The Quest for Nothing
Stella becomes depressed when Nina's parents tell their grandchildren about Stella's mother and 3 sisters.
Season: 1 Episode: 5
Total Episode Count: 5
Prod. no.: 1RBK05
First Aired: April 10, 2000
Guest Starring: Kourtney Amasha
Featuring: Stella Masson, Harry Barvaz, Shira Barvaz, Deila Barvaz
Also Appearing: Nina Masson, Grayson Masson, Emmy Masson, Paul Masson, Wilbur Masson
Director: Trisha Lea
Writers: Bonnie Clive, Annie Waltman
Storyboarders: Karen Greene, Stephen Morgan, Ara Kann
Plot: Emmy and Nina are in the kitchen baking cookies when the Masson family home phone rings. Nina goes to answer it and learns that it's her mom. She says that she has found some of Stella's old toys and that she and her husband will be visiting the family soon. After finishing her call with her mom, Nina walks upstairs and into Wilbur's room, where Stella is reading him a naptime story. Nina tells Stella the good news, hoping she would be happy. Stella reacts as if there was someone pinching her and excuses herself from the room. Wilbur yells for her to come back so he could find out what happened between the Princess and the frog. Nina looks worriedly towards Wilbur's door, upon Stella.
A couple of days later, Mr and Mrs Barvaz visit their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren, bringing presents for them all. Shira notices Stella's absence, and Nina mentions that she hadn't seen her cat friend since she told her they were coming to visit. Shira sits in silence for a few moments, but then realises that she was wanting to tell her grandchildren about Deila.
The story begins with Mr and Mrs Barvaz adopting a cat for their children, Nina and Lina. They realised though, as Deila grew, that she was no ordinary cat. Through the upcoming years, the family grew to love Deila, even up until the moment she became pregnant with kittens by a stray, disease-ridden cat. After falling ill with the same disease, she was able to give birth to four female kittens; Stella, Bella, Ella and Lelah. She stayed alive for another year before dying from the disease. During that year, Stella found it extremely hard to be nice to her mother as she was going to be leaving her daughters alone in the world. When Deila eventually passed, Lela, Bella and Ella decided to run away from the family, leaving Stella behind as they found it disgusting the way she treated their mother. Mr and Mrs Barvaz, no longer needing a household pet, decided to let Nina adopt Stella, who took pity on her loneliness. By the time she adopted Stella, she was already married to Grayson and had Emmy and Paul.
After listening to the story, Wilbur walks upstairs into his room, muttering about how the old bat would never shut up over that stupid cat. He hears soft whimpering coming from under his bed. He quietly walks over to his toy box, opens it and picks up a gun with no haste from inside the toy box. He then makes his way over to his bed and goes on all fours to look under, his gun pointed towards the weeping. A small meow scares him and he jumps up and drops the gun. Stella dashes out from under the bed and asks him where he got the gun from. Wilbur tells her he knows a guy, but changes the subject quickly, asking what she was doing underneath his bed. Stella sulks, saying that she can't look at Mr and Mrs Barvaz without feeling guilty. She then says that she wasn't present when her mom died and didn't attend the funeral. Wilbur mentions that his mom always works and would rather have Stella's tragic background. Stella then scratches his arm, hissing that at least his mom stuck around longer than her own did. The two sit in silence for a few minutes, and then Wilbur gives a quick lecture on how life threw a big bag of catnip at her and that she was able to recover from it. The pair share a quick hug. Shira then walks into Wilbur's room, completely oblivious to the gun on the floor, comes into the room and apologise for bringing up all the old memories of her mother and three sisters. Stella easily accepts her apology, saying that the past will always be in the past. The pair share a hug.
As the episode comes to a close, the family are watching home movies of Stella as a kitten with her siblings and mother. Shira says the last line in the episode, mentioning the gun in Wilbur's room.
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| Power Mom Season 1 | |||||||||||
| #01 | What a Pilot! | #02 | Losing Trinity | #03 | That's Your Saying | ||||||
| #04 | ABCD Lessons | #05 | The Quest for Nothing | #06 | Drunk Storms | ||||||
| #07 | The Úvain Family Matters | #08 | Eating with Worms | #09 | The Great Balloon | ||||||
| #10 | Burpin' Hoops | #11 | Moronic Blues | #12 | Nervous Emmy | ||||||
| #13 | Parents Night and Free Coffee | #14 | Happy Deals | #15 | That First Finale | ||||||