Recap / Wander Over Yonder S 2 E 12 The Hole Lotta Nuthin The Show Stopper

The Hole...Lotta Nuthin'

When Wander gets his finger stuck in a black hole, he struggles to pass the time until Sylvia returns with a suitable plug.

Tropes appearing in The Hole...Lotta Nuthin'

• Accidental Hero: Hater not only cheers up Wander inadvertently after breaking his spirit (simply by bringing up his advice "it never hurts to help"), but he also ends up plugging in the black hole with his glove. Wander lampshades it.
• Break the Cutie: Wander during this episode as he's tethered to the hole.
• Call-Back:
  • Hater taunts Wander over their supposed friendship, sings an awful parody of Wander's theme song (The Good Bad Guy), tags Wander (The It), and offers him sandwiches (The Picnic).
  • Once again Wander's Chronic Hero Syndrome is a blessing and a curse, as it was in "The Fugitives", "The Nice Guy" and "The Secret Planet".
  • Wander hates being helpless, as we see in "The Wanders", and he only cheers up when he realizes that he's helping people.
• The Cavalry Arrives Late: Sylvia does not reappear until the very end, when she brings back several plugging devices, only to see Lord Hater's severed arm plugging up the hole.
• Chekhov's Gag: Wander insisting it "never hurts to help" plays a plot point here, as Hater accidentally cheers him up when he mentions said line when insulting him.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The "mustard or mayo" bit is brought up again, and is used as an insult for the second time, only reversed roles.
  • It's finally Wander's turn to be annoyed by a villain's insults.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: As Peepers points out, Hater could have just left Wander alone, thereby ridding him of his greatest enemy.
• Dark Reprise: After the title card "The Hole" appears accompanied by a major C chord, the rest of it, "Lotta Nuthing" appears accompanied by a minor C.
• Demoted to Extra: Sylvia is only seen for a while at the beginning and doesn't reappear until the very end. Peepers also makes a short cameo after Hater flees Wander.
• Does Not Like Spam: Lord Hater reveals he hates apples, but is apparently willing to eat one in front of Wander if doing so will upset him.
• Enemy Eats Your Lunch: Hater takes the apple Wander was trying to get and eats it as he taunts him. And then spits it out on his face because he hates apples.
• Evil Gloating: Hater does this instead of leaving Wander to his fate and conquering the galaxy. Peepers lampshades this when Hater's getting a replacement arm.
• Face–Heel Turn: Invoked & defied. Hater says he'd turn to good, if only he could get a hug. But he ignores Wander's pleas to let him give a one-armed embrace. Hater teases Wander with this just to make him suffer.
• Forgot About His Powers: Wander tries to lug a rock over to sit on and tries to get an apple from a tree so he can eat, instead of trying to get something from his hat. Although pulling something out of the hat seems to require TWO hands, and the hat had just pulled out various implements to plug the hole.
• A Friend in Need: Wander invokes this to Hater. The problem is that Hater doesn't consider them as friends.
• Gravity Sucks: Wander sees an apple on a distant tree on a distant planet and throws a rock to knock it down. When it's feet away from the target, the rock not only stops being affected by gravity, it stops in midair and gently floats off at a right angle to its previous trajectory.
  Wander: Oh, right... space.
• Kick the Dog: Hater does all that he can to invoke this, Yank the Dog's Chain about not being evil if only Wander could give him a hug, and Evil Gloating.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Hater in the climax ends up with his glove plugged into the situation, and Wander in Sincerity Mode singing to him.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: In the end, Hater pulls his skeletal arm out of his socket and leaves it stuck in the black hole rather than listen to Wander's inane yammering. He gets a replacement that is visually identical to the original.
• Madness Makeover: Wander briefly, until Hater accidentally cheers him up.
• Misery Poker: Inverted; Wander in the climax says he feels selfish worrying about himself when he's helping so many people and saving so many planets.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Hater had pretty effectively broken Wander's spirit, but then asks why anyone would let themselves suffer "just" to save the galaxy, which causes Wander to immediately see his own situation in a far more positive light. Then he shakes Wander silly, unplugging Wander and getting his own hand stuck instead.
• Overly Long Gag: The scene with Wander standing next to the hole, waiting for Sylvia to come back, and growing increasingly bored.
• Reflective Eyes: Lord Hater is briefly reflected in Wander's eyes as he is insulting him.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Wander trying to get an apple from a distant tree. Just when he gets it, Lord Hater picks it up and eats it. To drive the point home, he swallows it in one bite and spits juice at Wander's feet.
  • Likewise, Sylvia's search for something to plug up the black hole ends with her returning to find Hater's arm already plugging it.
• Shout-Out:
  • Sylvia brings out Aladdin's lamp to try and plug the hole.
  • The scene of Hater getting a new hand is a lift from The Empire Strikes Back
  • Lord Hater's Slasher Smile is remarkably similar to The Grinch's
• Slasher Smile: Hater sports one when he notices Wander is stuck and can't do anything but stand in place.
• Stating the Simple Solution: The hat provides duct tape, a cork, and bricks for plugging the hole, but only a finger works.
• Title Drop: Not quite, but Hater calls Wander "a whole lotta nothing" as one of his insults.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: Hater sarcastically offers Wander sandwiches ("Mustard or mayo? Mustard or mayo?").
• Wham Line: Hater accidentally cheers Wander up when he quips it "never hurts to help".
• Wingding Eyes: Wander's pupils turn into apples as he is attempting to get the apple in a tree to come to him.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Hater taunts Wander by saying he would turn good, if only someone would give him a hug. Wander tries to reach his hand, but Hater's too far away and says he doesn't see anyone.

---

The Show Stopper

Wander and Hater team up for a concert to get Dominator's attention.

