S05E23 - Golden Again

"Golden Again" is the twenty-third episode of Season 5 of We Can Fix Pawbert. Set three months after the end of the Icener campaign, it turns from the fighting to what the city and the pack do next. Zootopia is rebuilding Reptile Ravine and reckoning in public with the refusal that helped create Icener, while Nick and Luther each work up to a question they have been carrying for months.

Synopsis

Three months after the Icener crisis, Gazelle headlines a benefit concert for the rebuilding of Reptile Ravine, and Gary De'Snake tours the district's finished main road with the blocks behind it still under construction. At City Hall, Mayor Winddancer puts the campaign's final toll at 2,911 dead and admits that Zootopia refused Vladifrostok's request for climate technology years ago, that the Department of External Relations buried every request that followed rather than reopen a Lynxley scandal, and that an inquiry into those decisions is underway. He announces an aid initiative for Vladifrostok and introduces Yuri Volkov, the snow leopard who cooperated with the investigation, who is going home to help run it. On the last morning of their Los Zangeles vacation, Nick Wilde proposes to Judy Hopps with an amethyst ring and a second band for himself, and she accepts. The same day in Zootopia, Pawbert Lynxley counsels a hostile young ocelot at Zootopia Reentry Services, then comes home to find the mansion strung with fairy lights and Luther kneeling with a silver band engraved with the word he once used to keep Pawbert from leaving. Two days later at the harbor, the couples spot each other's rings, realize neither knew, and Nick pushes for a double wedding. The pack also agrees that Nick and Judy will not move out. Three months of planning follow, and on the night before the ceremony each couple lies awake talking. Dawn breaks over the World Celebration Gardens.

Plot

Three months after the Icener campaign ends, the city's recovery runs in two places at once. At the Tree of Life Theater, Gazelle headlines the Rebuild Reptile Ravine relief concert to the largest crowd the house has held since the attacks began, with Fru Fru in the front row on Koslov's shoulder, Clawhauser beside them already in tears, and off-duty ZPD officers, surviving ZSI agents and ZFD firefighters filling the rest of it. In the Ravine, Gary moves down a main road that is finished and open while the blocks behind it are still scaffolds and tarps, years of work queued behind the first completed stretch. Geckos tend window boxes, a family of iguanas crosses in front of him, and the tortoise waving from a porch is the nephew of the one who died in the attack. Gary stops at Agnes's bronze statue at the west entrance and tells her they succeeded. Dominga Perón, the matriarch of a tegu family three generations deep in the Ravine, calls to him from the square, and he is already heading over with news about the new transit signs.

At City Hall, Mayor Winddancer withdraws the claim he made from the same podium three months earlier that the threat was over. He puts the final accounting at two thousand nine hundred and eleven dead, then steps out from behind the podium to say what the victory speech left out: Vladifrostok has been dying for decades with its climate systems failing, it asked Zootopia for help years ago, and Zootopia said no. He discloses that the Department of External Relations buried every later request rather than reopen a Lynxley scandal, that a public inquiry into that decision is already underway, and that the city let the Lynxley family exploit Vladifrostok unchecked for generations. Nothing excuses what Icener did, he says, but the refusal helped create the conditions he came out of. He announces a relief initiative supplying climate technology, engineering support and resources, then introduces Yuri Volkov. The snow leopard tells the cameras that Icener acted for himself rather than for Vladifrostok, that his city needs help and not war, and that he is going home to see the aid reach the mammals who need it. Winddancer closes by restating the promise the city was founded on and extending it past Zootopia's borders.

On the last morning of their Los Zangeles vacation, Nick and Judy stay in bed well past the packing. Afterward they trace the distance they have covered, from the Nighthowler case to the venom that nearly killed Judy to Pawbert living in their house and arguing with Nick for twenty minutes about waffle technique. Judy asks how a mammal goes from trying to kill you to someone you would die for. Nick answers that most of the best things shouldn't work, and that a fox and a rabbit are on that list too. When Judy calls him out for being philosophical, he gets up, tells her to stay where she is, and digs a small box out of the suitcase she has not packed yet, his paws shaking where hers can see them. He kneels beside the bed and tells her she is the most stubborn and determined mammal he has met, that she made him a cop and he has not entirely forgiven her for it, and asks her to marry him. Judy tackles him to the floor. The ring is a purple amethyst set in silver, sized months earlier with Fru Fru's help, and there is a second band in rose gold in the same box; Judy's paws are the steady ones when she slides it onto Nick's finger.

