| Introduction |
The Sugar Bowl is the pilot episode of Tuca & Bertie. It aired along with the rest of Season 1 on Netflix on May 3rd, 2019.
Synopsis[]
It's the end of an era as Bertie's boyfriend Speckle moves in and her best friend Tuca moves out—into the apartment right above her.
Episode Plot[]
Tuca is seen walking into the Bird Town Park. She has a variety of interactions with people in the park, notably she notices a penguin boy bullying other kids, including stealing a girl's ice cream. Tuca then kicks the ice cream out of his hands and eats it, and when he protests it was his she replies that nothing belongs to anyone. He swears she will pay for it. She then puts on sunglasses and leaves on another bird's bike.
As she leaves the park she calls her best friend Bertie Songthrush who is taking her latest batch of pastries out of the oven.
Tuca and Bertie used to share the latter's apartment, but Tuca is now moving out as Bertie's boyfriend, Speckle, is now moving in.
After Bertie tells Tuca she misses her, and notes the apartment has never been so quiet and clean, she asks her when she is planning on picking up her last box of stuff, which Speckle keeps hitting his shin on. Tuca assures her she’ll get it later, and that right now she’s choosing décor for her new place—as in finding junk off the street.
When Bertie questions this, Tuca lies and says she’s using money from her job, which Bertie remarks she doesn’t have. Tuca retorts to this, by saying that just because she doesn't have a "boring office job" like Bertie, does not mean she doesn't have a job, and she goes on to list the numerous odd jobs she has had.
Before hanging up, Tuca mentions they’ll probably live together again at some point,, but Bertie says hopefully not as she wants things to work out with her boyfriend.
Tuca then teases Bertie by saying "We'll see" and then hangs up.
Speckle asks Bertie if he can hang a photo of his face up, as he thinks he looks handsome in it,but she’s hesitant as she thinks it’s weird to do so. Speckle argues the apartment belongs to both of them now, and Bertie has all of her stuff everywhere. He jokes about her already being sick of his face, and she nervously jokes about if this doesn’t work out he’ll have to move out. Speckle jokingly replies back if they make any mistakes, they’ll probably break up and all their mutual friends will hate her and no one will ever love or understand her again.
Tuca returns to her apartment and hangs up all the junk she found. She’s bored being alone and decides to visit Bertie. After helping herself to the muffins Bertie made, Tuca decides to ask her to borrow a cup of sugar because that’s what neighbors do. Not wanting to give Tuca her more expensive baking sugar, she lends Tuca a sugar bowl that has Speckle's name on it. As Tuca is on her way out, Bertie asks if she wants to grab her last box of stuff. Tuca claims her hands are full but assures she’ll take care of it eventually.
Later, after he asks where it went, Bertie tells Speckle she loaned his sugar bowl to Tuca, to his horror, as that bowl was his grandmother Robin “Gamby's", it’s been in his family for generations and her ashes were in there. It’s Robin tradition in his family and in Gamby's case she was sweet so she was mixed with sugar.
Speckle is upset with Bertie and how she’s been acting since he moved in, saying he needs to also feel like he lives there too. Bertie realizes how thoughtless she’s been and promises to Speckle she’ll fix things.
She runs to Tuca’s place and explains what happened, but Tuca reveals she gave to bowl to Draca, the mysterious and cool plant lady next door to her, because as established neighbors lend each other sugar, and it tasted like ashes. Draca let’s the two into her apartment, and they discover her house is filled with turtles, most of whom are carrying things on their back. They find the turtle with the sugar bowl on its back has crawled out the window, fallen down the drain pipe, and is now walking away on the sidewalk.
They run downstairs, as they do Bertie yells to Speckle she almost has it, and their creepy neighbor Bruce hits on Tuca, with the revelation she slept with him at one point, to her shame, and she turns down his advances. They get outside and find the Penguin bully from earlier has the turtle, and he runs off with it to get back at Tuca.
They chase the boy though town until the end up outside of Pastry Pete's Patisserie, a famed baker, especially for his combination of crullers and Bundt cakes into "Crunts", who Bertie admires and also has a crush on. They go inside, where Bertie is in awe of all the bake goods, and Tuca confronts the boy, but Pastry Pete himself walks out, and reveals the boy is his nephew, and doesn’t believe he stole from them. Tuca says otherwise and calls his nephew a brat, maims him cry and causing Pete to kick the two out of his store.
Outside, Bertie laments Speckle is going to hate her and she’s messing everything up, but Tuca assures her worst case scenario they’ll break up and the two of them can live together again. Bertie insists she wants to live with her boyfriend. Tuca reveals she’s upset that things aren’t the same and she and Speckle will have their own boring family life without her and they’re trying to erase her from it, like how they keep telling her to get her last box of stuff. Bertie insists that’s not the case and she just wants everything to be ok so she can go home and relax and bake croissants. The last part gives Tuca an idea.
She drags Bertie back inside and tells Pastry Pete Bertie challenges him to a croissant cook-off, if Bertie wins they get the sugar bowl back. Pastry Pete accepts, as it’s part of the chef code you must accept every cook off you are challenged to, but if she loses they have to babysit his nephew. The cook off is a bit of a challenge, especially because of her crush on Pastry Pete, but Bertie gets through with encouragement and support from Tuca. As the croissants bake, Tuca apologizes to Bertie about what she said earlier, and she’s happy for her and Speckle. Bertie assures Tuca she’s her best friend and she needs her.
Tuca serves as the judge for the cook off and declares Bertie the winner. Pastry Pete tries Bertie's croissants and is very impressed. After finding out she isn’t a professional baker, he gives her his business card if she ever wants to work for him. As Tuca and Bertie go to claim back their sugar bowl, Pastry Pete's assistant has already poured the remains into a mixing bowl, to everyone’s horror.
Tuca and Bertie return to Speckle with the cake his grandmothers ashes were baked into. However, his Gamby's soul brings the cake to life, and she tells her grandson to eat her so she can cross to the other side. A disturbed Speckle does so very hesitantly.
Bertie apologizes for everything and says she understands if he doesn’t wants to live with her anymore. Speckle assures her of course he wants to live with her, and says them living together is like when you’re walking home at night, and everything inside looks warm and yellow, he loves that little piece of yellow is for them, their warm home together.
Tuca says she should probably get her last box, but Bertie says she could leave it there, which Speckle isn’t super on board with, so she can come over whenever she needs something in it. Tuca is overjoyed, and starts listing off the items on it, most of which is things she needs on a daily basis like medication or emergency times, insuring she’ll be coming over every day.
Before the credits the Gamby cake enters Speckle's stomach, and she parties with the other food already inside there.
Post Credit Scenes[]
A top-less Draca vapes while sitting on her window ledge. The turtle that had the sugar bowl earlier returns on the fire escape with a croissant on its back. Draca picks up the turtle and takes a bite the croissant, and lets the turtle have one as well.
Voice Cast[]
- Tiffany Haddish as Tuca
- Ali Wong as Bertie
- Steven Yeun as Speckle
- Nicole Byer as Gamby
- Reggie Watts as Pastry Pete
- Shamir Bailey as Draca
- Raphael Bob-Waksberg as Dapper Dog
- John Early as Billy Eggs (unseen. voice only)
- Cole Escola as Pastry Pete's Nephew
Trivia[]
- Dapper Dog is Tuca's upstairs neighbor.
- Tuca slept with Bruce at one point, and it was the final straw that led her to get sober.
- It is tradition for members of Speckle's family for their ashes to be mixed into a food/spice that represents their personality traits.