Zoey's Balloon

Zoey's Balloon
Season 3, Episode 9
Production Information
Director	Steve Hoefer
Writer	George Doty IV
Prod code	311
Airdate	March 11, 2007
Episode Chronology
Previous	Wrestling
Next	Chase's Grandma

Zoey's Balloon is the ninth episode of Season 3 and the 35th overall episode in the Nickelodeon TV series, Zoey 101. It is the 9th episode of Season 3 in streaming order and 11th and production order. The episode aired on March 11, 2007.

Plot

Zoey and her friends must write a secret and tie it to a balloon for psychology class. However, Zoey's balloon gets stuck in a tree, and someone finds and learns Zoey's secret. The mysterious person begins blackmailing her. First, Zoey is forced to wear a banana suit and walk around campus. Quinn tries reading fingerprints off the note from the blackmailer but doesn't get anything. When Zoey checks the website where she's getting her messages, she learns she has to go to the cafe, stand on a table, and dance to a 1990's hit dance called the Macalana (which is, according to Quinn, "a big zit on the face of the 90s"). Quinn, realizing that she can track the source of the website, finds FireWire, who refuses to tell them who made him create the site. To make him talk, they destroy one of his collectibles from Galaxy Wars. FireWire reveals that Chase's ex-girlfriend, Rebecca, is blackmailing Zoey, as she found the balloon. Rebecca points out that Zoey can't tell anyone about this, because if she does, Rebecca will reveal to everyone her secret. When Zoey tells her roommates if Rebecca reveals her secret, she is going to leave PCA, Quinn and Lola knew her reputation was in trouble, so they had to do something to help her. When Zoey goes to the cafe, she tells Rebecca she isn't going to do it; when Rebecca starts to reveal the secret, but Zoey's friends come along together and all jump in revealing their most embarrassing secrets to help her. Finally, Zoey reveals her secret: the little girl showing her butt on the Golden Tone suntan lotion bottles was her when she was 4 years old. Rebecca, now no longer having anything to blackmail Zoey with, walks out in a huff when Zoey starts to dance the Macalana with everyone else.

Trivia

• Paul Butcher (Dustin Brooks) did not appear in this episode.
• Rebecca would be expelled and charged with harassment for blackmailing Zoey. It can be speculated she was, considering this was her final appearance.
• The URL zoeysballoon.com redirects to iCarly.com.
• Going by production order, this is the 11th episode of Season 3.
• On the door to Firewire's room, it is revealed they have a Pokémon Club.
• Quinn's secret that she has six toes is a reference to an episode of Dan Schneider's other show, All That, where Ed claims to Tia and Tamera Mowry that he has six toes.
• The "Macalana" is a rather obvious spoof of the Macarena.
• Dan Schneider provides the voice of the website zoeysballoon.com.
• The sunscreen Zoey mentioned, Golden Tone, is a parody of the sunscreen brand Copper Tone.
• The secrets revealed go as followed:
  • Chase Matthews: He was the flower girl at his uncle's wedding when he was 5.
  • Lola Martinez: She's been afraid of people in costumes since a bad experience as a child when a hot dog guy fell over and rolled toward her. (revealed in class)
    • The first time she wore a bra, she couldn't figure out how to get it off, so her mom had to help her. (revealed to the group)
  • Michael Barret: Every year, when his parents drop him off at PCA, he cries for two hours.
  • Quinn Pensky: She has six toes on her right foot.
    • This is not true, as her right foot has never been seen with a sixth toe when her feet appeared on camera.
  • Stacey Dillsen: Every dog she ever owned bit her and ran away.
  • Firewire: He wishes he was Ryan Seacrest.
  • Ms. Dangl: She never got her degree in teaching.
  • Zoey Brooks: When she was 4 years old, she was the girl on the Golden Tone suntan lotion bottles revealing her bare butt.
• When Zoey is pressing the keys on her laptop, the Apple key from the original iBook G4 is visible.
• Logan appears in 2 scenes but has no lines.
• The music that plays in the scene where Zoey tells Quinn and Lola that someone is blackmailing her is also heard in the montage of Zoey getting ready to leave in Goodbye Zoey.
• Galaxy Wars is a parody of Star Wars and Princess Oblangata is a parody of Princess Leia. Quinn says "You're her only hope" to Firewire, which is a reference to Han Solo being Leia's only hope of being rescued.

Goofs

• Ms. Dangl admits she never got her degree in teaching. However, in Welcome to PCA, Zoey's dad says PCA has some of the greatest teachers in the country.
  • Ms. Dangl likely lied about this when applying to teach at PCA.
• Lola admits in this episode that she has been afraid of people in big costumes ever since she was little. However, in Quinn's Alpaca, Mark wears an anteater suit and Lola is not scared, only because her fear was not established at that time.
  • If Lola is afraid of people in big costumes, it may explain why she didn't appear in Haunted House.
• When Michael traded his pink balloon to Zoey, he got a blue balloon for it. However, in the scene before the balloons are released, his balloon is yellow.
• When Zoey is apparently writing "I'm not telling you my secret", it is clear that she just scribbled on the page for a second.
• After Quinn gives Firewire a nerve pinch, she and Lola drag him from his dorm room into theirs. Since Firewire lives in a different dorm building, they would be visible between dorms, and the girls could gotten in trouble if anyone reported them.
  • Furthermore, Firewire could've reported them to Dean Rivers for kidnapping and destruction of property.
• Logan did not reveal a secret when everyone else did.
  • It is possible his secret was getting straight As in chemistry, which his friends already knew about.
• Despite the consequences if Zoey revealed she was being blackmailed, she should have immediately reported the website to Dean Rivers or the disciplinary committee of PCA, as any form of harassment would most likely not be accepted on campus.
  • It is possible she did after she owned up to Rebecca.
• Zoey’s Balloon is seen flying to the sky along with all the other balloons. So it would be odd for her Balloon to be stuck on a tree so low.

Watch Episode

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Cast

Main

• Jamie Lynn Spears as Zoey Brooks
• Sean Flynn as Chase Matthews
• Victoria Justice as Lola Martinez
• Christopher Massey as Michael Barret
• Erin Sanders as Quinn Pensky
• Matthew Underwood as Logan Reese

Co-starring

• Abby Wilde as Stacey Dillsen
• Daniella Monet as Rebecca
• Allen Evangelista as Firewire
• Andi Matheny as Ms. Dangl
• Mia Stone-Molloy as Five Year Old Lola