Poster by Tara Billinger
Max Premiere Date: 06/22/2023
Written by: Judah Miller & Mickey Jacobs
Operation: Spread Eagle reaches its climax as Candide fires Scudworth and Butlertron before forcing the clones to run a death-maze for admission to Clone High College, pushing everyone’s relationships to the breaking point.
Tropes in this episode:
- Amusingly Awful Aim: Scudworth keeps trying to shoot Candide with poison darts, but ends up killing literally everyone else on the Board of Shadowy Figures instead.
- As Himself: Michael Bolton appears as the host of the Death Maze.
- Batman Gambit: Part of Candide's plan was to fire Scudworth because she knew he'd try to get revenge on her, but take out the rest of the Board instead, thus leaving nobody else in her path for world domination.
- Be Careful What You Wish For:
- Joan wanted to be a Lone Wolf with nobody but herself to care about, but ends up regretting it before Candide shows a video recording of her tactics causing her to lose any sort of relationship and ends with her genuinely alone.
- Joan tried to stop the memory wipe from working and tried to get her friend's memories back. However, when Candide showed the other clones that Joan sabotaged them, Joan immediately asked to get their memories wiped again.Joan: Um, could we get that memory eraser ray going again?
- Bittersweet Ending: Joan has thwarted her friend's minds being wiped but Candide gets the last laugh showing a video recording of Joan's vindictive actions getting them all eliminated in the Death Maze.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Happens twice to Topher Bus. The first time is when Topher corrects Confucius about pencils being made of graphite instead of lead while they're in the midst of fleeing a barrage of sharpened pencils, which prompts JFK, Confucius, and Abe yell at him to shut up. The second time is explained at Everyone Has Standards.Abe: Number two pencils!JFK: They're so sharp!{JFK, Abe, Confucious and Topher Bus start running.]Confucius: I don't want to get lead poisoning!Topher Bus: Actually, pencils are made out of graphite.Everyone except Topher: Shut up, Topher!
- Book Ends:
- Gandhi is mentioned again, with the same shot of him frozen from the season premiere being used.
- Joan, Scudworth, and Butlertron run through the same facility Candide walked through in the premiere to reach the other clones. The facility, however, is in much worse shape than before.
- At the start of the season, Joan was at her highest point, and she had a boyfriend, a group of female friends, and was a popular student. Here, because of her harsh and ruthless actions during the maze to try and win the scholarship, she has ended the season with no boyfriend, no friends, and back in the bottom of the social totem pole.
- The Bus Came Back: Scangrade returns as one of the obstacles in the maze. Joan grumbles under her breath how it's him of all characters to get brought back.
- Evidence within the episode heavily suggests that John Stamos - who had previously guest starred as Scudworth's nemesis in the previous season finale - was meant to return as the host of the death maze but was replaced by Michael Bolton at the last minute for unknown reasons. This is evidenced by Mr. Butlertron and Scudworth being mad that Candide hired both of their "nemeses" for the maze; and as a much more blatant confirmation: when Joan is discussing the maze with Candide, her lip animation clearly shows her mouthing "John Stamos" when she says Michael Bolton's name.
- Call-Back: The death maze had been previously mentioned in episode 1 of season 1, with Joan having been sent there off-screen as punishment for mouthing off to Scudworth.
- Cardboard Box of Unemployment: Candace's "present" for Scudworth is a box with all his belongings inside, her not so subtle way of telling him he's fired.
- Character Shilling: After bonding during the episode, JFK does a complete 180 from his bitter jealousy and begins singing Abe's praises, stating if anyone dates Joan he'd want Abe to do it. This is in contrast to Abe's treatment of Joan in season one and him paying for it most of season 2. Really sets up an ironic contrast to the last minute twist however.
- Chekhov's Gun: Candide triggers the clones’ brainwashing from episode four to turn them against each other.
- Cliffhanger: The episode, and season 2 as a whole, ends immediately after Candide exposes all of Joan's actions throughout the Death Maze to the clone students.
- Death Glare: The clones give Joan this after they found out Joan eliminated them maliciously.
- Disappointed in You: Unlike the others, Liliʻuokalani (the one sitting behind Frida Kahlo) does not appear to be angry, looking more sad at Joan for her actions.
- Evil Is Petty: To get back at Joan for ruining her plans, Candide reveals to all the clones that Joan was the one responsible for making them all fall through the pit, which makes them all mad at Joan.Candide: You know, the funny thing about yearbooks is... they only show the good memories.
- Everyone Has Standards: When Topher decides to say how he really feels about women, everyone yells at him to shut up- including Ivan the Terrible.
- Friend Versus Lover:
- Harriet breaks up with Confucius partly because he lacks the ambition to start the maze, but also so she can tag along with her girl friends. She ends up regretting this.
- When Joan and Cleo are both hanging over the bottomless pit, Frida saves Cleo (her girlfriend) instead. Joan is horrified that Frida let her fall, but Frida defends her choice to save the love of her life.
- History Repeats: The Season 1 finale ends with a cliffhanger caused by the Big Bad evil scientist. Season 2 would also end with a cliffhanger caused by the Big Bad evil scientist.
- Hypocritical Heartwarming: JFK, who had previously been the one to mess with Abe all the time, is appalled when he learns that Topher has been “white leveraging” Abe and tormenting him out of jealousy over Joan because that’s “their thing” and promptly destroys Topher’s phone with the photo between his buttcheeks.
- Internal Reveal: After Joan completes the maze, Candide reveals the entire existence of Operation: Spread Eagle to her.
- Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: In-Universe, where despite Candide Sampson being the one who set up the Death Maze and almost wiping out their memories, the clones ended up being more mad at Joan for her sabotage and getting them all eliminated in the Death Maze.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: After Joan finished the maze, we learn that Candide plans to wipe all memory of her from her friends’ minds so that there will be no trace of her clone origins when she becomes a world leader. Apparently, they have already done this to make them forget Gandhi.
- The Maze: The clones are forced to brave a deadly maze in order to gain admission to Clone High College.
- Mind-Control Eyes: Clones affected by the memory wiping ray have square pupils until Joan is able to restore their memories.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When the anger from her rampage wears off after beating the Death Maze, Joan is horrified when she realizes she sabotaged her classmates and friends and got them all eliminated.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Joan realizes what a bitch she had been to turn against the other clones in the maze and atones by saving them from having their memories wiped. Too bad Candide decides to get payback against her for ruining her plans by exposing what Joan did to them, making them all hate her in the end.
- Precision F-Strike: When being told by Candide that he's getting fired alongside Scudworth, Mr. B has this to say...Candide: You're fired too, Mr. B.Butlertron: Fuck you!! WESLEEEY!!!
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The Brönte Sisters seem to have disappeared after failing to get into the Death Maze and it is unknown if they were also almost memory wiped and found out about Joan's sabotage as well.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The clones all shoot Joan Death Glares upon discovering that she was the one who caused them all to get eliminated (except Liliʻuokalani who looks more disappointed than angry). Abe, in particular, is seen folding his arms in a combination of anger and disappointment.
