Midnight Madness

Midnight Madness is the 36th episode of the series and the 9th episode of the second season. It aired on December 22, 2005 in Canada on Teletoon and on August 13, 2009 in the United States on Cartoon Network.

Nikki is returning from Acapulco, so the group decides to throw her a welcome-back party at Jen's house. Unfortunately, it seems that every member of the group has a different idea of what the party should be like.

Plot
After Caitlin can't wrangle an invite to a party from a guy she likes, she's on the verge of giving up on New Year's Eve, so Jen suggests that the group spend the new year together and welcome Nikki back. Upon hearing about this, Caitlin is interested, and her interest only deepens when Jonesy proposes the idea independently and suggests that they host it at Jen's house, since Jen's parents are going to be going out on a date. Jen is at first reluctant, since she fears that the party will result in mayhem and destruction, all of which she'll have to clean up, but when the group assures her that the party won't be a huge event–just them–Jen decides that she would be willing to ask her mother for permission to use the house.

Emma has no problems, and soon Jen has the house for a party. When she suggests a sleepover, Jude happily agrees, as he loves sleepovers; the party planning then begins. Wyatt agrees to score some DVDs from work, and Caitlin decides to make a scrapbook celebrating the year. At that moment, Serena walks by and says hello to Wyatt, shocking him.

Later, though, Jen is having second thoughts, as her sister is making her do chores for her in exchange for being out of the house during the party. To make matters worse, Coach Halder has revealed that his New Year's resolution is to double everybody's sales quotas. However, when Nikki calls, Jen is convinced that the party is a good idea, since Nikki is grateful for the opportunity to escape from her family after spending her entire Christmas vacation with them.

Meanwhile, at Underground Video, Wyatt is working when Serena comes up to him and confides that she's been having relationship problems with Chad. Naturally, this cheers Wyatt up, although he does his best not to show it. She suggests that they might have coffee later before they leave, which perks Wyatt's spirits up. Wayne tries to temper his enthusiasm, but Wyatt isn't listening; however, at that moment Jonesy and Jude walk in, looking for horror movies. While there, they meet two girls and give them invitations to the party.

At Big Squeeze, Caitlin is working on the scrapbook when her crush Brandon arrives. As it turns out, he's having a party and wants to invite her. Caitlin jumps at this opportunity, and is eager to go. While Caitlin does this, Jonesy and Jude plot to get even more women to their party. They plan to do this by taking them from another party, specifically the one that Blade and Christo are throwing. Soon, Jude is messing around in Taj Mahome Video as a distraction, which allows Jonesy to grab the list while Blade and Christo aren't looking. With the list in hand, Jonesy begins calling women and telling the bad news: Blade and Christo's party has been cancelled, but Jen will be throwing a different one at her house.

Later, Wyatt walks into Grind Me and sees Serena crying. When he approaches her, he finds that the result of her despair is Chad, who will be ditching her on New Year's Eve to go to a concert. Because of this, Serena will have to attend Charmaine's party alone. Wyatt takes the bait, and soon Serena has an invite to come to Jen's party instead of Charmaine's.

When the group next meets as a whole, Jen is exhausted from doing stuff for Courtney. Her spirits are buoyed by the prospect of the upcoming party, though, and to help cheer her up she takes a gander at Caitlin's scrapbook. What she sees shocks her: Caitlin has only done one page, and has doodled various signs of love to Brandon all over the pages. At this point Caitlin comes clean: Brandon asked her out, so she'll be ditching the gang to spend the night at his party instead. This angers Jen, and she is only made more emotional when she overhears Jonesy inviting girls to his place. Before she can say anything, however, Blade and Christo arrive, make clear to Jonesy that they know what he's doing, and take back their list. Wyatt then shows up, and when Jen reveals to him how she's been betrayed by three members of the group (Caitlin, Jonesy, and Jude), Wyatt proceeds to betray her as well, as Serena may not be up for a party and so he might not be able to come either. When Jen hears this, she becomes completely fed up with her friends and storms off.

Later, everyone has left Caitlin alone at work when Brandon shows up. When he sees the doodles Caitlin has made in the scrapbook, he comes to the conclusion that she's a creepy stalker, and disinvites her from his party. Things don't go much better for Jonesy and Jude, as their original two invites not taken from Blade and Christo's list have now been invited to Blade and Christo's party and accepted due to hearing about what Jonesy tried to do. The only one who has a good outcome is Wyatt, because Serena isn't in the mood for a big party, leaving Jen's party as the perfect option because nobody will be going.

When Wyatt tries to tell Jen, however, he finds out that his dreams will come to naught, as the party has been cancelled. Jen's reason is that she feels betrayed by her friends, none of whom considered how she might feel when they all chased dates. As soon as Wyatt leaves, Jen gets a call from Nikki, and she passes the news to her friend that the party has been cancelled due to their friends all sucking.

