#Tgamm 100% Molly Mcgee

[tgammsideblog]

How 100% Molly Mcgee¨ tackles mixed race crisis

The Ghost and Molly Mcgee, while being a funny comedy slice of life series, it has episodes that explore complicated real-life topics that the audience is able to relate to in more than one way.

One of these episodes is the season 2 episode ¨100% Molly Mcgee¨ that explores how Molly, who is mixed race/culture (Irish and Thai) feels alienated from her thai mother side of the family when her uncle David and cousin Emmie come to visit. Molly feels disconnected from her thai side and feels like she isn’t ¨thai¨ enough for that part of her family.

In this post I’m going to talk about how this episode tackles this theme, how it affects Molly and the rest of the characters involved and the lesson it gives.

Let’s start:

What does means to be mixed race/multi-ethnic?

According to dictionary.cambridge.org being mixed race means ¨a person whose parents are of different races¨. According to wikipedia being multi-ethnic refers to ¨people who are of more than one ethnicity.¨ In other pages, the term mixed race is used interchangeably to refer to people whose parents are from different races or different ethnic backgrounds since both terms are often correlated with each other. However, it worth of remembering that they mean different things. As you can belong to two different cultures but not be mixed race.

In the context of the series, Molly is a mixed race and multi-ethnic teen. She is half Thai from her mother side (Sharon) and half Irish from her father side (Pete). She is asian, southeast asian to be more specific, and white-european. The episode ¨100% Molly Mcgee¨ is about her thai side of the family and how she feels like she isn't connected enough to thai culture.

Molly’s conflict about being mixed race in the episode

¨100% Molly Mcgee¨ starts with Molly giving a presentation to her school classmates about her Thai heritage and her maternal family tree. She explains that her grandparents inmigrated from Thailand to America and that their surname is Suksai. Grandma Nin had two children: Sharon, Molly’s mom and David, Molly’s uncle, who himself got married and had a daughter named Emmie. Molly adds that Uncle David and Emmie are coming today from New York to visit the Mcgees after years of not seeing each other.

This intro is a good way to give the idea to someone who has never watched the series before that Molly is part thai and where her heritage comes from. I like how there are references to Thai culture and the fauna that is in Thailand in the presentation. It gives the idea that Molly enjoys learning about this culture and being involved in it, something that has been established in previous episodes.

In addition to this, there is a somewhat good explanation about why we haven’t seen Uncle David and Emmie around before, and that is because they live in New York and they haven’t been able to visit the Mcgees in a while.

The scene that follows is Uncle David and Emmie arriving at the Mcgees house. Molly greets them both and they get to meet Scratch, who they are very happy to see him and give him a big hug. Uncle David gives Molly an elephant plushie as a gift and she thanks to him in Thai. This makes Emmie excited since she thinks she has someone else around her age to talk to in Thai, to which Molly sadly answers that she only knows a few words and not much else. Emmie apologizes and shows to be okay with Molly not knowing a lot about the language.

Then Sharon and Grandma Nin greet David and Emmie in thai too, a conversation that Molly isn't able to follow since she can’t understand them. This is the first thing that makes Molly feel alienated from the rest of the Suksais, expressing to Scratch that she didn’t know there was so much thai spoken in this side of the family.

In the next scene the family is seen looking for a game night to play, Emmie suggests playing makruk, which Sharon describes as ¨thai chess¨. This is a game Molly has never heard about. Darryl reveals that he has been playing makruk online lately and plays a game with Emmie, making Molly feel more insecure about not knowing a lot about thai culture.

Then Uncle David shows some seaweed snacks that he brought to share. Molly tries eating some of them only to quickly realize that they are too spicy for her and she isn’t used to eating food that is this spicy. Sharon, David and Emmie eat them without any problem since they have spicy tolerance thanks to the thai food they got used to growing up.

Molly and Scratch are trying to calm down their burning mouths from the spiciness by drinking bottles of milk in Molly’s bedroom. Molly then expresses feeling alienated from thai culture because she doesn’t know things like how speak the language nor play makruk. She talks about how she only has one thai parent (Sharon) while her cousin Emmie has two thai parents, and, she thinks that because she is mixed race, she ¨isn’t thai enough¨ for her family.

One thing that is good about this episode is that a person can relate to Molly’s conflict without them having to be Thai since her conflict is about feeling like she doesn’t fit in with the rest of the Suksais because she doesn’t know much about her heritage aside from a few things. It is about feeling insecure that you aren’t connected enough to your roots and culture and feeling disconnected to your social circle as result of that. What’s more, this idea of feeling left out is something that Molly has struggled with past episodes (A Period Piece- All Night Plight), something that in part comes from being a teen but also a product of some abandoment issues she has.

Another aspect that is cool is how the Suksais don’t put Molly down for not knowing enough about thai culture, like Grandma Nin doesn’t show to be disappointed when Molly only knows a few thai words and Emmie apologizes to Molly when she realizes this too and continues to talk in english to her. They only make one or two jokes about Molly not being able to tolerate very spicy food but nothing else. If anything, them making Molly feel left out is indirect and completely unintentional as it would be in this type of family situations.

Molly has the idea of spending all night trying to learn as much as she can about thai culture to feel like she is ¨thai enough¨. The music song sequence has her trying to learn Thai language, how top lay makruk and trying to develop some spicy tolerance while Scratch helps her. I want to highlight how supportive Scratch is of Molly in this episode, he is seen guiding her when she is giving her school presentation at the start and then staying all night helping her with learning more about thai culture. In part it is because he gets what Molly is going through but he just really cares about her.

In the next day Molly presents to her family all the thai related plates she prepared for them to have, the Suksais are shown to be impressed, seeing this as a very nice gesture from Molly. Molly mentions how the food is ¨super spicy¨ and Grandma Nin quickly notices that something is off and brings up how Molly doesn’t like spicy food. Molly ignores Nin’s commentary and tries her best to prove that she can tolerate the spicy flavor.

She asks to Uncle David and Emmie how was their trip in thai and asks them to answer her in thai too. This leads to the rest of the Suksais to have a conversation in thai that Molly isn’t able to follow again just like the beginning of the episode.

I really like how this scene really shows how overwhelmed Molly feels about not being able to understand what the rest of the family is talking about, with the subtitles covering the entire screen while Molly panicks more and more until she screams. It’s a pretty effective scene that shows how she stressed she is in this situation.

Pete decides to tell a joke in thai language, making the others laugh. Molly is suprised that even Pete (who is Irish-white) knows how to talk thai. Pete explains to her that it is a joke that he has been practicing for months to impress Grandma Nin. This leads to Molly say that she still ¨isn’t thai enough¨ even when she spend all night trying to learn about the culture.

In the following scene Molly is in her bedroom surrounded by her plushies, feeling bad about what happened earlier. Scratch tries cheering her up without being able to do so. That’s when Sharon comes in and asks to Molly what is happening. She explains to Sharon how she doesn’t feel as thai as the rest of them. What follows is the rest of the suksais telling Molly that understand how she feels, just in different ways: Sharon feels bad about letting her thai get rusty, Uncle David for not have been in Thailand and even Grandma Nin mentions how her sister made fun of her for ¨being too american¨.

Sharon explains to Molly that ¨being thai is part of you¨ and ¨there isn’t a right or wrong way to be you¨, leading to Molly to understand that she doesn’t have to prove anything to them and it is her decision to choose how she celebrates thai culture and how much she wants to learn about it. Emmie tells to Molly that they love her the way she is and they all share a family hug, ending the episode.

One detail i want to highlight i how only the Suksais are involved in this personal scene and Scratch and Pete are ¨set aside¨ since it isn’t something that involves them in this context. It is a pretty nice detail that makes the scene better than it is.

