Year produced: 2022
Original air date: 2/25/23 (TV), 2/15/23 (Disney+)
Production code: 106
Lunella’s dreams of winning the science fair are jeopardized when she is first paired with class clown Eduardo for the project and then finds an inter-dimensional super-being called the Beyonder has taken an interest in her for his study of human-kind.
Tropes:
- An Aesop:
- There's more to people than you think. Give them a chance, and they may just surprise you.
- There are many different kinds of brilliance. Someone who's weak in one area might be a genius in another.
- Apocalypse Wow: The Beyonder performs his erasure of Earth and humanity like he's conducting an orchestra. People and objects levitate as structures crumble, gradually glitching out of existence. However, he restores everything back to normal, revealing he wasn't gonna do it because Eduardo's project impressed him.
- Antagonist Title: The Beyonder is the antagonist of his titular episode.
- Backing Away Slowly: Casey when she sees Beyonder eating the sandwich he just regurgitated.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: Beyonder gets in a swipe at Disney's trend of live-action remakes, calling the animated versions superior.
- Bittersweet Ending: Lunella and Eduardo didn't win the science fair, but they do manage to restore their friendship, and Eduardo's project helps convince the Beyonder to give humanity a second chance when he realizes that there's still more for him to learn.
- Bland-Name Product: When the teachers confiscate Eduardo's pencils, one of the other confiscated items is a console that looks suspiciously like a Nintendo Switch Lite.
- Company Cross References: Doubles with Buffy Speak: after the Beyonder regurgitates Lunella's sandwich, she says he better "bibbidy-bobbidy-boop" her a new one.
- Correlation/Causation Gag: The winner of the science fair ends up being a team that used two giant magnets strapped to their backs to try and levitate themselves. Apparently the onlookers mistook everyone levitating in the midst of the Beyonder erasing everything as the result of their project.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: After the Beyonder seemingly concludes humanity isn't worth keeping around and begins erasing the entire planet, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur try to stop him, but can barely keep up with him and are unable to even harm him, the "fight" ending with Devil Dinosaur being shrunk and Lunella tied up in her own jetpack and forced to watch as the Beyonder seemingly destroys everything.
- Creative Closing Credits: A looping animation of The Beyonder grooving and singing his theme, "The Beyonder". The pint-size version of Devil Dinosaur is casually floating in the background.
- False Reassurance: After fully explaining his mission of evaluating whether humanity deserves to continue existing, the Beyonder reassures Lunella that she will not be erased due to her exceptional intellect, along with Devil Dinosaur. Of course, this is of no comfort.
- Food Pills: The Beyonder dismisses eating, saying that he can just create a pill that has all the nutrients a human would need. Casey finds the idea appealingly marketable. Lunella counters that eating's not just about sustenance but also tasting food.
- Freaky Electronic Music: The Beyonder's erasure of humanity is accompanied by a dubstep orchestra he conducts. It really underscores the callous menace of such an act.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: While Lunella tricks Eduardo into a Snipe Hunt, her bullshit is depicted as a rising thermometer with a poop emoji next to it.
- Giving Up the Ghost: After Lunella's dad James (really the Beyonder messing with her) "discovers" her secret lab and Devil Dinosaur, Casey gives up the ghost.
- Glad You Thought of It: Lunella tries (poorly) to convince Eduardo that her idea for the science fair is actually his idea.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The Beyonder's musical number implies that he answers to a vague authority even higher than him.
- Hidden Depths: Eduardo shows that underneath his goofball behavior, he really wants his ideas to be taken seriously, and is dejected that Lunella dismissed his input to do their project entirely by herself. Lunella comes to realize this, and apologizes.
- I Am Not Weasel: The Beyonder takes exception to Lunella calling him a "space wizard", explaining he's much more than any wizard.
- Interactive Narrator: The Beyonder preludes introducing himself to Lunella by letting her listen to his narration of Stiletto's backstory.
- I Shall Return: The Beyonder ultimately decides to spare the human race... for now. He makes it clear he will continue to watch Lunella and that he will return.
- Jabba Table Manners: Because he's never eaten before, the Beyonder attempts to eat a sandwich by swallowing it whole. He gags on it before spitting the slobber covered thing out onto the lunchroom table.
