Stage Fighting

"Why does she hate me?"

- Tori about Jade.

Stage Fighting is the 3rd episode of Season 1 of Victorious. It premiered on April 18th, 2010.

Plot
The episode starts out as Tori is playing the French Horn as she likes a lot of French things (French fries, French toast). She is playing it horribly though and thinks it's broken. However, André plays the horn amazingly afterwards to "fix" it, proving her wrong.

When entering her theater rehearsal class, Tori sees a bully who appears to be mercilessly attacking Beck. Tori tries to lure the bully off of Beck, but soon finds out that the "bully" is a stunt actor named Russ, who is the teacher's assistant for the stage fighting class which Tori was unfamiliar with. Her fellow classmates explain the situation to her, in which Tori ends up joining the class.

The teacher announces that each student in the class will be paired with a partner for a stage fighting project. The teacher demonstrates on Cat, as an example of how a fake punch is, which really involves sound effects. The teacher pairs up students, with Tori and Jade as a partnership. Tori feels uncomfortable with the partnership as she and Jade do not really get along well.

Throughout the week, Tori worries that Jade will actually punch her, as a mistake or just on purpose. On the day of the scene, Tori plays an elderly woman coming home from a bingo game, and Jade plays a "brutal mugger". The mugger attempts to steal the elderly woman's watch, which causes the woman to whack (not really) the mugger with her solid, cherry-wood cane. According to Jade, Tori hit her with the cane on purpose. Tori

repeatedly denies it although Jade's eye appears to be obviously bruised, only to Jade's dismay. The stunt crew, teacher, and students go into complete shock. Tori tries to comfort Jade by getting her a chair, only for the chair to break, as it was a prop chair specifically designed to fall apart when sat on.



The guidance counselor, Lane, talks to Tori about the incident, and after a small talk, he decides Tori will be punished by going for three weeks of detention and cleaning up the theater after the food fight that will occur in the play staged by Hollywood Arts Middle School students the following Friday. Also, while they talked, Lane had a security guard called Derek guard his office in case Tori would have a violent outburst which annoyed her.

Later, Jade and the other characters are talking at lunch when a girl accidentally spills water on Jade's face. Instead of accepting help, she runs off.

In the hallway, André and Jade are talking, only for André to notice that Jade's facial bruise doesn't look real - the color is leaking. Jade then gives herself up by telling André that the bruise isn't actually real, but just makeup. Jade makes André promise not tell anyone, especially Tori, as Jade wanted to make her feel bad. André accepts, only to shout, "Tori!", which causes Jade to burst with anger and chase.

Later, Tori is at the Blackbox Theater when Jade comes in. Jade is confused that Tori didn't tell on her, which she thinks is 'not right'. Finally, Jade decides to help clean up. She then plays some music and starts dancing. Eventually, the guard sent to watch Tori, Derek, joins in, and gets so caught up in the dancing that he doesn't realize Tori and Jade made their escape until he is left alone in the theater to clean up.

Subplot
Robbie develops feelings for Trina after they audition together for a World War II play. The scene included a kiss which Robbie mistakes for a real, romantic kiss, although it was clearly just a stage kiss. Robbie starts to assume that Trina is also attracted to him, stating that "they like each other", and assumes that they are dating.

Robbie kisses Trina at lunch, which leaves her in such shock that she spits skim milk in his face, which he hoped to be soy milk. Cat gets tired of Robbie trying to go out with Trina, so she explains to Robbie that you can't just assume that you are dating from a stage kiss. She also explains that you can fake passion through acting, which she demonstrates by kissing him. It doesn't work, as Robbie is now interested in Cat; he asks Cat to meet his parents directly after the kiss. This also proves that Robbie's feelings for Trina were in no way true.

