Recap / Odd Squad S 3 E 7 Odd Squad In The Shadows

A Child Shall Lead Them, the Shadow League! Now all hail The Good King Omar!

Odd Squad in the Shadows

Airdate: February 25, 2020 ^note PBS Kids premiere

The Mobile Unit is called to Pinehurst, NC, to stop a villain who is stealing various objects.

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Tropes:

• All There in the Script: The other three agents of the Shadow League aren't given names, but are listed in the credits as "Oskie", "Odiana" and "Odette". While "Oskie" is the name of the other male agent in the League, none of the girls are named. However, one look at the actors who play them and viewers can tell who is who — Odette, played by Selina Frias, has the Prim and Proper Bun and is tall, while Odiana, played by Laaibah Alvi, is the shorter girl.
• American Accents: A majority of characters, like North Carolina Ms. O, Oskie and Mr. Sides, have a Southern drawl to their voices. Justified, as the episode takes place in North Carolina.
• Anime Hair: Crimson Carl has a wild-looking hairdo that wouldn't be too out of place in an anime.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Parodied. Odin challenges Omar for the rank of Shadow King, but the two boys don't get into a physically violent fight — instead, in true show fashion, they battle by seeing who can make the best shadow puppets, using large flashlights as "weapons". The two even fight using shadow puppet warriors at one point.
• Bad News, Irrelevant News: Inverted. Opal calls North Carolina Ms. O and tells her that she has good news, and the Director says she has good news as well. The latter's news is that Mr. Sides' business idea of having side dishes only works, while the former's news is that there's a way to save the latter's golf tournament.
• Berserk Button: It's implied that Omar gets incredibly angry when told that he has to leave before he has a chance to get a souvenir, and if Opal's comment is any indication, she's witnessed the rage firsthand as his partner.
  Oswald: Wait. Should we go get Omar?
  Opal: He's looking for a souvenir. You wanna be the one to tell him he has to go?
  Oswald: [scared] Yeah, I'm sure he'll be fine.
  Opal: Good choice.
• Big "NO!": Opal, Oswald and Omar all do this when Orla decides to have them compete and catch the most scorpions to see who will be The Leader.
  • Opal later does one when Orla wants to release "celebration scorpions" for figuring out the villain's pattern.
  • Odin also does one when he loses the shadow duel with Omar.
• Brick Joke: Orla has a rather odd fascination with scorpions — she attempts to release them when determining who the leader is, and later does it again after presumably figuring out the pattern of the villain.
• Busman's Holiday: The Big O is on vacation in the Great Plains of Odd, but is seen fighting two large dinosaurs at once. Apparently, her definition of "taking it easy" involves fighting oddness.
• Call-Back: The Headquarters seen as the setting for many past episodes makes an appearance here — however, it's not the same precinct. Similarly, the Lab also appears as a setting.
  • Opal, Orla and Oswald run into the same problem that Olympia and Otis had in "The O-Team", as well as them and the rest of Precinct 13579's agents in "The Deposit Slip-Up" — not realizing that there is a horizontal line of symmetry in addition to a vertical line.
• Chewing the Scenery: The scene of the agents in the Shadow League presenting things to Omar is as hammy as the episode can get. Jayce Alexander wastes absolutely no time in being a Large Ham while playing the Shadow King.
• Clockwork Prediction: Once Opal figures out the pattern of the villain (symmetrical shapes), Van Computer interrupts her and says that it knows she's going to ask if there are any symmetrical-themed villains in North Carolina. Orla has this gem of a line to give right after.
  Orla: [scared whisper] The machine is learning.
• Color-Coded Characters: Each of the villains staying at Crimson Carl's house, barring Turquoise Tim, have a red-colored Color Motif attached to them, as indicated by their names.
  • Red Fred (not seen) - Red
  • Crimson Carl - Crimson
  • Ruby Robby - Ruby
  • Vermillion Vince - Vermillion
  • Rose Rose - Rose
  • Turquoise Tim - Turquoise
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: The Big O can take on two dinosaurs that easily tower over her with one single gadget and little to no effort whatsoever. Not only that, but she can beat back other oddities with the same gadget with ease.
• Cool Crown: Omar has one that he wears as the Shadow King. It's made out of office supplies such as sticky notes and paper clips.
• Create Your Own Villain: It's all but stated that Omar denying Odin's "gift" of a glass unicorn stencil to make shadows with — since you can't make shadows with transparent things — is what causes him to rise against the king and enact his revenge on him.
• Cuteness Proximity: While Van Computer drives them to 21 Main Street, Oswald, Orla and Opal take a moment to look through the rest of the workbooks at the many pictures of kittens inside and fawn over how cute they are.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The scene with Opal, Oswald and Orla in the lab has muted colors, in stark contrast to previous scenes with the Lab where there was more vibrant color.
• Didn't Think This Through: North Carolina Ms. O brings every one of her agents to the mini-golf tournament. The downside to this that there are no agents to stop oddness, meaning that the oddness usually comes to the agents themselves. However, the problem could essentially be resolved if the Director spared a few agents from participating in the tournament to be on duty fighting oddness.
• Distaff Counterpart: Symmetrical Alice is one to Symmetric Al in all but weaponry and attack methods — while he uses a cube to remove halves of things, she uses vacuum hoses to suck up and destroy symmetrical things in their entirety.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Turquoise Tim looks more like a woman than a man, especially with his short blue hair and turquoise-colored outfit. If it weren't for the name, viewers might think he's a woman.
• Evil Redhead: Crimson Carl, natch. The other red villains have normal hair colors.
• Face–Heel Turn: Odin pulls an incredibly fast one, going from respecting Omar as king to wanting to overthrow him the moment his idea of an item to make shadows with is rejected.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Orla realizes that she was wrong in the pattern the villain is following being a color pattern, and as a result, instead of remaining the leader as she and her teammates look for another solution to the problem, she steps down from the role, allowing Opal or Oswald to take the folder. Oswald ends up taking it for himself, becoming the new leader of the trio.
  • When his theory about the villain going in a succeeding sides pattern (shape with 3 sides, then 4, then 5, etc.) turns out to be incorrect, Oswald also resigns as leader of the group, allowing Opal to take over.
• Finish Dialogue in Unison: The Main 4 all do this when North Carolina Ms. O asks who's in charge of OSMU.
• Foreshadowing: There is some in this episode pertaining to The Shadow.
  Odin: We are a shadow organization working within Odd Squad.
  Omar: Whoa, does that mean that you're trying to take down Odd Squad?!
  Odin: What? No, we're trying to make a shadow.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: The Shadow League is made up of two males (Odin and Oskie) and two females (Odiana and Odette). It becomes imbalanced when Omar joins with them.
• The Good King: Omar, to such a point where he doesn't just order his subjects around, he does so with a "please" tacked onto the end of his orders.
• Graceful Loser: Invoked by Odin during his challenge, as he declares that the loser of the shadow duel has to say "Hey, good job" to the winner...and they must mean it. When he loses, he makes good on the declaration, congratulating Omar on his win.
• I Know A Guy: Oswald's answer to Opal as to how he got the workbooks printed so quickly.
• Impossible Shadow Puppets: Omar, as well as the agents of the Shadow League later on, make shadows that are quite clearly animated in CGI (given that this is primarily a live-action show), and delve into invoked Special Effect Failure at some points.
• I'm Standing Right Here: Opal speaks of her leadership with Pride, but ignores the fact that Orla and Oswald are sitting right across from her.
  Opal: Please, just give us a little more time to find the villain, Ms. O!
  North Carolina Ms. O: It's North Carolina Ms. O. And I can't.
  Opal: But I'm in charge now, so things will go much smoother.
  [cut to a wide shot of the table, revealing Orla and Oswald]
  Orla: You realize we are right here?
  Oswald: Yeah.
• Kids Driving Cars: One of North Carolina Ms. O's assistants drives a golf cart to take his boss to the mini-golf tournament.
• Kitschy Themed Restaurant: Mr. Sides' restaurant only serves appetizers and not main dishes. It's a bit of a cross between your average sit-down restaurant and a fast-food place similar to those like McDonald's and Wendy's, but doesn't get much business.
• The Leader: This episode performs a Deconstruction of the trope, to a certain extent. The main conflict of the episode revolves around who is the leader of the Mobile Unit, with all 4 claiming that they're the leader. However, while Opal, Orla and Oswald each pass along the leader rank to each other (Orla passing it along to Oswald, and him passing it to Opal), Omar becomes the leader of the Shadow League after separating from the group and gets into a leadership tussle with another agent of the Shadow League, Odin, who battles him for the position of leader (and it's implied that he was the leader of the League before Omar came along). By the end of the episode, Mr. Sides, a local restaurant owner, tells the group that everyone is equal and that there is no defined "leader", which they take to heart, but later episodes show that Opal, the de facto leader of the group, remains as such. The episode also deconstructs how different agents handle being a leader:
  • Orla is of the Headstrong type. She is very demanding and pushy, and believes that her solutions are always correct.
  • Oswald is of the Mastermind type. He takes on a teacher-like role in the group as leader, and appears to be knowledgeable about shapes and how many sides they have.
  • Opal is of the Charismatic type, with some overlap with Headstrong and Mastermind. Being the de facto leader of OSMU, her Go-Getter Girl personality keeps the trio going and allows them to take a better course of action in finding the villain after North Carolina Ms. O gives them some more info.
  • Omar is of the Mastermind type. He is very knowledgeable about shadows, moreso than the other members of the Shadow League, and uses his knowledge to his advantage while he is leader.
  • Odin, who is all but stated to have been the leader of the Shadow League before Omar joined, is of the Charismatic type. While treating shadows as Serious Business and having a specific goal for his League, he has very little knowledge on how to make shadows. He also isn't afraid to stand up to those whom he views as a threat, and does most of the talking for the group.
• Limited Wardrobe: Averted for the North Carolina precinct — employees don't wear their usual uniforms while at the tournament, and swap them out for jackets in the colors of their respective departments that are more suited for the fall season than for casual wear (excluding Investigation and Maintenance/Transportation agents, who wear navy-colored jackets with undershirts reflecting the respective red and yellow colors of their departments). However, all of them keep the navy-colored pants. It's played completely straight for the Mobile Unit, however.
• Mickey Mousing: Orla bangs her fist on the lab's countertop right after the background music ends.
• Mini-Golf Episode: The episode mainly focuses on the North Carolina Odd Squad precinct's annual mini-golf tournament — fitting, considering that Pinehurst, where the episode is set, has a long and extensive history with the sport of golf.
• Moment Killer: North Carolina expresses upset at OSMU not having caught the villain yet, and declares the annual mini-golf tournament to be canceled. The Main 3 are disappointed as well...up until Mr. Sides chimes in with a happy "And I'm Mr. Sides!", which causes the agents to give an annoyed, unisonant "We know!"
  Mr. Sides: I know, but there's someone new here now, so I was just sayin' it for her.
• Multi-Part Episode: The third one of Season 3.
• Never Trust a Title: Since the Big Bad of the season is named The Shadow, one would think that this episode would mark her official debut after "Odd Beginnings: Part 2". Instead, the "shadows" portion of the episode revolves around Omar and him forming a bond with the Shadow League to make shadows for the mini-golf tournament, and the rest of the episode revolves around the tournament itself. The Shadow doesn't appear until "Slow Your Roll", 3 episodes later.
• Office Golf: Since Pinehurst has an extensive history with mini-golf, being the birthplace of the sport, it's only fitting that the North Carolina Ms. O would be playing it. Not only that, but her precinct has an annual golf tournament that has been consistently ruined by some oddity.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: North Carolina Ms. O's Southern accent slips numerous times throughout the episode. She also seems to frequently switch between having a light Southern drawl to a heavier one.
  • Odin also slips into a Southern accent at the climax when battling Symmetric Alice.
• The Order: The Shadow League is a small group of Odd Squad agents that have been meeting every week for 2 months to make a shadow, but haven't made one yet. Their overall goal is to perform a shadow puppet show at the mini-golf tournament, but don't quite know how shadows are made. When Omar stumbles across them and impresses them with his extensive knowledge of shadows, they name him their leader, which doesn't please Odin, a member of the League who is implied to have been the leader before Omar came along. He challenges the Mobile Unit agent to a shadow duel in order to seize power, but ends up losing and bands with him to partake in the shadow puppet show and stop Symmetric Alice from destroying the mini-golf tournament.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Oswald expressing his desire to become a leader is very out-of-character for him, given that he is a Cowardly Lion who is afraid to go on adventures and wouldn't do well in a leader position. Opal and Orla, on the other hand, are perfect candidates, with Orla specifically having taken up a leadership role in the past as appointed guardian of the 44-leaf clover and the Amazon Odd Squad Headquarters.
