TV Recap: “Raven’s Home” – Raven Becomes Booker’s Art Teacher in “New Kid on the Chopping Block”

Raven and Booker moved to San Francisco to take care of her father Victor in Season 5 of Raven’s Home. However, Victor is nowhere to be seen in the eighth episode of the season, titled “New Kid on the Chopping Block.” This episode also features a double vision from Booker, one of which he successfully stops. Here is a recap of the latest episode.

(Disney)

(Disney)

Booker is working at The Chill Grill, passing out free french fries to all his classmates and reveling in the fact that everyone loves him because he’s the new kid. Cami walks by and Booker still has a big crush on her, even though she used him and got him in trouble. As Booker talks with Ivy and Neal, he has a vision that someone will sit on a ketchup bottle and squirt sauce all over Cami. He sees the events starting to play out and dives in front of Cami, getting catchup all over his apron but saving her from it. She swipes a fry on his apron and says thanks.

At home, Alice has added a motor to a kitchen chair and can control it with a remote control, planning to prank Booker with it. Raven comes downstairs with an empty vision board and tells Alice she can’t figure out what to put on it. Booker gets home from school early because he still doesn’t have a new art teacher. Raven gets mad about it and decides to go talk with Principal Rivera tomorrow. Booker sees Alice’s tools and asks about them as he sits in the chair. She activates the remote and Booker goes flying backward into the living room, screaming.

The next day at school, Booker tells Ivy that he’s going to ask Cami out. But when he comes around the corner, he sees Cami and other students surrounding a new kid from England. Cami is smitten and Neal tells Booker how cool Liam the new kid is. Booker is jealous as he watches Cami invite Liam to eat lunch with her. Meanwhile, Raven finds her old nemesis Alana and asks her why it’s taking so long to get a new art teacher. Alana ends up offering Raven the substitute art teacher job, guilting her into accepting the position.

Booker has an order of extra hot chicken wings delivered at lunch and plans to offer them to Liam, expecting him to be speechless so Booker can ask Cami out. Instead, Liam says they’re delicious and asks if they make hot ones. Booker thinks he was delivered the wrong wings, but when he tries them his mouth is on fire. As Cami and Liam walk away, Booker hears Cami ask Liam to hang out on Saturday.

In the art room for what they expect to be free period, Booker tells Ivy and Neal that his day can’t get any worse. Then his mom walks in, announcing herself as the substitute art teacher. She pulls out a lesson plan on the history of lines and everyone is bored by the lesson, even Raven. While festering over how close Cami is to Liam, Booker has a vision of the new British student speaking with a California surfer accent. He believes this means that Liam is faking his accent to be popular and plans to expose him.

That night, Alice tries to scare Booker with a fake spider, but he’s too down to be scared. She asks him what’s wrong and he tells her about Liam. Alice says she has connections at his school and can have him pranked so bad he will want to transfer schools. Booker thinks that’s a great idea and asks her to do it.

The next day, Booker takes Ivy and Neal with him to lunch early, telling them he wants to watch what happens to Liam. When they find out the plan he concocted with Alice, they tell him it’s a bad idea. Just then, Liam sits next to Booker and thanks him for being so nice to him. Liam says that he was so nervous that he thought about putting on a fake American accent. He does his best impression of a California surfer and Booker realizes that’s what he saw in his vision. He feels bad and spends the rest of the day trying to prevent any pranks from happening to Liam, freaking him and Cami out as Booker digs through Liam’s lasagna and locker to protect him.

Alana finds Raven moping in the hallway and she confesses to feeling uninspired by the lesson plan. Alana tells Raven to just do what she does best and she gets an idea. The hallways are being repainted and she wheels a paint machine into the art room. In the classroom, Liam tells Booker that he’s starting to feel bullied by him for the way he keeps grabbing whatever Liam is about to touch. Raven wheels in the paint machine and announces that the next project is to repaint the room and make it personal to each student. She realizes she forgot smocks and leaves to get them. Liam picks up a box with his name on it and Booker grabs it from him. As the two pull on the box, the paint machine gets a clog in one of the hoses and red paint explodes on both of them, creating silhouettes on the wall behind them. Raven enters and says it’s beautiful, representing two new students bonding through the power of friendship. Booker apologizes to Liam and he accepts. Cami dips her paintbrush on Booker’s red-painted shirt and gives him a new nickname, “Books.” He likes it.

That night, Booker is working at The Chill Grill and sees Alice there. He asks her what her prank was supposed to be and discovers that she forgot all about it. Raven has asked Alana to meet her there and they sit at a table. Alana reveals that Raven inspired the school board to raise the salary for an art teacher so they could find one faster. She won’t be substituting again. Raven gets the last laugh, pulling out Alice’s remote control and sending Alana’s chair flying backward out of the restaurant.

Raven’s Home will return with another new episode on Friday, May 6th, titled “Mr. Petracelli’s Revenge,” which will see the return of another classic That’s So Raven character. Here’s a description of the next episode.

In order to inherit Victor’s classic car, Booker must get straight A’s. But Raven’s former teacher, Mr. Petracelli, swears there’s no way Booker will earn an A in his class.

Alex Reif
Alex joined the Laughing Place team in 2014 and has been a lifelong Disney fan. His main beats for LP are Disney-branded movies, TV shows, books, music and toys. He recently became a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA).