Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, Tina Fey
Get in, loser. We’re going to the PTA meeting.
The Setup: A New Jungle It has been twenty-two years since the infamous bus accident fractured the social hierarchy of North Shore High. The cliques have evolved, the fashion has cycled back to Y2K, and the drama has migrated from the cafeteria to the comments section. But some things never change: the jungle is still savage.
Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) has returned to the scene of the crime. No longer the naive homeschooler, she is now the Principal of North Shore High. Wearing sensible blazers and armed with a master’s degree in conflict resolution, Cady is determined to run a “clean school,” eradicating toxic popularity hierarchies once and for all. She thinks she has finally mastered the rules of girl world. She is wrong.
The Antagonist: Queen Bee of the Board Cady’s noble mission hits a wall of perfectly manicured resistance in the form of the Head of the Parent-Teacher Association: Regina George (Rachel McAdams). Having traded her Lexus for a luxury SUV and her kalteen bars for organic kale smoothies, Regina is now a powerful “Momfluencer” with a terrifyingly beige, curated life and 12 million followers. She doesn’t just run the PTA; she runs the suburb. She is richer, sharper, and—thanks to a strict regimen of expensive skincare and Pilates—scarier than ever.
The Twist: The Apple Falls Far (and Close) to the Tree The ultimate irony lies in the next generation.
- Cady’s daughter, shielded from popularity by her mother, has rebelled by becoming the ruthless, manipulative leader of the new “Plastics.” She weaponizes inclusivity language to bully others and rules the school with a terrifying smile.
- Regina’s daughter is her mother’s worst nightmare: a brooding, anti-social, grunge-wearing eco-activist who despises consumerism, refuses to be on camera for her mom’s Instagram, and wants to dismantle the social hierarchy entirely.
The Plastics: Where Are They Now?
- Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert) is a high-strung “dance mom” spiraling into an identity crisis. Desperate to stay relevant, she is obsessively trying to make “fetch” happen on TikTok, engaging in cringeworthy trends that embarrass her children. She is still full of secrets, but now her hair is full of dry shampoo.
- Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried) has stumbled into accidental success. She is the beloved local weather reporter for Channel 5. While she still struggles to spell “precipitation,” her unexplained “fifth sense” (her breasts) allows her to predict rain with 100% accuracy, making her a local celebrity.
The Conflict: The Digital Burn Book The fragile truce between Cady and Regina shatters when a Digital Burn Book is leaked to the entire school district. Unlike the original notebook, this is a cloud-based server containing the darkest secrets, DMs, and group chats of not just the students, but the mothers.
Suddenly, the PTA meeting becomes a war zone. Marriages are tested, reputations are ruined, and the facade of suburban perfection is ripped away. Realizing that the leak is destroying their daughters’ futures, Cady and Regina are forced into an uneasy alliance. They must navigate a minefield of Gen Z slang, cancel culture, and their own unresolved trauma to find the culprit.
The Resolution Guided by the weary wisdom of Ms. Norbury (Tina Fey)—who is now the Superintendent and just wants to retire—the original Plastics must stop the cycle of meanness before it consumes the next generation. It’s pink, it’s petty, and it proves that while high school ends, the drama is forever.