S0WE22 - Touch Grass
"Touch Grass" is the twenty-second episode of the W-Series. After the pack's vacation in Naypyipaw ended in a military coup ("Coup"), they book a domestic glamping weekend in the Marshlands and camp next door to Nibbles. The trip takes Pawbert and Luther into the Marsh Market that Nick and Judy passed through during Zootopia 2.
Synopsis
Judy pitches a Marshlands glamping trip and outvotes Nick, who wants Deersneyland. The pack arrives to find the campground's paw-and-hoof staff out sick. The sea lions and walruses left can advise but cannot grip, so the four pitch their own tents at Site 2 — Luther working from the laminated manual, Judy supplying the geometry, Pawbert producing a charcuterie board rather than helping, and Nick tying clove hitches he refuses to credit to the Junior Ranger Scouts. Nibbles, a beaver podcaster camped at the next site, attaches herself to the weekend. Mosquitoes ruin the first night, and Luther's ZSI field-grade repellent, worked into the tent fabric and not washed off his paws, produces a misadventure he declines to discuss. Next morning Nick takes Luther's clothes from the bathhouse; Luther walks back in a washcloth, sprints to a convenience store for ice, and empties a bucket over Nick's stall. Nibbles rings the dock bell for Russ, the walrus who ferries passengers on his belly, and Russ greets Pawbert knowing nothing beyond that he came with Nibbles. Told both couples are married, Russ switches on his fairy lights and plays "Bella Notte." In Marsh Market the plumed basilisk Jesús serves Luther and Pawbert live grubs while Nick and Judy, who fell for it years ago, say nothing. Nick shows Judy the Scout patch he brought without telling anyone. Sunday the pack drives home with marshmallows from Nibbles, and Nick is caught humming the song from the ferry.
Plot
At the kitchen table, Judy pitches a glamping trip to the Marshlands, using an ad whose slogan reads "touch grass." Nick lobbies for Deersneyland. He is outvoted. Luther settles it by telling them to book it.
They arrive to find every staffer with paws or hooves out with a flu. The sea lions and walruses left on shift have the gear waiting at the site and no way to grip any of it. A sea lion named Chonkers delivers the news cheerfully: putting it up is the pack's problem. The site they have been given is Site 2, a designation that lands differently for Nick; the last time those words meant anything to this pack, they were hiding in one.
Pitching the tents sorts everyone into character. Luther hands out sectors, works the laminated manual like a briefing document, and sorts poles by color code. Pawbert contributes a charcuterie board and no labor. Judy, farm-raised, supplies the geometry. Nick keeps up a running case for Deersneyland while his paws tie clove hitches without consulting him — Junior Ranger Scout muscle memory, surfacing against his will. Judy catches it. Nick denies it. His paws do it again.
Nibbles appears at the next campsite. She hugs the pack, greets Luther as someone she met at the wedding, and plows ahead into conspiracy theories without pausing for breath.
Friday night belongs to the mosquitoes. Luther treats the tent fabric with ZSI field-grade repellent, does not wash his paws afterward, and lives through a consequence that he and Pawbert agree afterward never happened. On Saturday morning Nick empties the communal bathhouse of Luther's clothes. Luther returns to camp wearing a washcloth and no expression at all, then leaves the campground on foot and comes back a quarter of an hour later with a bag of ice. He checks with the otter cubs waiting in line that the shower is occupied by a fox, and tips the meltwater over the partition. The cubs laugh loudly enough to be heard from the other end of the site.
Nibbles walks the pack down to the dock and rings a bell for Russ, who surfaces and greets her in an entirely monosyllabic call-and-response. Luther looks for the pattern, fails to find it, and gives up; Nick has watched this before and enjoys watching them fail. Russ lifts Nick and Judy off the boards in a hug and takes Pawbert on trust as somebody Nibbles brought along. Paid in fish, he rolls onto his back and becomes the ferry. Nibbles mentions that both couples are married. Russ pulls the chain on his fairy lights, starts "Bella Notte" through the speaker, and Pawbert's composure goes for the only time all weekend. Luther reaches over and takes his paw. From the front seats Nick and Judy watch a gift they were handed on the same water years ago.
The tour of Marsh Market runs by ferry and then on foot, through a neighborhood that has opened up since the events of Zootopia 2 — reptiles and aquatic mammals sharing the same streets, families out on porches, music carrying between the stilted buildings. The Reptile Hangout occupies the same sunken shipwreck and is now a community bar with its doors open. Jesús runs his grub prank on the two newcomers: Luther gets through two, Pawbert manages one, and Nick and Judy, initiated on the same joke years earlier, say nothing at all. What the table talks about afterward is fish, marshmallows and Nibbles's podcast. Nobody mentions the Lynxley name.
