The Rise and Fall of Kate (aka The Rise and Fall of the Kate Empire)

Season 2, Episode 4, Aired

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At lunch, Gordo tries to get seats at the cheerleaders' table for Lizzie, Miranda and himself, but Kate and Claire run them off and they have to eat on the grass. What's worse, they have to watch the cheerleaders practice. While doing a pyramid formation, Kate falls off the top and dislocates her shoulder. The next day when she arrives at the lunch table with her arm in a sling, Claire coldly informs her that since she can't cheer, she's been voted off the squad and isn't allowed to sit with them. All of a sudden Kate is a social nobody, reduced to eating her lunch alone on the grass and banished to the "dork hall!" Lizzie, Miranda and Gordo soon find out that life with Claire as the new "Queen B" at the school is much worse that it was with Kate at the top, so Lizzie convinces her friends to start a campaign to make Kate popular again. Their efforts don't work at first, so Lizzie tries another idea: make it possible for Kate to cheer once more. After convincing Kate to go along with the idea, Lizzie teaches her a variety of one-armed cartwheels and tumbles. Kate learns well but is her typical self and barely gives Lizzie a word of thanks. Kate then shows up at cheerleading practice and challenges Claire. After watching Kate do a series of spectacular tricks, Claire attempts a cartwheel and injures her wrist. The next day at lunch Claire is in the same situation as Kate was before, and she morosely heads for a table to sit by herself. Lizzie and her friends are disappointed that Kate didn't learn anything from her experience, but they're in for an amazing surprise when Kate goes over to Claire and offers to let her sit with her fellow cheerleaders. Kate briefly looks at Lizzie and acknowledges her debt to her, but just as quickly she and Claire shoot back a nasty look, letting Lizzie, Gordo and Miranda know that things are back to normal. And it looks like that's the way everyone wants it to be. Meanwhile, Matt comes home with big news--he got a one-line part in a school play. With Lanny's help, he constantly practices his one line, but he gets the ego of a leading man. Soon he is ordering his mother around like she's his flunky, much to her irritation. His treatment of Lanny also drives him away. Mr. and Mrs. McGuire put their foot down on Matt's behavior, but when he starts to protest he loses his voice. A humbled Matt apologizes to his mother for the way he acted and he apologizes to Lanny too, who agrees to take over his part! (No, we don't see or hear Lanny at the play!)moreless
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  • 8.8
    "Great"
    By FABULUZPHILLY, Dec 21, 2005
    At lunch, Gordo tries to get seats at the cheerleaders' table for Lizzie, Miranda and himself, but Kate and Claire run them off and they have to eat on the grass. What's worse, they have to watch the cheeleaders practice. While doing a pyramid formation, Kate falls off the top and dislocates her shoulder. The next day when she arrives at the lunch table with her arm in a sling, Claire coldly informs her that since she can't cheer, she's been voted off the squad and isn't allowed to sit with them. All of a sudden Kate is a social nobody, reduced to eating her lunch alone on the grass and banished to the "dork hall!"

    Lizzie, Miranda and Gordo soon find out that life with Claire as the new "Queen B" at the school is much worse that it was with Kate at the top, so Lizzie convinces her friends to start a campaign to make Kate popular again. Their efforts don't work at first, so Lizzie tries another idea: make it possible for Kate to cheer once more. After convincing Kate to go along with the idea, Lizzie teaches her a variety of one-armed cartwheels and tumbles. Kate learns well but is her typical self and barely gives Lizzie a word of thanks. Kate then shows up at cheerleading practice and challenges Claire. After watching Kate do a series of spectacular tricks, Claire attempts a cartwheel and injures her wrist. The next day at lunch Claire is in the same situation as Kate was before, and she morosely heads for a table to sit by herself. Lizzie and her friends are disappointed that Kate didn't learn anything from her experience, but they're in for an amazing surprise when Kate goes over to Claire and offers to let her sit with her fellow cheerleaders. Kate briefly looks at Lizzie and acknowledges her debt to her, but just as quickly she and Claire shoot back a nasty look, letting Lizzie, Gordo and Miranda know that things are back to normal. And it looks like that's the way everyone wants it to be.

