Line #34 Recap/TheTwilightZone2019S1E5TheWunderkind


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_wunderkind.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:"This is the president -- bomb Russia! I'm just kidding."]]
3
4	->'''Jordan Peele''': Meet Raff Hanks, a 'wunderkind'. Once the most successful campaign manager of his generation. Now Raff finds himself in a valley of booze and regret. One filled with bad choices and even worse polling. He's about to embark on a misguided road to redemption. And on his way back to the top, he'll have to take a dark detour through The Twilight Zone.
5
6	----
7
8	After failing at a reelection campaign, Raff Hanks (Creator/JohnCho) finds out about and decides to back Oliver Foley (Creator/JacobTremblay), a child [=YouTube=] star who wants to run for president. After Oliver is successfully elected, the bratty official turns out to be too much for Raff, who regrets his decision.
9
10	!! Tropes for this episode include:
11
12	* AChildShallLeadThem: The premise.
13	* AfraidOfDoctors: Oliver hates doctors, which has repercussions for Raff at the end.
14	* AlcoholInducedIdiocy: Raff made the decision to back Oliver while under the influence of alcohol when he took up another bar-goer's suggestion to endorse Oliver.
15	* AnAesop: Just because someone is famous, doesn't mean you should automatically vote for them. All angles should be considered to make sure they're actually worthy of a title.
16	* ArtisticLicenseEconomics: Somehow, President Oliver's edict for all video game companies to give away their products for free doesn't garner any backlash from shareholders or investors. One could reason Oliver generously compensated the shareholders and investors with the nation's public purse.
17	* AwesomeButImpractical: Oliver's ideas tend to fall into this, and his advisers largely fail to convince him of the second part.
18	* TheBadGuyWins: Oliver becomes the next U.S. President, gains everybody's obedience and does away with Raff for being the only one who won't submit to him.
19	* BadInfluencer: Oliver Foley, the titular character, is an eleven-year-old [=YouTube=] star and influencer. A desperate campaign manager decides to [[AChildShallLeadThem back Oliver for President]] and successfully gets him elected through LoopholeAbuse. Unfortunately, Oliver quickly reveals himself to be an [[EnfanteTerrible impossibly spoiled brat]] who [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem creates dangerous new laws]] that destroy both the country and individual lives, including [[spoiler: the campaign manager's, who gets sliced to bits on the operating table after Oliver outlaws "old" doctors and replaces them with apathetic kids who don't know what they're doing.]]
20	* BlandNameProduct: Averted. Oliver name-drops Website/YouTube, ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', Creator/{{Nintendo}}, Creator/{{Sony}}, and ''Franchise/StarWars''.
21	* BlatantLies:
22	** Oliver's family saying that Homer has cancer. Yet in campaign videos, the dog is visibly healthy and happily panting and wagging his tail instead of lying down waiting and hoping for the pain to go away. Oliver later [[ILied admits the cancer story is false]] after realizing Raff is beginning to show signs of subversion.
23	** Oliver shouts that Raff has a gun and the Secret Service shoots him dead, despite the fact that Raff is visibly unarmed.
24	* BlindObedience: Everyone on Oliver's staff, save for Raff.
25	* BodyHorror: Raff has a critical operation at the hands of an inexperienced ten-year-old surgeon.
26	* BrattyHalfPint: Oliver. He was a spoiled brat who got everything his way in his family's household at the beginning, and now he gets everything he wants [[FromBadToWorse in the White House]].
27	* TheCassandra: Larry, the senior advisor, who frets about Oliver going into his first debate with zero practice.
28	-->"Sorry, but this is ridiculous! He hasn't memorized anything I've asked him to, and the first primary debate is one week away. [...] He's gonna be embarrassed."
29	* ContinuityNod:
30	** A portion of a [=YouTube=] thumbnail features the disappearance of Flight 1015.
31	** Oliver has a cup from the Busy Bee cafe from the episode ''Replay''.
32	* ChekhovsGun: Oliver's demand for no old doctors spells bad news for Raff's medical situation.
33	* CreateYourOwnVillain:
34	** Raff is the one who gets Oliver elected as President.
35	** Oliver's parents can also fit this trope, as they spoiled him rotten and let him take over the house except unlike Raff they don't ever realize what they did wrong.
36	* DisproportionateRetribution: Oliver has Raff accused of treason and shot for arguing with him. Then he lies to the press that Raff tried to assassinate him.
37	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump A precedent-breaking outsider,]] who communicates primarily through social media and the internet, ends up appealing to much of the populace and surprisingly wins the presidency of the United States. Any further comparisons should be carefully thought over.
38	* DoubleMeaningTitle: ''The Wunderkind'' is not only the term for Oliver Foley, but the name of Hanks' book.
39	* DownerEnding: Raff eventually realizes Oliver is a monster, but fails to convince anyone of this and Oliver has him shot. Raff is taken for surgery, but Oliver has replaced the doctor with an apathetic kid who's in a rush to return to his video games. The kid proceeds to hack into Raff's chest with a knife while Raff screams in agony. And while not explicitly stated, it can be inferred that the United States is doomed to collapse from its newfound incompetent leadership neglecting to tackle any of its issues, such as foreign threats, crime, environment and economy (to say nothing of the countless deaths bound to occur as surgeons across the nation are replaced by untrained children).
