Helen Back Again

"No offense Helen, but what do you know about singing a song?" — Jade to Helen.

Helen Back Again
Season 2, Episode 8
First Aired	September 10th, 2011
Production Code	202
Writer(s)	Arthur Gradstein
Director(s)	Russ Reinsel
Viewed By:	4.39 million
Episode Guide
previous "Locked Up!"	next "Who Did It to Trina?"

Helen Back Again is the eighth episode in Season 2 of Victorious and the 28th overall.

Plot

When a new principal comes speeding in to the Hollywood Arts parking lot after Principal Eikner announces that he is resigning, Tori unknowingly yells at the new principal for running over Robbie's new bike that he had just bought from Sinjin. During class, the new principal (Helen from Drake & Josh) tells all the students that they must re-audition. While Tori and André try to work on their re-audition together, Trina practices her karate skills instead, believing that she doesn't need to practice.

Tori wearing glasses

In the re-audition, Tori and André perform a remix version of Make It Shine, but Helen kicks out Tori, supposedly because she's "irritating and talentless". However, when the Hollywood Arts gang (not including Jade) confront Helen, they discover that there was a mix-up; Tori was mistaken for Trina. Trina's the one being kicked out of Hollywood Arts, not Tori. Tori tries to tell her she can't kick Trina out either, but has to goad the others into helping her since they agree with Helen that Trina doesn't belong in the school.

Tori wants Trina to stay at Hollywood Arts (mainly because Trina wouldn't let her tell her that she was getting kicked out), so Tori, Robbie, and André make a plan: they have Trina go to school early, before Helen. Then, Robbie, dressed as a mugger, pretends to rob Helen. When Helen yells for help, Trina uses her karate skills to attack Robbie and save Helen. While Helen is explaining to Tori what happened, André drags Robbie's unconscious body away. Due to Trina saving Helen, Helen decides to let Trina stay at Hollywood Arts. However, Trina believes Helen let Tori stay, still not realizing she was the one getting kicked out.

Trivia

•  Jade is the only one who is not scared of Helen. When Sikowitz asks the class "Who else is frightened by her?" and raises his hand, everyone raises their hand but Jade.
• Tori and her mom are seen using an exercise tool that is a parody of the Shake Weight.
• This episode was filmed early in October 2010, and aired 11 months ago after filmed.
• This episode was previously referred to by fans as "Principal Eikner Leaves."
• Yvette Nicole Brown guest stars in this episode as Helen from Drake & Josh.

  

  YOU SILLY BABY!

• This was the first episode to air immediately following a new iCarly episode since Robarazzi on June 4, 2010.
• This is the third episode to show Tori wearing glasses. The first one was The Bird Scene and the second was The Wood.
  • This episode features the first instance in the actual show where Tori wears glasses for real; other episodes showed her wearing glasses in character. It is implied that she wears contacts when she's at school.
• This is the third time Tori sang Make It Shine. The first was in the Pilot, and the second was in Survival of the Hottest (not counting the opening credits).
• This is also the second time Tori sang Make it Shine to get in to Hollywood Arts.
• This is the first time that Tori and Jade have to act as a married couple. The second is in the Season 3 episode Tori & Jade's Play Date.
• Helen's driving, which was never known to be good on Drake & Josh, apparently hasn't improved by this episode.
• In this episode, it seems that both Helen and Sikowitz had a history together as they both said each other's name in a serious tone.
• The bike Sinjin sells to Robbie is not the same one that Sinjin was shown riding in Freak the Freak Out.

  

