S04E04 - Open Enrollment

"Open Enrollment" is the fourth episode of Season 4 of We Can Fix Pawbert. It falls on the pack's first weekday living together at Pawthorne Mansion, days after Pawbert's release, and turns from the paperwork of freedom to the question of what he does with it. He goes back to the university he was enrolled in when he was arrested, with Luther beside him.

Synopsis

On the pack's first weekday living together at Pawthorne Mansion, Pawbert Lynxley decides to visit Gnu York University, where he was a business student before his arrest three years earlier. Luther Pawthorne drives everyone in and drops officers Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps at Precinct 1, then walks the Savanna Central Hub campus with Pawbert and tells him he studied economics and political science at Columbear before choosing ZSI. Student Services coordinator Ayo refers Pawbert to registrar Mr. Hedger, who lays out three holds on his account: academic, for four unfinished courses; financial, for unpaid fees; and administrative, because the Lynxley investigation sealed coursework tied to the family's finances. Reentry advisor Dr. Hornridge urges him not to force himself back into business. Outside, Zootopia Enquirer reporter Bree Vantage ambushes Pawbert about his conviction and his relationship with Luther. He tells her he is there as a student rather than as a Lynxley, then walks away. When the pack gets home, Luther's parents, Harlan and Maris Pawthorne, have let themselves in with a casserole. Over dinner they embarrass Luther with childhood stories, reveal his nickname Lute, and describe how he came out to them at fifteen. Maris tells Pawbert he belongs in their family, and Harlan welcomes him at the door. That night Pawbert tells Luther he wants to try Social Work, and a course catalog on the nightstand sits folded to an introductory course.

Plot

Pawbert sits at the kitchen table with a mug of coffee gone cold and the GYU admissions page open in front of him. He was a business student there three years earlier, until the Zootennial Gala and the choices that followed it. He has clicked the returning-students link three times and backed out of it each time. Luther tells him he does not have to go today, and Pawbert answers that if he waits he will keep finding reasons, until he has convinced himself he never wanted it. Luther's own office is still being set up, so he offers to come along.

Luther drives the pack in and drops Nick and Judy at ZPD Precinct 1. On the rest of the drive he gives Pawbert a piece of himself he has never mentioned: he studied economics and political science at Columbear, kept his options open between the family business and government, and chose ZSI because it mattered. The campus comes into view with no gates and no walls around it, and Pawbert, who spent two years inside a place defined by them, takes that in.

They walk the Savanna Central Hub together. Pawsington Square has its fountain and the falafel cart Pawbert used to allow himself once a week, still under the same red umbrella. Past it are the brutalist block of Pawbst Library, where he spent finals nights in the 24-hour study space, and the glass of the Kibble Center, whose clubs he never joined because he was trying to be invisible on a campus where his family had funded the business school library. Outside the library a passing student recognizes him and murmurs to a companion, and Luther shifts position to shield him without making a show of it. The tour ends at Silvermane Center, which houses the School of Social Sciences, a side of campus Pawbert never had reason to enter.

Ayo, the gazelle who coordinates Student Services, has already pulled his file. She names the gap in it without editorializing, tells him there are holds on his account, and writes two referrals on a notepad: the registrar for the paperwork, and a reentry advisor for everything the paperwork does not cover.

Mr. Hedger, a gnu who has seen every administrative complication a university can produce, works through the holds one at a time. The academic hold exists because Pawbert withdrew mid-semester outside the proper process and shows incomplete in four courses, which a retroactive withdrawal can correct with court records and proof of incarceration. The financial hold is $1,263.16 in unpaid lab and activity fees, against the two hundred dollars in Pawbert's account. Pawbert knows Luther could write a check and make it disappear, and does not ask; Hedger offers a payment plan or a hardship waiver he expects to be approved. The administrative hold is the difficult one. The Lynxley investigation flagged coursework whose case studies referenced Lynxley Holdings, so a review committee has to decide what is admissible, and that could take weeks or longer.

Dr. Hornridge, the kudu who advises returning students, sits beside her desk rather than behind it and asks whether business is what Pawbert wants to come back to. He says he does not know, and she tells him that is the honest answer, because students who are certain they want exactly what they wanted before are no longer the mammal who wanted it. Pressed on what he actually wants rather than what he thinks he should, he can only say that he chose business because his father respected it, and that now he knows only that he does not want to be useless. She tells him to read the catalog, talk to advisors in other departments, and treat not knowing as a starting point. He leaves the building with eighteen forms, a committee review, and no answer.