Trivia

 * This episode marks the first kiss between Robbie and Cat so far in the series.
 * This episode also marks the first kisses between Robbie and Trina so far in the series (there were two).
 * Robbie kisses two girls in this episode and "falls in love" with both of them.
 * This is the first episode that Sinjin does not appear in.
 * This is the second time a main character kissed 2 characters. First was Beck in Pilot.
 * Tori and Jade's skit was about an old lady coming home from Bingo Night and a mugger about to rob her. Ironically, the old lady was supposed to beat up the mugger.
 * This is the first time where Robbie and Trina interact with each other.
 * The (according to Rex) "hot" blonde is played by Jamie Snow, who also played Tara in Freak the Freak Out. She also played "Tammy" in the The Amanda Show sketch "The Girl's Room".
 * The entire theater clean-up dance was improvised by Elizabeth Gillies, Victoria Justice, and Robert Christopher Riley (the actor who played Derek).
 * Lane mentions that Hollywood Arts has a middle school.
 * André's "Play that funky music, white girl" line is a reference to the TV sitcom Friends where Ross decides to play the keyboard for his friends and to support him Phoebe also says "play that funky music white boy."
 * There was a deleted scene where after Trina locks her door, Robbie says to Rex, "Oh well, I guess it's dinner for the two of us at the Olive Garden," and Rex replies, "Oh, NO! Not the Olive Garden! Please!".
 * This is the second episode where the title is said in the episode.
 * This is the first time Jade shows her "soft side".
 * On Dan's Fun Facts blog, he says that Derek was going to pull out his pepper spray, thought it looks like he was going for his gun instead.
 * The song Jade, Tori and Derek are dancing to is "Queen of White Lies" by The Orion Experience. While filming, Liz, Victoria, and Robert Christopher Riley (the actor who plays Derek) were actually dancing to "Fluorescent Adolescent" by the Arctic Monkeys.
 * "Queen of White Lies" was also heard in the Zoey 101 episode "Coffee Cart Ban." (Zoey 101 was a Nickelodeon show by Dan Schneider that Victoria Justice had starred in for a few years.)
 * This song was also heard in iParty with Victorious, just before Robbie breaks the sound.
 * Cat's line "And it sounds kinda gross" was not scripted. Dan added that line on stage while they were filming.
 * After Andre asks Tori why she picked the French Horn, Tori says, "I dunno... I like French fries, French toast..." In the original script, Tori also said "French kissing" – but Dan decided that was a bit much for a Nickelodeon show, so he cut "French kissing" from the script.
 * A stunt double was not used for Victoria or Liz.
 * The line "Who is this chick?!" was not in the script. Dan added that line on stage while we were filming.
 * The bit where Rex has his hand on the hot blonde's knee at the end of the scene was not scripted. The director came up with that idea during rehearsal.
 * The scene where Robbie and Trina audition was actually filmed at around midnight. The lighting department made it look like day.
 * When Trina and Robie audition in the class together, in the background you can see "The Shadow Puppet Of Bali".
 * There was about 7 to 8 takes of the kiss in Robbie and Trina's audition while filming.
 * The bit where Tori accidentally picks up the huge piece of lettuce on her fork then shakes it off wasn't in the script. It happened by accident during a take, and it made Victoria and Dan laugh. So Dan had her do the same thing again in the next take.
 * Ever since this episode was filmed, everyone who works on Victorious (staff and crew) yells "Butternut" whenever they get freaked out or frustrated.
 * Tori's line "I'll pull it" was not in the script. It was added stage, while they were filming.
 * Everyone who works for Dan knows, he almost never let the girls wear ponytails on his shows. But in the last scene he made an exception with Tori, because a ponytail seemed appropriate for what she was doing in the scene.
 * Tori's line, "Or onion pus" was not in the script. Dan added that line on stage, while they were filming.
 * Ending tagline: "But we'll implode!"--Trina.

Goofs

 * When Tori and Jade are cleaning up after the food fight scene, Jade accidentally trips when she walks up to turn on the music. This was actually not meant to happen, but Dan Schneider decided to leave it in because Elizabeth Gillies stayed in character. Victoria's big, open-mouthed smile was not scripted as well; it was her reaction to Liz's slip-up.
 * When Tori 'hurts' Jade, make-up appears already.
 * It would be practically impossible to play the French Horn the way André plays it in the episode; the French Horn requires lots of air to play and was named one of the most difficult instruments to play by the Guinness Book of World Records.
 * It is impossible to try to stuff a French Horn in such a small locker.
 * When Trina leaves the table during the scene where Robbie is trying to convince her to go out with him, she takes her pink patterned backpack with her. When Cat sits down, she puts her black backpack with pink trim next to her on the seat. But when the part where Jade is storming away from the lunch area after getting water splashed onto her comes up, the audience can clearly see Trina's pink patterned backpack next to Cat.
 * When the girl tells Jade "Please don't destroy me socially", you can clearly see Jade run away before she says "Just forget it". After she says that she runs away for a second time.
 * When Tori supposedly hits Jade, it's really obvious that the cane didn't touch Jade and if it did, Tori would have hit Jade in the head, not the eye (you'll see if you look closely).

