The Lords of Malltown

The Lords of Malltown is the 46th episode of 6teen and the 19th episode of the second season. It aired on May 22, 2005, in Canada on Teletoon, and on November 24, 2008, in the United States on Cartoon Network. When Wyatt realizes he's too uptight, he gets Jude to help him out by having Jude teach him how to skateboard. Meanwhile, Caitlin forces Jen to have double dates with her since her crush Billy refuses to go anywhere without his best friend Carl. While all this goes on, Jonesy takes a job as the mall janitor.

Main Plot
When Wyatt and Jude arrive at work late, Wyatt is worried while Jude is nonplussed. As it turns out, Wyatt's apprehension is misplaced, as Wayne simply steals Wyatt's coffee while telling him to chill. Having received this suggestion from both Jude and Wayne, Wyatt asks them if they think he's uptight. When he receives an affirmative answer, Wyatt initially moves to protest, but has all of his complaints shut down and is proven uptight when two girls looking for movie suggestions take advice from Jude and Jonesy rather than ask Wyatt for help.

Wyatt doesn't want to believe that this is true, but when he goes to see Nikki with a demo of his new song, she confirms his fears by telling him that not only is his heartbroken phase getting old, but his sound is totally uptight. Upon hearing this, Wyatt decides to make a change, as he can't stomach his music becoming toxic, and goes to ask Jude for help with getting out of his rut. Jude is all too willing to help, and he advises Wyatt to become a skater under his tutelage.

Soon, Wyatt is learning from Jude in the middle of the mall. However, since Jude's way of teaching is to use trial-and-error, Wyatt finds himself continually failing in public. After a few public humiliations, Wyatt is ready to quit, so Jude decides that it would be best for them to make a change of venue where he can tutor Wyatt in-depth about how to ride a skateboard.

Jude chooses the back hallways of the mall as Wyatt's classroom. There, Wyatt spends a lot of time trying to master the basics, but eventually manages to get the starting points down. Once he does so, Jude decides that Wyatt's training is complete, and he and Wyatt hit the mall. There, the two skateboarders rip it up, pranking Ron and having fun.

This breaks Wyatt out of his rut, and soon he is getting accolades from other teenagers for his stunts and starting to relax. Not only does this help Wyatt stop being so uptight, but he also writes a song that is not heartbroken at all. When he performs it at Grind Me, the crowd cheers him, as he's finally gotten over his obsession with his breakup.

Sub-Plot One: Billy and Carl
It is a normal day in the mall when Caitlin drags Jen into Spin This. The purpose of their visit is simple: Caitlin wants to show Jen her newest crush, Billy. When Jen spots him, she agrees with Caitlin's assessment that he's cute, and when he comes over to greet them, Caitlin and Billy quickly hit it off, so Billy introduces them to his best friend Carl.

Carl is the opposite of his friend: slobbish, unstylish, and not particularly good-looking. However, Caitlin really likes Billy, and when Billy invites them all to go to a comic book signing, Caitlin readily agrees. While Jen is unwilling to go out with Carl on a double date, Caitlin is able to beg Jen into agreeing to the offer, and all four of them end up going to the signing.

While there, Caitlin and Billy split off from Jen and Carl, leaving them there while Carl gets his comics signed by Nitro Bob. Naturally, this does nothing to endear Carl to Jen, and after the date is over, Jen concludes that going out with Carl was less fun than picking at her own zits. The only good takeaway she can find is that at least she'll never have to go out with Carl again–or so she thinks until Caitlin signs them up for a lunch double date. Jen is not happy with this turn of events, but she has no way to bail, and when date time rolls around she finds herself sharing a booth with Caitlin, Billy, and Carl.

Billy and Caitlin continue to hit it off on the lunch date, which annoys Jen because that leaves her with only Carl to chat with. Eventually, the strain becomes too much, and she pulls Caitlin into the bathroom to talk to her. Caitlin promises that she won't leave Jen behind when pressed, but soon this promise proves to be a lie as well, as Billy suggests that he and Caitlin take off for the Gigantoplex and Caitlin quickly agrees.

Caitlin doesn't want to completely mess up Jen's life, however, so she leaves behind her wallet so that the rest of Jen and Carl's date will be paid for by her. As soon as Billy and Caitlin leave, however, Jen gets up as well, since she can't see any point in sticking around. When Carl asks her why, she angrily tells him that she doesn't like him, hurting his feelings. Carl can understand where she's coming from, however, and when Jen apologizes for being so harsh, they make up and Carl suggests that Jen put Caitlin's money to good use so that they can have a fun afternoon together.

