The Little Engine That Couldn't

The Little Engine That Couldn't
Production code:	111a
Broadcast:	21
Credits
Written by:	Joshua Pruett
Storyboards by:	Calvin Suggs
Directed by:	Robert F. Hughes
Broadcast Information
Premiere:	March 22, 2017 [1]
Paired with
"The Llama Incident"

The Little Engine That Couldn't is the 21st episode in the first season of Milo Murphy's Law.

Episode Synopsis

When Melissa's dad drives her and Milo into town on a decommissioned fire engine, chaos ensues. [2]

Plot

Milo and Melissa visit Mr. Chase at the fire department as he is cleaning up an old fire engine that's to be delivered to a museum. As usual Mr. Chase is apprehensive about Milo's presence, but is impressed when he learns about Milo's considerable knowledge, and agrees to let the pair ride with him. Meanwhile, Balthazar Cavendish and Vinnie Dakota have received another pistachio-guarding assignment, only to find that their newly assigned vehicle is a tandem bicycle, which Cavendish sees as yet another instance of their superiors demeaning them. The fire engine goes out of control as Mr. Chase is driving it to the museum, and smashes Cavendish and Dakota's new bike; spotting Milo, the pair chase after him with Cavendish determined to find out the truth about Milo.

Milo puts his best efforts into keeping the engine from crashing or causing any severe destruction, though they do end up dragging an old trolley car that's been converted into a diner. Cavendish and Dakota board it and confront Milo, but since he is not a time-traveling agent he has no idea what they're talking about; he then acts to rescue several cats, one of whom bears more than a passing resemblance to Cavendish. The pair end up being thrown off the engine after the trolley car becomes detached, and the engine finally comes to a stop in front of the firefighting museum tangled with a Tyrannosaurus Rex display from the Natural History Museum that arouses popular interest. Mr. Chase then admits that he and Milo have more in common than he had first thought, as Milo's efforts to contend with Murphy's Law are not unlike his own career as a firefighter.

Transcript

For a full transcript of "The Little Engine That Couldn't", click here.

Song

N/A

Gallery

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The image gallery for The Little Engine That Couldn't may be viewed here.

Notes

International Airings

• July 21, 2017 (Southeast Asia)

Trivia

• The episode title is a pun on the old children's book The Little Engine That Could.
• This is the first episode that does not feature Zack at all, making Milo the only character to have appeared in every episode.
• Milo has an interest in antique fire engines ever since he learned that his grandfather was saved by one after somehow accidentally eating too many balloons.
• Elliot Decker's scream is heard in this episode and is credited, but he never actually appears.
• Some P&F extras can be seen when the firetruck crashes through the museum. Most notably the woman who shouts "My watermelon" in Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across The Second Dimension.

Errors

• The stripes on the American Flag outside the fire department are arranged in reverse. (They're supposed to go red white red, not white red white.
• Right before the fire engine starts to knock down the strip mall signs, as it's turning the corner, Balthazar's body disappears.
• The three people standing in the breezeway between the Natural History Museum and the fire Engine Museum suddenly disappear.
• In the courtyard between the two museums, in the foreground, a man's yellow shirt and blue pants change to brown and tan.
• The four people in the foreground of the museum courtyard change dramatically in relative size to one another and to the grid etched in the concrete.

Allusions

• WWII Arial Combat - One of the falling cats is seen standing erect and saluting. There are several reports of downed pilots doing this after they bailed out of their plane, particularly in the earlier part of the war.

Characters

• Milo Murphy
• Melissa Chase
• Mr. Chase
• Vinnie Dakota
• Balthazar Cavendish
• Diogee
• Elliot Decker (heard)

References

Previous: The Math Book

Episodes

Next: The Llama Incident

v - e - dEpisodes

Season 1 "Going the Extra Milo" | "Sunny Side Up" | "Rooting for the Enemy" | "The Undergrounders" | "The Doctor Zone Files" "The Note" | "Party of Peril" | "Smooth Opera-tor" | "Worked Day" | "The Wilder West" | "Family Vacation" "Murphy's Lard" | "Secrets and Pies" | "Athledecamathalon" | "The Substitute" | "Time Out" | "We're Going to the Zoo" "School Dance" | "Battle of the Bands" | "The Math Book" | "The Little Engine That Couldn't" | "The Llama Incident" "Missing Milo" | "Star Struck" | "Disaster of My Dreams" | "A Clockwork Origin" | "Perchance to Sleepwalk" "Some Like it Yacht" | "Backward to School Night" | "World Without Milo" | "The Race" | "Love Toboggan" "The Island of Lost Dakotas" | "Fungus Among Us" | "Milo Murphy's Halloween Scream-A-Torium!" | "A Christmas Peril" Season 2 "The Phineas and Ferb Effect" | "Snow Way Out" | "Teacher Feature" | "Picture Day" | "Agee Ientee Diogee" "Game Night" | "Pace Makes Waste" | "Cake 'Splosion!" | "Lady Krillers" | "Doof's Day Out" | "Disco Do-Over" "The Ticking Clock" | "Managing Murphy's Law" | "Field of Screams" | "Spy Little Sister!" | "Milo's Shadow" | "Sick Day" "Freefall" | "Milo's World" | "Dog Walker, Runner, Screamer" | "Now I Am a Murphy" | "Abducting Murphy's Law" "The Goulash Legacy" | "The Dog Who Knew Too Much" | "Adventure Buddies" | "Ride Along Little Doggie" "Look At This Ship" | "Cast Party" | "Safety First" | "Cavendish Unleashed" | "First Impressions" "The Speech and Debate League of Death and Destruction Cross Town Explosion Event‎" "The Mid-Afternoon Snack Club" | "Parks and Wreck" | "Escape" | "Milo in Space" | "Sphere and Loathing in Outer Space"