  • Omar, with his ditzy ways, also wouldn't be a good fit for a leadership position, something that is reflected when Odin, who is implied to have led the Shadow League before him, decides to fight him for leadership after doubting his knowledge on shadows. He even declines to be named the leader by the rest of the Mobile Unit at the end of the episode.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Instead of banding together to fight against Symmetric Alice, the agents of Pinehurst, barring North Carolina Ms. O, run away screaming. Bear in mind that Alice is severely outnumbered by the amount of agents at the tournament, who, if they were brave enough, could take her down with no problem, and a majority of the agents likely don't have symmetrical names.
• Series Continuity Error: Previous episodes have established that Opal is the de facto leader of OSMU through numerous implications. This episode has all of the Main 4 vying for a leadership role, and officially makes any talk of leadership concerning the Mobile Unit canon. While Mr. Sides does tell them that they're all equal to each other at the end of the episode, and that there is no canonically determined leader (something they're content with), future episodes would continue to have Opal serve in such a role within the group, with the rest of the agents taking backseat.
  • When entering the restaurant, North Carolina Ms. O points out how there's only 3 Mobile Unit agents now, when earlier, she seemed to witness Omar take his leave from the group.
• Serious Business: The Shadow League seems to take shadows and shadow puppets very seriously, to such extent that it's worth having a battle for leadership over.
• Shout-Out: Omar being appointed king of a secret league sounds similar to the events of the Arthur special DW's Beastly Birthday.
• Slogan-Yelling Megaphone Guy: Opal and Orla yell out commands through a Mobile Unit-branded megaphone. Oswald just yells into the megaphone because he thinks it's fun.
  Oswald: I have nothing to add! I just really wanted to use this thing. [Orla shakes her head] Ohh, this is really nice. Yeah.
• Subverted Catchphrase: A double subversion — Orla says her usual "I am Orla" Catchphrase when answering the phone, but then tacks on "Leader of OSMU" as a title.
  • Similarly, Omar also says his usual "Omar's House of Friendship" Catchphrase when answering the phone, but tacks on the title of "King" to his name.
• Surpassed the Teacher: Omar says this of Odin when he tells off Symmetric Alice with his knowledge about shadows.
  Omar: The student has become the master.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: North Carolina Ms. O wants to be called just that: North Carolina Ms. O, not simply by "Ms. O".
• Throwing Down the Gauntlet: Odin challenges Omar to a shadow duel by trash-talking the Mobile Unit agent. Considering that Omar has more knowledge in the subject of shadows than him, it's easy to see why he accepts the challenge, and why he ends up winning.
• Trespassing to Talk: Orla, feeling that Crimson Carl is lying to her about the supposed culprit, marches right into his house with Opal and Oswald straight on her tail and begins confronting Carl's guests.
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Orla and Oswald do this at one point when scouting the mini-golf course for any symmetrical things.
  Orla: [handing a mess of balloons to North Carolina Ms. O] These are not symmetrical at all.
  [Whip Pan transition to Opal and Oswald, testing a golf-ball-shaped cake]
  Oswald: But this cake is.
• Weapons That Suck: Inverted. Symmetric Alice has a rather large machine on her back that looks similar to a vacuum, but the hoses themselves fire beams at their targets rather than suck things in.
• We Need a Distraction: Omar and the Shadow League work together to distract Symmetric Alice and get her to stop attacking long enough for the Mobile Unit to apprehend her.
• Worldbuilding: The Great Plains of Odd is introduced as a location.
  • Odd Squad precincts are implied to be sorted in America by state rather than by city. This would carry into future episodes such as "Sample of New York", where a New York Odd Squad Director is introduced.
• World Tour: This episode has the group visiting Pinehurst, North Carolina, with the Big O on vacation in the Great Plains of Odd (which looks like the African plains).
• "YEAH!" Shot: The episode ends on one of these, with Mr. Sides and the Main 4 jumping.

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