I think Davey and Jonesie’s Locker is one of the strangest shows I’ve ever seen, and many would argue I’m one of the weirdest people they know, so make of that what you will. See, I understand what the intentions of this show are, but it’s enough to say it doesn’t quite make the landing. The show does try really hard to look inward on the YA genre for some tragic self-aware humor that’s meant to make the kids realize that what’s cringeworthy isn’t really cringeworthy; it’s simply substances that they’re supposed to open their eyes to. Despite being a part of the YA genre that’s clearly open to taking leaps in all sorts of directions, this show makes odd choices and definitely fits the bill, written by adults who are way in over their heads. I mean, there’s an episode that even takes a dig at Riverdale, but it simply feels wrong. Though I must admit, the two girls are quite likable, and in such a strange show, it’s a good chance to use it as a blank canvas to try out almost anything. With that, let’s get into the first season of Davey and Jonesie’s Locker.
Spoiler Alert
Why do Davey and Jonesie get stuck in a mess?
Davey and Jonesie are the best of friends, and it seems their school isn’t quite appreciative of this friendship. It’s almost as if their normalcy is considered a problem, and they’re tasked with joining a school dance committee to show the school that they’re not co-dependent or, I don’t know, a little bit weird. The girls are a little bit over-smart; they love to go against the crowd and embrace their oddball nature. However, when they decide to mess up the dance and stage a protest to tell their class that they’re all sheep, things go massively wrong. They’re wearing mascot heads and accidentally light the banner on fire, leading everyone to be drenched by the sprinklers. Apparently, another odd thing about them is that they share a locker, and somehow, when they start to run from the whole class, they end up opening the locker door. Except it’s not a locker anymore but a portal to the multiverse. In every universe they go to, the versions of themselves in that universe seize to exist, obviously.
Rewind a little bit, and we see Mr. Schneider, the school science teacher, who happens to be conversing with multiple versions of himself from across the multiverse (no, this isn’t Spiderman). They have one goal: to open a portal, combine and become one being because they’ve been forced to become science teachers when they have a much greater purpose. Unfortunately, for him, the portal is in Davey and Jonesie’s locker, so they end up going through it onward and upward to a massive adventure. Obviously, this is them running from their responsibilities in the most chaotic way possible, but here we are.
What’s M.O.M. and D.A.D.?
Imagine you wake up every day in a new, made-up universe where you can start over from whatever wrong you’ve done. That’s what happens to Davey and Jonesie. The girls end up universe-hopping for the rest of the show, leaving a mark at every stop and messing with the space-time continuum by trying to be “good people.” For example, the first world they land in has a gem-based hierarchical system. In this world, their mortal enemy, Sierra, is the president of the school, and the girls are meant to be her best friends, but they stage a protest and dethrone Sierra before Schneider sets up the portal again for them. In another world, music, or “muh-zic,” as they call it, is banned, and the girls introduce music to the school, only to turn the adults into wearwolves. These changes the girls create in these worlds are called anomalies, and until Schneider figures out out how to bring them back to their own universe, i.e., universe 6689, they’ll remain frozen. If it’s stationary for too long, then eventually, the universe will be decommissioned, but we’ll get to that in a bit.
The girls do try to do the right thing everywhere they go. Their intentions aren’t bad, that’s for certain, but their choices aren’t the best, I suppose, because they’re meant to be “brainless teenagers.” I guess the show is trying to emphasize that your actions have massive consequences and that sometimes you should just listen to the adults. In an episode where the girls travel to their imaginary world from childhood, there’s tension in the friendship, or should I say, the tension in Fantasmanaria (too long if you ask me). Once you spend too much time with your friends, you end up fighting (scandy). This is supposed to be an insight into Davey and Jonesie as people, yet we don’t learn anything new about them except that they love to be different and have no other friends except each other because they’re actually quite terrible to other people.