Tropes appearing in The Show Stopper

• Always Someone Better: Subverted. Peepers hopes to invoke this by putting Wander on the stage, but instead Hater sees that teaming up with Wander will bring Dominator closer.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Peepers asks Hater if he's even considered the idea that Dominator doesn't happen to like rock and roll. Hater then just decides to start rapping instead. And then just goes back to rocking anyway.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Both Hater and Dominator; Hater succeeds in holding a concert and a bunny planet hostage as his audience, with Wander not stopping him because it's a gesture of love and Peepers and Sylvia can't do a thing to stop the duo. Then Dominator shows up, destroys the planet after laughing at the performance, and chases them down.
• Bilingual Bonus: Hater gets to sing his theme song in Spanish at one point.
• Bound and Gagged: What Peepers does to Hater's lead guitarist so as to give Wander the role.
• Call-Back:
  • Wander and Hater sing Hater's theme song to invoke an in-universe Awesome Music.
  • Sylvia and Peepers team up again to save their pals.
  • Dominator makes it clear that she sees Hater's flirtations as idiotic.
  • We finally get to see the band "Lord Hater and the Harbingers of Doom".
  • Sylvia is seen wearing the same groupy outfit from when she tried to take out Emperor Awesome.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: Hater's electronic shocks repower the stage when Peepers and Sylvia cut off the power.
• Comically Missing the Point: One of Peepers' failed attempts to get Hater to stop is pointing out that they don't even know whether Dominator even likes Rock and Roll. Hater tries switching to Hip-Hop for a number, prompting Peepers to enlist Wander in a Springtime for Hitler moment.
• Continuity Nod: The breakdancing watchdogs from the TV shorts appear as Hater's backup dancers.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Subverted. Sylvia out of desperation convinces Peepers to help Wander and Hater put on their concert in the hopes that it will stop Dominator from destroying the planet. It doesn't work, as she and Peepers note.
• Creator Cameo: First names of many WOY cast and crew members, including Craig, Keith, Lauren and Jack, appear on the ending animatic.
• Crowd Surfing: Hater does this during the concert. Peepers and Sylvia use this as an opportunity to carry him away from the stage, but it doesn't work.
• Death Glare: Sylvia and Peepers give one to Hater and Wander.
• Description Cut: When Peepers lets Wander play guitar, he explains that the guitarist is "tied up at the moment." Cut to the guitarist tied up.
• Disguised in Drag: Peepers dresses like a fangirl so he and Sylvia can egg Hater and Wander on during the concert.
• Downer Ending: Dominator destroys the bunny's planet, and then proceeds to chase after Hater and Wander.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Wander fails to notice that Hater is holding an entire planet hostage and forcing them at gunpoint to applaud, because he is putting on a concert for love.
• Enemy Mine: While Hater and Wander team up for a concert, Peepers and Sylvia do all that they can to stop the concert.
• Fire-Forged Friends: At first, Sylvia and Peepers are reluctant to work with each other. Eventually, they're chummy enough to willingly high-five each other.
• Heroic RRoD: In the climax, Sylvia and Peepers try to invoke this in Wander and Hater. It only works for Hater.
• Hidden Depths: Sylvia can play bass and Peepers can play the drums quite well.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Hater at first. With Wander's help, he gets in tune.
• Hope Spot: At first it seems Dominator won't kill them all because she's laughing too hard. Then she destroys the planet and gives chase to Wander, Sylvia, Hater and Peepers.
• In Memoriam: invoked Spoofed during the credits that shows the names of all the Watchdogs that were taken out (and supposedly killed) by Peepers, Sylvia, and Dominator.
• Incessant Music Madness: Lord Hater tortures a captive audience of bunny people by playing the same song for four days straight.
• Musical Episode: With one song playing on repeat!
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Because Wander was more focused on helping Hater than saving his hostages, the bunny aliens lost their planet.
• People Puppets: Wander does this to Hater when Dominator shows up, to keep the music playing.
• Piss-Take Rap: When Peepers brings up the possibility that Dominator might not even like rock music, Hater tries out rap instead and busts out one of these.
• Reflective Eyes: Seen on Peepers when he notices the stage.
• Running Gag:
  • The bunny aliens who cheer or say nay, depending on if the Watchdogs' guns are pointed at them.
  • The Watchdog drummers that appear every time the old one is incapacitated. The Credits Gag is a eulogy to all of them.
• Rotten Rock & Roll: Hater's love of rock music takes center stage in the episode. At the same time averted with Wander, who is the nicest Nice Guy in the galaxy but enjoys Hater's music and joins him on stage.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Watchdog drummers constantly getting knocked out is a nod to Spinal Tap's frequently killed-off drummers in This is Spın̈al Tap.
  • Whilst playing bass, Sylvia sticks her tongue out like Gene Simmons.
  • When Wander is inside Hater's body, Hater's heart can be seen. It is two sizes too small.
• Springtime for Hitler: At one point, Peepers tries to sabotage Hater's concert by enlisting Wander to replace the lead guitarist after beating and tying him up. Wander's involvement only improves the performance and makes Hater even more enthusiastic.
• So Bad, It's Good: In-universe, Dominator says this about Hater and Wander's concert. She applauds, but only because she found it entertainingly stupid.
• Stating the Simple Solution: At first Sylvia and Peepers try to cut the power to the concert. Hater then relights the stage with his green electricity.
• Title Drop: "Either way, it'll be a heck of a show-stopper!"
• Vaudeville Hook: Peepers and Sylvia try to drag Hater off-stage with one of these.
• Villain Song: Hater, apparently has been singing one for four days, non-stop.
  "Who is the universe's awesomest evil-doer? HAAATEEEER!"
• We Have Reserves: Sylvia and Peepers try to take out the drummer, but there's always another drummer to take its place.