Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street (2014) s01e02 Episode Script

Gortimer, narrating:
I've lived my whole life
on Normal Street.
There's a lake at one end
and a forest of shady trees
at the other.
But what lies in between
is anything but normal.
What is luck exactly?
Is it random fortune,
or is it fate?
Do we somehow deserve
the luck we get,
or is luck a blind archer
and everything
is just hit or miss?
I never gave it
much thought before
because it always seemed
out of my control.
And what do you do
when luck goes wrong,
so wrong that lives
are at stake?
Well, if you're Ranger,
you put it all on the line.
Ranger Bowen said
the only difference
between doing something brave
and doing something stupid
is whether or not you survive.
Ranger:
No one dies on my watch.
I do this for Normal Street!
So far, Ranger's being brave,
but I'm getting
ahead of myself.
As you can see--
The road rocket race:
the one glorious
day each year
when the kids
of Normal Street
become engineers,
mechanics
See, we have
eight wheels--
and daredevils--
four on each side--
all rolled into one.
But most important--
We kind of got off
to a rocky start,
but eventually
it all came together.
Dibs on driving.
I get to name it.
This year, we're definitely
coming in first.
All right. Fins.
But wait. Aren't there
supposed to be 12?
The fins
increase drag.
Okay, well,
what about a mast?
Ranger, stick
to the blueprints.
Let's get this stuff
to Mel's.
Stanley Zielinsky,
unluckiest kid
on Normal Street.
I'm not kidding.
He could lose a coin flip
with a two-headed quarter.
His luck is so bad,
it's contagious.
Lose something?
Hey Stanley. Uh
Thanks. Heh heh.
Building
a new road rocket?
Yeah. You going
to compete this year?
Come on. I can't
do stuff like that.
Well, see you around.
You didn't get any
on you, did you?
It's bad luck, not cooties.
You, too?
I'm not saying
he's jinxed,
but it's hard to ignore
the strong correlation.
[splat]
I just got stanleyed.
You got what?
Stanley. He's a jinx.
Take one step
close to him and--
Oh. Okay.
See, well, Stanley didn't
just knock over your drink.
You know, his mom and I
did the food drive
at the community center
last year.
Stanley
came and helped out.
You know, he's actually
a really sweet boy.
Didn't the fire alarm
and sprinklers go off?
That didn't have anything
to do with Stanley.
Gortimer, honey,
how would you feel
if people blamed you for
every bad thing that happened?
This is not one of your
better conceived ideas.
I'm with Mel
on this one.
Stanley's lived
on Normal Street
as long as we have,
but can you remember
one time you hung out
with him?
He needs us.
[doorbell rings]
What are you guys
doing here?
Congratulations.
You made the team.
You're part of
Galaxelerator now.
You really think
that's a good idea?
If I join your team,
it'll just ruin your chances.
Okay. Fair enough.
Nice to see you,
Stanley.
Come on. We'll have fun.
Um
- Great.
- Uh--
He warned us.
We didn't listen.
Easy. Easy.
I got it. I got it.
[electricity crackling]
Well, I got to get home.
Guys, this was fantastic.
Really, thanks.
See you at the race.
Yeah. See you.
At least he's happy.
Did we get anything done?
I'm actually
unchecking boxes.
How is it possible
for one kid to have
that much bad luck?
He's a genetic anomaly.
Or he must have broken
a house full of mirrors.
No. Not mirrors.
There's only one object
in the universe
that can account for the life
of Stanley Zielinsky:
the Mobile of Misfortune.
It all started years ago.
There were two neighbors:
Mr. Lee and Mr. Perez.
Lee had all the luck
in the world.
The sun was always shining
on his side of Normal Street.
But the same wasn't
true for Perez.
He wanted some of Lee's
luck for himself.
But no matter what he tried,
it didn't make a difference.
So Perez took fate
into his own hands.
He crafted a contraption
so fiendish,
it could control the luck
of everyone around it.
He built the Mobile
of Misfortune.
He used it to take some
of Lee's luck for himself,
and it worked.
It worked perfectly.
But the very next day,
there was a grease fire.
And before they
could put it out,
the entire Lee house
was in flames.
But Perez didn't realize
that bad luck can't
always be contained.
Sometimes it spreads.
[siren blares]
When the smoke cleared,
all that was left was
the mobile in ashes.
If you put bad luck
out into the world,
you got to be careful,
or you might get burned.
How does this help us
exactly?
Because it's still
here in town.
They wanted to keep it safe,
so they put it
in the one place
where no one would ever
think to look for it:
the library.
I can't believe I've never
noticed this before.
Look.
Mel: That piece
looks lopsided.
It's definitely off balance.
You think that's what's
causing Stanley's bad luck?
Only one way
to find out.
I don't think we should
be messing with this.
We're not messing with it.
We're fixing it.
How else are we
going to help Stanley?
But look at it.
Everything's interconnected.
It's more complicated
than we think.
That should do it.
Oh.
My shoe's untied.
Uh-oh. Look who's
unlucky now.
Gortimer's shoes come
untied all the time.
Sometimes small changes
have big consequences,
and before we knew it,
things went
from bad to worse.
As Mel might say,
every action has an equal
and opposite reaction.
My day was a disaster.
But for Stanley,
things were finally
looking up.
Whoa.