In an episode called “Orange Is The New Snack” (this is what I’m talking about; I don’t think even Riverdale can beat this), the girls learn that there are sentient oranges who used to live in harmony with the humans until the humans discovered the vitamin C in their “blood,” which was useful to them, and started devouring them. Alright, people, let’s just stop eating. In another universe, the girls think they’re in their favorite TV show, Glimerdale; however, it’s actually one where lobsters and seahorses are fighting for the rule of the world. I don’t even know at this point. Through their time in the multiverse, though, the girls start to enjoy the company of other people; they even start to like the Schneiders, even though, at one point, they want to hand in the girls to the M.O.M. because they’re tired of the chaos.
M.O.M., or the management organization of the multiverse, is like the governing body of the multiverse. They have specific people to catch kids like Davey and Jonesie, called D.A.D., or delinquent acquisition deputies. Cheryl is the one who is assigned to their case, and somehow she never manages to catch them. Cheryl works with Andy, a man who seems to act like he’s the nicest guy in the multiverse but is evidently the real bad guy here. At one point, the girls find themselves in a universe where Schneider is actually kind of cool; however, it turns out he’s like a cult leader who wants to destroy all the other Schneiders and keep the girls there. This is when the girls seek out Cheryl themselves to come save the day.
Why do Cheryl and Schneider not get along?
Through the series, there’s one obvious thing: Schneider and Cheryl are supposed to be parallels to Davey and Jonesie. They used to be best friends, but now they hate each other because of some great betrayal. On the other hand, in episode 9 of Davey and Jonesie’s Locker, the girls find themselves in an apocalyptic universe where everyone is dead, and they’re the only two people alive. So they became sworn enemies after realizing they were cannibals and ate everybody else there. The girls spend a good amount of time in this universe, and eventually, the dehydration and eating only canned beans for days lead them to hate each other. However, after trying to make imaginary scenarios and deciding to fight each other to death, the girls realize there’s no way they can live without each other and that they miss each other dearly. I suppose the real message of the show is that there’s no friendship stronger than these two’s. Because, in the meantime, Cheryl claims that their unique and undying friendship is a literal threat to the multiverse as a whole (funny).
Finally, it turns out the Schneider of 6689, just like the girls, managed to escape getting beamed and ended up in the apocalypse universe to try and fix his portal. He finds the girls and takes them back to 6689, where they have to set things straight. Here, we learn that Schneider and Cheryl both believe they betrayed each other to M.O.M., with Schneider getting punished by being dispersed into the universe as a mere science teacher and Cheryl getting demoted to juvenile delinquents (apparently, she lost Amelia Earheart). The girls are ready to fix things, but they fail to mention to Schneider that their mascot heads are missing. Because of the change in material, all the anomalies of the multiverse converge in 6689. This is when the girls join their new friends, whom they’ve learned about across the universes, and become a team. They say teamwork makes the dream work, so the whole gang together gets all the anomalies back into the locker portal. In the meantime, Cheryl and Schneider talk it out and realize they didn’t betray each other.
During Davey and Jonesie’s Locker‘s ending, the girls learn that despite everyone forgiving them and solving a whole multiverse problem, they will have to go back to how things were, with all of them forgetting everything that’s happened. This means they can’t run from their mistakes any longer and have to restart. This time, hopefully, they’ll actually make friends because they know there are more likable people out there. The girls are sent into the portal again to find the mascot heads because, without them, the mess will continue. Schneider now realizes it’s Andy who betrayed him and Cheryl, causing a break in their friendship. Andy zaps Schneider, sending him away for what seems like forever. But Cheryl manages to escape. Andy returns to his desk at M.O.M. after locking the universe. He lies to his superiors that Cheryl killed Schneider, attacked him, and locked the universe, so the girls are stuck. The superior says that if 6689 is frozen for much longer, it’ll be decommissioned forever. This is exactly what Andy wants as we see his screen, which reads, “Initiative for decommissioned worlds.” Basically, his plan is to “take back” the multiverse from “lesser life forms.”
I suppose on a grander scale; the show does try to represent ideas such as adults pitting kids against each other and messed-up school systems. On the other hand, its main message is that something that may be strange in one universe may be ordinary in another. So basically, be yourself, and you’ll find your people eventually. Plus, another version of you is thriving somewhere, I guess. Additionally, always talk to your friends if you ever feel betrayed by them instead of simply believing it, yeah?
