Dear Lizzie is the twenty first episode of Lizzie McGuire's second season.
Summary
Lizzie starts an agony aunt column on her school's website, but soon finds it difficult to handle when her good intentions backfire (especially when Gordo's liking her as more than a friend, is almost accidentally revealed to her). Meanwhile, Matt feels threatened by a new prankster in the class who is gaining more popularity than he is.
Plot
Gordo, editor of the school's "E-zine," reluctantly makes Lizzie the website's advice columnist. (It was either her or the flaky faculty advisor Ms. Dew.) But she does surprisingly well in the job. After giving great advice to students like Parker Mackenzie and Claire Miller, Lizzie's reputation and popularity skyrocket. But soon she gets overwhelmed with requests for help, and some of the advice she gives turns out badly, like when she suggests to Veruca that she stand up to the school bully. Now Lizzie's afraid to give help to others who have asked, like Ethan, Kate and Tudgeman. Lizzie imagines the possible bad results of her advice: Ethan cuts off all his hair, Kate joins the Peace Corps and becomes a menu selection for cannibals, and Tudge becomes a "Dr. Evil"-like villain demanding two billion dollars from President Craft (and First Lady Kate) or he will destroy the world! Lizzie's confidence is badly shaken and she's ready to quit the job, but Gordo wants her to stay on. He compromises with her: answer one more e-mail, he says, then turn in the column.
Lizzie takes desperate measures--she goes to her parents for advice! She and her mother are surprised when her dad understands the situation so clearly, and he advises Lizzie to relax and answer the next e-mail as if she was the one writing to herself for advice. After trying this, she feels better and gives the column to Gordo the next day. Gordo tells her she gave great advice to "Confused Guy." Then we--but not Lizzie--find out that "Confused Guy" is really Gordo! He wrote to Lizzie telling her he thinks he may have stronger feelings than he realized before for his best (girl) friend! Lizzie wrote back telling him to simply follow his heart and go with his feelings on this matter. Gordo seems to be on the verge of following this advice and revealing his true feelings for Lizzie--but he stops just short.
In the meantime, Matt finds he has another rival for troublemaking class clown, as a boy named Adam is pulling all the pranks, getting all the laughs, and being sent to the office by the teacher instead of him. Matt fights back, but this Adam is a tough customer. But with a little help from Melina, Matt once again sets things straight.
People Who Asked for Advice
People who asked Lizzie for advice and their pseudonyms:
- Parker McKenzie (I Want to Be an Only Child)
- Claire Miller (Clean Tween)
- Veruca Albano (Fed Up)
- Ethan Craft (More Than Good Hair)
- Kate Sanders (Baffled Beauty)
- Larry Tudgeman (The Captain with No Shipmates)
- Gordo (Confused Guy)
Trivia
- It's not clear whether Ethan, Kate and Larry actually wrote to Lizzie, or if she was just imagining it.
- The clapboard shown on the blooper reel at the end of the show gives the date of production as May 22, 2002. In the bloopers, Lizzie (Hilary Duff) is shown sitting at a lunch table in the courtyard with another girl and they are both laughing. That scene didn't make the final cut.
- Lalaine (Miranda) does not appear in this episode. This is the third episode the character isn't in. Her absence is explained by her being sick.
- When Lizzie is deleting Kate's letter on the computer screen, it's actually Ethan's letter that's shown being deleted.
- A consequence of showing episodes out of production order: Parker's little sister is running around with Parker's journal, saying "Who's Gordo?" This caused a lot of confusion among those viewers who watch "Lizzie" very closely. They wondered why Parker would be writing about Gordo. In the later episode "A Gordo Story," we see that she does like Gordo somewhat. Only the episodes were shown out of order. "Dear Lizzie," the 30th episode of season two, was shown about a month before "A Gordo Story," the number 15 episode of the season.
- The e-mail address of Lizzie's advice column is dearlizzie@hillridge.e-zine. There isn't really any such top-level domain as .e-zine, so this is not an actual possible address. This isn't really a "goof", as it's most likely done on purpose because any actually-possible address they might use could turn out to be a real person's address, so a fake domain was used similarly to TV shows' common use of phone numbers with "555" that don't correspond to numbers in actual use.
- When Lizzie is speaking to Gordo on the deck, her hair changes from being behind her ears to over her ears in several shots.
- Previously in "Over The Hill," Ethan and Kate were seen in another fantasy segment wearing the same clothes and apparently playing the same characters. In that episode, however, they weren't identified as the President and the First Lady.
- Simms Thomas, who plays Ms. Dew, is the mother of Jake Thomas (Matt). She's also known by the name Kim Simmons Thomas. Her husband Bob (Matt's dad) has written a couple of episodes of Lizzie, "Best Dressed For Much Less" and "Bunkies."
Music
- "Out of Reach" by British pop trio BBMak, from their second CD Into Your Head (2002), which is played during the final scene with Lizzie and Gordo.
Quotes
Sam McGuire: It doesn't take a genius to see where this is going. Lizzie, you can't be expected to control every single thing that happens. You just have to give the best advice you can and hope it works out.
Jo McGuire: (pause) What he said.
Toon Lizzie: That's the thing about dads. You think they're clueless, and then they just surprise you.
Lizzie: So, you're looking at the school's new advice columnist, Gordo.
Gordo: You? You don't give advice, you take it!
Toon Lizzie: Oh, I've got plenty of advice! Just nothin' I can say out loud.
Gordo: Dear Lizzie: I think I may like my best friend as more than a friend. What should I do? Signed, Confused Guy.
Lizzie: Dear Confused: I wish I could tell you what to do, but I can't. All I can say is follow your heart. It'll tell you what's right.
Gordo: Lizzie, wait! Um, there's something I need to tell ya.
Lizzie: Yeah?
Gordo: You give great advice.