Sue Ellen Vegges Out

Summary
When Sue Ellen chooses to become a vegetarian (meaning that she is no longer eating meat), Muffy and Francine compete to be the best vegetarian. Can they successfully resist meat? Or was this a missed steak?

Plot
Sue Ellen tells the viewers about her new friend, a pig named Sally that she met while visiting a farm. In fact, Sally means so much to Sue Ellen, that she helped her make one of the biggest decisions of her life.

Sue Ellen Vegges Out

At school, everyone is celebrating Cinco De Mayo with a Mexican-style lunch in the cafeteria. Sue Ellen passes on any meat-filled dishes and informs her friends that she has recently chosen to become a vegetarian (meaning that she is no longer going to eat meat). Her friends are surprised by this and question her on it — while Sue Ellen doesn’t tell them her exact reasons, she explains that she’s actually been thinking about going vegetarian for a while (so it’s not like it’s a sudden decision). Muffy overhears the last part of what Sue Ellen says and claims she has been thinking about becoming a vegetarian as well, ever since Capri De Vapida switched to a vegetarian diet. Although Francine doubts her sincerity, Muffy becomes a vegetarian from that very moment. However, it quickly becomes clear that she can’t handle not having meat in her life (even though Sue Ellen said nobody is forcing her to be a vegetarian). Muffy tries to order food from the mall’s Chickin Lickin’, only to find that there are no vegetarian dishes, and is very nearly tempted to eat her favorite roast at dinner.

The next day, Muffy finds out Capri is now on a bologna diet and is thrilled to go back to eating meat. When Sue Ellen tries to explain her vegetarianism isn’t because of a celebrity’s eating habits and is done for personal reasons, Francine interrupts her and says she knew Muffy couldn’t last as a vegetarian. When Muffy challenges Francine to do better, she does exactly that by becoming a vegetarian. Sue Ellen starts to become concerned that Francine and Muffy are only using vegetarianism for competition.

Muffy tries various methods to get Francine to eat meat (from trying to lure her with double Bubsy Burgers to ordering meaty Chinese food for her, the latter of which Francine ends up giving to her parents). However, Francine survives every time. Later that day, once school’s over, Muffy apologizes to both Francine and Sue Ellen and invites them to a potluck the next day, where everyone brings a dish. Once again, Sue Ellen is concerned for Francine.

It turns out that Muffy plans to lure Francine into eating meat — she calls each of her friends in advance, making sure every dish at the potluck is meat-oriented. Sue Ellen and Francine arrive, respectively bringing sauteed breaded cauliflower and ratatouille to the potluck, which Muffy takes straight to the kitchen and throws away so nobody can eat it. Just as soon as Muffy tries to finish off Francine, Buster comes in with vegetables from the community garden (as he was supposed to bring pizza with chicken and sausage, but he and his mom had no time to make it). Francine blows off Muffy’s trap and ends up finding Ladonna’s collard greens to eat, which she finds to be delicious — although Ladonna is greatful that Francine likes the collard greens, she explains that they’re not really vegetarian, as she had them cooked in duck fat before bringing them to the party.

As soon as Francine and Muffy start arguing, with Muffy declaring herself the winner, Sue Ellen has finally had enough. She angrily scolds them after it’s become clear that neither of them really cares about being vegetarian, as they were just using it as an excuse to fight with each other. Sue Ellen then finally reveals the (primary) reason she became a vegetarian: because she considers animals to be her friends, she lost her taste for eating them. She then ends her rant by claiming that she considers animals to be better friends than people like Francine and Muffy. After Sue Ellen leaves the party, everyone else does as well, having “lost their appetites.”

Realizing that they took it too far, Muffy and Francine apologize to each other, and the next time they’re in school, the two apologize to Sue Ellen for how they acted. Francine and Muffy explain to Sue Ellen that, while vegetarianism just isn’t for them, they fully support her and have helped make more vegetarian options in the school cafeteria and have even introduced “Meatless Mondays” in the cafeteria each week.

Characters

 * Francine Frensky
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Ladonna Compson
 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * Binky Barnes
 * Sally
 * Bubsy Burger
 * Fern Walters (cameo)
 * Jenna Morgan (cameo)
 * Molly MacDonald (cameo)
 * George Lundgren (cameo)
 * Francis Haney (cameo)
 * Rattles (cameo)

Trivia

 * Catherine explains to Francine that, as a vegetarian, one of the most important things to do is to make sure you eat plenty of iron and protein (since vegetarians generally cut most — if not all — meats out of their diets), and that foods like nuts and seeds are a good meatless source of it. This is recommended for vegetarians in real life.
 * Moral:
 * Don't make up stuff for personal benefits.
 * Don't be a hater on meat for personal benefits.
 * Irony:
 * If Sue Ellen never met Sally, she wouldn't be a vegetarian.
 * If Sue Ellen told the girls the real reason why she stopped eating meat, Muffy and Francine wouldn't have had to compete against each other.
 * Timeline: Francine's sister Catherine giving her advice on being a vegetarian is a nod to "The Frensky Family Fiasco", where Catherine is revealed to be a vegetarian.
 * Karma: Muffy and Francine competed with each other so they got called out by Sue Ellen.

Episode connections

 * On Cinco de Mayo, in the cafeteria, the mariachi music from "Sue Ellen's Lost Diary" can be heard.
 * This episode's title is similar to "Sue Ellen Chickens Out." Ironically, this episode is the first to use Sue Ellen's name in the title card since that said episode.
 * The frozen yogurt Sue Ellen eats appears in "The Last Tough Customer."
 * This is the second time that Francine has given up a certain food in one manner or another; she attempted to fast through Yom Kippur in "Is That Kosher?".

Cultural references

 * The cafeteria has special dishes to celebrate, which is on May 5.