A Wise Surprise

Penny and Wooton have a big surprise for her parents: plane tickets to Thailand, the honeymoon trip Frank and Eleanor never got to take. But the grand announcement goes sideways fast - burnt chicken, food poisoning, a freshly painted guest room, and a mystery package containing a baby monitor. Eleanor adds up the clues and reaches one thrilling conclusion: she's going to be a grandmother! Soon she's swiping Penny's coffee, secretly ordering a crib, and selling the house for an RV so she and Frank can babysit. When the truth comes out - the monitor is just an intercom, and the only surprise is a vacation - the would-be grandparents can barely hide their disappointment. Then Penny's sister Charlotte, quietly painting the guest room all along, drops a bombshell of her own: a baby really is on the way... hers, due in seven months, and suddenly the whole family has double the reason to celebrate.

Found on Out of the Blue Album 68 · 6 episodes

The run See every episode

0876 Page from the Playbook When a friendly new kid arrives just as Odyssey's football team heads for the state championship, Buck learns that trust - on and off the field - can be trickier than any playbook.

0877 A Sacrificial Escape When a mysterious voice hijacks a new escape room and seals it shut, two young detectives must solve its puzzles against the clock while their friends outside race to help.

1 of 2 0878 Nightmares by Constance With the wedding just two days away, planner Connie Kendall is quietly asked to stop it - by the bride's own grandmother, who's convinced the groom isn't who he says he is.

2 of 2 0879 Nightmares by Constance Two wedding planners and an undercover investigator race to uncover whether a bride's fiancé is a jewel thief - or someone's carefully framed target.

0880 Good Job! When a cheerfully chaotic job seeker and a fearful young saxophonist both face the terror of trying, one small town learns what it really takes to succeed.

0881 Playing Favorites A boy sets out to win back his teenage sister, who now treats him like a stranger, with help from his friends, some hopelessly outdated slang, and a homemade lie detector.

0882 A Wise Surprise A family visit fills with crossed wires when Penny and Wooton's big surprise collides with her parents' overactive imaginations - and a secret nobody saw coming.

0883 Breaking News When a struggling local news anchor is pressured to trade slow, careful reporting for viral pizzazz, a dull story about storm drain algae may be hiding something bigger than anyone suspects.

0884 Always Home When a military family gets one precious week together, the oldest daughter keeps finding reasons to be anywhere but home.

0885 Further from the Truth When Emily Jones finds her school locker emptied and a cryptic poem left behind, the young detective must follow a trail of riddles that leads uncomfortably close to the friend she's been avoiding.

1 of 2 0886 Unsinkable A century-old letter discovered at Whit's End launches Whit, Jason, and Emily on a treasure hunt into the secret past of a mysterious woman who once sailed on the Titanic.

2 of 2 0887 Unsinkable An old recording carries Whit's End back to April 1912, where a young girl aboard the Titanic must choose between saving herself and finding her father as the unsinkable ship goes down.

0888 Out of Her Element A student's last-ditch bid to save her chemistry grade lands her with a brilliant, awkward tutor - and a sticky misunderstanding that comes to a head on exam day.

Featured characters

Minor characters & crew 2 more roles

2 supporting roles

Eleanor Wise Carol Mansell Charlotte Wise Renee Faia

Made by

Chris Anthony Host Kathy Buchanan Writer · Director Jonathan Crowe Sound Designer Nathan Hoobler Producer Dave Arnold Executive Producer

The story

Read the full synopsis 3 min

Penny Bassett bursts in on her husband Wooton with big news, and after a few happy distractions - including a scolding about the box of Sunshine Girls cookies he's secretly eaten - she remembers what it is: she has bought plane tickets to Thailand. She and Wooton are going to take her parents along as a surprise, especially meaningful because her mom and dad were supposed to honeymoon in Thailand years ago before her father was deployed. Penny also wishes aloud for an intercom, since she and Wooton constantly distract each other whenever she walks into his office.

Meanwhile, Penny's parents, Frank and Eleanor Wise, are driving to Odyssey with a surprise of their own. In the car, Eleanor frets about Penny's sister Charlotte, who is riding along with them. Charlotte and her husband Dirk are moving to New York City, Dirk travels constantly for work, and Eleanor spotted Charlotte crying in the back seat - so Eleanor is convinced the marriage is in trouble. Frank tells her, "Your nose. It keeps going where it doesn't belong," but Eleanor insists it's mother's intuition. Her plan: keep Charlotte busy, so she suggests Penny have Charlotte help paint the guest room.

The visit starts off bumpy. Wooton attempts a homemade Thai dinner to set up the big reveal, but the chicken comes out burnt on the outside and raw in the middle - and Penny has already tasted it. The Thai restaurant is closed, so pizza with anchovies replaces the feast, and just as Wooton begins to announce the surprise, Penny turns celery green and rushes off to bed with food poisoning.

That's when Eleanor's imagination takes off. Queasiness, a craving for Thai food, a guest room being painted baby blue - it can only mean one thing! Frank protests, "That's not where babies come from, Eleanor," but when the two of them sneak a peek inside a package delivered for Wooton and discover a baby monitor, they're convinced: Penny and Wooton are expecting. Frank and Eleanor secretly order a crib and try to act natural, though Eleanor can't help swiping Penny's coffee and pushing eggs full of folate and iron.

The baby monitor, of course, is just Wooton's answer to Penny's intercom wish - a way for the recovering Penny (nursed by Wooton, who admits, "Of all the husbands who poison their wives, I'm the best one") to call him from another room. But when the couple tests it, they overhear her parents in the office gushing about how a grandchild would be the best gift their daughters could ever give them. Penny is crushed. Instead of a wonderful surprise, she now has to break her parents' hearts with what is merely a double vacation. Wooton suggests softening the blow with a pet gecko.

The truth tumbles out the next day. Eleanor can't contain herself and blurts congratulations, then reveals her own surprise: she and Frank have sold their house, bought an RV, and plan to split their time between Odyssey, Pittsburgh, and New York so they can visit their daughters - and babysit. Penny finally gets through to them: there is no baby. The monitor was an intercom, the sickness was food poisoning, they repaint the guest room every year, and the childproof doorknob that just arrived is only meant to keep Wooton's oversized thumbs out of the cookie pantry. When Penny and Wooton announce the real surprise - the trip to Thailand for all four of them - her parents try to be gracious, but Frank sighs that a baby would have been better, and Eleanor mourns the pretty crib they'll have to cancel.

Charlotte, who has been cheerfully taping and painting all along, steps in and tells her parents to stop and appreciate such a generous gift. Then she drops the real bombshell: "Because I'm having a baby." She's due in seven months. Her tiredness and tears were ordinary pregnancy emotions, her marriage is fine, and moving to New York was her own idea - Dirk's corporate office is there, so he'll finally stop traveling before the baby comes. Eleanor is horrified to realize she made her pregnant daughter haul luggage, drink coffee, and hover near paint fumes, but her guilt dissolves into joy. The whole family piles into a happy hug - Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Penny, and Uncle Wooton - celebrating the new baby on the way, and the trip to Thailand is still on, too.