Questionable Things We Ignored In Zoey 101
Nickelodeon's "Zoey 101," a teen series that ran from 2005 to 2008, follows Zoey Brooks (Jaime Lynn Spears) and her large group of friends at the Pacific Coast Academy boarding school, which was formerly an all-boys school prior to the start of the show. The series was created by Dan Schneider, who masterminded several other shows for the network like "Drake & Josh" and "Victorious" before some controversy seemed to lead to him leaving the network. Unlike most Schneider shows, "Zoey 101" wasn't a traditional sitcom filmed in front of an audience, shooting on the Pacific Coast at Pepperdine University and having more dramatic plotlines similar to those of a coming-of-age show.
"Zoey 101" was a very popular and highly successful show during its four-season run thanks to its likable cast of characters and unique blend of comedy and drama. As good as the series was, there are several elements that could be considered a bit questionable if you take a second look. Whether it be a tasteless joke here or some inappropriate behavior there, here are some of the iffy things we ignored during the run of "Zoey 101."
Chase breaks Zoey's trust and invades her privacy
The core of "Zoey 101" revolves around the relationship between Zoey and her best friend Chase Matthews (Sean Flynn). Chase is secretly in love with Zoey, but usually goes to great lengths to try to conceal it. Nonetheless, Chase's love for Zoey reaches absurd levels in the episode "Time Capsule," when Zoey decides to make a video about her life at PCA and bury it in a time capsule as part of a school assignment. When Chase finds out Zoey talked about him and all her other friends in the video, he becomes so concerned with finding out what she said about him that he digs up the time capsule, which wasn't supposed to be opened until 20 years later, to watch the recording.
In the end, Chase decides not to watch the video and reburies it in the capsule. But the original choice to dig it up is still a really bad move on Chase's part. His fixation on finding out what Zoey said about him makes his crush look more like a creepy obsession. And although Zoey never finds out about it, Chase's actions are a massive invasion of Zoey's privacy and basically indicate that he does not trust her when it comes to their friendship.
Logan spies on the girls with a webcam
Outside of Zoey, Chase's other close friends include his roommates, Michael Barret (Christopher Massey) and Logan Reese (Matthew Underwood). While Michael is well-liked by all, Logan has a contentious relationship with his friends due to his massive ego and questionable treatment of women. One of his worst offenses against the PCA girls happened in the episode "Webcam." Logan brings the girls a giant teddy bear as a gift, but what they don't know is that Logan has hidden a webcam in the bear to spy on them, learn their dirty secrets, and just generally violate their privacy.
This leads to several other guys at PCA making fun of Zoey and her friends for their most embarrassing secrets. Logan eventually gets caught, but his actions during this episode are not something any younger viewer should see — especially since they're just played for comedy rather than seriously examined. He's lucky that the rest of his friends still choose to hang out with him after this — and that the girls don't take any legal action against him for spying on them.
Logan uses money to coerce the girls into cheerleading
Logan comes from a wealthy family, and he usually tries to use his money to get whatever he wants. In the episode "People Auction," Zoey and her friends Lola Martinez (Victoria Justice) and Nicole Bristow (Alexa Nikolas) auction themselves to raise money for the school's sushi restaurant. Logan takes advantage of this and hires the girls to become his personal cheerleaders. This means that they must follow Logan around and come up with cheers for everything he does, and they must go along with whatever he wants or Logan won't donate his money.
The entire thought of Logan objectifying his friends and making them embarrass themselves by praising anything he does, especially when they are trying to raise money for a worthy cause, is pretty slimy. He's basically taking advantage of their charity effort to serve his own narcissism. This plotline is only helped by the fact that the women turn the tables on Logan in the end when they start cheering for him during some of his worst moments, highlighting them and embarrassing him instead.
Logan schemes to ogle girls in bikinis
This Logan moment isn't as bad as some of his others, but it's still insensitive given the circumstances. In the episode "Chase's Grandma," Zoey and her friends decide to throw Chase a party for his birthday. Zoey tries to surprise Chase by inviting his grandmother, whom he shares a very close relationship with, while Michael and Logan try to come up with a party theme. Logan's first suggestion is a beach party, and he adds the important stipulation that any girls who attend need to wear bikinis.
Again, this isn't one of the worst things Logan has ever done. (The bar is pretty low.) Still, orchestrating your friend's birthday party as an occasion to check out women in swimsuits isn't a good look. Michael and Logan do end up abandoning the idea when Zoey mentions that Chase's grandmother is coming and would have to wear a bikini as well, but when the grandmother cancels and Zoey doesn't have a surprise for Chase, Logan suggests she wear a bikini to cheer him up. Sorry, Logan, but not every problem can be solved with bikinis, and it's pretty disrespectful to suggest otherwise.
Coco's 'pillowcase'
There are a lot of interesting staff members at Pacific Coast Academy. One of the most memorable is Coco Wexler (Jessica Chaffin), the girls' dorm advisor. Coco is less known for being a helpful advisor to the girls and more for her outrageous personality and excessive love of ravioli. Despite not being very good at her job, she is usually there to help Zoey and her friends when they need it.
During the episode "Zoey's Ribs," the group tries to organize a rib cook-off. They ask Coco to be one of the judges, catching up with her as she's doing her laundry. As she exits, Chase picks up a garment she left behind, telling her she dropped her pillowcase. Coco angrily takes it back, replying that it's actually her underwear.
It's a fun little dirty joke, especially given Chase's disgusted reaction to having touched the intimate article, but it's also a pretty cheap shot at Coco's body that we absolutely could have done without.
