Ex-A-Rooney

"I can't work like this!"

- Joey

Ex-A-Rooney is the tenth episode of season 4 of Liv and Maddie. It aired on January 27, 2017. It received 1.21 million viewers on its premiere night.

Overview
When Maddie and Josh start hanging out again, Joey feels awkward by their rekindled friendship. Meanwhile, Parker and Val find themselves in a jam when competing for a coveted finalist spot in the Mars Madness competition.

Episode Summary
Josh returns and has been making action movies with Joey who, in turn, has been trying to keep Josh and Maddie apart due to Josh allegedly not dealing with the break-up well, but they run into each other again when Maddie returns home early from a canceled practice. Maddie and Josh are able to rekindle their friendship, but Joey feels awkward by it and asks Liv to pretend to be Maddie in order to stop Maddie and Josh from spending time together. In the process, Joey tells Liv to stop playing with Josh's emotions again, but Maddie catches Liv pretending to be her and forces her to go to a game with her. Meanwhile, Parker and Val compete to be one of the first humans on Mars in a competition called Mars Madness at BOOMS, but Parker accidentally sets the temperature to 42 degrees Celsius instead of 24, which results in Val's growth serum evaporating and turning Parker's plant into a giant, and they end up having to kill it together.

Main Cast

 * Dove Cameron as Liv and Maddie Rooney
 * Joey Bragg as Joey Rooney
 * Tenzing Norgay Trainor as Parker Rooney
 * Kali Rocha as Karen Rooney

Recurring Cast

 * Emmy Buckner as Liv 2
 * Shelby Wulfert as Maddie 2
 * Lucas Adams as Josh Willcox
 * Chloe East as Val Wishart

Absent Cast

 * Lauren Lindsey Donzis as Ruby

Trivia

 * This is Josh's first and only physical appearance in season 4.
 * This episode was shot on May 3rd, 2016.
 * This the first episode of Cali Style without Ruby.
 * This episode is obviously to do with Josh's relationship with Maddie.
 * It was the first episode in season 4 to be filmed out of order since it was filmed as the ninth episode, but aired as the tenth.
 * The churro scene with Joey, Josh and Maddie, took at least 3 takes.
 * This is the third episode that involves Maddie and Josh's relationship, after Secret-Admirer-A-Rooney and Vive-La-Rooney, that Dave Cove plus Linda Mathious and Heather MacGillvray have all been involved in. With the other episodes, Dave directed Vive-La-Rooney and Linda Mathious and Heather MacGillvray both wrote Secret-Admirer-A-Rooney. All the episodes are very big in Maddie and Josh's relationship.
 * Joey stars alongside Josh, replaying his role as Jax Von Hapsburg, making their own movie.
 * Their movie Jax and Max is likely a parody of G.I. Joe.
 * Joey Bragg was most excited for this episode.
 * The title refers to Josh being Maddie's ex-boyfriend.
 * The rehearsal for this episode was on April 27th, 2016.
 * This is part 7 of the Mosh Arc.
 * This episode ends the month-long new episodes for January as part of "LAMuary", which starts with Stand-Up-A-Rooney.
 * This is the first time Maddie and Josh have seen each other since their split.
 * In a post by Just Jared, the plot is slightly different. It adds a bit where Joey starts to question Jpsh and Maddie's friendship, hinting they might still have feelings for each other, or that might be what he's thinking.
 * The restaurant from Stand-Up-A-Rooney and Roll Model-A-Rooney is shown again.
 * Ron Hart stated this episode was one for the viewers to "see to believe".
 * Liv pretends to be Maddie again for the first time since Meatball-A-Rooney.
 * This is the third time the ship name Mosh is mentioned, the others being in Scoop-A-Rooney and Choose-A-Rooney.
 * This episode focuses on the couples, Mosh and Pal, but it is a Mosh episode.
 * Despite being a Mosh episode, the episode's main plot is centered around Joey.
 * Ron Hart claimed this episode as one of the craziest.
 * Ruby is absent in this episode.
 * Joey as Falcon returns for the first time since Falcon-A-Rooney.
 * Joey says that Josh has not been taking the break up with Maddie well, probably referencing Friend-A-Rooney or that he might still not be 100% over her yet, but he is most likely referencing Friend-A-Rooney.
 * Maddie asking Joey how he plays two roles at once and their voices being different is a reference/pun to Dove Cameron playing both Liv and Maddie at once and changing her voice for both characters.
 * Shelby Wulfert was Maddie 2 and Liv as Maddie.
 * Many fans thought this episode would be about Josh's feelings for Maddie (although it does seem that he still isn't completely over her), but it was filmed before the airing of Choose-A-Rooney, when almost all of the fans voted for them to be together, which explains why there are no real romantic moments between the two. Instead, it ended up being a Joey-centric episode, where he is worried about losing Josh as his best friend.
 * Its shown that Joey isn't brilliant at sarcasm, although Josh and Maddie both might not be great at noticing sarcasm.
 * Liv saying: "You belong to the day, I belong to the night" references Superman and Batman respectively.
 * When Joey says "You play with this young boys emotions again?!" to Liv pretending to be Maddie, he is most likely referencing Choose-A-Rooney, when Maddie broke Josh's heart and that he really suffered from their break up.
 * Willow is mentioned in this episode.
 * This episode seems to foreshadow the events of Sing It Live!!!-A-Rooney.
 * In this episode, Josh couldn't tell Liv and Maddie apart when Liv disguised herself as Maddie, yet ironically in Cowbell-A-Rooney, he said it wouldn't be too hard to tell them apart. However, Josh didn't seem to know that Liv and Maddie did "switch-a-rooney's" and he stated in Secret-Admirer-A-Rooney, that every time he saw Liv, he saw Maddie, which might also be a reason too.

Continuity

 * This is the fifth time Liv has pretended to be Maddie. The previous times were in Twin-A-Rooney, Switch-A-Rooney, Champ-A-Rooney and Meatball-A-Rooney.
 * Liv has finally gotten prop glasses with non-corrective lenses to compensate for the visual discontinuity problems when appearing as Maddie.

Goofs

 * Maddie asks "Who says you can't be friends with your ex?", about her and Josh like it never happened for her, but she was still friends with Diggie after they broke up.
 * Joey should not have been allowed to make Jax Von Hapsburg films because he was an actor with that role in Voltage, thus he wouldn't have had the rights to use his character outside of Voltage.
 * The production crew hated the character, so it's likely they didn't care. And the character was probably removed from the shoot when Joey was fired.
 * He also appeared to just be making the films for his own entertainment, not to sell for money, so they can't prevent him from just doing it for fun.
 * When Maddie says "No. No, he did not" about Joey not telling her Josh is filming his movie, she sounds like Liv.
 * When Val initiates the lab emergency lockdown, only 1 door guard activates, the one sealing the main entrance. There are two other doors visible behind the plant that remains unsealed. The windows might also need sealing, but they aren't locked down either.