Conclusion:

The lesson that 100% Molly Mcgee gives is that people have different ways of celebrating their own culture and they don’t have to prove anything to anyone. It is one’s decision to want to learn more about one’s heritage and you don’t have to do it because you feel like you have to impress your family or other people. One decides how invested they want to be and there isn’t anything wrong with knowing less about it in contrast to the rest of your family and social circle.

[theknucklehead]

Here are some screencaps of Molly's cousin Emmie.

A shame she was only in one episode, she would have been great to have in the Ghost Friends group.

[artiemartietartie]

the fact that I’ve fixated on these things and they all fall under the category of a kid who has a ghost bestie that follows them around everywhere

[candydos]

The Unhaunting of Brighton Video / 100% Molly McGee

https://mega.nz/file/QKZyQRzJ#wal4uxWl0B5btgiJdt8pYqdV7fZ4A3_-5H0RVuHf0wo

(if that doesn’t work, try https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Wt6S5sRF8_Am3H22QQLUePEH3FeKaoI/view?usp=share_link)

[kcuf-ad]

I kind of relate to Molly in 100% Molly McGee.

I am 100% Croatian and I am living in Croatia, but I kind of feel Like I am not Croatian enough since I speak English better than my mother language and people often joke that I am a turist that just learned the language, but don't worry, it doesn't bother me that much.

[matt-eldritch]

I’ve been making a Disney/Mob Psycho 100 mashup AU called “Tilly Psycho 100″, I’ve picked Tilly Green, Gloria Sato and Scratch the ghost to play the roles of Mob, Reigen and Dimple, respectively.

[bennydwight]

How excited are you to see TGAMM tackle the concept of periods and don’t you think it’s inevitable that soccer moms will cry on the bird app about it like they did with Turning Red and Baymax?

I am DISPROPORTIONATELY JAZZED for the period episode!! When I read the plot outlines, that one made me physically wiggle with glee. Disney is awful and pandering with a lot of representation (i.e, the repeating First Ever Gay Disney Character), but so far it's still one-upping all other production companies with normalizing periods. A thing I've noticed in TGAMM particularly is how they note a lot of issues in a way that impacts the characters while also being casual and non-preachy about it. Like, already there are episodes that organically bring attention to student loan debt, light pollution, and the inflation of medical care. I'm very excited to see how the writers make the concept about Molly and her friends, rather than making the period itself the star of the episode.

Soccer moms can cry all they want on the bird app, that's why I won't touch that junk with a ten-foot pole. Refusing to talk to your kid about periods won't stop them from getting it, Karen 🤷‍♀️

(And tbh, the way I'm treating season one, it won't matter if they all scream 'DON'T LET YOUR KIDS WATCH IT' because I'll be watching it enough on repeat to count for at least six people. No views lost here, baby)

[the-gayest-show]

A frame from 100% Molly McGee. Likely gonna cry. Look at her dancing amongst her culture. This is gonna be such an important episode for people everywhere.

OMG YES!!!! I CAN"T WAIIIIITTTTTTTT

gonna be SUCH an episode fr

[thisbelongsto-nohbodys]

My Top 12 TGaMM S2 songs (in no particular order)

Kinda like in Centaurworld, I found more songs in S1 than S2 that I liked but that's not to say that the songs weren't enjoyable. It's just a shame I won't be able to make a S3 list T_T

Anyways, here's my Top 12 TGaMM S2 songs in no particular order:

12. Frightful No More [A Doll to Die For]

It's great to hear Lord Hater again and a song that's an homage to "Everything's Coming Up Roses" (Gypsy) and "The Rain in Spain" (My Fair Lady)...at least that's what it make me think of.

11. It's Just Your Masterpiece in You [Faint of Art]

This episode was a pretty nice message on art block and a fear of failure that a lot of artists face, especially when they haven't done anything in years. I tend to procrastinate by snacking, which of course I can't draw with food fingers (even when using a napkin) so I gotta wait till it goes away, oh whoops, now the days ended, oh well, tomorrow...

