concentration camp set up by the Americans to hold the Japanese during WWII (the family was living in a cold, dark horse shelter and eating stale canned peaches).
Subplot: Claudia and Stacey plead to Richard to give them another chance to redecorate Mary Anne’s room, to which he reluctantly agrees. After the room is finished, Mary Anne is still not satisfied about how it looks. She later finds out the connection between the Humpty Dumpty picture and her mother and saves a spot on the bedroom wall to commemorate her.
Foreshadowing: The club receives a call from the Pike family, hinting the trip to Sea City as the main plot of the next episode.
Social Issues Depicted: Prejudice/unjust treatments to racial minority, Mending generational gap
Episode 7: Boy-Crazy Stacey
Based on the novel of the same name (Chapters 1, 4, 5, 7, 9 – 11, 13, 14), Book #8 of the original series
“The thing about love is… Actually, I don’t think I really know that much about love yet. But one thing I do know is that the people who deserve your love are the people who have always loved you. And the people who deserve your love are the people who stand by you through thick and thin” - Stacey McGill
Main plot: Stacey is partnered up with Mary Anne to babysit the eight Pike children during their week-long trip in Sea City. When Stacey falls in love with Scott, a lifeguard on the beach that is significantly older than her, she leaves her babysitting duties for Mary Anne to handle. Stacey later sees Scott with his girlfriend and is left heartbroken. She eventually gets out of the slump after chatting with one of the Pike children. Just before everyone leave Sea City, Stacey apologizes to Mary Anne and makes matching spray painted T-shirts as souvenir of this trip. She also receives a gift from and shares her first kiss with a new friend, Toby, who is visiting from Canada.
Subplot 1: When Elizabeth and Watson are out of town, Kristy babysits Karen and Andrew. When Karen and Andrew use steel wool and scratch the paint on Watson’s old and rare car, Kristy tries to find a solution. Watson eventually finds out and calls Kristy, the two agree to keep this a secret from Elizabeth.
Subplot 2: Dawn calls Richard in an attempt to get him and Sharon back together. Richard then sends a turtle to Sharon as a gift of apology.
Foreshadowing: Kristy mentions the preparation of the wedding of Elizabeth and Watson, which will take place in the next episode.
Social Issues Depicted: Romance with age difference (also touches on homosexual romance)
Episode 8: Kristy’s Big Day
Based on the novel of the same name (Chapters 11, 13 – 14), Book #6 of the original series
“I started The Baby-Sitters Club to take care of kids, but what I didn’t realize is that it was also to take care of me, because we were more than a club. We were best friends.” - Kristy Thomas
Plot: Elizabeth and Watson are getting married, and Kristy senses an enormous amount of change happening in her family as they get the first taste of rich life that Watson can provide (including a brand new car, a family heirloom tiara, and a new bridesmaid dress for the wedding). Just before the wedding, Elizabeth scolds Kristy for purchasing an expensive bridesmaid dress with Watson without her permission, their argument ends with Kristy disapproving of her mother’s marriage and her new family. During the wedding reception, Kristy gets her first period while desperately trying to find a moment to apologize to her mother. She finally talks to Elizabeth just before the couple leave for their honeymoon.
Foreshadowing: The Club is planning their summer camp at Camp Moosehead.
Social Issues Depicted: Social class differences, Maternal dependence, Menstruation
Episodes 9 and 10: Hello, Camp Moosehead! (Parts 1 and 2)
Based on the novel Baby-sitters’ Summer Vacation, Book #2 of the Super Specials Series
“[Kristy] So, yeah, camp didn’t quite turn out the way we planned. [Claudia] It turned out better. [Stacey] Because we learned something. [Mary Anne] No matter where we were or who we met along the way, [Dawn] we were still us.” - The Baby-Sitters Club
Prologue: The Baby-Sitters Club arrives at Camp Moosehead… but they are immediately faced with their first surprise. The camp director Philomena “Meany” Means assigns the club into separate cabins: Claudia and Dawn in Cardinal; Stacey and Kristy in Bluebird. Mary Anne is assigned Meadowlark alone and she meets Laine Cummings, a camper from New York who shares interest in Broadway productions. The story is then separated into four plots without a single narration like the other episodes.
Plot 1: Mary Anne and Laine decide to put on a production of Broadway musical Paris Magic, with Stacey as female lead and Mary Anne’s crush Logan Bruno as male lead. After a series of mishaps (including the sudden drops of set pieces, the tension between Stacey and Laine, and the scare of “the hermit’s curse” started by Karen), Mary Anne is forced to step in as the female lead of the play and take control of the production in her own way. She and Logan bonds during the process and they share a kiss after the sudden shut down of their first performance.
Plot 2: When Stacey arrives at the audition and comes face to face with her former best friend Laine (who takes part in sharing Stacey’s insulin shock video back in New York), she promises to keep it professional during the production if Laine chooses to do the same. This later proves to be impossible when the two get into a fight, stumble into a poison ivy bush and are forced to stay in the infirmary together because of the rash. They bond over the daytime drama The Days of Our Lives and clear out all the misunderstandings they have for each other for the past year.
Plot 3: Claudia and Dawn find a serious problem with the art class at Camp Moosehead: the campers are required to pay extra money on top of their expensive camp fees in order to participate in the class. Claudia, in an attempt to create a “utopia” where everyone can express themselves freely, starts her own free art class. But she gets caught soon after and is escorted back to her cabin. Dawn starts a revolution for justice that converges into a camp-wide strike too big for Meany to handle. Meany threatens to send both Claudia and Dawn home before Kristy comes in and let her realize the serious imperfection of this camp.
Plot 4: For her first time at Camp Moosehead, Karen isn’t exactly fitting in. She therefore does what she does best: spreads the rumour of an ancient hermit’s curse in the camp’s theater, and then “saves the day” to make everyone like her. When a chain of accidental events “verifies” the existence of this curse, and as she becomes more isolated from her friends, especially from her new stepbrother David Michael, Karen tries to catch a bus home at an abandoned station. Kristy finds Karen with the help from Mallory Pike and Jessi Ramsey and convinces her to come back to the camp and spend the rest of the summer as sisters.
Epilogue: All members of the Baby-sitters Club are promoted to Counsellors in Training. They promise Mallory and Jessi jobs in the club as Junior Officers for their help in searching for Karen.
Social Issues Depicted: The impossibility of utopia, Diversity of art expressionism, Approach to equality in social classes, Adaptation of relationships in blended family
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