    Meanwhile, Matt comes home with big news--he got a one-line part in a school play. With Lanny's help, he constantly practices his one line, but he gets the ego of a leading man. Soon he is ordering his mother around like she's his flunky, much to her irritation. His treatment of Lanny also drives him away. Mr. and Mrs. McGuire put their foot down on Matt's behavior, but when he starts to protest he loses his voice. A humbled Matt apologizes to his mother for the way he acted and he apologizes to Lanny too, who agrees to take over his part! (No, we don't see or hear Lanny at the play!)moreless

  • Just what group do you have to be in to eat lunch! Kate going overboard with her power yet again..

    8.0
    "Great"
    By HilarysSnoopy, Aug 10, 2005
    well that is until she breaks her arm in a pyramid and just before that Lizzie wishes someone would knock her off her pedestal. another episode about social groups, but a wise one at that cause what goes around comes around. Lizzie does the right thing once again when her guilt kicks in and helps Kate regain her throne back from Claire.. who might i add makes everyone sit on the grass to eat their lunch!
     Miranda and Gordo dispise the idea but know they must have Kate back to have it just that little bit easier, back at the Mcguire houehold Matt lands his big role in the school play but using his voice to shout orders at his parents take his one liner away from him which mirrors kate story. i also liked the gymnastics lizzie teaches Kate in order to regain her role, excellent episode a must for fans who want to see Kate get her just desserts!moreless
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  • TRIVIA (11)

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    • When Lizzie and Kate are talking in the hallway, Lizzie's purse goes from being on her shoulder in one shot, to disappearing in the next, and then reappearing in the one after the camera pans to Kate. Also in that scene, one wide shot shows Kate holding two textbooks and a notebook followed by another shot which shows her holding only one textbook and the notebook. But the final shot shows Kate dropping the computer textbook.

    • A nitpick: When Lizzie, Miranda and Gordo go to sit in the grass with Kate, Miranda says, "So scoot over, Sanders." But there's no need for Kate to "scoot over," there's lots and lots of room for all three of them to sit down beside her comfortably.

    • Closed captioning error: Jennie Woods' first name is spelled "Jenny." This is a completely understandable error, since the only way we know the spelling of it is by reading it in a couple of the Lizzie McGuire books.

    • Doesn't the cheerleading team have a coach or some sort of adult supervisor? Wouldn't that coach make sure that Kate wasn't kicked off by the other team members and be allowed to participate as soon as she recuperates? Also it's unlikely that a student would have the ability to force another student to move to another locker, as was done to Kate or keep people from sitting at the tables for lunch.

    • Kate supposedly dislocated her shoulder, but at the episode's end her arm is already out of a sling, after only about a week or so.

    • Toon Lizzie mentions that she hates monster movies. But in "Gordo And The Girl," Lizzie is looking forward to having a "scary movie marathon."

    • The pronunciation of Kate's last name is back to Sanders (short A) again after being "Saunders" in a few episodes.

    • Toon Lizzie imagines herself as a contestant on the game show Jeopardy!, saying "I'll take humiliation in front of the whole school for $500, Alex!" Unfortunately, the show has doubled the prizes starting November 26, 2001, so there is no longer a clue worth $500!

    • Toon Lizzie says in this episode, "I don't even like beaches," but in "Facts of Life", she said she wanted to go to Miami so bad and sit on the beach.

    • As one of the tallest, if not the tallest cheerleader on the squad, it is very unlikely that Kate would be put on top of the pyramid formation.

    • Nitpick: There is also an indoor cafeteria, so after finding no seats outside, couldn't Lizzie, Miranda and Gordo just go inside? Or was that cafeteria crowded too?

  • QUOTES (16)

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  • NOTES (10)

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    • This episode can also be found in the paperback novelization book The Rise and Fall of the Kate Empire.

    • This is only the second time we see the Hillridge cheerleaders perform. (The first time: "Rumors." There were cheerleaders doing some formations in "Educating Ethan," but it wasn't clear whether they were Hillridge's or not.)