Running Gags

 * The specialist brought in to teach the class about stage fighting repeatedly corrects the class that his name is Russ, not Steve.
 * People thinking Tori is violent.
 * People telling Tori not to hit them.

Quotes
Jade: I can't wait for our fight... scene.

(Tori tries to get Jade a chair to sit down on but it collapses underneath her)

Russ: That was a breakaway chair!

Tori: Aw, butternut!

Tori: Why do I have to play an instrument anyway?

Cat: Everyone at Hollywood Arts has to play an instrument.

Tori: Okay, well, I sing. My throat is my instrument! I'm a throat player.

André: Doesn't count.

Cat:: And it sounds kinda gross.

Andre: Why'd you pick the french horn?

Tori: I don't know. I like french fries, french toast.

Cat: (gasps) One time, when I was eating french toast at a restaurant, I started laughing, and then I started choking, so the lady who ran the restaurant made me leave.

Cat: So let's hear your horn!

André: Yeah, play that funky music, white girl.

Tori: You know I'm half Latina.

André: Then hit it, muchacha!

Tori: (to Beck) Well, it looked like he was hurting you!

Jade: (Suspiciously) Why do you care?

Tori: Because I figured he already suffers enough pain dating you.

Jade: You wanna see pain?!

Tori: (About Jade) Why does she hate me?

André: Maybe she heard you play the French horn!

Cat: I wonder if mirrors work in outer space.

Tori: Oh, great, so she gets an A- and I get a broken eye and a black nose.

André: I think you meant--

Tori: I know what I meant!

Cat: My dog has a black nose! It's so cute! It's like a baby meatball!

André: Meatballs are brown.

Cat: You're so mean to me! (She angrily takes her drink and walks off)

Tori: ...You want half her sandwich?

André: Mmm-hmm. (They both take half of the sandwich Cat had before she left)

Russ: Okay, and if anything goes wrong, just yell the safe word, which is, "butternut."

Teacher: Ready? And--

Tori: Butternut!

Jade: What?!

Teacher: Tori, what are you doing?

Tori: I was just testing the safe word. It works! (Jade rolls her eyes)

Beck: Hey. How you feeling?

Jade: My eye hurts.

Beck: Oh, yeah? Which one?

Jade: (Sarcastically) Cute. I want coffee.

Beck: What's the magic word?

Jade: Get me some coffee...Please?

Beck: Actually, the magic word was lotion. But I'll accept your please 'cause you have a boo-boo eye.

Jade: (Calling after him) Two sugars!

Beck: I know what to do!

Cat: (after kissing Robbie) See?

Robbie: (stunned) I want you to meet my parents.

Derek: (Bending down over Tori) Is that mac and cheese?

Tori: (Frustrated) Who cares?

Derek: (Gets up and checks his phone) I just wanted to know if it was mac and cheese.

(Tori continues scraping, when Jade walks in. They look at each other for a few seconds)

Jade: I don't get it.

Tori: What?

Jade: I know that André told you that I faked everything. The blood, the black eye. What is that, mac and cheese?

Derek: (Looking at his phone) Looks like it right?

Tori: (To Jade) Why are you here?

Jade: Why are you here? Why didn't you tell on me?

Tori: 'Cause. We both go to school here and it's not gonna be fun for either one of us if we're fighting all the time.

Jade: So...you're just gonna let me get away with it? You took detention and a lower grade and you're scraping fuzzy pudding of the walls on a Friday night just so I wouldn't get in trouble?

Tori: Pretty much.

Jade: Well...you can't be nice to me when I've been mean to you. That's not how it works!

Tori: Well try being nice to me some time, maybe that'll work. Now go play I've gotta scrape this onion dip off the wall. (Smells the onion dip) Or onion puss.

(Jade drops her bag and picks up a scraper and a bucket and starts scraping)

Jade: This, might be more fun with some tunes. (Slips and turns on the music)