The guys end up gathering by the Big Squeeze and ruing their luck. Jude is tired of all the pressure to have a good New Year's Eve and decides to give up and just watch movies in his room. Jonesy likes this idea, and asks to come over, as does Wyatt with Serena. Jude agrees to let them all hang out in his room, and then invites Caitlin along. Caitlin agrees, and decides to get back to work on the scrapbook.

Of course, the group wouldn't be complete without Jen, so they head over to the Penalty Box to invite her to come with them. While Jen is surprised by the choice of venue, she figures that spending time with them will still be better than being alone. That night, she's the first one to arrive, and she finds the accommodations noticeably lacking, as Jude didn't even bother to clean up. As soon as Jude leaves, Jen calls Nikki and informs her that the party is now held in Jude's bedroom. Nikki feels sorry for her, but is hung up on by the kid sitting behind her, leaving Jen wondering what's going on.

Soon, though, her attention is distracted by the arrival of the rest of the group. Most of them begin setting up a place to sit and a movie to watch, but they are quickly drawn to the activities of two people: Serena and Wyatt. Wyatt is trying to comfort a heartbroken Serena, and appears to be succeeding when Serena gets a call from Chad. When she picks up, she learns that Chad didn't go to the concert because she was more important. Upon hearing this, Serena quickly leaves to spend time with her boyfriend, breaking Wyatt's heart once again.

Wyatt's friends are around to comfort him, though–including Nikki, who walks through the door just after Serena leaves. Soon, the group are having a good time eating junk food and looking through the scrapbook that commemorates some of the great experiences that they've had over the last year. The experiences all have something in common, though: they all involved friends.

Quotes
Jen: And where will this extravaganza take place? Jonesy: Your house. Jen: What? Jonesy: It just so happens that Jen's mama and my papa are going out New Year's Eve, which designates Jen's house as Party Central. Wyatt: Awesome! Jude: Cool! Caitlin: Perfect! Jen: As if! I can see it now. Broken vases, crap everywhere to clean up, no. Way. Caitlin: What is? Brandon: Your name? Caitlin: Oh, right. Jonesy: Hi guys. I can explain! Jude: That's just my gym socks. Sit anywhere that doesn't move, dudes.
 * Jonesy: I say we crank this New Year's Eve thing up a notch! We're gonna throw our own party.
 * Brandon: It's Caitlin, isn't it?
 * Jen: Hello, welcome to hell.
 * Christo: Okay, freak. Circus hour is over.
 * Christo: (addressing Jonesy) Hey there, Dad.
 * Jen: Oh, I understand. I understand! I understand I need a whole new set of friends!
 * Wyatt: Sheesh! Have a cow, why don't you!
 * Jude: New Year's Eve is starting to feel like an exam or something. I just want to fail and get it over with.
 * Serena: Ugh! Did some animal get loose in here?
 * Jonesy: I resolve not to get fired this year.

Errors

 * Jen calls Nikki while the latter is still on an airplane. In the real world, most airlines ban the use of cell phones due to the possibility of the signals interfering with the ground networks.
 * On a related note, in part 2 of the series finale, this was a major plot point.
 * In this episode, Wyatt and Serena are seen together, but in the episode "Pillow Talk", Serena had gotten a restraining order against him, meaning that either the order had expired, or Ron was no longer policing him.

Episode connections

 * Jude discusses sleepovers in this episode, including those he had with Wyatt, calling back to the episode "Unhappy Anniversary" where the sleepovers at Wyatt's house were a plot point.
 * Wayne remarks to Wyatt that women are "all sisters." Wyatt made this same comment to Caitlin in the episode "Deadbeat Poets Society."
 * The photos in the scrapbook are all from previous episodes. In order, they are:
 * Wyatt's performance at Star Contest (from "Idol Time at the Mall")
 * Jude dancing on the table at Grind Me (from "Deck the Mall")
 * Caitlin with a foam mustache (from "Deck the Mall")
 * Wyatt with braided hair (from "Unhappy Anniversary")
 * Nikki dressed like a Clone (from "Employee of the Month")
 * Jonesy onstage at Star Contest, pants around his ankles (from "Idol Time at the Mall")
 * Jen wearing a pig nose (from "Boo, Dude")
 * Jude's butt tattoo (from "One Quiet Day")
 * Nikki dancing onstage (from "The Girls in the Band")
 * The gang sitting in Santa's lap, with Jonesy as Santa (from "Deck the Mall")

Cultural references

 * Wayne mentions that The Big Pill is one of the most horrific movies ever, as it's about middle-aged boring people reliving their college days. The plot for the film is a reference to the 2003 film Old School, which was about depressed men in their thirties wanting to relive their college days.
 * Jude mentions that he's looking for The Sisterhood of the Backpacking Khakis while in Taj Mahome Video. The name is a reference to the film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The series is referenced later, in "Bye Bye Nikki? Part 1" when the girls are watching a movie called The Sisterhood of the Traveling Shorts.