Career Day

Career Day is the 30th episode of 6teen and the 3rd episode of the second season. It aired in Canada on November 17, 2005, and in the United States on July 23, 2009. The group gets their aptitude tests back from the school and find out their suggested careers. As a result, all of them start trying to train for the advised careers–except for Nikki, who hates her suggestion, and Jonesy, who doesn't want to know what he got and is busy with his new job as the mall's PA announcer. Meanwhile, Jude accidentally tapes over Wayne's favorite movie of all time.

Plot
It is a normal day at the mall when Jonesy's voice comes booming over the mall's loudspeakers. He tells everyone that today will be a good day and invites all girls shopping for lingerie to come up to the Mall Security office so that he can give his opinion. As soon as he finishes his spiel, Jude runs into the door of the office, shocked that Jonesy's new job is doing the announcement. Jude then tells Jonesy that he's got the aptitude tests they took, and Jonesy uses the system to tell his friends to come to the Big Squeeze so they can open the tests. Before Jonesy can leave, however, Ron arrives with a look of anger on his face. He swiftly places Jonesy's equipment in a corner of the room and cordons it off, telling Jonesy that he's only permitted to be in that space while on the job. Jonesy is shaken by Ron's lecture, but after it's over, he leaves with Jude for the Big Squeeze.

At the Big Squeeze, the gang is gathered and ready. Jude starts to make a speech about the occasion, but Jen has to get back to work, and so she cuts him off by tackling him. This tackle sends some of the tests flying, but Jude is able to round them up and put them back in their envelopes. When the aptitude tests are opened, each of them has future suggestions: Wyatt should be a food critic, Jen should be a snowboarder or run a snowboard company, Jude should be a product spokesmodel, and Nikki should be–much to her chagrin–a retail specialist. To make matters worse, Caitlin's suggested job is travel writer, which is something that Nikki always wanted to do.

As the day goes on, the aptitude tests affect the gang's lives. The Clones start to treat Nikki as one of their own, as they all got retail specialist on their aptitude tests as well. Wyatt gets into an argument with Wayne over coffee while at Grind Me, and tries to win it by claiming he'll be a future food critic. And the normally responsible Jen is starting to slack off at work, as she's certain she'll be a success anyway. This irresponsibility extends to the point that when Jude and Wyatt call, needing her help, she takes off from work without being excused.

Caitlin, meanwhile, starts to work on writing. Her first step is to buy some new clothes, but after that she grabs a meal with Wyatt in hopes that something will come out of it. Nothing happens for her, but Wyatt has an easy time figuring out a review of his food. Unfortunately for him, the waitress hears his opinion, and throws him out of El Sporto's for his unsolicited opinion.

This helps Caitlin find her flow, however, and when Nikki and Jen have a conversation where they figure out that Jude must have accidentally switched the tests, they can't bring themselves to tell Caitlin the truth, as she's fully absorbed in writing. However, the truth comforts Nikki, and she no longer worries about what her career might be. Coach Halder comes by at that point, and is about to yell at Jen for taking so many breaks, but Jen tells him that she's getting back to work, soothing his ire. She then admits to Nikki that she shouldn't have been goofing off so much, as she's not famous or rich yet.

Later, the group meets back at the Big Squeeze to talk about things. Wyatt has decided to focus on music, as his food criticisms were not received well anywhere that he gave them. Caitlin, meanwhile, was so proud of her travel article that she handed it in in lieu of a Shakespeare assignment; while she got a failing grade for the assignment, her teacher did mention that her writing style was excellent. Before Jen goes back to work, however, she tells Jonesy what his suggested job was: floral designer.

Sub-Plot One: Jonesy on the PA
As the new announcer, Jonesy decides to spice things up. His first act after returning to work is to announce a gigantic, 80% off sale at Taj Mahome Video. Naturally, there's no such sale going on, but the massive stampede of shoppers headed there don't know that. As a result, his enemies Blade and Christo get stampeded by a horde of shoppers.

Ron isn't happy with Jonesy's actions, but he can't intervene, because every time he tries Jonesy sends him off to another false emergency. First, Ron is sent to the medical tent to help with injuries sustained by the victims of the Taj Mahome stampede. After that, Jonesy sends him to take care of a kid peeing in the mall fountain, a puke spill in the food court, and a couple that are busy making out in the photo booth. However, Jonesy slips up and stops paying attention, and it's at that point that Ron is able to get back into the Mall Security offices. Once he's there, he fires Jonesy for misusing the PA system.

