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"Bon Bon the Birthday Clown" is the twenty-seventh episode of the second season of Star vs. the Forces of Evil.

It premiered on November 21, 2016.[1]

Synopsis[]

Star has second thoughts about attending a dead clown's séance, when Jackie asks Marco to go to the school dance with her.[2]

Plot[]

The episode begins with a flashback to one hundred years ago, when a birthday clown named Bon Bon entertains for the birthday party of the then-mayor of Echo Creek. During a magic trick involving self-relighting candles, there is an explosive accident, and Bon Bon ends up in the hospital with severe burns on his body. On his deathbed, Bon Bon tells the mayor not to be sad and that he'll return in one hundred years "just like [his] candles". The clown passes away shortly after.

One hundred years later, in the present day, the students of Echo Creek Academy prepare for their big school dance. Marco is anxious about going to the dance alone, so Star has agreed to go with him. Janna arrives with a large box of cake as part of a séance that she and Star plan to hold to welcome Bon Bon back to the world of the living. Unfortunately, the hundredth anniversary of Bon Bon's death falls on the same night as the school dance, and Star had already promised to go with Marco. After Janna convinces Star that a dead clown séance would be more memorable than a high school dance, Star goes to inform Marco just as Jackie Lynn Thomas leaves him. Marco excitedly announces to Star that Jackie asked him to the dance and he accepted. Before he worries about his previous promise to Star, Star encourages him to go with Jackie since she'll be preoccupied with Bon Bon's séance. Elated, Marco dances happily out the gymnasium door.

That evening, Marco gets ready for Jackie's arrival, but he is disrupted by Star and Janna as they collect supplies for their séance. Suddenly, the doorbell rings, and Marco frantically races to get dressed. Angie and Star answer the door to greet Jackie, who is wearing a glittering seafoam green dress. Angie and Star welcome Jackie inside, and Star compliments her look. Marco then appears at the top of the stairs wearing a gray suit. Star and Jackie are mesmerized by how handsome he looks, and his parents look at him with pride. However, when Star notices how fondly Marco and Jackie look at each other, she starts to look anxious. At Rafael's request, Star takes a photo of Marco and Jackie with her mirror phone. She then watches with uncertainty as they leave for the dance.

Later that night, Janna's mother drops Star and Janna off at the cemetery, and they are quickly followed by Star's Magic Instruction Book. Glossaryck pops out of the book, wanting to witness the dead clown séance. As the three enter the cemetery, Star is still distracted thinking about Marco and Jackie. Ignoring Janna and Glossaryck's debate about clown noses, she asks them about Marco's decision to go to the dance with Jackie instead of her, but Janna points out that it was Star's decision to not go to the dance because she wanted to see Bon Bon. After tentatively agreeing with Janna's reasoning, Star trips over something covered in moss. She and Janna brush the moss away to reveal Bon Bon's tombstone.

Meanwhile, Marco and Jackie approach the school in silence. Marco awkwardly breaks the silence by asking Jackie about her hobbies while peeking at his palm. As Jackie goes into brief detail about her hobbies, Marco cuts her off and asks about what music she likes, putting his hand on his cheek. Confused by Marco suddenly changing the subject, Jackie starts talking about her favorite music until Marco interrupts her again and asks about her favorite foods. When he moves his hand away from his cheek, he leaves some blue ink on it, and Jackie realizes that Marco has written several conversation topics on his hand. She wipes the ink from his cheek, assuring him that he doesn't need it, and he follows her into the school. Inside, Marco and Jackie find the girls standing nervously around the buffet table, some boys playing basketball, and only one couple on the dance floor. Realizing that the school dance is a total bust, Jackie expresses regret about asking Marco to the dance. Marco takes this the wrong way at first, but Jackie adds that she should've just asked him on a date. Marco is caught off-guard by this, and when Jackie asks if he wants to go on a date with her, he blankly answers yes, and they leave the dance together.

Back at the cemetery, Glossaryck sings a song about Bon Bon on a ukulele while Janna makes a ceremonial séance circle with duct tape and candles, placing Bon Bon's welcome-back cake in the center. Nearby, Star builds a shrine for Bon Bon around his tombstone, but she is too distracted by the photo of Marco and Jackie on her phone. Star continues to ask Janna her thoughts about Marco and Jackie, and it starts to frustrate Janna. Meanwhile, Glossaryck burns one of the pages in Star's spell book. In an effort to keep Star focused on the task at hand, Janna deletes Marco and Jackie's photo from her phone. Star tries to stay focused on building Bon Bon's shrine, but she still looks distracted.

