Sydney to the Max returns to its usual tone with this week’s new episode, “Cool Intentions.” When Max goes out of town, Sydney takes advantage of Grandma Judy’s cool attitude. In the past, Max gets grounded for something he didn’t do. There’s a joke setup that pays off at the end of Sydney’s Story, but gets introduced in Max’s, so this recap will present Max’s story first.
(Disney)
Max’s Story
Judy gets home to find Max sweeping broken pottery under the fireplace and she realizes that the vase she made in ceramics class broke. Seeing a basketball on the floor, she jumps to the conclusion that Max was playing basketball in the house again, which he’s not supposed to do. Max denies playing ball in the house or breaking the vase, but Judy doesn’t believe him because he’s lied to get out of trouble before. He and Leo were supposed to go see a movie this weekend, but Judy grounds him. “I wish I had a cool mom like other kids do,” he scoffs on his way to his room. “I am cool,” Judy responds, “I just have a family member that forces me to be uncool.”
On Saturday, Leo arrives to take Max to the new movie they had tickets to and Judy tells him that Max is grounded. Leo asks if he can at least say hi to Max and Judy calls him down. Leo is bummed because he’ll have to go home to watch mystery shows with his grandma. He’s also a little mad at Max, thinking he really did break the vase. “Harry Burrito,” Max says, their codeword for when something they say is true even though it sounds made up. Leo promises to try and help Judy believe that he didn’t do it.
Using his detective show knowledge, Leo turns the area around the fireplace into a crime scene, grabbing a vase that Max made at school to try and examine what happened. He found a single footprint of Max’s, but points out that if Max was dribbling, there would be lots of them. Judy asks Leo to go home.
The weekend is over and Max is no longer grounded when Leo comes over. “Thanks for ruining my weekend, mom,” Max bitterly says on his way out, slamming the door behind him. The vase Max made falls off the mantle and shatters and Leo realizes that the other vase must have broken the same way. Judy was the last one to leave on Friday. Leo jokingly tells her to go to her room. Judy asks to speak to Max alone, apologizing and telling him from now on, she will see him as innocent until proven guilty. She then offers to take him and Leo to see the movie, even though it’s a school night.
Sydney’s Story
Max is heading out for the weekend to go camping with Leo and his son, handing his mom a list of emergency contacts. Judy tells him she can handle watching Sydney because she raised him. He asks Judy not to let Sydney stay in sweatpants all day eating pancakes and watching TV, which is exactly what they decided to do together as soon as Max leaves.
On Sunday, Sydney and Grandma Judy get back home from a theme park with slushie hats on. They’ve both melted so Judy suggests adding ice, but the ice maker is broken. She goes to call the handyman on Max’s list when Olive calls Sydney to tell her that a Ricky Angelo dance video game came out and she wants to bring it over to play it. Sydney asks Judy if it’s okay and Judy is hesitant, but Sydney butters her up by calling her cool and gets her to agree to letting Olive and Emmy come over to play the game for an hour in the basement girl cave.
Instead of Don the handyman arriving, Donna, the handywoman and his wife, shows up. While Donna assesses the ice maker, Judy tells her about the girls playing games downstairs and Donna thinks that can only lead to them stretching the time out longer.“Syd and I have a very special relationship, she’d never take advantage of me.”
Downstairs, Emmy beats the game and unlocks a special achievement, a code to an online live concert that Ricky Angelo will be giving at midnight. Sydney comes up with a plan for Olive and Emmy to tell their parents that they’re sleeping over to help Sydney with a school project. They ask if her grandma will let them stay. “Relax, I know my grandma and she can’t say no to me.”
Donna tells Judy it’s been over an hour, intending to just keep her advised of how much this repair will cost since she charges by the hour. “But she’s a good kid, she’ll get her homework done,” Judy says, misunderstanding what Donna was saying. Donna goes out to her truck for a part and Sydney comes up to tell her grandma about the concert and to ask if her friends can sleep over and stay up late. “Syd, you’ve got school tomorrow. And what about your homework?” Sydney promises to get up early to finish her homework and when Judy asks if Emmy and Olive’s parents are okay with it, she says yes.
It’s 45-minutes until the concert and Judy comes downstairs with krispy treats that she named “Sticky Angelos. Emmy tells her that her parents would never let her do something like this and Judy looks at Sydney, asking what’s going on. Sydney tells her that their parents think they’re staying over to help with a school project.“Okay girls, party’s over. Sydney, go to your room.” Sydney tells her grandma that she’s embarrassing her. “Syd you lied to me, I said go to your room.” As Sydney heads upstairs, she says “I thought you were cool, you’re really not.”
The next morning, Sydney is talking to Olive on her phone and thinks she hears Judy in the kitchen. She doesn’t want to talk to her grandma so her plan is to sneak in to grab a breakfast bar, but it’s Max who’s in the kitchen, back early from his trip. While out with Leo and his son, they went to a make-your-own pottery shop and Max pulls out a vase he made, which Syd thinks was done my Leo’s son. He tells her about a time when he played his mom but how Sydney would never do that because she and her grandma have such a special relationship. Sydney feels bad and goes downstairs to apologize. She tells Judy that she was acting selfish. “I appreciate your apology, noodle.” Judy says that she should have pushed back because as a teenager, it’s natural for Sydney to push boundaries.
Later, Max places his vase on the mantle and shows Judy, who also assumes it was made by Leo’s son. He tells them he left their gifts in the car and goes out to get them, slamming the door and causing the vase to fall off the mantle. “Don’t worry,” Judy tells Sydney, “It was going to ‘accidentally’ break anyway.”
Sydney to the Max returns with a new episode on June 25th called “A Crush of Their Own.” Here’s the official episode description from Disney Channel:
When Max has a crush on Sydney’s music teacher, Gemma, but realizes he’s too nervous about dating again, he convinces Syd to be a chaperone on his first date. In the ’90s, Leo has a crush on Max’s new math tutor, Danielle. Leo persuades his buddy to need more help so he can see the tutor more.