    • Matt is called Matthew by his parents for only the second time (?) on the series after he develops a swelled head over his one line in the play. The first instance was in "I've Got Rhythmic."

    • Once again, as in "I've Got Rhythmic," Hilary Duff (Lizzie) appears to do all her gymnastic work herself, but a double is used for Ashlie Brillault (Kate).

    • Parker McKenzie and Jennie Woods, two characters seen in other episodes, are mentioned here, but not seen. Parker was first seen in the episode "Picture Day" and Jennie in the episode "Between a Rock and a Bra Place".

    • Filming dates: October 16-20, 2001.

    • Songs heard include "Spinnin' Around" by Jump5, played during Kate's training scene with Lizzie.

    • Some viewers pointed out that the "dork hallway" was similar to a scene in the movie Titanic (1997) in which the rich passengers kept the poorer ones locked out of their part of the ship.

    • Gordo and Miranda sing a little bit of the song "Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead" from the movie The Wizard of Oz (1939).

    • Originally titled "The Rise and Fall of the Kate Empire."

  • ALLUSIONS (8)

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    • Gordo & Miranda: Ding dong, the witch is dead!
      Gordo and Miranda sing a little bit of the song of the same name from the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz.

    • Claire: Bring it on!
      This expression, issued as a challenge to Kate, didn't start with the movie Bring It On (2000), but it no doubt was on the mind of the scriptwriter. The film is about two highly competitive high school cheerleading squads. It starred Kirsten Dunst and Eliza Dushku.

    • Toon Lizzie: I'll take humiliation in front of the whole school for $500, Alex.
      Toon Lizzie's acting although she's a contestant on the long-running game show Jeopardy! (1984-present; an earlier version ran from 1964-1975), hosted by Alex Trebek. In this show, the contestants are given answers to questions and they must give the correct question back as their answer. T.L. is picking a category and a dollar amount for her "answer."

    • Matt: Go break a leg, Lanny.
      "Break a leg," not to be taken literally, is a traditional good-luck wish among actors, especially in the theatre. Actually, the superstition among actors is that to wish someone good luck before a performance is really bad luck, so wishing someone bad luck is a roundabout way of wishing them well. Got it?

    • Lizzie: "It's great! Everyone totally believes that Kate's aunt was a Laker Girl."
      The Laker Girls are the dance team that performs at the home games of the professional basketball team the Los Angeles Lakers. They are one of the best-known cheerleading squads in the world. Choreographer/singer/actress Paula Abdul is one of the Laker Girls' famous former members.

    • Gordo: I don't think I can stand another lunch with the huddled masses.
      The phrase "huddled masses" is used in a poem written in 1883 by Emma Lazarus called "The New Colossus" that appears on the base of the Statue of Liberty. In one part it reads "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

    • Gordo: That'll take her out of cheerleading for a month, thanks to Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
      Sabrina the Teenage Witch first appeared as character in a comic book in the Archie Comics group in 1962. It became an animated TV series for the first time in 1971. In 1996, Melissa Joan Hart played Sabrina in a TV-movie about the girl who finds out on her 16th birthday that she has magical powers. Later that year Hart reprised the role for a live action TV series on ABC (later on the WB network) that was still running in 2002. In 1999 another animated Sabrina began production, this one with Emily Hart (Melissa's sister) as the voice of Sabrina. Gordo refers to Lizzie as Sabrina after she made a wish out loud that Kate would have an accident and she did.

    • Toon Lizzie: The cheerleader table is like the Oscars.
      In case anyone doesn't know, the Oscars, also known as the Academy Awards, are the awards given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood, CA for excellence in filmmaking. Awards are given for acting and for technical accomplishment. Actually "Oscar" is the name of the statuette presented to the winners. It was given that name many years ago when an actress said that the statuette "looks like my uncle Oscar." Each year the award show is broadcast worldwide to an audience that is now over a billion in number. Traditionally the Oscar ceremony attracts huge numbers of top actors and celebrities. The 2002 Academy Awards broadcast on March 24 were the 74th time the Oscars have been presented,

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