10.Thai Culture Cram [100% Molly McGee]

A fun song showing the lengths that Molly is willing to go to learn half of her culture. Granted she didn't realize that this stuff takes time but she's on the right path.

9.Me & My Dad [Like Father, Like Libby]

Kid's who have an absentee parent def felt what Libby is singing about in this one. It just sucks when someone who should be important in your life, doesn't take it as serious as you'd wish they would.

8. Hit Restart [Perfect Day]

Gotta love how relaxed the singer is while describing the continuiously hectic attempts Molly and Scratch make at having a perfect first day of the year.

7. Identity Crisis [Davenport's in Demise]

It's a shame we didn't get more from Andrea this season, especially after this ep. I know we would've gotten her and Alina in S3 but still, I would've liked to see how her and Molly are friends

6. Maybe Next Time [The End] (Spoilers)

Scratch's backstory was a gut-punch, especially for those of us that feel like we're wasting our lives away. It does kinda remind me of a more sad version of "I Remember It Well" (Gigi)

5. Enjoy Your Afterlife [The New (Para)Normal]

A fun song with the Ghost Council about life after the Chairman's defeat that kinda reminds me of "Go Back to City Hall" in S1

4. You Got to Be Low-Key [The (After)Life of the Party]

Jinx is such a little shit in this song. Not to mention this was the ep that confirmed that Geoff and Jeff are married

3. Back to Misery [Jinx vs the Human World]

Gotta love a villain song. Just a shame we didn't get more.

2. Trying to Find [All in the Mind]

Love the abstract visuals of going through someone's mind and the soft vocals and instrumentals.

Honorable Mention 1: You've Been Jinxed [Jinx!]

Honorable Mention 2: Feeling Like MY Old Self Again/Small Town America [Kenny's Falling Star]

Honorable Mention 3: Happy Happy Death Day [The Many Lives of Scratch]

1.This House is Haunted [Frightmares on Main Street]

Love this homage to "Thriller" but it's also to see ghosts being able to let loose. A great Halloween special

As stated before, it's a shame that we won't get anymore eps but at least what we've gotten were great. Idk if I should do an overall list

[nerdyunicorns101]

I sometimes look back at the first poster of TGAMM and thought the ghost character would be a traditional comedically grumpy ghost character and we would have another fun albeit unspectacular silly cartoon for kids.

Little did we know that the ghost character would spark some fascinating look into how childhood trauma can lead to aggressive cries for help. Don’t you just love it when your expectations are shatteringly subverted?!

AGREED.

(There will be spoilers for the most recent Season 2 episodes going forward as I talk about this, be warned).

I knew something was off about Scratch the moment he was introduced to us, specifically the fact he was so alone. I just thought it would never get addressed because of how the series was so focused on the story told in Season 1, with the Flow and the Chairman and all that crap. I thought his past was, well, in the past, and the show was only focused on the present. It was there for fans to fantasize and wonder about, but it would never actually come to light what he went through.

When we got the synopsis for A Soda To Remember, I was nervous. I wanted to know what would happen, but at the same time, I wanted the show to stay in the present. But the way the writers have been discussing all of the things that happened when Scratch was alive is making me so invested into it all. There was a time when I was first watching the series that I lowkey didn't really want to see what Scratch looked like as a human, and now, I'm literally FEASTING off of the one glimpse we saw of him in All In The Mind. The writers said we'd find out how he died, and I could never be more hyped (and scared for what we're going to find out, of course).

