Losing Your Lemon

Losing Your Lemon is the 41st episode of 6teen and the 15th episode of the second season. It aired on December 12, 2005 in Canada and on April 30, 2009 in the USA.

When Caitlin pays off her credit card debt, she gets her card back and quits her job at the Big Squeeze. Soon, Tricia notices and takes advantage of this, by taking Caitlin on shopping sprees and getting a group of doppelgängers to take over the table by the Big Squeeze. Meanwhile, Jude and Starr begin playing with the Super Terrific Happy Sushi fish tank.

Main Plot
Caitlin is mixing up drinks for her friends, but is refusing to serve the drinks or let her friends leave until Jen arrives, as she has big news. When Jen runs up, she's barely able to sit down before Caitlin puts drinks in front of all her friends. Along with the drinks, she serves up big news: as of yesterday's paycheck, she's paid back her father, and has been given her credit card back.

This news cheers her friends up, but when Caitlin heads off to christen her credit card, Jen and Nikki begin to worry that Caitlin might go off the deep end again. To make sure she doesn't, they find her and remind her what happened the last time that she had plastic in her wallet; Caitlin doesn't enjoy their suspicion, but she is willing to promise them that she won't buy more than one thing at Von Ditch. As soon as they leave, though, Tricia calls Caitlin over to her and her friends. There, Tricia makes up with Caitlin by offering 25% off coupons and an apology for being mean, and soon Caitlin is tearing up the mall with Tricia and purchasing only one thing per store.

Doing all this shopping means that Caitlin gets laden down with bags, and when she passes the Penalty Box, Jen sees them and puts two and two together. Her reaction is to go over to Caitlin and confiscate Caitlin's credit card before telling her friends so that they can organize an intervention. The guys are reluctant to participate, but are willing to listen to Jen's plan, so the party goes off to the Big Squeeze to discuss possible ways to intervene in Caitlin's shopping spree. When they arrive there, though, they find that another group has taken over the table where they usually sit. This group consists of Tricia and five people who look a lot like the group, who have had their spot reserved by the girl who took over Caitlin's job.

Jen is upset at this turn of events, but the gang's hands are tied, as Katie is in charge of the Big Squeeze and, by proxy, in charge of who gets the nearest table. To make matters worse, the argument that the group has had with their doppelgängers has taken up the entirety of Jen's break, and she has to go back to work, where she finds Caitlin tricking Coach Halder into giving back her card. Jen won't stand for Caitlin falling prey to shopping addiction again, and she commands her friend to hand the card over. When Caitlin makes a break for the exit, Jen does the only thing she can and begins wrestling with her. Caitlin ends up winning, and escapes with her card, while Jen gets a ten-minute penalty for wrestling with a customer (with an extra two minutes tacked on as a penalty for losing).

When the group next meets, they find themselves underneath an incredibly loud speaker playing bad music. They find themselves unable to concentrate, and move to the fountain, but there are too many distractions there as well. Their next attempted meeting spot is Underground Video, but they get thrown out of there as well because Wayne doesn't like them using it as a meeting spot. Eventually, they find themselves underneath the speaker again, but this time Wyatt has an idea: he'll drown it out with his own music. Wyatt starts to play, but soon his attention is caught by the sound of another guitar, this one coming from the Big Squeeze. Wyatt plays back, and soon a guitar battle ensues between him and Wendell–one that Wyatt loses, much to his humiliation.

When Caitlin comes into Khaki Barn, she runs into trouble in the form of Nikki. Nikki grabs Caitlin's card, refuses to let her buy anything, and leads her to Jonesy's post at the mall information booth. There, an intervention is held, and the identity of Caitlin's shopping partner comes out. When confronted by the fact that she's shopping with Tricia once again, Caitlin has no idea what to say to justify herself; however, the point soon becomes moot when she learns how Tricia has taken over the regular table. Caitlin quickly devises a solution that involves Katie taking Jonesy's job and Caitlin taking her job back, and the plan is put into motion.

Even though Caitlin is once again in charge of her workplace, the doppelgängers still refuse to leave. A staring contest between Josh and Jude is decided on to choose who will be allowed to stay, but Josh loses when Caitlin hits him with a lemon to make him blink. She then proceeds to kick all of the doppelgängers out by throwing fruit at them.

The next day, Caitlin once again serves lemon drinks to her friends. However, when Wyatt takes a sip of his, he finds a shard of plastic in it. Wyatt asks her why this is, and Caitlin explains that she put her credit card through the blender, just to ensure that she wouldn't be tempted again. To further ensure this, she returned most of the items she bought; those she couldn't, she donated to charity.

Sub-Plot: The Fish Tank
Jude is hanging out by the fish tank in Super Terrific Happy Sushi with Starr, with both of them pretending to be a fish swimming inside, when Hiro begins to complain. The reason for his complaint is that despite playing with his fish tank, neither Starr nor Jude have bought a meal at his shop. He proceeds to try and throw them out, but receives boos from his patrons, who were enjoying the show; he responds to this by letting them stay and play, but with the caveat that from now on Hiro will be the benevolent emperor.

