Year produced: 2022
Original air date: 2/25/23 (TV), 2/15/23 (Disney+)
Production code: 105
After a classmate makes a comment about her hair, Lunella suddenly becomes insecure and attempts to straighten it… however, the compound she creates to do this causes her hair to fall out and come alive as the supervillainess Mane.
Tropes:
- Absurd Phobia: In a flashback, we see Adria freak out and panic when a young Lunella points out a bottle of hair relaxer at the store. We later learn that she tried relaxer when she was younger but didn’t have the neutralizer, which caused her hair to fall out. This is the exact mistake Lunella made to straighten up her own hair leading to her balding and, worse, Mane's formation.
- Aesop Collateral Damage: Played for laughs; Casey's wig collection gets destroyed, and she throws a funeral for each one she had, so Lunella could learn to appreciate and care for her natural hair.
- An Aesop:
- Natural black hair is not ugly.
- Don't let other people's opinions of you affect your self-image. Just Be Yourself.
- Bait-and-Switch: After Lunella uses her homemade hair relaxer, it seemingly goes right without a hitch... and then a few seconds later, almost all of her hair falls out.
- Companion Cube: Casey once had an obsession with wigs that lead her to build a huge collection. She named each one and also holds a funeral for them after Mane destroyed them.
- Creative Closing Credits: A looping animation of Mane dancing to the credits' theme.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Mane made her own sidekick, Devil Dryersaur, out of an old hair dryer. She's barely finished introducing it when Devil stomps it to pieces.
- Curly Hair Is Ugly: Discussed and Defied. The plot sets off when a white classmate makes fun of Lunella's natural hair and she goes bald trying to straighten it. Her mother and grandmother have a talk with her about how society looks down on them for their natural hair and the harm they caused themselves while trying to straighten it.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- Casey has a Pride wall in her room, complete with a poster that reads "I love my dads".
- When the students gasp after Lunella is disqualified from the robot competition, Anand is shown smirking as if holding back a laugh.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Lunella attempts to engineer her own all natural hair relaxer. It straightens her hair, before it all falls out, and later her locks come to life to seek revenge for being mistreated and rejected.
- Hair Reboot: Thanks to her mom's story, Lunella figures out she needs to create a neutralizer to undo the effects of her relaxer, immediately restoring her straightened strands to their afro-texture. When used on Mane, it also restores her to Lunella's head.
- Harsh Word Impact: The impact of her classmate's negative comments about Lunella's natural hair is emphasized by punctuating them with Lunella becoming a silhouette being pierced through the chest by an arrow with each one.
- Hot Wind: Lunella marvels at Casey's long, flowing hair as it blows in the wind... which is caused by a fan outside a fan store.
- Innocently Insensitive: Lunella's insecurities about her hair started from the casual comments thrown at her by a straight-haired classmate presuming it "looks bad" on purpose.
- Mirror Boss: During their fight, Mane shapeshifts into a copy of Lunella. They then end up fighting inside a Hall of Mirrors to emphasize the matchup. When Lunella remembers that Mane is literally her hair, and thus a part of her that she neglected, she surrenders and reconciles with her. In return, Mane has Devil use Lunella's neutralizer on her, sacrificing her sentience to fuse back to Lunella's head.
- Monster of the Aesop: Mane incarnates Lunella's self-loathing and neglect towards her hair and seeks revenge for the same.
- Narrating the Obvious: When Mane reveals herself to Lunella, the Narrator explains her origin like he usually does before remembering that the audience already witnessed it beforehand.
- Prematurely Bald: Lunella’s compound to straighten her hair causes it all to fall out.
- Serious Business: Adria is very serious about her and her daughter's hair care. However, it isn't as comical as it was first shown. Lunella learns later on that she should take care of her hair because it’s a natural part of her.
- Shout-Out:
- When trying to give Lunella a new hairdo, Casey remarks that "The curl is strong with this one." Later, when Lunella is making her own relaxer, Devil Dinosaur says he has a bad feeling about this.
- Lunella plans to search every warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse, and doghouse in the city until she finds the saboteur.
- Talking the Monster to Death It's in learning to appreciate her hair for what it is and promising to take care of it better that Lunella manages to reconcile with Mane peacefully.