What happened?
Not my lucky day.
I'm sorry. Gumball?
See you.
I didn't just get stanleyed.
I was the new Stanley.
Time to take it for
a quick test drive.
- Wait.
- The paint isn't dry yet.
Come on.
You got gortimered.
Don't call it that.
Hand me a towel.
I'm not a jinx.
That's what
a jinx would say.
- Hey.
- He'd say that, too.
Gortimer, you have
to look at the data.
Right now you're what
they call an outlier,
as in this is
the statistical norm
and this is you.
She doesn't know it,
but she's agreeing
with me
in her own way.
Oh. Hey, honey.
Gardiner wants
grilled cheese for dinner.
You want me to make you one?
You'd probably
just end up
burning down
the entire house.
Oh, boy. Don't tell me
you're still blaming
everything on Stanley.
Nope. Not on Stanley.
Uh-oh. Looks like
we're out of bread.
How about some leftover
broccoli casserole?
Enough was enough.
We had to fix the mobile.
I knew it.
I knew someone messed
with the mobile.
No wonder I've been
so lucky lately.
You knew about the mobile
this whole time?
Of course.
Then why didn't you
just unjinx yourself?
I couldn't.
You see,
a while back,
my mom was having
a really rough time.
She lost her job, and it
was stressing her out.
So I fiddled
with the mobile
and changed my good luck
for her bad luck.
The next day,
she got a new job
and everything
was fine for her.
And for me it was,
well, you know.
But I'm okay with that.
So when I changed
your luck--
You took the bad luck
on yourself.
Gortimer, I'm not letting
you guys lose this race.
Stanley, don't.
Whoa.
That was close.
Uh-oh.
Maybe it won't
be that bad?
[siren blares]
I-- I'm sure that's
just a coincidence.
But it wasn't.
This doesn't
look promising.
The road rocket race.
If everyone's got bad luck--
Someone's definitely
going to get hurt.
Go. Stall the race.
Buy me time.
I'll take care of this.
Are you sure
you can fix it?
Gortimer, I can fix anything.
Theoretically.
Let's go.
- Oh, it's spreading.
- Let's go.
Sorry.
Ohh!
Stop the race!
Stop the race!
Someone could get hurt.
Someone else
could get hurt.
Gortimer, what's going on?
Sarah, we need
to stop the race.
Not going to happen.
We're starting in
a couple of minutes.
- Um--
- Our rocket isn't here yet.
Yes, that.
All right, go get it,
but hurry up.
My stopwatch broke, so I
need to grab another one.
I'll go get the rocket.
Also,
I think it might rain,
and that's got to be
dangerous.
The whole race
takes two minutes.
Two minutes?
You could lose, like,
three arms in two minutes.
Not off the same person,
obviously.
If we can't stop it,
maybe we can postpone it.
Yeah.
Uh, good news, everyone!
We're going to race
tomorrow instead.
Well, I'm out of ideas.
[sigh] There's only
one thing left to do.
[sigh]
Complain all you want.
No one dies on my watch.
I do this for Normal Street!
Ranger, you realize
we can literally just
pick you up, right?
I'll go limp. It'll be
like trying to carry
a sack of potatoes.
I've carried
a sack of potatoes.
It's not that hard.
Stop stalling.
Everyone's worked
really hard for this.
You're ruining everything.
Is he ruining it,
or is he
making it better?
All: Ruining it.
Good. See? Your car's here.
And ready for its
lengthy inspection.
No. No more delays.
Time to start the race.
Or maybe
we should just reconsider
the whole idea of a race.
I mean, isn't there
too much competition
in the world already?
Gortimer,
can you do something?
Yeah.
For Normal Street!
You leave me no choice.
All right, teams,
time for Plan B.
Take your cars around
Ranger and Gortimer.
- Well, darn.
- Wait!
Did you fix it?
I'd say it's 50/50.
You know what?
I like those odds.
Stanley,
what are you doing?
I've waited my whole life
to do something that's cool.
I'm sick of sitting
on the sidelines.
Let's ride.
Ranger,
you okay with this?
I think
he's earned it.
Rocketeers,
take your positions.
Hey, Stan
good luck.
♪["Ode to Joy"]
[excited chatter]
- Go, Stanley!
- Go, go, go!
Yeah!
He's winning!
Keep going, Stanley!
You've got this!
Go, go, go, go!
[chatter]
[clatter]
♪["Ode to Joy" slows down]
It's okay.
You can still make it.
Come on, go. Go.
[chatter]
[cheering]
Come on.
[panting]
What happened?
Well, I guess I lost.
You broke it.
It just fell apart.
I can't believe it.
None of this stuff
was bolted down.
Look, half these boxes
were still unchecked.
We were so distracted
worrying about the jinx,
we didn't finish
building the car.
We made our own
bad luck.
Sorry you didn't win,
Stanley.
Are you kidding?
That was awesome!
I want to do it again,
except faster.
You know, technically
the race isn't over
till every car crosses
the finish line.
So we didn't win.
The important thing is
no one got hurt.
Besides,
we've got a real
jump on next year.
None of us was really sure
what fortune would hold
for us after that day.
Were we still going
to have bad luck?
From time to time.
Everybody does.
But in the end,
it doesn't matter
because luck is
what you make it.
And for us,
we made it a friend.