Jessi and the Stolen Secrets (TV#9)

What happens:

During a Krushers practice, Charlotte gets teased about her crush on Buddy Barrett. Since she'd only let Stacey know, she assumes that Stacey told. Then word gets out about Derek Masters's very brief visit, which was supposed to be known only to the BSC because his parents didn't want him bothered by reporters. They're pretty ticked off when a throng of paparazzi descends on their house. No one in BSC said anything, so they're pretty confused about how the secrets got out. Their best guess is that someone looked in the notebook, which had gone with some of the sitters on their jobs.

Eventually they discover that Matt Braddock is learning to lipread, and he accidentally "overheard" the secrets, not realizing that they were secrets. Jessi tells him about people talking privately, and he gets the idea quickly. Derek's parents are also understanding when Jessi explains how word got out, and Matt says he'll apologize to Charlotte for the confusion.

Jessi also makes the point to the BSC that lipreading is very hard, so they still need to keep up on their signing. At first it seemed like they were going for "Oh, so we can forget all the signing" so I was happy to see that bit!


Things I noticed:

Kristy's Krushers have purple uniforms. I expected red, like on the cover of Kristy and the Walking Disaster.

The actor playing Matt Braddock is actually deaf, which is awesome (see page 14 of this PDF: http://www.ntid.rit.edu/sites/default/files/Focus_FallWint02.pdf). The signing looks good in the episode, and the mistakes make sense (like Mallory, a novice signer, signing "baby-sitter" as literally "baby+sit (the verb, like sit on a chair)" instead of "baby+careful/take care+personifying sign" (the personifying sign is one you do after signing a verb like "bake" to indicate it's someone's job or hobby, like baking).

Oh, and cool! A desk lamp lights up with the doorbell, which is something that's common in the Deaf community. Someone who's deaf can't hear a doorbell, but can see a light flash on and off.

The captioning spells Hobart as Hogart and Prezzioso as Puzioso.

Jessi rushes in to a meeting at the last moment to a BSC meeting, and appears to have come from ballet. Fits well with the books.

Vanessa speaks in rhyme again.


Special guest stars: Christian Anazagasti as Matt Braddock, Ashley Chase as Karen Brewer, Deanna Deignan as Mrs. Braddock, Gina Gallagher as Charlotte Johannsen, Stephi Lineberg as Vanessa Pike, Noah Segan as Derek Masters, Danny Tamberelli as Jackie Rodowsky