  Helen

• The title is a play on the phrase "To Hell and Back Again."
• Ending tagline: "I would consider doing that."
• This is technically a Drake & Josh and Victorious crossover episode, because Yvette Nicole Brown guest stars as her Drake & Josh character, Helen, though the word "crossover" is not mentioned in the promo for this episode.
• The locker door that Helen rips off has an iCarly sticker on it.
• This is the second episode of season 2 to not feature Jade imitating Tori (Beggin' on Your Knees being the first).
• Helen comments, "Whooh! And I thought Crazy Steve was crazy!" Crazy Steve was portrayed by Jerry Trainor in Drake & Josh.
• Helen's role on Happy Times is mentioned. This was referred to in several episodes of Drake & Josh.
• Look closely when Cat's juggling; it's not Ariana Grande, but her juggling double, Olga Kay, an internet celebrity. Cat is wearing a helmet to hide the fact that Olga Kay is the one that's actually juggling.
• How Trina manages to get into Hollywood Arts still raises some questions about how she got accepted in the first place. This is later revealed in How Trina Got In.
• This is the second time a person from Drake & Josh has appeared in a Victorious episode, the first being Wok Star, where Josh Peck made a cameo as an audience member.
• It is seen that Jade can imitate a guy's voice very well. In several videos on YouTube and TheSlap, Elizabeth Gillies is shown imitating a guy's voice. She even said herself that she loves imitating guy's voices.
• Starting with this episode, Helen is the principal of Hollywood Arts.
• This is the second time we see Trina's martial arts talents (the first being Freak the Freak Out).
• The phrase "talentless and irritating" was also used to describe Daisy Lee in Wok Star.
• This marks the sixth time Tori and André have sang a duet.

  

  We finally found Trina's talent!

• This is the second time a blooper of the episode was shown at the ending credits. The first time was in Ice Cream for Ke$ha.
  • The blooper shows Tori's laptop cover falling off a lot of times, so Victoria and Leon can't concentrate on the song.
• Helen's job from Drake and Josh is mentioned in this episode.

  

• The auditions shown to Helen are:
  • Trina - "You Haven't Seen the Best of Me", a song she created herself.
  • Beck - Dramatic monologue.
  • Cat - Random talents (acting, juggling, singing), all of this done in 90 seconds, even though Cat said it was a five minute audition.
  • Robbie - Stand up comedy (indirectly a ventriloquist act when Rex starts heckling Robbie, Helen believes this is his audition and loves it).
  • Jade - Horror movie which she wrote, directed and starred in.
  • Tori and André - Make it Shine (remix).
  • Sinjin is shown doing lighting, but it is unknown if doing this counted as his re-audition or not.
• During the scene where Tori is trying to tell Trina she got kicked out of Hollywood Arts, when Tori goes to sit on the couch, if you look closely at her right elbow you'll see that she has a scab on her arm.
• Trina's martial arts outfit, which was blue with a yellow belt, is actually a Vovinam Gi, not a Karate Gi. Also, unlike Karate, a yellow belt is the equivalent of a black belt, Trina is highly trained and skilled.
• When Robbie says that he hates being beaten, and that he has "always have" been. This implies that he is possibly abused by his parents or Rex or maybe both at home.

Reception

The episode has overall received mixed reactions from fans, with the main highlight being the re-audition scenes, but criticisms included that the episode felt rushed. Some didn't like it very much because of Trina's inability to realize that she had been kicked out of Hollywood Arts, not Tori. It premiered after the iCarly episode, iDate Sam & Freddie to 4.389 million viewers.

Goofs

• In this episode, Robbie is shown buying a bike from Sinjin, despite claiming he can't ride a bike. (Beck Falls for Tori and on TheSlap). However, it is possible Robbie only wanted the bike to look cool, and not to actually ride it. Or since then has learned.
• Beck raises his hand saying he's afraid of Helen, despite saying in iParty with Victorious and on TheSlap that nothing can scare him. The reason he claims to be scared is that he is probably worried about getting kicked out of Hollywood Arts.
• Helen cannot force the students re-audition, since it is against typical school rules.
• The fact that Yvette Nicole Brown is playing the same character she played on Drake & Josh meshes with a post Jade made on TheSlap about Josh Peck being at her play (see Wok Star), since Peck played Josh on Drake & Josh. (but this can't be considered as a goof as other TV shows sometimes establish that an actor that played certain character exist within the same universe as the character he/she is playing) Also, Drake & Josh is a TV show since Cat's backstory in Who Did It to Trina?.
• While Tori and André were rehearsing at the dining table, you can see a PearBook with Tori and André's drinks, but when the camera pans again to the dining table, the PearBook and the drinks are gone.
• Even if Tori would've gotten kicked out of Hollywood Arts for real, it wouldn't make sense that she got kicked out and André didn't (because they auditioned together).
• No video cameras were running during the auditions, so it is unknown how Helen got a picture of Trina on her PearPad.