One think I appreciate in kids shows like these is how the writers are never afraid to address real-world issues and topics. Take the Home episode from Season 1 (yes I'm too lazy to write out it's full name but it's episode 18) as an example. Now here we have Scratch, who 100% has anxiety or other mental disorders that have all been from childhood trauma. (Now, before you go out and say "oh but a friend moving away isn't trauma" ummmmm ever consider why he has no biological family???? lol). He's repressed his feelings so deep inside of him because he's scared to confront this PTSD he has. You can still tell he has some sort of mental attachment to things that've happened in the past, hence why he was staying inside of the attic of Adia's old house before the McGees moved in, but he's trying his best to ignore it. And the catch is: it's not working. That's why things are "bubbling up to the surface", as they've been calling it. From the get-go, Scratch has always had a problem with hiding things from people. In Season 1, you could tell he didn't want to tell Molly about how dangerous their friendship was. He told her about things in Scratch the Surface/Friend Off, but you could tell he was doing it in a way where Molly wouldn't see the issue as much of a problem, when in reality it was a massive problem that Scratch was trying to deal with all on his own. And in episodes like the Turnip Twist, that problem of hiding what was happening was really hard for him to do. All of it is starting to make sense now - he's hiding everything. All because of what's happened in his past and the fact that he's too scared to confront his emotions.

I cannot wait to see what the rest of the season. I want my ghost boy to find closure. He deserves it 🙏

[cantpickonefandoms]

Damn I wasn’t expecting to cry at the end of a TGAMM episode, but here we are. I related a lot to Molly feeling not-Thai-enough, coming from a mixed race family myself, Canadian on my dad’s side, and Chilean on my mom’s side, and because I grew up in Canada, I’m not as in touch with my Chilean side, I love my family and I’m always happy whenever we got to visit them, but it can be hard for me at times, especially because I only know bits and pieces of Spanish, like when Molly was at the dinner table and and everyone was speaking so rapidly that she couldn’t keep up with what anyone was saying, yeah I felt that one hard. I think 100% Molly McGee is probably my favourite episode from this season so far!

[tgammsideblog]

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¨Being Thai is part of you. And there is no right or wrong way to be you¨

[ladymiraclewings]

All in the Mind was so good, it might just be my favorite episode of TGAMM overall. It inspired me to ask: What’s your favorite episode(s) of each of your favorite DTVA shows?

This is a little difficult to choice because there are many episodes greats, but if i had to do a list, i think it will be like this:

The Ghost And Molly McGee: Innocent Until Proven Ghostly / Scaring is Caring / the S1 Finale / Double, Double, Darryl & Trouble / A Soda to Remember / The (After)life of the Party / 100% Molly McGee / Jinx! / The Ghost Is Molly McGee and of course All in The Mind (and many others in s1 and 2 but thoses are my most favorite)

The Owl House: Adventures in the Elements / Understanding Willow / Echoes of the Past / Throught the Looking Glass Ruins / Eda's Requiem / Eclipse Lake / Reaching Out / Hollow Mind / Clouds on The Horizon / King's Tide and Watching and Dreaming

Gravity Falls: Little Dipper / Carpet Diem / Soos and the Real Girl / Not What he Seems / A tales of two Stans / the entire Weirdmaggedon arc.

Amphibia: Hop-Popular / Cursed! / Anne Hunter / Wax Museum / Marcy at the Gates / Ivy on the Run / Bessie & MicroAngelo / Fight at the Museum / Olivia & Yunan / The Core & The King / All In and The Hardest Thing

I also watched all of the episodes of Hailey's On It aired to this day, i don't have any favorite episode for the moment but i found them enjoyable.

[fanfic-inator795]

Looking back at TGaMM s2, while it’s pre-ending could’ve been stronger and the arc with the Chens could have used a bit more fleshing out, it’s FINAL episode was just about perfect and the stuff I loved from s1 was just as great as ever and as such, if this is the last we see of TGaMM, I’m pretty satisfied.

Anyway, outside of the s2 (series?) finale which I’d call a 10/10 episode and ending, here’s my top 10 in no particular order:

- A Doll to Die For: I’m a sucker for Lord Hater- I mean, Lord Doom. Really funny with good horror-comedy elements and a really sweet ending, has those s1 vibes of helping a character find their happiness and it’s just an easy one to rewatch for me.

- The (After)Life of the Party: Of course I’m gonna love the ep that gave us Jeoff - plus it’s just fun in its own right, and that song’s a bop.