In the park, Marco and Jackie are on their date, and Marco makes them malted cereal milkshake. Although they taste terrible, Marco and Jackie are able to laugh about it. Despite Jackie's efforts to get Marco to relax, he is still nervous about being on a date with her and afraid of messing up. The two start to discuss Marco's past failings, and Jackie reveals that she likes how he's always able to bounce back from his numerous setbacks. The conversation eventually shifts to skateboarding, and Marco admits that he doesn't know how to skate. Jackie responds by taking out her skateboard and offering to teach him. At Jackie's insistence, Marco sets his cellphone down on the park bench, and Jackie takes him on a skateboard ride.

Star finishes making Bon Bon's shrine and discovers that Janna has fallen asleep in an open grave. After failing to wake Janna up, Star starts to regret not having gone to the dance with Marco. She recovers the deleted photo of Marco and Jackie and calls Marco's cellphone, but he doesn't answer. She leaves him a message and tries dozens of more times to contact him, but to no avail. Hearing Glossaryck snoring in the spell book, Star wakes him and asks about a spying spell. In his half-asleep state, Glossaryck tells Star about the "All-Seeing Eye" spell in Eclipsa's chapter in the spell book, but he warns her against using such dark magic before falling back to sleep. Ignoring Glossaryck's warning, Star uses the All-Seeing Eye to spy on Marco and Jackie. When she sees them skateboarding together, she becomes envious, and her wand's magic briefly changes from pink to green. Star's magic accidentally jams a wheel on the skateboard, causing Marco and Jackie to fall over. Realizing what she did, Star dismisses the All-Seeing Eye and alerts Janna. While Star tries to explain what happened, they are suddenly surrounded by large rats. Star shoos them away, and the shrine candles all go out. As something rises from behind Bon Bon's tombstone, Janna believes it is Bon Bon coming back from the dead. But as the candles relight, it is revealed to be Ludo in a clown costume, and he attacks Star and Janna with his wand.

Back at the park, Marco and Jackie recover from their sudden tumble. Despite their fall, Jackie says she's glad she asked Marco out, and in a moment of tenderness, the two share their first kiss. As Marco pulls away, he notices that the moon has changed from white to blood-red. When Jackie asks him what's wrong, the moon turns back to normal. Marco finally checks his phone and sees that Star tried calling him fifty-seven times. Sensing that something is wrong, he tells Jackie that they have to find Star.

At the cemetery, Star battles against Ludo and his bald eagle and giant spider minions while Janna fends off Ludo's army of rats. Star casts Mystic Room Suck Transform to try and pull Ludo into a black hole. Bon Bon's ghost finally returns, but he is pulled into the black hole almost immediately. Just before Ludo is dragged in as well, Star notices Marco and Jackie arrive. Seeing them together fuels her envy further, and the wand's magic turns green again. An explosion blows Star and Ludo away, knocking Star's wand out of her reach, and the black hole starts to pull Star inside instead. While Jackie goes to help Janna, Marco fends off Ludo's spider. As Ludo's eagle claims possession of Star's book of spells, Ludo prepares to finish Star off, but she blindsides him with Bon Bon's cake and relighting candles. After the eagle puts out the flames on Ludo's head, Ludo and his minions make their getaway. Marco tries to stop them, but he gives up the chase in order to save Star. With Jackie and Janna's help, Marco saves Star from the black hole just before it closes.

Though Star and her friends are now safe, Star has lost both her spell book and Glossaryck to Ludo. Marco comforts Star with a hug as she starts to cry and promises that they'll get them back. Elsewhere, Ludo opens up the spell book, and Glossaryck begrudgingly pledges allegiance to his new master.

