iGo Nuclear is the 15th episode of the 2nd season of iCarly
During National Green Week at school, Carly and her friends are tasked to make a project that benefits the environment which counts for a large portion of their grade.
Tropes
- Affably Evil: Cal seems like a nice guy, not annoyed by Spencer for eating his stain stick and helping Carly with her school project. Unfortunately, it turns out he's an environmental supercriminal who makes illegal nuclear reactors.
- Boring, but Practical: Sam (who didn't bother working on her assignment) grabs a random orange and shows how it can be used as a drink (by jamming her thumb into it) and a snack (by messily eating it) without producing waste (she throws it out the window, as it's biodegradable). She improvised this all at the last minute, in comparison to Carly and Freddie's (at least on paper) more ambitious projects, but she ends up being the only member of the main group to not have to go on the Root and Berry Retreat.
- Comical Overreacting: When Spencer suggests that Carly use the rusty, broken-down scooter instead of the bus because the bus won't carry her weight, Carly takes that as an insult to how much she weighs. She starts getting worked up and aggressively screaming at Spencer, who tries to calm her down and take back what he said.
- Didn't Think This Through: After Freddie builds a worm compost first, Carly neglects to think of another project other than the rusty, nearly broken-down electric scooter Spencer supplied her with to demonstrate to Mr. Henning about how to save the environment. Despite how terrible the scooter goes and looks, Carly thinks she can pass it off as a valuable project. Carly's scooter is denigrated by Mr. Henning for requiring a large supply of electricity to keep it running, which creates more pollution than riding the bus to school. He grades her a D-, and suddenly the scooter bursts to flames.
- Epileptic Flashing Lights: Used for the iCarly webcast.RANDOM STROBING!
- Epic Fail: Carly somehow kills a plant by setting off a white gas, similar to Spencer's fire-setting problem.
- Foreshadowing:
- While helping Cal make the generator, this part comes up.Cal: Now for the main fuel supply. (Pulls out a rather extreme power rod)
Carly: Cool. What is that?
Cal: The main fuel supply.
Carly: Yeah, but what's it made of?
Cal: Uh...let's just say it comes from nature? - Also, note how Cal is wearing black sunglasses during the iCarly webcast.
- While helping Cal make the generator, this part comes up.
- Hard Truth Aesop: As well-intended as your efforts are to help the environment, there's often a backdrop. Even the hippie teacher points out electric vehicles being charged from coal-fueled power plants can do more harm than good.
- Insane Troll Logic:
- Despite his compost heap being impressive, Mr. Henning gave Freddie a failing grade because of the outsourcing resources used to make it.
- Carly actually accepts Spencer's rusty outdated scooter as her project despite that it doesn't go faster than 0.1 miles per hour. She tried to justify her decision to the bystanders who complained about how awful the scooter is that it's "for the environment", even though the scooter is visibly not made of recyclable material.
- Irony: Sam didn't bother working on her assignment and improvised a presentation with a random orange at the last minute, but ends up being the only one who didn't have to go on the Root and Berry Retreat because her "project" was the only one that was both practical and followed the spirit of the assignment the most.
- Not Helping Your Case: When Mr. Henning expresses disinterest in his work compost project, Freddie tries to defend himself by saying that he got his worms from Portugal. This makes Mr. Henning even more against it because, as Sam puts it, having a fuel-burning airplane transport something many miles across countries does not make Freddie look good at helping the environment (especially when he could've bought some worms locally).
- Object Ceiling Cling: Carly at first does her project on composting, which involves worms, but a squeamish Carly freaks out on touching one and throws it up on the ceiling. She even lampshades it. And when Spencer is arguing with Carly, the worm finally falls and drops on his head.
- Sudden Downer Ending: Carly finally gets the grade she needed, but it turns out Cal is a wanted criminal and the fuel supply for the generator contained an illegal substance and was nuclear-powered. Thus her grade reverts back to the D- from before and she's forced to go on the Root and Berry Retreat for extra credit.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The TV Guide description spoils the ending where the power generator is revealed to be illegal.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Mr. Henning gives Carly an A+ for her power generator, only to take it back after finding out it was illegal.