- Faint of Art: VERY relatable as as a fellow creative, another great song, really good jokes and an incredibly sweet ending

- Dance Dad Revolution: Pretty sure I’m the only one who really likes this one, haha. I just found it really amusing, and even when he’s at his ‘worst’, Pete is still just super charming to me. The song in this one is one of my faves (was stuck in my head for the longest time), and I love that it was the Jeoffs and their genuine love for dancing that inadvertently ruined Scratch’s scheme in the end, lol.

- All Shark No Bite: just a fun time, ngl. I love GhostShark and I’m so happy he stuck around

- Davenport’s in Demise: really interesting spotlight for Andrea. Another great song, great lesson, fun jokes- and come on, of course I was gonna put the ep with the “soft rock personality” joke on here, haha

- Kenny’s Falling Star: Idk, I just really like the story in this one. Kenny’s actually a lot more endearing than I thought he would be, and both his songs are great.

- Frightmares on MainStreet: excluding the s2 finale, this was probably the best out of all the Half-Hour eps this season, as it never feels like it’s dragging nor does it ever feel rushed. It’s fun, sweet, exciting - really the only knock against it comes from how it’s ending now feels a bit hollow, given how rushed the rest of the Chens arc ended up being. (Also I’m still a bit annoyed that the Frightmares in the thermos never came back, either as a serious threat or as a solution to defeating another threat. Like- why bother having them in the Chens’ possession in the first place then?)

- Alakasham: a nice and entertaining episode that really highlights just how much Darryl has grown over the season, plus all the stuff with the magic was a ton of fun.

- FONAA: another ep that felt like a classic s1 romp with great jokes, great moments between Molly and Scratch, and a really sweet ending.

Outside of my faves of the season, I’d say pretty much all the other eps were also really good, only ever being just kinda meh at worst.

I’d say the only ones that stood out in a negative way were:

- (I know I’m gonna be in the unpopular minority on this one) Like Father, Like Libby: it just sorta felt like a One-Scene Wonder sort of ep given that you’re just spending the whole time waiting for the other shoe to drop, thus causing the rest of the ep to feel sorta boring and filler-y since it’s not super funny or interesting in the lead up to the Big Scene. I feel like it could've played better if we got more of Libby and Leah bonding instead of just Libby being only focused on her dad and Leah being worried.

Honestly, out of all the “Special Episodes” this season, it’s the one that feels the most like it instead of simply being an enjoyable ep that happens to have a Special Lesson (like Period Piece or 100% Molly McGee)

AND

- The Grand Gesture: not bad by any means, just overstuffed. It sucks that by the time we finally got a Darryl and June ep, it also had to be shared with a b-plot that felt like it took the majority of the ep. It also just wasn’t super funny outside of like two jokes and felt rushed by the end of it.

All in all, for as much as I loved this season for its episodic installments, it’s new characters (namely Jeff, Lord Doom and Ollie) and its songs, the fact that 2/3rds of the serialized stuff didn’t quite lead up to its potential in the end and fell a bit flat - plus a couple of sorta meh episodes - makes me want to say that I do think s1 is better by juuuuuust a little bit.

But hey, s2 is still incredibly solid and enjoyable - and again, DAMN, that was a super satisfying and really great ending both to Scratch’s personal arc and the show itself - which makes TGaMM a really good show overall in spite of some minor flaws and disappointments. Easily the best modern day Disney show imo right up there with Big City Greens.

[alexl-1196]

Greetings Alex I love your art tgamm my question is how did you meet the series and what is your favorite episodes?

Greetings, thank you very much, I love that the public likes my art

my favorite episode of tgamm it's hard to say any both in season 1 and 2 have had wonderful episodes so I'll tell you 5 at this time

-"The Jig is Up/Molly Vs. The Ghost World"

-"Festival of Lights/Saving Christmas"

Season 2 moment

-"A Period Piece"

-"I Wanna Dance With Some-Ollie"

-"100% Molly McGee"

[lukmarc10]

so...

this week's tgamm episodes huh?