At the falafel cart, Zootopia Enquirer reporter Bree Vantage, a cheetah, works through his conviction, his reintegration, and his relationship with Luther while phones come out around the plaza. Pawbert refuses both framings, telling her his relationship is not a bargaining chip and that he is there as a student rather than as a Lynxley, and then he walks. She calls after him that the city remembers what he did. In the parked car his paws shake and he admits he wanted to run, to go invisible again the way he used to. Luther lists what else the city remembers, including the testimony against his own family and his return to prison when he could have run, and tells him he controls only what he does next. They stop at Precinct 1, where Clawhauser hugs Pawbert in the lobby and carries the good donuts through to the break room, and Luther exchanges the mouse-sized desk procurement delivered to his new office.

The pack comes home to an unfamiliar sedan in the driveway. Harlan and Maris Pawthorne have let themselves in with a covered dish, and Maris calls out to her son from the next room by his childhood nickname, handing Nick "Lute" before the pack has cleared the foyer. Over reheated casserole, soup and bread the Pawthornes lay Luther out in front of everyone: the toys and shirts he labeled with symbols before he could read, the family money he refused after he turned eighteen and quietly donated to the museum fund, and the decision at fifteen to join ZSI because he wanted to be useful in a way that kept other mammals alive. He came out to them the same week. Harlan's answer then was that his son's heart was not a problem to solve, and Maris's was to ask whether he wanted stew. In the kitchen afterward, slicing bread while Pawbert heats soup, Maris tells him he is welcome in the family and not as a project. At the door Harlan shakes his paw, then pulls him into a brief hug and welcomes him to the family.

After they leave, Pawbert says he did not know it could be like that, and Luther admits he is still learning it too. Nick tells him that his and Judy's doors stay open as well. Cleaning up from dinner, Pawbert names a direction: not business but Social Work, because he knows what it is to be processed by a system instead of seen, and because of the way Sorrel works at Reentry Services and Maddie works at the dispatch center. In bed he says it out loud to Luther, who tells him he would be good at it. On the nightstand, beside the folder of forms, a course catalog he picked up on the way off campus lies folded open to Introduction to Social Work Practice.

Key Moments

• Pawbert opens the GYU returning-students page and commits to visiting campus the same day
• Luther tells Pawbert he studied at Columbear and chose ZSI over the family business
• A passing student recognizes Pawbert outside Pawbst Library
• Ayo pulls Pawbert's file and refers him to the registrar and the reentry advisor
• Mr. Hedger lays out three holds on Pawbert's enrollment: academic, financial, and administrative
• Pawbert decides the unpaid fees are his to handle rather than Luther's
• Dr. Hornridge asks Pawbert what he wants rather than what he thinks he should want
• Bree Vantage ambushes Pawbert at the falafel cart; he refuses her framing and walks away
• Pawbert's paws shake in the parked car afterward, and he admits he wanted to run
• Clawhauser hugs Pawbert in the Precinct 1 lobby
• Harlan and Maris Pawthorne let themselves into the mansion with a covered dish
• Nick learns Luther's childhood nickname, Lute
• The Pawthornes describe Luther deciding at fifteen to join ZSI and coming out to them the same week
• Maris tells Pawbert he belongs in the family, not as a project
• Harlan hugs Pawbert at the door and welcomes him to the family
• Pawbert names Social Work as the direction he wants

Key Lines

Characters Introduced

Locations

• Pawthorne Mansion — Kitchen, foyer, driveway, living room, dining room, and master bedroom
• ZPD Precinct 1 — Front entrance, lobby, and break room
• GYU Savanna Central Hub — The university's urban campus, built into a former warehouse district
• Pawsington Square — Central plaza with a fountain and the falafel cart Pawbert remembers
• Pawbst Library — Brutalist block on the campus skyline, with a 24-hour study space in the lower levels
• Kibble Center — Dining halls, club offices, and student government
• Silvermane Center — Houses the School of Social Sciences, Student Services, the Registrar's Office, and Dr. Hornridge's office

Items

• GYU enrollment forms — Eighteen of them, plus documentation for a retroactive withdrawal and a records review
• Course catalog — Picked up on the way off campus; a page folded to "Introduction to Social Work Practice"
• Maris's casserole — Brought unannounced in a covered dish; reheated for dinner alongside Pawbert's soup and bread

Notes

• Luther's background is revealed: Columbear University (Economics-Political Science), decided to join ZSI at 15, came out to his parents the same week.
• Harlan's "His heart wasn't a problem to solve" stands as the direct antithesis of Milton Lynxley's approach to Pawbert.
• The Zootopia Enquirer is a nod to the National Enquirer, the American tabloid known for celebrity gossip and sensationalist journalism.
• In the earliest drafts of Season 4, Pawbert was considering a career in law enforcement rather than social work. The change to social work worked out much better.