I don’t think I’ve ever seen a clip show halfway through the first season of any series until this episode of Primos, which also features a story featuring Gordita and her bots.
Summer of Hacienda Chills
Lot Lot is in Buela’s yard and is trying to figure out the nexus of all the paranormal energy in Hacienda Hills, and determines that it is the tree in the backyard.
She asks for Tater’s help to round up the rest of the primos and explain what she has found. However, the Primos are apparently a group of skeptics and each (and I mean EACH) one of them needs convincing. What better way to that than with a series of flashbacks to various occurrences earlier in the series.
Basically, if it featured Lot Lot’s doll, Dolly, or any other paranormal-ish occurrence, it is shown with a spooky filter to enhance the vibe.
After at least six various flashbacks from earlier episodes, the primos are convinced, and Lot Lot shares that she believes that the tree is responding to a misdeed, and that whoever is responsible needs to confess to whatever it is they did.
Shortly after, the tree erupts with an evil-looking green sap that starts to flood the backyard capturing the primos and locking them in place. More roots puncture through the ground and items start bubbling up from beneath the surface, and one by one, we realize that each of these items is a gift from one primo to Tater.
So it seems that Tater is the one who committed a misdeed, burying these gifts from her cousins next to the tree. She confesses that she never liked the gifts, but things were going so well with each of her cousins that she never wanted to hurt their feelings and ruin that.
As soon as she apologizes for her misdeeds (as Lot Lot predicts), the skies open up and it starts raining. The water washes the sap away and frees all the Primos who all forgive Tater and share her appreciation for how close they’ve all been getting this summer.
Though this all seems like a resolution, and the tree will stop causing issues, Lot Lot suggests that the horror might not be over just yet.
Summer of Los Bots
It’s time for a rousing game of charades amongst some of the primos, as the Nachos, the T Sisters, and Tater and the rarely seen Nellie – who, as a reminder, is Tater’s sister and lives in the same house but this is like the 5th episode we’ve seen her in?.
Anywho, while they’re all playing, it seems that Gordita would rather sit and watch, taking notes and examining their behavior than actually play with her family. After a conversation about this very idea with Tater’s mom, she is inspired to come up with her own way of playing with her cousins – by making them the subject of some of her own experiments. Among them is a Pavlov’s Dog style of programming her Big Nacho and Nachito to crave bacon whenever they are watching their jousting show, and another that sees Tater get electrocuted whenever she eats a churro.
However, Gordita is quickly caught and the primos do not appreciate this kind of game play, and Gordita decides that she is not meant for human interaction, and decides to go outside and be with the bots that she has built, including Bud’s H2Bro and Gor3ta.
But Bud is talking to his plants and thinks Gordita is sad because she doesn’t know how to socialize. Tater is nearby and overhears and decides to help (a loose term in this instance. She comes up with the plan to occupy one of her bots in the hopes of Gordita learning how to be more social, but really this is Tater’s plan to get Gordita back and electrocute her. Let’s not kid ourselves here.
Bud agrees, and breaks part of H2Bro to cause the distraction while Tater climbs into Gor3ta. While this plan seems to be according to, well, plan, things hit a bump when Gordita becomes suspicious of her bots gaining sentience. Finally, Tater sees her chance to electrocute Gordita, but since Tater is using some of her own lingo – the jig is up. And of course, this happens shortly after a breakthrough that Gordita had when she realized she might have been taking her family for granted.
Now, all Gordita feels is rage. There was no need for Tater and more importantly, her own blood, Bud, to trick her like this.
She sets out for revenge and creates an army of Frog bots that she has plans with to attack the rest of the primos. The episode takes on a fun style change when Tater (in Gor3ta) takes on Gordita in a mech suit of the frog bots before the fantasy sequence cuts out and we discover that they are just playing together in the living room.
The fight cuts short as well, because the rest of the cousins each fawn over the frog bots and how adorably cute that they are. This serves as a jumping point for Gordita to connect with her family on a deeper level, and calls off an apparently truly massive attack that she had planned for her family before forgiving both Tater and her Brother Bud. However, it seems like it might be quite some time before Tater can eat a churro in peace.
This episode of Primos is now available on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW website. You can catch up with earlier episodes now on Disney+.