I am super excited for this one because it’s one of my favourite books in the series and also on of my favourite book covers. Let’s get into it!
The episode begins at night as our hero, Ricky Beamer, sneaks into his school while giving one of those classic voice-overs that are like, “Yep, that’s me!” Voice-over Ricky has a confession for us – “I’ll admit I’m a nerd, but I’m not a creep.” [We can tell he really is a nerd because he wears glasses, and as everyone knows, not everyone who wears glasses is a nerd, but every nerd wear glasses!] Apparently, the editor of the school newspaper, Tasha, begs to differ about Ricky’s creep status, constantly calling him one and refusing to let him do any stories for the ‘Harding Herald’ [Bitch]. She also calls him Ricky the Rat, “which, as you can guess, is not my favourite nickname” [I’d call her Trasha!].
Trasha and a teacher are still adding a few finishing touches to the paper in the office, but as soon as they leave, Ricky climbs through a window to get his revenge, sneaking a message into whatever extremely ’90s software the paper uses:
Suddenly he hears Trasha and Ms. Richards returning because Trasha remembers she didn’t turn the computer off [How did you forget that? Like, you were just at it?], so he saves the file and scrambles out the window. He’s heard, but not seen, by Trasha, who also notices the muddy footprints he’d left behind.
The next day, Ricky’s greeted at his locker by a trio of bullies, David, Brenda and Wart. They love to call him Ricky the Rat too [As does everyone else, according to Brenda. Poor Ricky], and apparently one of their favourite ways to torment him is to get Wart, who snacks on raw onions [Ew why???], to breathe in his face [Hahahahahaha gross]. They force Ricky to humiliate himself further by singing ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ as a crowd gathers to laugh.
The crowd scatters as a teacher comes by, leaving just Ricky and new student Iris, who hates it “when kids pick on someone like that.” [This is now a Ricky and Iris stan blog xx] The duo become fast friends and later in the cafeteria, Ricky saves Iris from being served the tuna surprise because “No-one eats the tuna surprise!” [Yeah, it sounds gross]. Iris questions why the lunch ladies keep making it if no-one ever eats it, but apparently it’s “one of the great mysteries of Harding Middle School.” As they search for a table, we learn that Ricky’s the school outcast [He’s so adorable though :(] and has zero friends, much to Iris’ surprise. Unfortunately this blossoming friendship is noticed by the trio of bullies, and Wart takes it upon himself to trip Ricky over as he walks past their table. After cleaning himself up, Ricky vows to make them pay, just like Trasha, explaining to Iris that Trasha’s the one who started all the bullying – everyone else is just a sheep [Geez, imagine having that sort of power over people. Trasha is definitely an Instagram influencer now].
That night, Ricky is woken by a phone call from Iris on the phone in his room [Lucky guy!], who urges him to look at the school newspaper. The conversation is quickly interrupted by an angry Mr. Beamer, who demands Ricky hang up on the protesting Iris because it’s so late [Why didn’t Iris call him earlier?]. The phone rings three more times after that in quick succession, each a new caller that identifies him or herself as a Creep. They saw Ricky’s message in the paper and want to know when they can meet, all ready to “plant the seeds, ready to rule.”
Ricky doesn’t read the paper until the next morning at school, where Trasha gloats about figuring out his plan and replacing her name and number with his. As she stalks off, pleased with herself, Ricky steels himself for some more torture from as the trio of bullies walk by. To his surprise, however, they just smile at him and keep walking. Later at lunch, a paper ball lands on Ricky’s food tray, and he looks up to see Brenda, David and Wart nodding at him, with a thumbs up from Wart for good measure. The paper ball is actually a note asking ‘When will the creeps meet?’ and Ricky realises they’re the ones who called him! At Ricky’s locker later, he finds his lock broken and a message written on the inside of the door:
Iris appears and tells him of her plan to make some cookies for the bake sale on Friday, inviting him to go shopping with her for the ingredients after school tomorrow [Their first date!]. Ricky can’t believe that she actually wants to hang out with him [He is so cute, I love him :(], and actually thanks her [Ugh my heart]. That night in bed, Ricky takes his phone off the hook to prevent more phone calls, but they start as soon as he replaces it the next morning. The female Creep warns him against doing that ever again, assuring him they’re watching, waiting, and they will meet soon, “Very soon.”
While cutting through the woods to school the next morning, Ricky’s kidnapped by the terrible trio and taken to some hollowed out tree-cave thing, where they apologise for their cruelty and beg for forgiveness before morphing into their true forms – yellow lizard/dinosaur creatures [I wonder why they didn’t make them purple, like in the book?]. It’s very clear the actors are just wearing masks [With no real effort to blend in the neckline or eye sockets, it seems], and unfortunately the mouths barely move when they talk, but it’ll do I guess. Believing Ricky is their Commander, they hand him a bag of identity seeds which need to be planted at the school to turn everyone into Creeps, reminding him that there’s “one seed for each kid.” They seemingly choose to ignore Ricky’s blatant disgust at their appearance [Like, they’re not suspicious at all…?] and suggest the identity seeds go into the cafeteria food.
We then cut to Ricky and the Creeps [That’s my new band name], back in their human forms, in the cafeteria of the currently empty school to plant the seeds. Ricky’s suggestion that they do it tomorrow instead makes Brenda question whether he really is their Commander, leaving Ricky no choice but to plant the seeds as they watch on. Ricky finds a giant batch of that festy tuna surprise and, knowing no-one will eat it, he mixes the whole bag of seeds inside.