Sub-Plot Two: Wayne's Favorite Movie
When Jude and Wyatt come into work, they find that Wayne is moody and has just banned a customer from the store for not complaining about a movie. Before Wayne can notice them, Starr comes by, and Jude decides to talk to her and asks Wyatt to cover for him. Wyatt moves in to talk to Wayne and sees that the video store manager is kneeling before a shrine that holds the videotape. Wyatt asks what the point is, and Wayne informs him that the tape in question is a copy of The 77th Samurai, which he considers the masterpiece of Oshataki Obligato, the director whom the shrine is dedicated to. Wayne and Wyatt head out to get lattes from Grind Me when Jude walks in. Jude has just finished talking to his girlfriend, Starr, about movies, and he knows of one that she should see. In order to make a copy of it, he takes the VHS-tape from the shrine and starts recording over it.

When Wyatt comes back before Wayne, he finds out what Jude has done and immediately panics. They then call Jen for help, and she leads them to look for it. Taj Mahome Video doesn't have any copies when they look there, and neither does the bookstore; however, when they check the internet they find out that there's a copy in the mall at Super Terrific Happy Sushi. Wyatt and Jude head over, and both attempt to do their suggested jobs while there. Jude is successful, as he gets handed a fish costume and stands outside of the store to advertise their wares. Wyatt isn't as successful, however, as Hiro does not appreciate his review, and instead makes him clean out the fish locker.

However, Wyatt leaves the tape in Jude's possession, and Jude has lent it out to Starr. The result is that Starr copied over the tape again, destroying another copy of Wayne's movie. Wayne comes back, and the duo have no option but to confess that they destroyed his tape. Wayne's reaction is to sigh and admit that he has an idiot-proof copy at home; however, as punishment for destroying the tape, he's going to make them swim with the fishes. He then grabs them and leads them towards the fish tank at Super Terrific Happy Sushi with the intent of throwing them in.

Quotes
Wyatt: Had to hurt. Nikki: (raising her head up) I feel nothing. (She slams head onto the table again). Nikki: All I see is black. All black. Oh wait! There's a cliff. Chrissy: Big party pooper! Nikki: (gasping) AH! (She runs out of the Khaki Barn.) Jen: (walking by) Nikki? Nikki: (shivering in a corner) How did I end up with retail specialist? Jen: There must have been a glitch in your aptitude test. (gasping) Jude! He must have switched yours and Caitlin's results! You should have gotten travel writer! Nikki: (hugs Jen) Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! Now what should I do first? Burst Caitlin's bubble, or kill Jude? Decisions, decisions.
 * (Nikki slams her head onto the table after realizing that her career test told her she was going to be a retail specialist.)
 * Caitlin: I don't even enjoy English class. Those career people must see something in me that I don't.
 * Kirsten: We totally get it now. You've been in denial all this time and that's why you were such a bi-
 * Chrissy: Nickster? Nikkikens? Nick-a-rama-ding-dong?

Trivia
Reason for firing: He sent Ron on pointless chases throughout the mall in an attempt to keep him away from his office.
 * Jonesy's job: Mall announcer.

Errors

 * Nikki mentions wanting to kill Jude, with Jen blaming him for mixing up the career results. Jen, however, is at fault because she lunged at Jude, causing him to mix up the results.
 * Jude mentions using deodorant daily, but has been known to never bathe.
 * If Wayne truly wanted to idiot proof the copy of The 77th Samurai in the store, he would have removed the erase protection tab, which would have prevented Jude from recording over it (the VCR would have ejected the tape when Jude tried to record on it because the tape was protected).

Episode connections

 * Jonesy's career is "floral designer". He would later work at a flower shop in the episode "Baby, You Stink", where he would later be fired because his bad body odor made every flower wilt.
 * This episode marks the second time since Jonesy worked with Ron. The first instance took place in the episode "The Slow and the Even-Tempered", where he worked as an assistant security guard.
 * Nikki's nightmare was to still be working at the Khaki Barn in her senior years. She stated in her first interview that in five years, she'd see herself "not working at a mall".

Cultural references

 * Wyatt's method of using lemons to remove the fish smell from him is based on the 1980 film "Atlantic City", wherein a major plot point is a young woman performing the same procedure.
 * Wayne's statement about how he "loves the smell of toddler puke and sawdust in the morning. It smells like...the food court," is a reference to the line "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Smells like...victory," from "Apocalypse Now."
 * In the same scene, he mentions that Wyatt and Jude are on double-secret probation. This is a reference to the movie "Animal House".