Characters[]

Major characters[]

Minor characters[]

Production notes[]

Songs[]

Storyboards[]

Title in other languages[]

Language Title Translation
Dutch Bon Bon de Verjaardagsclown Bon Bon the Birthday Clown
French Le Retour de Bon Bon The Return of Bon Bon
German Bon Bon der Geburtstagsclown Bon Bon the Birthday Clown
Hebrew בון בון ליצן יום ההולדת Bon Bon the Birthday Clown
Hungarian Bon Bon, a Szülinapi Bohóc Bon Bon, the Birthday Clown
Italian Bon Bon, il Clown dei Compleanni Bon Bon, the Birthday Clown
Japanese よみがえれ!ピエロのボンボン Revive! Bon Bon the Clown
Polish Bon Bon Urodzinowy Klaun Bon Bon the Birthday Clown
Portuguese (Brazil) Bon Bon, o Palhaço Aniversariante Bon Bon, the Birthday Clown
Portuguese (Portugal) Bon Bon, o Regresso do Palhaço Bon Bon, the Return of the Clown
Russian День рождения клоуна Бон Бона Bon Bon the Birthday Clown
Spanish Bon Bon el Payaso de Cumpleaños Bon Bon the Birthday Clown
Thai บงบงตัวตลกวันเกิด Bon Bon the Birthday Clown

Transcript

View the episode transcript here.

Gallery

Click here to view the image gallery for Bon Bon the Birthday Clown.
Click here to view the gallery.

Trivia[]

  • This episode marks the second season's winter finale.
  • Tom Kenny, best known for voicing the title character in SpongeBob SquarePants, guest-stars as Bon Bon.
  • The cologne Marco uses while preparing for his date with Jackie is called "Aroma del Hombre", which is Spanish for "Scent of a Man".
  • This episode's promotional poster was incorrectly headlined "Star Verses the Forces of Evil" rather than "Star Versus the Forces of Evil" or the original title "Star vs. the Forces of Evil".
  • According to Giancarlo Volpe, the name "Janna Banana" was possibly originally created by Eden Sher.[3]
  • According to Amelia Lorenz, she storyboarded the first half of the episode from the beginning to the scene where Star, Janna, and Glossaryck find Bon Bon's gravesite. Aaron Hammersley reboarded the scenes of Marco in the bathroom getting ready for the dance to the scene when Jackie arrives.[4]

Revelations and continuity[]

  • The suit Marco wears to the dance is similar to the one the Marco in the locker was wearing in his nightmare in "Red Belt" except his shirt is light grey, his coat is dark grey and his tie is blue.
  • Jackie makes several mentions of events in previous episodes:
  • Marco and Jackie share their first kiss.
  • The Blood Moon reappears after its debut in "Blood Moon Ball".
  • Ludo steals Star's Magic Instruction Book, abducting Glossaryck along with it.
  • Angie's name is revealed on screen for the first time by Jackie.
  • The end scene where Glossaryck says "At your service, milady," and Ludo claims "I'm not a milady," mirrors the identical conversation between Glossaryck and Marco in "Mewberty".

Allusions[]

  • In Bon Bon's hospital room, there's a photo of a cabin in the woods over his bed. The cabin bears a strong resemblance to the Mystery Shack from the Disney Channel original series Gravity Falls.
  • When the giant spider lands in the arms of an angel statue, its pose parodies William-Adolphe Bouguereau's painting The First Mourning.

Errors[]

  • During the scene where Jackie spits out her drink, Marco has a spoon in his cup, but in the next shot, his spoon vanishes.
  • "Mystic Room Suck Transform" is transcribed as "Mystic Suck Portal" in the television broadcast's closed captions.
  • Star claims that Jackie has eight "moles" (freckles) on her face; however, Jackie only has six freckles.
  • The grave stone behind Star, in the scene where Janna is sleeping in a grave and Star is trying to wake her up, is a different shape and has writing on it when she sits down to when she's standing.

References[]

  1. Star vs. the Forces of Evil : Bon Bon the Birthday Clown. Screener. Retrieved on 2017 March 5.
  2. Bon Bon the Birthday Clown. Disney XD Press. Retrieved on 2017 March 5.
  3. Giancarlo Volpe (2016-11-30). @_Seddm ha ha! I could be wrong, but it might have been @edensher ?? This is hilarious. Maybe she needs a spinoff?. Twitter. Retrieved on 2017 July 29.
  4. Amelia Lorenz (2017-04-19). Who did the majority of the boarding on Bon Bon?. Tumblr. Retrieved on 2017 July 30.
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