At the campfire on Saturday evening, Nibbles renews the standing invitation for Pawbert to come on "Scales and Tales of the Weird," which she has been extending since they met. He laughs. Then she drops one serious sentence — that the Marshlands nearly went, more than once — and is back on a marshmallow conspiracy before it can settle. Pawbert squeezes her paw and she squeezes back.
Zipped into their tent, Nick concedes to Judy that the weekend was good, and produces his Junior Ranger Scout patch. He packed it and told nobody, and it has not been near a campsite since his kithood. Judy closes her paw around it. From the neighboring tent, Luther kills a mosquito and announces the result.
On Sunday they load the car. Nibbles hands Pawbert a bag of homemade marshmallows, and Russ surfaces in the channel long enough to see them off. At the mansion kitchen table where the weekend started, Pawbert says it was wonderful. Nick, a moment later, is caught humming the song from the ferry.
Key Moments
- Nick reveals dormant Junior Ranger Scout camping competence through muscle memory, tying knots Luther is still reading about in the manual
- Luther deploys ZSI-issued insect repellent without washing his paws, resulting in an incident the pack agrees never happened
- Nick clears Luther's clothes out of the bathhouse; Luther leaves the campground for a bag of ice and comes back with otter cubs as witnesses
- Russ plays "Bella Notte" for Pawbert and Luther, the same gift he gave Nick and Judy years ago
- Jesús runs the grub prank on the two newcomers while Nick and Judy sit in knowing silence
- Nibbles throws away one line about almost losing the Marshlands, then returns to the marshmallow conspiracy
- Nick brings his Junior Ranger Scout patch along, the first time it has been to a campsite since he was a kit
Key Lines
| Line | Speaker | Context |
|---|---|---|
| "Assembly is a you situation." | Chonkers | Flippered staff can't help |
| "We will never speak of this." | Luther | ZSI repellent aftermath |
| "Is there a fox in that shower." | Luther | To the otter cubs |
| "That was a prank. What you did was an operation." | Nick | Prank war escalation |
| "Proportional." | Luther | One-word verdict |
| "Eat first. Talk second." | Jesús | Z2 callback |
| "The wolf ate TWO!" | Jesús | Luther's overachievement |
| "We almost lost this place. Couple times." | Nibbles | Thrown-away campfire line |
| "I had a wonderful time." | Pawbert | Kitchen closer |
Characters Introduced
| Character | Species | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Russ | Walrus | Marsh Market ferry operator; summoned by the dock bell |
| Jesús | Plumed basilisk | Reptile Hangout regular; runs the grub prank on visitors |
| Chonkers | Sea lion | Front desk staff at Marshlands Glamping |
Locations
- Pawthorne Mansion — Kitchen table (opening and closing scenes)
- Marshlands Glamping (Site 2) — Campground in the Marshlands; fire pit, clearing, communal bathhouse (first appearance)
- Marsh Market — Mixed mammal-and-reptile district of the Marshlands; stilted buildings, docks and waterways; post-Z2 state with visible mammal-reptile community
- Reptile Hangout — Sunken shipwreck bar/restaurant in Marsh Market; post-Z2 state with open doors, neon signs, families dining in open air
Items
- ZSI field-grade insect repellent — Clothing/equipment only; warning label (first appearance)
- Junior Ranger Scout patch — Brought by Nick from Vivian's wooden box and mentioned to nobody until Saturday night
- Nibbles's homemade marshmallows — Given to Pawbert at departure; secret recipe (first appearance)
- Russ's ferry — Belly-up backstroke, cushioned seats, fairy lights, "Bella Notte" speaker, corncob pipe
End Credit Song
"The Bare Necessities" (From 'Country Bear Musical Jamboree'), Country Bear Musical Jamboree Cast
The song is Baloo's, an argument that the simple things are enough, and the episode puts it to the test. The ad Judy brings to the table sells exactly that, and what the pack gets is a campground whose staff cannot grip a tent pole, a night spent sealing a tent against mosquitoes, a plate of live grubs, and a walrus who ferries them across the water on his belly. Pawbert calls it wonderful and means it. The joke sits in the recording rather than the song: this is a bear band's theme-park revue, not the film version — park music, which is what Nick campaigned for at the kitchen table and lost the vote on. He was caught humming on the drive home, and the credits hand him the park anyway.
Notes
- Chonkers is named for the 2,000 lb sea lion spotted at Pier 39, San Francisco.
- Nick outright says "six seven," learned from the Hopps kits, further enshrining the in-universe "67" running gag.
- Nick's "total absence of mosquitoes" at Deersneyland references The Walt Disney Company's real-world elimination of mosquitoes from Disney Parks.
- Jesús's grub prank mirrors his Z2 scene with Nick and Judy but targets Luther and Pawbert, with the original victims watching in silence.
- Site 2 echoes the ZSI safehouse designation from the WCFP Seasons 1 and 2.