This article is about American Dragon: Jake Long. For the Once Upon a Time episode, see "Family Business".
"Family Business" is the twenty-eighth episode of American Dragon: Jake Long.
Plot[]
One night, Jake and Fu are flying over the open sea toward a bridge. Apparently, there has been a report of rampaging Hobgoblins in that area. Fu warns Jake that he might need to call Gramps for backup, but Jake declines, excited that he'll be on the next cover of Magic Week Magazine. He believes that they don't put people on the cover who call back up.
However, it isn't long before the Hobgoblins have Jake tied up under the bridge. Suddenly, a flame of fire shoots at the goblins, and they fly off on another platform of the bridge. Jake yells out to the dragon believing it to be Gramps, but is soon shocked when he finds out it's his little sister Haley.
Haley is joined by another blue dragon that hovers by Jake as Haley goes down to finish off the Hobgoblins. Haley is pleased that she did so well on her first dragon battle, but Jake is a little upset to see his little sister doing so well. Jake frees himself and joins Haley and the other dragon sheh, which turns out to be his Home-ec teacher Sun Park.
Jake is oddly confused to find out his teacher is the Korean Dragon, and even more embarrassed to find out he has just lost his pants. At that exact same time, a fairy reporter for Magic Week Magazine appears to take pictures of Jake. For a while, Jake can't believe that he is here with a reporter, his little sister, and his Home-ec teacher in his underwear, and starts to believe that it is all a dream. But soon enough he finds out it's real life, too late to stop himself from embarrassing himself in front of everyone.
Back at the shop, Jake is disappointed to find out his sister has already started dragon training. Gramps was outraged about this at first due to her young age, but Sun explains that since Haley was aware of her dragon powers at a younger age, she must be trained at a younger age, which acknowledges Gramps. The reason they didn't tell him until now is that Haley was Jake's weakness, and they wanted to wait for the right time to tell him.
Suddenly, a knock on the door is heard. It turns out to be Fu's good friend Marty, the Grim Reaper. He needs a place to stay for a while, so Fu lets him stay for a bit. Of course, Marty is a master of pranks, so Fu is tempted to unleash a prank on him. Fu tries a whoopee cushion and a kick-me sign, but both fail to fool the master.
The next day, Sun and Haley go with Gramps and Jake in a warehouse for some dragon training. Jake is excited to wait and see Haley get yelled at by her Dragon Master, but gets even more angry when he sees all of her exercises are very easy compared to the stuff he has to do. To make matters worse, the fairy reporter is there taking even more embarrassing photos of Jake. Soon he gets tired of Jake, and starts to take decent photos of Haley. And by the end of training, the reporter gives the bad news to Jake: they have decided to put Haley on the cover of Magic Week Magazine instead of him.
At the next scene, Jake and Haley, along with their Dragon Masters and the reporter, go off to do some dragon business late at night. Jake is still annoyed that he won't be on the cover, so he figures he'll just let Haley do his job. But Gramps reminds him that Haley is not ready to go alone as she is too young and inexperienced for the job.
An Ogre has stolen an important pendant from the Leprechaun clan. Jake charges at the Ogre to get the necklace, but it fights back and knocks Jake into a statue. Haley gives a try, but instead tries to use kindness and non-violence. Eventually she manages to get the pendant, and the reporter is sure to get a shot of her win.
Back at the shop, Jake is furious with Haley stealing all his glory. Fu isn't much happier either with his pranks failing. Fu then decides to go to Ha-Ha's Magical Prank shop, to see if he can find something useful. This gives Jake the idea to prank Haley to get back at her.
Jake, Trixie, and Spud join Fu over at Ha-Ha's. Fu finds a costume that looks exactly like Marty, and thinks up a prank. Apparently, for Marty to become the Grim Reaper, he had to tap out the guy before him; Fu was planning to pretend to do the same thing to him. Jake finds a can of Dragon Giggles, which will make dragons lose control of their powers. Trixie reminds Jake that he really shouldn't prank Haley, but Jake figures one little prank won't hurt.
In the next scene, Haley prepares for her photo shoot for Magic Week Magazine. As she is getting her make-up done, Jake puts some Dragon Giggles into her drink and hands it to her. A second later, Trixie and Spud convince Jake to back down on the prank. Jake decides they are right, and goes back to tell her. But before he can, Haley shows a page she recommended in the magazine, one labeled: "American Dragon, Reptilian Hero of Zero?" It features some embarrassing photos of Jake. Jake is furious, and doesn't take the potion away. Haley drinks the potion, and headed into the photo shoot.
The reporter asks her to do some fire-breathing. However, she has trouble controlling her powers as they go haywire. Jake and the crew find this hilarious, until a gang of hobgoblins show up to ruin the shoot. Jake transforms into his dragon form and fights them off, but as they leave, they take Haley with them. Jake looks all over the city, but she is nowhere to be found.
Jake heads back to the shop, and explains to Sun and Gramps what happened. Furious at him, Gramps orders him to stay there while he and Sun go after Haley. As they fly off to search, Jake tells Fu that he needs to find her before she's gone. Luckily for them both, Marty is there to help. Marty hands them an enchanted compass that will help them find her, and the two head off. When they are gone, there is a knock at the door. Marty answers it to find a skeleton person pointing at him with a scythe. He faints to the ground before he even realizes that it is all a prank.
They end up in the subway, where the Hobgoblins have Haley tied up. hanging upside down. Just as they are about to attack, Jake joins her and knocks them to the ground. He frees Haley, and the two of them take down the hobgoblins.
Back at the shop, Sun and Gramps are still angry with Jake. However, Haley comes in and reveals that the powder Jake pranked her with wore off pretty much right as she was kidnapped. It was actually her own fear that prevented her from fighting back. She tells Jake that he's just a better dragon than she is. Gramps tells Jake that Haley is still too young to do anything the American Dragon has to face, and that he has a given student that he'll never replace. Yet it did not diminish Gramp’s decision to punish Jake.
In the end, Jake's punishment for the prank is to clean a cauldron filled with the pus of 1,000 witches' boils with only his tongue. But his spirit brightens when he sees that he is on the cover of Magic Week Magazine after all. Unfortunately, his spirit is dropped back down when he finds out there's a picture of him in his underwear inside the magazine.
Allusions[]
- The episode's name is a reference to the phrase "family business".
- An episode of Once Upon a Time carries the same episode title.
