Welcome back to Teeny Bopper TV Breakdown! Today we recap Radio Free Roscoe, episode 9, “Detention Redemption.”

Cell phones and pagers (!) are no longer allowed on school property because of how distracting they’ve become, and the RFR teens call this a draconian decree that’s taking away their freedom. (Watching this 20+ years later when this debate is still happening and I can kind of see the value of putting your phone away makes me feel very old, but I digress). From his office, Waller is listening to the teens imitate him while scowling and squeezing a stress ball.

The next day, loophole #1 has perhaps been found: Travis and Ray bring in walkie-talkies (presumably they weren’t explicitly mentioned in the ban). But that doesn’t matter, as Waller catches Ray immediately and just as quickly gives him detention for breaking the rule. Travis tries to go the pedantic route, and he gets detention too. Of course, that’s right when Robbie starts speaking into his walkie talkie from around the corner, and he also gets caught. Ray starts muttering a Waller imitation under his breath, to which Waller snaps, “Cut that out, pronto.” Pronto is Ray’s DJ name - it seems like this may have been innocent from Waller as opposed to a veiled “I know your secret,” but it’s hard to say.

That afternoon, not only is Robbie stressed that this is his first detention, but if they don’t go on air, Waller is going to know they’re part of RFR. But he can’t devise a plan because just as he begins to ponder, a goth girl named Maggie comes into the detention classroom, and they don’t want to give themselves away. But somehow, right after that, Waller brings Lily into the room, who’s asking, “Where in the student code does it say ‘No running in the halls?’” but he shuts her down with. “Page one. Now, wouldn’t it be fun if we caught all four Radio Free Roscoe DJs at the same time? For your sakes, I hope you’re not responsible for RFR.”

Waller leaves the room, and Maggie reveals that she’s in detention for breaking and entering into Waller’s office - the proof: Travis’s walkie talkie. She’s in detention quite a bit, so she’s been able to track Waller’s patterns and knows for a fact that he listens to RFR. So if one of them doesn’t make it to the studio to put on an old broadcast, they’re definitely in trouble. When Maggie leaves the room to get a soda, that’s their sign, and off Travis runs.

Maggie arrives before Travis does, and according to her, it’s almost time for a room check - uh oh. But in those fifteen seconds, the teens somehow manage to drape a hoodie over a plastic skeleton that happened to be in the room and pull one over on Waller. Meanwhile, Travis did make it back (after causing several distractions to do so), but remembers that Robbie had taken all the prerecorded broadcasts home to relabel them - what now? He starts playing an oldies CD - that’ll have to do. But then one of the songs starts skipping, so Robbie pretends like he’s going to the bathroom, and off to the studio he goes.

Robbie’s solution? They’ll need to go on live over the walkie talkies. But then Lily and Ray break the one they have after tussling with it, and are now on a mission to find duct tape. They find some in the janitor’s closet, but get closed in by said janitor who’s cheerily whistling while taking his break. And while Robbie has now made his way back, Maggie informs him and Travis that Waller will be making his rounds again any minute, so why aren’t Ray and Lily there yet? While Robbie and Travis go to find their friends (though it turns out Lily and Ray are able to get themselves out by yelling at the janitor [who then opens the door] and pretend they were making out [Ray wishes]) and very very quickly fix the broken walkie talkie, Maggie acts as a distraction.

Success! When Waller turns on his radio, the teens are talking about how a campus cell phone ban is too far, but “no cell phones in class” is a reasonable compromise. Waller may think so too, as when he frees the students from detention and Travis asks about the ban, he says, “I’ll think about it,” which Maggie translates to “Give me a day to make it look like it was my idea.” Maggie then points out to Lily that she sees how Lily looks at Ray, and she knows Lily sees how Ray looks at her - Lily might be in total denial, but we as the audience can definitely see where this is heading.

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