The same afternoon in Zootopia, Pawbert takes a session at Zootopia Reentry Services with a hostile ocelot of about eighteen, sent by a probation officer the kit has no use for. Pawbert reads the file back to him, caught stealing and a family situation the paperwork calls complicated, and then puts his own record on the table: prison at twenty-four, testimony against his own family, years of believing he had no business existing. He tells the ocelot that being rebuilt leaves the cracks where they are and still produces something that can carry weight. The ocelot asks how, then admits he does not know where to start, and the set of his shoulders comes down for the first time in the session.

Pawbert leaves early. Sorrel takes his afternoon appointments so he can be home when Luther gets back from the clearance evaluation that ends three months of light duty. He finds fairy lights strung along the porch railing, and inside, the foyer rearranged: more lights on the staircase, unlit candles set out on every surface, purple irises and white roses, the living room furniture pushed back. On the coffee table are a bottle of wine, two glasses, and a note in Luther's script telling him to turn around. Luther is already kneeling behind him. He tells Pawbert he stopped waiting for an anniversary because every day with him is one, that Pawbert walked into his life as an assignment and became everything, and that he spent his life being a weapon and mistook that for strength when it was only lonely. Pawbert drops to his knees and accepts. The band is silver, engraved on the inside with the word Luther used the night Pawbert tried to push him away, and it fits because Luther measured his finger with a strip of paper while he slept. Luther also confesses to the Pinfurrest board he researched the whole evening on and intends to deny.

Two days later Luther and Pawbert collect Nick and Judy from the harbor terminal. Judy sees Pawbert's ring before either couple can announce anything and screams; a moment later Luther spots the amethyst on Judy's paw. Both couples proposed on the same weekend and neither told anyone. Nick's reaction is immediate and very loud, and he keeps pushing until Luther concedes with a single flat word that Nick declares a declaration of love. Back at the mansion the pack works through whether Nick and Judy should move out now that a detective's salary makes it possible. Nick looks at The Chart 2.0 on the wall, the kitchen, the porch, and says he does not want to leave. Judy says the mansion stopped being a house some time ago. They drink to the pack.

Three months of planning follow. The pack books the Zootopia World Celebration Gardens, then fights over a guest list Nick wants to open to the entire Nine-Nine and Judy refuses to open to all 275 of her siblings. Clawhauser turns up with color swatches, fabric samples and three binders, cries through every presentation, and ugly-sobs when Pawbert asks him to be part of the ceremony; they settle on lavender and silver. Jake argues over video call that the best mammal speech has to call back to all three heists, while Amy and Judy trade looks. Fittings put Judy in white, Pawbert in deep green, Nick in navy, and Luther in black that Nick compares to funeral attire. On the last night Luther tells Pawbert he is not nervous but grateful, and that the day will be perfect because Pawbert will be in it; Pawbert thanks him for staying and gets back the word Luther always uses. Down the hall Judy admits she is terrified of her family's opinions and Nick admits her father looks at him like he is taking measurements for a grave, and they fall asleep with the rings catching the moonlight. At dawn the Gardens are set, white chairs in rows and an arch of climbing roses and lavender ribbons with the city behind it, while four mammals are still asleep at the mansion.

