| Cookie Goes to Hospital | |
|
The Kids of Degrassi Street, Episode 2  | |
| First Aired | September 1, 1980 |
| Production Code | 201 |
| Episode Guide | |
| Previous Ida Makes a Movie |
Next Irene Moves In |
Cookie Goes to Hospital is the second episode of The Kids of Degrassi Street. It first aired on September 1, 1980. The second episode of the Degrassi Franchise overall, it debuts the character of Noel Canard, the INC Club and the piano theme for which the show became known.
Plot[]
When Cookie goes to hospital without her doll, Ida and Noel, having sworn a pledge of loyalty, have to get it out to her somehow, but the hospital is a pretty scary place.
Synopsis[]
In the brief teaser, Ida and her friend Noel are heard talking as they come out of the Degrassi Grocery, discussing Cookie Peters and her doll, about she they can’t let her bring it, and how attached she is to it.
After the credits, Cookie is seen in what appears to be a newly-built clubhouse, talking and playing with her Raggedy Ann doll, mentioning that she doesn’t feel good. Immediately afterwards, the reason for all the talk becomes clear: Noel, Cookie, and Ida are founding a club, and Cookie doesn’t understand that her doll can’t be a member. Following an elaborate oath of friendship, they have a short debate over what to call the club, with Noel favoring, “NIC,” and Ida, the president, deciding on, “INC." As they argue, Cookie gets up and goes home, claiming again that she doesn’t feel well. Ida, however, is convinced that she’s just upset, and they all fail to notice that Cookie has left her doll behind.
Ida goes home, where her mother and her brother Fred are watching a soap opera set in a hospital, a genre that Ida vocally dislikes, along with hospitals. (Fred, strangely, seems to be enjoying the cheesy drama.) Mrs. Lucas, at work at her drawing board, receives a phone call from Cookie’s mom, mentioning tests. Hanging up, she tells Ida that Cookie is sick, and needs to go to the hospital. Moreover, she has forgotten her doll, only saying that it’s in “a secret place,” and Ida needs to bring it to her. Mortified that Cookie will have to have an operation, Ida shows a great deal of hesitation in delivering the doll to the hospital, as her mother suggests.
Afterwards, Cookie is seen lying in a hospital bed, grim and unhappy as her father kisses her goodbye. Another girl plays in the bed next to her, but Cookie does not say hello. A nurse comes in, Tricia, who tells her about what they think Cookie is sick with, and about the operation. She asks “Catherine Peters” about her name, and is surprised to find that everyone calls her Cookie, and she doesn’t know why. Trying to keep Cookie’s spirits up, she points out that the girl in the next bed, who is fine, just had her tonsils out, and that it’s perfectly fine if Cookie wants to bring her doll. (The nurse even offers to use the doll to show what the doctors will do, assuring Cookie that she won’t need an operation, too. Cookie reiterates that the doll is in “a secret place,” and that Ida should know where it is Leaving, the nurse asks if Ida is her sister, and is puzzled to hear, “She’s not my sister, she’s my PRESIDENT!”
Shortly after, Ida and Noel come to the hospital: Ida to drop off the doll, and Noel for moral support. Ida is visibly uncomfortable, particularly as they board the elevator along with a sick patient on a stretcher. Worse still, an officious, unhelpful nurse stops them as they come off, since visitors under 12 are not allowed on that floor. She does not even listen to their protestations about the doll as she hustles them out.
A dejected Ida and Noel talk about the situation, with Ida inclined to obey the give up in the face of inflexible, and Noel then taking her to task for supposedly violating their oath of friendship. He suggests that Ida try to sneak past the nurse, insisting that it’s her job, not his, since she’s the president. When Ida asks how to do it, Noel sees a laundry cart going by, and says he has a plan…..
Nurse Tricia returns to Cookie’s bed, with a doll she calls “Nancy.” She wants to use the doll to teach Cookie about the hospital, but Cookie wants her The nurse feigns understanding, since Cookie says Ida will bring the doll soon. She asks to leave Nancy with Cookie, who stares at the doll after she leaves. Ida and Noel’s attempt to sneak in fails miserably, with the desk nurse dismissing them just as rudely as before. Meanwhile, Cookie talks to her Doctor, and then again to Nurse Tricia, who still wants Cookie to listen to Nancy the Doll’s talk about the hospital. Seeing Cookie distraught over Ida’s failure to appear, Tricia promises to look for Ida. But she gets Cookie to agree that she will let Nancy be her doll if Ida can’t get there in 30 minutes.
Ida decides to go home, over Noel’s protestations. Meanwhile, the desk nurse is seen reacting with surprise to an internal phone call. But when another patient comes by on a stretcher, Ida suddenly changes her tune, deciding to make one more try, because “What if Cookie’s REALLY sick?” Noel agrees, but insists that it’s Ida’s turn to think up a plan this time.
Half an hour later, Nurse Tricia returns to Cookie’s room with an IV bag. Holding Cookie to her promise, Tricia shows her how the operation will go, using Nancy: they put a bandage on her where Cookie will have one, show her where the IV will attach, and Cookie even gives her a fake “shot” with an empty needle. Tricia then takes Cookie off to get cleaned up for her operation. Ida and Noel make one last, comical try to sneak into the hospital, dressing up Ida in a doctor’s costume with a fake nose, moustache, and glasses. This ends just as badly, with the nurse still refusing to listen, protesting that she’d lose her job if she let Ida in, even though she’d like to. “Rules are rules,” she reiterates a final time, and says goodbye.
Nurse Tricia comes back one last time, to give Cookie her shot of anesthetic (which doesn’t hurt as much as she thought), as she still protests that she wants her doll. Tricia gives in, and promises to find Ida, even writing down her number. At last coming back to the desk nurse (who has been having a very bad day even aside from Ida, possibly accounting for her behavior), who tells her about Ida, after with Tricia rushes off to find her. A gentle race against time ensues, with Cookie being carted to the emergency room, while Tricia finally digs up Ida (the desk nurse sees that they STILL haven’t left), and hurries her after. Cookie thanks Ida as she passes out, leaving Ida (who still has her Groucho mask on) to wonder how Cookie recognized her when she’s in a disguise.
Shortly afterwards, Ida and Noel are back in the clubhouse, discussing how to spell “amendment”: Ida is changing the rules, so that Cookie’s doll can be part of the INC Club, despite the fact that neither of them likes dolls. After all, they’ve learned that sometimes rules need to be changed. They write it down, and make it official, taking the proclamation to Cookie in the hospital, where they find her in the playroom with her doll, telling her how the operation won’t hurt. Cookie is thrilled by the new rule, and Ida, who said she hated hospitals, now says she wants to be a doctor.
In the final scene, Cookie is heard giving her doll’s oath of friendship at the INC clubhouse, and then Noel and Ida, eagerly asking her about the operation.
Trivia[]
- This episode debuts the character of Noel Canard, although his last name is not given.
- Cookie’s full name is established to be Catherine Peters. It is also established that she doesn’t know why everyone calls her “Cookie."
- Ida states her age in this episode as “9 and three-quarters,” while Noel is 10.
- This episode’s hospital scenes were filmed at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto.
- This is the first episode to use the piano theme that is identified with the show, which plays throughout the story. It was written by Lewis Manne, Archie Manne, and Wendy Watson, and arranged by Paul Zaza.
- This episode introduces the plot arc of the INC Club, named for the initials of its members: Ida, Noel, and Cookie.