Running Gag

• Someone talking about "Cream of Wheat" cereal.

Gallery

Click here to see the photo gallery for Helen Back Again.

Quotes

Cat: (Pretending to be a baby) (Angrily) "Goo!"

Jade: (in her audition): "POP GOES THE WEASEL!"

Boy: "I HATE YOU!"

Jade: "I LOVE YOU!"

Boy: "I HATE YOU!"

Jade: "I LOVE YOU!"

Jade: "No offense Helen, but what do you know about singing a song?"

Helen: (singing) "Hey, heeeeyyy! You need to shut your moouuttthh, open up your eeeeyyeees, and see, that you don't know nothin', nothin', nooootthhiinn' about, meeeeeeeee!

(she and her assistant leave)

Sikowitz: "Who else is frightened by her?" (Helen)

(Everyone raises their hand except Jade)

André: "Wait, what do you mean she's not leaving?"

Beck: "I mean, we're all gonna talk to Helen about this right now."

Robbie: "Yeah, let's!"

André: "Yeah, let's do that!"

Tori: "What are you guys gonna say?"

Cat: "That if you have to leave Hollywood Arts, I'm leaving too."

Tori: "You would do that for me?"

Cat: "No...I really love this school."

Tori, Robbie, Rex, Beck, André, Cat: (Angrily) "Yeah yeah, Let's Go, Find Helen, Find her, We're gonna get that girl!. (Going the other way) You know, Helen is this way, No she's this way, Where is she!?!

Trina: "If I could somehow suck some talent out of me, and sprinkle it all over you, I swear, I would consider doing that."

Tori: "You guys I don't want to tell Trina that she got kicked out of Hollywood... (They all walk away)"

Tori: And sometimes when life gives you lemons you...

Trina: "Tori, I know what your trying to say."

Tori: "You do?"

Trina: "Your embarrassed about getting kicked out of Hollywood Arts."

Tori: "Awwwwww."

Trina: It's okay. It doesn't mean you have zero talent. You think this is easy for me? Cause it's not.

Tori: What's not?

Trina: Being the talented one in our family. That's a lot of pressure, and your my baby sister, it hurts me when you fail.

Tori: Aw, man.

Holly Vega: Are you gonna cry?

Tori: I don't know.

Holly Vega: You're gonna cry.

Tori: I know.

Sikowitz: Everyone your attention please! See my hand waving to and fro!

Jade: Everybody shut up!

Sikowitz: Ah Jade, so sweet and feminine.

Robbie: [About Sinjins bike] If this were my bike would it make you want to date me? [To Tori]

Tori: No. But it's a really cool bike.

Helen: You uh shouldn't park your bike there.

Robbie: Then maybe you should watch where your going.

Helen: Maybe you better watch that mouth.

Tori: Excuse me, you were the one that came in here speeding like a maniac.

[They all start arguing]

Tori: Wait, who are you?

Helen: My name is Helen, I'm the new principal of Hollywood Arts.

Tori: [To Robbie] You shouldn't park your bike there.

Tori: (In a play) (Angrily) Hey! I am so honkin happy that we got married and had this cute little baby

Jade: Ditto to that. I tell ya there's nothing on this planet that warms my cockles more then looking at this magical pile of baby right there.

Helen: See him, that's the spazzy boy's bike I ran over.

Rex: Heh Heh spazzy.

[During Robbie's re audition]

Robbie: Okay can someone explain baby back ribs to me? I mean seriously when i'm eating ribs do I want to be thinking about a baby's back?

Rex: You bomin boy.

Robbie: Can you stop interrupting me, your kinda killing my jokes.

Rex: How can I kill what's already dead.

Helen: I love it! A boy doing terrible stand up comedy and being heckled by his own puppet now that's creative.

Robbie: No, this isn't part of my routine he's really interruptinh.

Rex: Knock knock.

Robbie: Who's there?

Rex: You the terrible comedian.

[During they're audition]

Tori: Well?

Andre: Did you like it?

Helen: Next!

Beck: [To Tori] Your not leaving this school.

Jade: She has too! I mean I feel really bad about it seriously, but bye.

Tori: [To Jade] I think I'll miss you least of all.

Video Gallery

To view click here.