The Book of Rannells: Princess Power: Season 2, Episode 10 – “Princess Surprise Party” (2023)

Cute but flimsy episode. Andrew Rannells (and Tan France!) are crucial to kicking off the plot here, but they’re not really in the episode that much.

Bea’s dads are determined to throw Bea a birthday party without her figuring out the surprise ahead of time. They enlist the other princesses to help keep her distracted while they get everything ready.

It struck me that one odd little similarity between Princess Power and Queer Eye is that these folks always have some kind of “event” to get ready for. In so many of the episodes I’ve seen, one or more “fruitdom” is gearing up for a festival, a talent show, a baking contest, etc. I just found that amusing.

Anyway, of course Bea keeps naively wandering just on the outskirts of her own party preparations, and her friends have to frantically divert them away while keeping her none the wiser. It’s super obvious that something’s up with them—they’re all acting wildly suspicious—but Bea doesn’t seem to notice anything is up. Maybe her dads didn’t have to work that hard to keep the party a secret?

In another entry in Princess Power’s use of gender-neutral pronouns, this episode is the first time I’ve heard the princesses use “they/them” for a human character, rather than an animal or a pineapple monster. It’s not specified that this character is nonbinary—rather, much like the earlier cases, the princesses seem to default to “they/them” for someone they don’t know, not wanting to assume their gender. The character could be nonbinary, or female, or male, or something else.

As I said, not too much of Bea’s dads, even though they’re the ones who give the other princesses their task for the episode. As such, there isn’t much that’s noteworthy for Rannells, although there are a few cute moments in the animation. King Barton and Sir Benedict are added into the usual “princesses mobilize into action” sequence that’s featured in each episode, with them riding a hang glider to the girls’ treehouse headquarters. And when Bea turns up at the treehouse, their flailing efforts to “hide” end in both of them trying to blend in with the coat rack.