- Line-of-Sight Name: Trying to think of something to tell Eduardo to find, Lunella sees a "Save the Gorillas" poster on a locker and comes up with a "triple-forged gorilla wrench".
- Musicalis Interruptus: Lunella does this during Beyonder's first song, cutting him off before he can explain how he will be deciding humanity's fate. The second time is after he reveals this and sings another song about how humanity is doomed.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Even after purposely leaving his ideas out of the project, Lunella genuinely feels bad after Eduardo finds out she lied to him. Lunella thought she was doing the right thing, and didn't mean to upset him. She eventually apologizes in the end, and rebuilds their project together to make up for hurting Eduardo's feelings, even if they don't win the science fair.
- Mythology Gag:
- The grand prize of the science fair is the opportunity to visit a Wakandan Outreach Center. The concept of the outreach centers were introduced in Black Panther.
- The winners of the trip to the outreach center show respect to Lunella by giving her the Wakandan cross-arms salute introduced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- Narrator All Along: It is revealed in the opening that the Beyonder was the voice narrating the backstories of the villains since episode 2.
- Parody of Evolution: As Beyonder talks about how Lunella thinks Eduardo is the dumbest person ever, he manifests a version of "March of Progress" with Eduardo behind the first monkey and Jimmy of Jimmy's Gym at front.
- Poor Communication Kills:
- Lunella tries her best to take over the entire science fair project without giving her partner Eduardo a chance. Eventually, he gets the message and makes his own project. Luckily for them both, Lunella admits she was wrong to look down at him and offers her science to finish it, both reconciling and sharing credit as they were initially assigned.
- Lunella interrupts the Beyonder's song, not knowing that the reason he came to Earth to study humanity was to determine their worth. When she vents about how "useless" she accuses Eduardo of being, he decides that is enough to make his case to erase Earth and its humans. When she begs to reconsider, he puts the fate of the world on her and Eduardo winning.
- Readings Blew Up the Scale: The thermometer depicting Lunella's bullshit as she tricks Eduardo into a Snipe Hunt eventually explodes.
- Real After All: Lunella thinks she made up the triple-forged gorilla wrench for Eduardo's Snipe Hunt, so it's a shock for her when he actually comes back with one.
- Rewatch Bonus: The Beyonder has his name displayed in graffiti on the side of the subway car in Lunella’s lab. Lunella ask how long it has been there. Of course, rewatching the season from the beginning will confirm that the graffiti was there the whole time.
- School Forced Us Together: Lunella and Eduardo are assigned to do the science fair together. Eduardo is happy about it while Lunella isn't.
- Sequel Hook: The Beyonder notes that while he was convinced to spare humanity, states that this isn't going to be the last time he's going to check in on Earth and its populace.
- Shape Shifter Guilt Trip: Beyonder originally takes the form of several people Lunella knows, starting with her family members, shocked at discovering her secret identity as Moon Girl in her lab hidden under her home.
- Shout-Out: Lunella pulls off the Me Gusta face after Eduardo builds another machine without following her instructions.
- Snipe Hunt: Lunella sends Eduardo to get a "triple-forged gorilla wrench" to keep him out of the way while she works on the project. Miraculously, he finds one.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Even with Eduardo and Lunella learning their lesson about cooperation, and even with Lunella being a Gadgeteer Genius and the world's smartest person, a hour while the science fair is in progress is not nearly enough time for them to put together a first place winning project. When they show off the hastily made invention in front of the judges, it falls apart in under a minute, causing them to lose.
- Title Drop: The Beyonder introduces himself to Lunella by presenting graffiti of his name on the subway car in her lab. It looks just like the episode title card as well.
- Villain Song: The Beyonder gets one explaining his backstory and motives
. - Visual Pun: After the Beyonder deems Lunella's project void due to her completing it without Eduardo's help, he turns it into pickles to highlight that she and the rest of humanity are in a pickle.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: The Beyonder is the first villain that Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur are unable to defeat by the end of the episode (only choosing to leave for now), and is much more powerful than the previous street criminals they've fought before.