Coco eats undercooked food out of the garbage
As previously mentioned, Coco has an affinity for ravioli: She can be seen eating it straight out of the can in several episodes. She even refused to stop eating it while being chased by a swarm of bees, clinging to it for dear life as she ran.
In the episode "Favor Chain," Zoey asks Coco to drive her to a special bookstore to meet her favorite author. Coco agrees on the condition that Zoey get Michael to make some special ravioli for her — his grandmother's recipe that he brought to a potluck the previous year. This leads to a long series of events where, in order to finally secure a ride from Coco, Zoey runs around the school making promises to people who each ask her to obtain another favor from someone else in return. When the chain of favors and promises unravels, a frustrated Michael throws his unfinished ravioli in the trash.
Despite the fact that it's uncooked and has been thrown in the garbage, Coco accepts the food and agrees to drive Zoey. It's pretty gross thinking that Coco would eat uncooked food just because she loves ravioli. Let's just hope the kids watching this episode didn't follow her example and start digging in their own trash cans at dinner time.
Coco is the worst dorm advisor ever
Coco may be one of the funniest characters in "Zoey 101," but she's also horrible at her job. Many of the PCA students have recalled stories where Coco was awful to them, from losing two little boys on a field trip to eating a tray full of brownies meant for other students.
In addition to being negligent and a bit selfish, Coco is also not emotionally stable enough to be advising young teens. In the episode "Hot Dean," Coco is an emotional wreck when her boyfriend dumps her. She spends the episode crying to everyone about her relationship problems, which is not something a professional should be doing.
Coco is eventually fired in the episode "Fake Roommate" after letting a wild lion loose in the dean's office in an attempt to get on his good side. This decision should clue you in to whether she's psychologically fit to look after students. Nonetheless, she is eventually rehired later in the episode when her replacement steals all of the girls' personal items. PCA has some pretty low standards when it comes to dorm advisors.
The other questionable staff at PCA
Coco isn't the only questionable addition to the PCA staff. There are several other staff members who really shouldn't be working with young teens. One of the worst cases is Nurse Krutcher, a minor character who only appeared in a couple of episodes. She is a loud and aggressive individual who often screams at kids to lie down. In the episode "The Play," Chase is forced under her care, and whenever he tries to leave, she tackles him to the ground.
Many of the PCA sports coaches are also seen mistreating the students. In "People Auction," a vengeful Coach Keller forces Chase and Logan to perform humiliating tasks for his amusement, including getting beat up by his son, who studies karate. In the "Wrestling" episode, the wrestling coach recruits Zoey for the team, but only so that every guy she's supposed to complete against forfeits for fear of the embarrassment of losing to a girl (or the controversy of beating one). The coach is essentially using Zoey to cheat his way to an easy win.
Finally, there's the groundskeeper Seamus Finnigan (alternatively spelled Shaymus Finnegan) in "Alone at PCA," who frames Michael and Logan for destroying a school trophy and potentially puts them in danger of being expelled. He only appears in one episode, but he should have been fired after doing something like that.
Quinn creates a potentially deadly germ
One of Zoey's closest female friends in the series is Quinn Pensky (Erin Sanders). Quinn is a scientist who is known for creating strange experiments only to have them backfire, usually with disastrous results for Zoey and her friends.
One of her most notable experiments gone wrong occurs in "Quarantine." While Zoey and Lola are busy with their own problems, Quinn is experimenting with creating a new germ. The pathogen ends up spilling all over the girls' dorm room, forcing the entire group to remain in quarantine while a hazardous waste team determines if Quinn's germ is deadly.
Of course, everything turns out okay and none of the main group get infected. But can you imagine if they hadn't been so lucky? Quinn could have created a deadly virus that might have infected or killed all of her friends and several other students at PCA. Not cool, Quinn.
Quinn and Lola's bra jokes
Though he doesn't appear in many episodes, Zoey's younger brother Dustin (Paul Butcher) is still considered one of the main characters of the show. He usually only spends time with Zoey and her friends when the plot requires him.
"Drippin' Episode!" is one of those occasions. Dustin is so freaked out by a scary movie that he stays in Zoey's room because he's afraid. He eventually reveals that he pretended to be more scared than he actually was as an excuse to spend more time with Zoey. The girls are so moved by Dustin's revelation that they forgive him, and Lola even says he can take a digital photo of her bra. It's an obvious joke, but Lola should definitely not be offering something like this to a child, especially the brother of one of her best friends.
This isn't the only bra-themed joke on the show. In "Logan Gets Cut Off," Quinn invents a bra with airbags in them for safety purposes. The airbags cause Quinn's chest to grow to massive size, prompting Michael to applaud and give Quinn a "D+" for her invention. Clever wordplay there, Michael.
The mistreatment of Stacey Dillsen
Introduced in Season 3, Stacey Dillsen (Abby Wilde) was one of the most unfortunate students at PCA. A nerdy girl with a kind heart and a lisp in her voice, Stacey is unfortunately often shunned by everyone at school for her weird obsession with cotton swabs and tendency to annoy people with songs. She's frequently the butt of the joke, getting injured or made fun of on several occasions.
In "The Curse of PCA," Stacey is attacked by a ghost that causes a hospital bed to wheel out of the nurse's office and ram into her. In "Alone at PCA," Stacey's family abandons her during spring break and cuts off all further contact with her. And in the series finale, "Chasing Zoey," poor Stacey gets hit by a car during her prom! After this encounter, she inexplicably no longer has her speech impediment — though it was pretty insensitive to lump that trait in with the "weird girl" trope in the first place. As funny of a character as Stacey is, the way she was treated and portrayed could be a bit cruel at times.