He’s caught by a lunch lady, and after noticing the Creeps have disappeared, Ricky warns her not to serve the dish. She’s offended by what everyone says about her tuna surprise [Make something that they want then?] because “it’s good, nutritious food” and promises to keep serving it until students learn to like it [Why are you wasting so much food?!] and insists he try some. Ricky explains he never eats tuna in the morning [I never eat it anytime of day] and scurries off, and we next see him scrutinising everyone’s trays as they exit the cafeteria line at lunchtime to make sure no-one received the contaminated tuna surprise.
The Creeps congratulate him on his good plan as they head to their table [But it wasn’t even Ricky’s plan?] before Iris walks by with a huge helping of the tainted dish. She just wants to try it, but Ricky says no, throwing it straight in the bin where it belongs regardless of any contamination. Iris tries to confirm their shopping trip later, but a distracted Ricky basically yells at her that he can’t talk right now, which upsets poor Iris [This is not how he should be treating his only friend, but I’ll give him a pass because he is trying to save the world, ya know?].
In the cave thingy after school, Ricky explains to the pissed off Creeps that he thought he was putting the seeds into a different dish. They’re not buying his shitty excuse, though, and want to devour him like an insect after deciding he’s not their Commander. Iris suddenly appears to save the day, introducing herself to the Creeps as Ricky’s second-in-command, Sergeant Iris, and explains that their first plan was just a test “to see if you Creeps were ready.” [I want a backstory of the Creeps. Like, why didn’t they know who their Commander is already? Shouldn’t they be aware of a Sergeant?].
Ricky goes along with Iris’ ruse, and the gang comes up with a plan to put the seeds in some cookies for the bake sale tomorrow. Then we cut to the school cafeteria again, where the gang is using one of the industrial-size pots to mix up a giant batch of cookies [Did they not need permission for this? Would this even be allowed?]. The Creeps are practically frothing at the mouth over the new plan, and Ricky pulls Iris aside, unsure if she’s really a Creep or not. Iris confirms she’s a human and assures him they can talk freely right now because the Creeps can’t hear them [Which can’t be true because they just went behind a wall in the same room?], and explains that she overheard his voice on her way to meet him for their shopping trip. She almost ran away because “Those Creeps are real creepy,” [Now that is some lazy writing] but knew she had to help Ricky, and now hopes they can figure out a way to stop the cookies being eaten tomorrow. The camera then pans over to the Creeps as they continue to mix the cookie batter, chanting “Humans are the past, Creeps are the future!” [Yeah, Ricky and Iris are 100% within earshot right now].
We then jump to the bake sale, where Trasha approaches Ricky and Iris’ stand and declares Iris a creep by association for being friends with Ricky, which is too bad because “you looked like you had potential.” [Fuck off, Trasha] The Creeps approach in human form and and place a plate of cookies on the stand [There’s like 15 on the plate though? That’s not enough for the whole school? And the seeds were in the batter as they were stirring it yesterday, how did they make sure each cookie only had one seed? There’s only one seed per person, right?]. Before our heroes can do anything, Wart announces free cookies to the whole room and a stampede of greedy kids rushes over to the stand to pick the plate clean.
Ricky and Iris kind of just stand their dumbly until Ricky jumps up on stage and grabs the microphone, ready to give a life-saving speech, but that bitch Trasha kicks off a chant of “Ricky the Rat” that’s carried on by the other students instead of letting him speak. Human David, Brenda and Wart join Ricky on stage and tell him not to be upset by their words, reminding him that once the students eat the cookies, Ricky will be their ruler and they’ll be his slaves [!!!]. As the other students continue to chant, Ricky tells them to “Enjoy the cookies,” much to Iris’ horror [They did it to themselves, tbh], and then everyone takes a bite of their cookie at the same time [Surely there wasn’t enough for everyone here?].
Ricky apologises to Iris because “From now on, things are going to be different around here,” and on a close up of his face, the reflection on of his glasses shows that the students have transformed [But I’m pretty sure it’s just a recycled shot of David, Brenda and Wart in their Creep forms earlier]. The now-transformed students begin chanting “Long live Ricky” [How do the new Creeps know he’s their Commander, though? Especially when he’s not even a Creep himself? Do the identity seeds rewire their brains or something? And Ricky isn’t even the real Commander anyway, so what’s up with that?] and the episode ends with Ricky biting into a cookie himself, transforming into a Creep as Iris watches on in terror.
Final thoughts
I am 100% biased because Calling All Creeps is one of my favourite Goosebumps books, but I think this episode is great. Iris was a doll, Ricky had a great character arc and those assholes at school deserve to be at his mercy. The darker tone this episode [And book!] ends with is cool too, since the cliffhangers we often see in Goosebumps aren’t always this sinister – for example in How to Kill a Monster, the episode ended with the kids appearing to be in danger, but there wasn’t really a sense of doom because based on what we saw in the episode, they know how to save themselves. This episode serves as a bit of a morality tale too – don’t bully people, because you never know if they might become your boss one day [Or just don’t bully altogether!].
The Creeps’ design itself was considerably scary-looking for the ’90s, despite being a mask and pair of gloves. Now that I think about it, it was a good idea to make them yellow because they probably would have looked like Barney the dinosaur on meth if they’d been purple like in the books. But that might have been cool too, to be honest.
I’m really fascinated by the Creeps and I wish R.L. Stine would have given them another book or something. It would be great to know more about their species – where did they come from? How did they get to Earth? Were David, Brenda and Wart originally Creeps or humans? Who and where is the real Commander? Are there more Creeps elsewhere on Earth? Is Ricky their Commander as well? There is so much to explore here; the Creeps are a whole world of wasted potential!
139 identity seeds in the tuna surprise out of 152!
