Don't Have a Cow (''That's So Raven'')

"Don't Have a Cow" is the second episode and Halloween Special in the second season of the Disney Channel television series That's So Raven, which aired on October 17, 2003. It was written by Michael Carrington and directed by Rich Correll.

The episode centers on Raven and Chelsea attempting to use magic to attend the Halloween party of Raven's nemesis, Alana. However, a mistake in their spell-casting causes them to start turning into cows, and they go to the party to attempt to stop the transformation. In the subplot, Cory tries to convince his parents that he's too old to be trick or treating with them.

Plot

At Bayside High, Eddie shows off his invitation to Alana's Halloween party to Raven and Chelsea, who weren't invited due Raven's past grudges with Alana. The two go to the Chill Grill after school, where Victor serves them their respective burgers and reveals that Alana's having the party at the restaurant, which Raven knows Alana did to spite her. Chelsea panics after realizing Victor accidentally switched their orders and she's been eating a hamburger rather than a veggie burger, breaking her vegetarian commitments.

At the Baxter home, Victor is dressed up as Victor Frankenstein and prepares to go trick-or-treating with Cory, who's dressed as a body builder. Cory tells Victor that he wants to go trick-or-treating with his friends rather than him. Victor, though disappointed, allows Cory to go with his friend William, who's dressed up as a remote control that causes nearby electrical products to malfunction. Tanya, dressed as Igor, cheers Victor up by offering to go trick-or-treating with him in Cory's place.

In Raven's room, Chelsea starts wearing a button that has a cow's face on it out of guilt for eating the hamburger. Raven shows Chelsea a magical book that belongs to her grandmother Viv. After finding a spell that grants any wish to the users, the two set up a magical concoction inside the kitchen and cast the spell to be invited to Alana's party. Raven then gets a call from a hypnotized Alana telling her that she and Chelsea can come to the party. Now knowing it works, Raven and Chelsea wish to be the most popular girls at the party and to win the costume contest. After casting the spell, the two jump up and down in excitement, causing Chelsea's cow button to fall off her shirt and into the concoction. They don't notice it and run upstairs to prepare their costumes.

While looking for costumes in Raven's room, the two are horrified after noticing that their ears are now long and pointed like a cow's and they have white, furry tails on their backsides. Eddie arrives at the house to ask the two if they wanted to come to the party with him, but they push Eddie out of the house as they struggle to hide their morphed body parts and start uncontrollably mooing. Once Eddie leaves, Raven and Chelsea discover Chelsea's button in the concoction, realizing that they're changing into cows as a result of the button's interference with the spell. The two realize they can look in the magic book to find a spell that could reverse the transformation, but sadly remember that Eddie took the book with him to the party. Raven suggests that they go to the party to get the book back from Eddie, as their changing bodies wouldn't alarm the other teens since it's Halloween.

Cory and William come back to the house empty-handed from trick-or-treating due to William's costume setting off every car alarm and home security system in the neighborhood. Victor and Tanya arrive back with a bag full of candy and allow the two boys to take some of theirs. Cory tells Victor that he misses trick-or-treating with his father and wants to do it with him next year. Victor tells him the night is still young and takes Cory and William out to get some more candy (as long as William doesn't touch himself).

Raven and Chelsea arrive at the party and try to find Eddie as their bodies and behavior become more cow-like. Their faces gain snouts, their hands become hooves, they grow larger tongues, and they eat straw and cud while continuing to moo excessively. After finding Eddie, Chelsea manages to locate the reverse spell page in the book, but ends up eating it. Alana's friends halt the party to announce the winners of the costume contest. They are surprised to see Alana place second, as she normally wins every year. Alana angrily runs onto the stage and is shocked to see the final ballot. She is further enraged when she sees the first-place winners are Raven and Chelsea, who are now completely transformed into naked Holstein cows. The two bovines figure all they can do at this point is "milk" the moment. It is then revealed that the whole episode was all a vision that Raven was having back at the Chill Grill right before Chelsea bites into the hamburger. She stops Chelsea from eating it and nervously tries to tell Chelsea what happened to them in the vision. Chelsea tells her to calm down and says, "man, don't have a cow."

Back at the house, Victor and Tanya spend their alone time eating their Halloween candy.

Reception

Even a decade after its release, "Don't Have a Cow" is considered a Halloween classic, with a number of publications praising the main plot revolving around Raven and Chelsea's cow transformations. MTV named it #1 in their "9 most iconic Disney Channel Halloween episodes" and called it one of the scariest Disney Channel Halloween experiences, stating "When the spin-off series debuts, I seriously hope they remake this episode, because what's more traumatizing than becoming a cow? NOTHING."^[1][2] Glamour listed it in their "9 Disney Channel Halloween Episodes to Watch," saying, "All you need to know about the Halloween episode of That's So Raven is that it ends with Raven and Chelsea turning into real-life cows. Like, they grow snouts, moo excessively, and chew cud. If that doesn't explain the high school experience, then what does?"^[3]

References

External links

• "Don't Have a Cow" on IMDb