In the meantime, Billy and Caitlin are having a good time at the movies when somebody spills his soda all over Billy's shirt. Billy takes off his shirt to wring it out, but when Caitlin catches a glimpse of Billy's back she is shocked. Billy has acne all over his back, and try as she might Caitlin cannot stomach such a thing. As a result, she breaks up with Billy, but when Jen hears about how shallow Caitlin was she is livid–and, consequently, grateful that she and Carl spent so much of Caitlin's money on having a fun afternoon out together. The gang laugh at this while Caitlin is distraught at being broke.

Sub-Plot Two: Janitorial Jonesy
While Jude and Wyatt are practicing skateboarding, a janitor comes in and removes his sunglasses and false beard, revealing himself to be Jonesy. As soon as he sees his friends, Jonesy tries to disguise himself, but fails at doing so as they have already spotted and recognized him. When they ask him what he's doing, Jonesy tells them the truth: he took the janitor job since it pays well, but since it's not going to be good for his street cred, he wears a disguise while on the job. Because he can't keep such a plan up forever, his idea is that he'll work for three weeks, quit, and live out the rest of the year on his earnings from the janitorial job.

His male friends accept this and promise to keep his secret. However, when it comes to his secret, Jonesy is his own worst enemy, as he walks in on Jen and Caitlin in the El Sporto's washrooms, where they recognize him. Even then, they promise not to tell anybody, but Nikki is able to figure out who the janitor is. This irritates Jonesy, as he's certain that he'll receive plenty of ribbing from Nikki for his uncool job; however, Nikki tells him not to worry, as she considers her job at the Khaki Barn much worse. This leads to Jonesy taking off his disguise and sweeping the mall normally, but this turns out to have negative ramifications for him, as he ends up getting fired–and, due to taking off his disguise, he is unable to apply again as himself.

Quotes
Jen: Ew. Wyatt: But that was– Wayne: Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh uh uh uh uh. Wyatt: ...mine. Wayne: What is it, a tadpole? Wyatt: It's a music note. Wayne: Are you sure that's not a mole? 'Cause it looks like a mole. Wyatt: What? Jonesy: You're so tight you squeak, man. Billy: Nepal! Caitlin: (crying) Billy and I broke up. Jen: Oh no! What happened? Nikki: He had (over-the-top horrified look) bacne! Wyatt: Serena who?
 * Carl: You have a cute butt too.
 * Jen: You can stop looking at my butt anytime now.
 * Wayne: Chill, my brother, no need for drama, just hand over my suck-up coffee.
 * Wyatt: Check out this crazy tattoo action! I got it on a dare.
 * Jude: You're tighter than an airlock.
 * Nikki: Um, do I have "Free Phone Minutes" written on my forehead?
 * Jen: Hey! Where are you going?
 * Jen: I've had more fun popping my own zits than I did last night!
 * Jonesy: Washroom...check. Still here.
 * Jen: Here's your wallet, Caitlin.
 * Wayne: So we gonna hear you whine about Serena dumping you again?

Episode connections

 * This episode marks the second time a double date occurs. The first occurrence was in the episode "Mr. Nice Guy," where Jonesy and Wyatt went on a double date with Britney and Gina. The third occurrence was in the episode "Double Date," where Jonesy and Nikki were forced to go on a double date with Darth and Julie. The fourth and final occurrence was in the episode "On Your Mark, Get Set... Date," where Jen and Todd double-dated with Caitlin and Tom.
 * In this episode, Nikki is drinking coffee. However, in the episode "Idol Time at the Mall", Nikki went on a temporary caffeine binge, and it's highly implied she picked up on that habit somewhere in between.
 * Wyatt and Jude mention some of Jonesy's previous jobs when they argue that he's had to work at worse jobs than being a janitor, referencing the following episodes:
 * In the episode "The Birthday Boy", Jonesy had to wear a banana uniform while working at Fruitworld.
 * In the episode "The One with the Text Message", Jonesy had to wear a soup can as part of his uniform while working at Soup Village.
 * This is the second episode to deal with Wyatt's tendency about being uptight, referencing the episode "One Quiet Day". On that note, this episode premiered 23 episodes later after "One Quiet Day", the 23rd episode of 6teen.

Errors

 * When Jen and Caitlin hug, the latter's butterfly clip is over her right ear, but in other parts of the episode, the butterfly clip is over Caitlin's left ear.
 * This episode takes place after the events of both the episodes "A Ding from Down Under" and "Lights Out", where Wyatt continues to work at Underground Video and Starr not going through her goth phase anymore, contradicting the events of both episodes. However, it's possible to speculate that this episode may have taken place before those events.
 * Wyatt states that Jonesy never kept a job for more than a day, but in most episodes, he held jobs that were longer than that. It's possible that Wyatt may be exaggerating and Jonesy's jobs do end within either a day or a week.

Cultural references

 * The skateboard that Jude gives to Wyatt has a Van Halen-esque design on its bottom.
 * Wyatt mentions that Underground Video has a "Moondance Film Festival" section in-store. The festival's name is a reference to Sundance.