Welcome back to Teeny Bopper TV Breakdown! Today we recap Radio Free Roscoe, episode 4, “Radio Wars.”

When Kim Carlisle passive-aggressively announces on Cougar Radio that the lame Radio Free Roscoe flyers in the TP-ed cafeteria are coming down because they weren’t officially approved, the RFR teens are incensed and make fun of her on their show, which the school principal then makes sure to share with her (he is an adult, why is he involving himself in the drama?!). Kim pretends not to care, but clearly does.

When Radio Free Roscoe turns their sniping about Kim into a new segment called “Gripe of the Day,” she steals the idea and adds “Beef du Jour” to Cougar Radio. She didn’t run it by the principal, though - when he hears “Cougar Radio is dedicated to giving you a forum to provide your opinions,” he spits out his lunch and confirms it is NOT on the approved agenda. Nobody calls her…until Ray does, in which he complains about having to listen to Cougar Radio over the school intercom every day, and Robbie follows, using his DJ name of Question Mark and sharing exactly where she got the segment idea with the whole school. By this time, the principal has made his way to the radio booth and begins berating her, so Kim’s first attempt at a fight has officially failed.

Kim tries again later that day, referencing RFR’s “dramatic recreation of a Kim Carlisle broadcast” by rebranding herself as Semicolon, calling RFR “No Talent Roscoe,” and playing songs by “a band you’ve never heard of” as well as “self-indulgent garbage” by “Shoddy Lame” (a play on Lily’s Shady Lane alias). But again, the principal inserts himself and shares that RFR is giving it right back to her with an original diss track that’s actually quite catchy.

Time to step it up a notch: Kim calls a Josh and bribes him - he needs to do something for her or she’ll tell his parents what really happened to the car. The next day, the school newspaper’s headline says “RFR behind vandalism,” indicating that our foursome were the ones who did the toilet paper prank. So of course, they defend themselves on that day’s show and Ray points to Kim as the “reliable source” behind the article (she’s listening with the principal and quickly turns it off as the “narc” accusations against her grow). But when Travis asks Ray who his source is about Kim, Ray can’t answer, and the others realize they just did to Kim what they think she did to them, making them no better than Cougar Radio.

Kim tells the principal she wasn’t the source for the school newspaper article, but he doesn’t believe her, and actually asks her to go back on the air and call a truce. She responds, “And let them win?!” in disbelief, and he basically says something back about letting them think they’re winning so they stay harmless. He accompanies her back to the booth to make sure the statement is read as written, and the RFR members listening know they have no choice but to accept. Ray and Travis create a peace sign around the Cougar Radio booth - using RFR flyers. They then catch another prankster in the act and look shocked, as Travis uses a flip phone to take a photo as evidence.

The next day, Kim announces over Cougar Radio that RFR spray painted “RFR Rules” on the school walls. As the principal then takes over the airwaves to make a statement, we see her looking smug and Travis showing the photo to Robbie, who says they shouldn’t show it to the principal because they’re not narcs and giving Kim the chance to redeem herself is the right thing to do - though this is also their chance to see her squirm. As the principal talks about involving the Roscoe police in an investigation through which the culprits will face criminal charges, Travis hits “send” and Kim gets a new email. As we all suspected, the photo is of Kim doing the graffiti. She stops the principal from speaking and says, “I just got word from one of my sources that the vandalism may be a frame job” (yes, by you) and says they’ll be no better than RFR if they do anything without knowing all the facts. Yeah, yeah, cover your tracks. On their show, RFR sings a song about giving peace a try, and elsewhere, Kim responds, “Not going to happen.” The camera focuses on what’s either a camcorder or tape recorder - settle in, folks, we’re in for a bumpy ride.

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