Lincoln attempts to claim the best seat in the family van for a long road trip.
Synopsis
It's the night before the family road trip in the family van, also known as "Vanzilla". Lincoln explains that he's preparing to stake the night out on the "Sweet Spot", the only good seat in the car, as it protects him from the various inconveniences of the van, and the annoyances of his sisters. After he sneaks out and gets comfortable on the seat, he talks to Clyde over his walkie-talkie, and he asks who will be sitting next to him. After some thinking, Lincoln decides that Leni can sit next to him, since she is usually dazed out for the entire trip.
After convincing Leni to sit next to him, Lincoln goes back into the van, only for Clyde to point out the oversight of who will sit behind him. Following some more thinking, Lincoln convinces Lisa to sit behind him, but
only if she doesn't have to sit next to Luna. After speaking to Luna, she agrees to sit up front, so long as she isn't next to Lori. This leads to a chain of deals and agreements between Lincoln and his other sisters, as to who gets to sit next to who.
After finally finalizing the secret van seating chart under his mattress, Lincoln goes back to the Sweet Spot to get some sleep, and ignores Clyde's next question. However, by this time, the girls have gotten suspicious of Lincoln's intent, and after discovering his seating chart, they confront him about it. Lisa calculates that Lincoln has deduced which seat is the best seat in the van, and has angled his sisters in the positions most favorable to him, much to Lincoln's outrage. Now that they all know about the Sweet Spot, they demand that they get to sit in it. A melee ensues between them in the car, waking up the entire neighborhood in the process, including Rita, who tells her kids to get back to bed, and not to go in the van until 7:00 AM.
The Loud kids go back to their rooms, waiting impatiently for the clock to strike 7:00. When the time comes, Lincoln and his sisters begin a mad dash to the van, and have an even more violent and destructive brawl. By the time their parents call it to a halt, the van has been completely destroyed. As Lynn Sr. laments the loss of the van, Rita tells the kids to go back inside and that the trip is cancelled. She tells them that they're spending the weekend together on the couch until they learn to get along, much to everyone's chagrin.
Everyone (except Lily) with the destroyed van.
With Lincoln's Sweet Spot plan ending in a total bust, he states that in a big family like his, you can't control every little thing. That said, he knows of another "Sweet Spot" on the couch. He then races out of his bedroom to the living room for it (and probably his sisters as well).
This episode, along with "its sister episode", was released on Nick.com and other digital platforms on April 1, 2016, ahead of its television premiere.
During that time, the video file had the episodes switched. This would play after "A Tale of Two Tables".
While Lily does not appear in this episode, she is heard in a flashback. She is also the only sibling who doesn't fight for the Sweet Spot, thus making her the only one to not get grounded at the end.
Lily threw a couple of beets at Lincoln during the flashback, and Lana used them to knock Lisa off the van before being tackled by Lola.
This is one of the rarest occasions where Lori doesn't say "literally".
Lisa was sleeping with her glasses on.
Luan only said one line, and she never had any more lines when she and the sisters confront Lincoln.
This is the second time Lincoln has a long name for his operation. The first one was in "Left in the Dark".
When Lincoln's sisters discover his plan, all of them are dressed in their normal outfits, instead of being in their pajamas. Either they slept in their regular clothes to save time, or after they got out of bed, they changed clothes before going to confront Lincoln.
This is the first episode where the title of the episode was mentioned in a line.
Lynn Sr.'s eyes are shown in a rear-view mirror in a flashback, thus making the first time showing his eyes.
At the end, Lincoln did get the Sweet Spot. But with the van destroyed, it was a pointless victory.
When the girls shove the bottom of Lincoln's mattress with the van seating chart in his face, the cards with Luan and Lucy's names on them seemed to have fallen off.
The title card of this episode is the first one that doesn't have just a solid color for a background. The second is the title card for the episode "Study Muffin".
This is also the first episode where a silhouette of Lincoln is used instead of his physical appearance on the title card, with the second being "Out of the Picture".
This is the first time Clyde is never once seen mentioning, or swooning over Lori.
When the siblings are shown in Vanzilla's wreckage, there are a few references in regards to some of their positions:
Lincoln - Sitting on the Sweet Spot, referencing him being the first one to figure it out.
Lori - Holding the steering wheel, an obvious reference to her being the only sibling with a driver's license.
Luna - Holding the car radio, which is a nod to her passion for music.
The end fight scene is copied for the opening of "Fed Up".
Lincoln, Luan, and Leni gets the worst injuries from the sibling brawl, Lincoln with a black eye, a few bruises, and a torn shirt. Leni lost a sandal, and has a bruise on her cheek. Luan's front hair spikes and ponytail are frazzled. The others, however, seemed to get off uninjured.
Irony: The siblings should've settled something to determine who gets the Sweet Spot.
References
The Sweet Spot - The meaning of the title is the place on a racket or bat where a hit will have maximum effect.
The Beatles - In Lincoln's flashback of his painful experience of Lynn playing Auto Attack with him, an ad on the back of the comic Lincoln is reading depicts a submarine colored yellow. This could be a reference to the Beatles' iconic 1969 song, Yellow Submarine.
Slugterra - The music played during the title card is similar sounding to the end credits of the show.
Errors
Several times in the flashbacks, Lincoln is shown reading comic books with his clothes on, but in a later episode, "Undie Pressure", reveals he reads comic books in his underwear, because he claims reading them with clothes on is uncomfortable for him.
The sweet spot is shown to be the first seat on the left, in the middle row. However, the flashback of Lincoln in the "slanty" seat is shown to be where the sweet spot is, since the back row was crossed off, and the first seat from the left in the front had the speaker.
When Lincoln is packing his things into his bag, it includes the robot action figure he keeps on his dresser, but in the next shot, it's back on his dresser.
In Lincoln's flashback of the "spring" seat, it's shown to be the second seat from the left, but in the flashback with Lola, he's sitting all the way to the left.
Lincoln's dislocated arms.
When Lincoln says "That it turns into the wild, wild west." both his arms are dislocated.
Beauty before age... and eyelashes.
When Lola says "Beauty before age.", her eyelashes are missing.
When Lana shoots a pea into Lincoln's mouth, he falls out of his seat, despite being restrained by his seat belt.
Luna said she didn't want to sit near Lori, but Lincoln puts Luna and Lori in the front together.
Oddly, the only ones who were beaten up badly after destroying Vanzilla were Lincoln, Luan, and Leni.
When Lana says "Get him!", part of Luan's braces is missing.
Lucy is not seen racing with the others when 7:00 hits. But when the van is destroyed, she mysteriously appeared.
Although, the top of her head is seen when Lynn is pulling Lincoln's head with her teeth.
When Rita (in silhouette) is yelling at the kids about Vanzilla, it is believed her's and Lynn Sr.'s room is upstairs, but the room they are in after Vanzilla is destroyed is Leni's and Lori's room, as their room in next to the living room.
At the end of the episode when Lincoln mentions a "sweet spot" in the living room, he says that it's close to the bathroom, despite the bathroom being upstairs and the living room is downstairs.
Running Gags
Lincoln sorting out the seating chart and asking his sisters for favors.
Clyde not recognizing Lincoln when referred to by the code name "Road Tripper".
Lincoln showing flashbacks of his sisters causing problems in the van.
Lincoln yelling in the van when he doesn't know who's sitting next to him, and sitting behind him.
The "squeaks" of his sneakers getting faster as he goes across the lawn.
Lincoln telling the viewers he's sorry they had to see whatever just happened.