Key Moments

• Gazelle headlines the Rebuild Reptile Ravine relief concert to a full house
• Gary walks the Ravine's finished main road and speaks to Agnes's statue at the west entrance
• Dominga Perón and the Perón family greet Gary in the square
• Winddancer withdraws his earlier claim that the threat was over and gives the campaign's final toll
• Winddancer admits Zootopia refused Vladifrostok's request for climate technology and discloses that the Department of External Relations buried the later requests
• Winddancer announces the Vladifrostok relief initiative and introduces Volkov, who is returning home to help run it
• Nick proposes to Judy on the last morning in Los Zangeles, and Judy slides the second band onto his finger
• Pawbert counsels a hostile young ocelot at ZRS by putting his own record on the table first
• Sorrel covers Pawbert's afternoon so he can be home for Luther's clearance evaluation, which returns Luther to full duty
• Luther proposes at the fairy-lit mansion with an engraved silver band
• Both couples spot each other's rings at the harbor pickup and learn neither told anyone
• Nick pushes for a double wedding until Luther concedes
• The pack decides Nick and Judy will not move out
• Three months of planning: the World Celebration Gardens venue, the guest-list fight, Clawhauser's binders, and the fittings
• Clawhauser is asked to be part of the ceremony
• Both couples talk through their nerves the night before the wedding
• Dawn breaks over the World Celebration Gardens with the ceremony set up

Key Lines

Characters Introduced

Locations

• Tree of Life Theater - Gazelle's relief concert
• Reptile Ravine - Restored main road; Agnes's statue at the west entrance; the Perón family
• City Hall - Press room; Winddancer's Vladifrostok announcement
• Los Zangeles - Beachfront hotel; Nick's proposal
• Zootopia Reentry Services - Pawbert's counseling office and hallway
• Pawthorne Mansion - Luther's proposal in the foyer; the master bedroom; the living room; the night before the wedding
• Zootopia Harbor - Passenger terminal and pickup area; the two rings discovered
• Zootopia World Celebration Gardens - Wedding venue; scouted during planning and set up at dawn

Items

• Judy's engagement ring — Purple amethyst in silver, flanked by tiny diamonds; Fru Fru helped Nick determine her size
• Nick's engagement band — Rose gold, nearly the color of his fur; a second band in the same box, which Judy slides onto his finger
• Pawbert's engagement ring — Silver, elegant; engraved "Stay" on the inside band
• Clawhauser's three wedding binders — "WILDEHOPPS OPTIONS," "PAWTHORNE OPTIONS," and "COMBINED VISION BOARD (CRYING EDITION)"
• Luther's Pinfurrest board — Flowers and fairy lights research for the proposal; existence denied
• Fairy lights — Strung along the porch railing and through the mansion for Luther's proposal, and left up afterward
• The Chart 2.0 — Framed on the living room wall; Nick looks at it while deciding whether to move out

Featured Song

"I'll Stand By You" (From 'Hope For Haiti Now'), Shakira

"I'll Stand By You" is a Pretenders song from 1994, and the recording the cue names is Shakira's, from the 2010 Hope for Haiti Now telethon. Shakira is also Gazelle's voice, which makes the scene a close repeat of the recording's own occasion: a pop star singing it at a disaster-relief benefit. Gazelle performs it at the Rebuild Reptile Ravine relief concert to a house packed past the aisles, Fru Fru and Clawhauser in the front row, ZPD officers out of uniform and surviving ZSI agents and ZFD firefighters filling the rest. The split screen gives the other panel to Gary, moving down the Ravine's one finished road past Agnes's statue. One side is the promise to stay; the other is three months of proof that somebody did.

End Credit Song

"I See the Light" (From 'Tangled'), Mandy Moore & Zachary Levi

In Tangled, Rapunzel and Flynn sing "I See the Light" on the water during the lantern release, where each of them works out mid-song that what they were looking for is in the boat with them. It scores the two proposals rather than the dawn the credits roll out of. Nick abandons the dinner and the sunset beach he had planned and kneels beside the bed on the last morning in Los Zangeles; Luther, who kept holding out for a date worth remembering, kneels in a foyer he has strung with fairy lights, holding a band engraved with the word he once used to keep Pawbert from disappearing. Neither couple knew the other was doing it, and both had known the answer for years.

Notes

• The Zootopia World Celebration Gardens, where the wedding venue is booked, is named after the Disney Fairytale Weddings venue at EPCOT's World Celebration area.
• The tegu matriarch Dominga Perón is named after Juan Domingo Perón's paternal grandmother, making her Evita Perón's grandmother-in-law. The reference is a nod to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Evita, continuing the series' tradition of musical theatre references throughout its end credits, though no Webber music is used in the series itself.