Later that day, when he talks to Jonesy, Jonesy points out a drawback of being so close to Starr: Jude might soon end up as her lapdog. This starts to worry Jude, and although he has a good time on their next date at Super Terrific Happy Sushi, he can't shake the feeling that Jonesy might be right. When Jonesy reminds him that it could easily end painfully, Jude decides that the time is right for him to end it, and he breaks up with Starr.

When his friends find out, they are aghast, especially Jonesy, who quickly claims that he was only kidding. Upon hearing his friends remind him that he does like Starr, Jude realizes that he messed up, and he heads back to the sushi restaurant, where he finds a lonely Starr playing with the fish tank. He joins her and apologizes, and they get back together–much to the joy of Hiro, who loves a happy ending.

Quotes
Starr (red fish): Hi, small, blue, and scaly! Do you cruise here often? Jude (blue fish): Well I will now that I'm digging your dorsal. Hiro (big fish): You two do not belong here! You must leave this place! Jude (blue fish): It is the evil warlord! The destroyer of mellowness! Hiro (big fish): I am not evil warlord! Hiro: I am owner! If you do not buy sushi, you do not play with fish tank! Now leave! (He ushers Jude and Starr out, but stops when he hears the customers complain.) Okay, you can stay, but from now on, I am benevolent emperor, NOT evil warlord! Nikki: What if we just tie her up? Wyatt: What, the music or the fact we had to get crappy drinks from That's Just Grape? Nikki: Take your pick! Jonesy: Well I haven't exactly been throwing myself into this gig...I'd say maybe twenty-five? Old lady: AM I EVER GOING TO GET SERVED?!? Jonesy: Make that fifteen. Nikki: Okay, okay. Maybe we were out of line. Jen: Sorry, but promise me you'll buy only one thing here today? Caitlin: Okay, I promise. Caitlin: Okay, but I'm only buying one thing. Tricia: Only one thing per store, right? Caitlin: Oh! Right! Jen: You bet. Jonesy: I'm good. Nikki: I could use a pillow. Wayne: Yeah? Would you like the same one I'm gonna suffocate Wyatt and Jude with when I fire them? Caitlin: Where is she? Jude: I broke up with her. Nikki, Wyatt, Jonesy, Jen, and Caitlin: (shocked) What? Jonesy: Why did you do that? Jude: Because you told me to. Nikki, Wyatt, Jen, and Caitlin: Jonesy! Caitlin: Ooh, sorry! I must've left a credit card shard in the blender. (Wyatt stares blankly.) I finally destroyed Daddy's card. Jen: Way to go, Caitlin.
 * Jude (blue fish): What a fine day here on the reef. It sure would rock to have a finned friend to frolic with.
 * Jen: We might want to have a little chat with that girl.
 * Jonesy: This sucks!
 * Caitlin: How many minutes do you think you have left before you get fired?
 * Caitlin: I just spent a year wearing a lemon on my head to make up for the money I spent. Remember? Give me a little credit!
 * Tricia: Time to get your shop on!
 * Coach Halder: Ten minute penalty for wrestling with a customer. Plus two minutes for losing.
 * Wayne: Everyone comfy?
 * Jude: I wish Starr was here to see that. She loves a good fruit beating.
 * Wyatt: (holding a shard of plastic from his drink) What's this?

Trivia
Reason for firing: He kept giving customers incorrect information, causing chaos in the mall.
 * Jonesy's job: Information booth operator

Errors

 * Caitlin defends herself when Nikki and Jen try to convince her to come back to the lemon, saying "I spent a year wearing a lemon on my head to make up for the money I spent, remember? Give me a little credit." This implies that this episode takes place about a year from the pilot episode, "Take This Job and Squeeze It."
 * However, if this were true, that would mean the group would either be 17 years old, or were fifteen and their 16th birthdays were sometime afterwards. This seems to contradict the series' apparent floating timeline, as the group (except for Caitlin) is apparently 16 throughout the entirety of the series.

Episode connections

 * Kristen and Kirsten of The Clones reuse their disguises from the episode "Going Underground" while in line for Von Ditch.
 * Melinda Wilson reappears in this episode, but has darker clothes and black hair, which greatly contrasts from her appearance in the episode "Silent Butt Deadly."
 * Nikki suggested setting up Caitlin on dates with Wayne as a torture method, but later on in the season 4 episode "Role Reversal", Caitlin and Wayne did go on a date.
 * Coach Halder's poor eyesight plays a minor role in this episode. This would be further expanded upon in the episode "The Hunted" as a major plot point.
 * One of the riffs Wyatt plays during his guitar battle with Wendell plays again in "Snow Job."

Cultural references

 * Von Ditch is a parody of Von Dutch.