40	* DrowningMySorrows: Raff is implied to have become an out-of-work alcoholic in the last 2 years after his presidential campaign failed and his rival candidate won the election before running the country into the ground.
41	* EnfantTerrible: Oliver. His public persona is a polite, cheerful child, but behind the scenes he throws temper tantrums, cusses at his parents, and [[WoundedGazelleGambit stages fake incidents to manipulate others.]]
42	* ExtremeDoormat: Oliver's mother. She was willing to stand up to him while on the campaign trail, but after he is elected she capitulates on everything. Though she was probably fearful of Oliver knowing he can dispose of her (just as he would with Raff) which could be why she cowardly refused to take Raff's advice to stand up to him.
43	* FrameUp: When Raff defies Oliver for the last time, Oliver yells that Raff has a gun, prompting the presidential bodyguards to shoot him. This becomes the official story, giving Raff a ZeroPercentApprovalRating with everyone.
44	* GirlsHaveCooties: President Oliver reviews a number of "replacement dogs" for him, but immediately rejects his choice once he finds out it's a female.
45	-->'''Oliver:''' "No, no, no, this one. He's perfect! My new Homer!"\
46	'''Aide:''' "It's a female dog, sir."\
47	'''Oliver:''' "What? EW! What were you thinking?!"
48	* GlobalWarming: Climate change is brought up as one of the many topics that the last adult president was polling badly in.
49	* GoryDiscretionShot:
50	** When Raff is shot, his blood splatters onto a painting of Thomas Jefferson.
51	** We also don't see the kid doctor hacking into Raff's chest with a knife. All we hear are his screams.
52	* HollywoodLaw: Numerous liberties are taken with regards to American law.
53	** Raff convinces Oliver to run for president even though he is only eleven years old. They get around the presidential age requirement (the US Constitution states you must be at least 35 years old to be eligible for president) by having Oliver's mother serve as his proxy -- but then that would make ''her'' the President of the United States, though her [[ExtremeDoormat constant bowing to his wishes]] makes it unlikely that anything would change in that situation.
54	** Oliver's first act after being sworn in as President is to give free video games to everyone, and he plans to get the VideoGameCompanies to comply by threatening a surcharge tax of one million dollars per console "and put them out of business in a day." Unfortunately, the annual budget isn't created until October of the next fiscal year...
55	** President Oliver tells his staff to pass a law: "no old doctors." This comes to pass somehow, even though legislation begins with Congress, not the White House.
56	* HowWeGotHere: The episode starts with Raff waking up in an operating theater.
57	* InformedAbility: Raff is constantly talked up as a brilliant political mover and shaker, but we only ever see him screw up, while his one actual victory (in actually getting Oliver elected) happens offscreen with no explanation of how he did it.
58	* {{Jerkass}}:
59	** Oliver. To a lesser extent, Raff Hanks as well because as Oliver's dad pointed out he's an opportunist and a manipulator.
60	** There were also the campaign managers of the rival presidential candidates competing against Oliver that heckled Raff when Oliver couldn't decide what to do about tax policies at the debate round.
61	* KickTheDog: In his debut campaign video, Oliver jokes maybe his little sister shouldn't get "quality and freedom" despite the fact she doesn't heckle or mistreat Oliver in any way. Also comes off as hypocritical since Oliver said that "people should be nice to each other" a few seconds earlier.
62	* KiddieKid: Eleven-year-old Oliver exhibits behavior more appropriate for a younger child, such as jumping on the furniture, feet-stomping tantrums, and riding a ''tricycle'' indoors.
63	* LoopholeAbuse: Raff is guilty of this. He knows that Oliver is too young to be elected as President, so he simply makes Oliver's mother the name on the ballot for Oliver's stand-alone political party so that Oliver can gain power.
64	* MythologyGag:
65	** Oliver's mother is Helen Foley, who shares her name with the main character from "Nightmare As A Child" and the "It's a Good Life" segment of Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie.
66	** [[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S3E24ToServeMan Kanamit]] Lager returns from [[Recap/TheTwilightZone2019S1E1TheComedian "The Comedian"]].
67	** [[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S5E33TheBrainCenterAtWhipples "Whipple"]] is not only the news channel, but also the name of a pinball machine.
68	** The reveal of the child surgeon is reminiscent of the twist ending of [[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S2E6EyeOfTheBeholder "Eye of the Beholder"]], where a plastic surgery team working on an incurably ugly patient are revealed to all be hideous monsters, while the patient is a beautiful woman.
69	** President James Stevens is played by John Larroquette, who had a role in ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie''.
70	* NewMediaAreEvil: Oliver's rise to the Oval Office, and the subsequent destruction of society in the United States, is directly connected to the presence of [=YouTube=], social media in general, and video games (which apparently everyone in the entire country plays).
71	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Three guesses as to whom do you think Oliver is supposed to represent?
72	* OnlySaneMan: Raff is horrified when everybody in the White House starts listening to Oliver's commands like they were the Word of God in spite of his immaturity and selfishness. We then learn that [[TheCorrupter Oliver]] won over the electorate's support by giving them all free video games.
73	* PersonalArcade: Oliver fills the Oval Office with a video game console, two pinball machines, a popcorn machine, and a rope swing.
74	* PetTheDog: Oliver wants his sister to have a parade in her honor on her birthday.
75	* PhoneaholicTeenager: The writers seem to think that ''everyone in the United States'' is one of these, adults included, as Oliver's rise to popularity stems from his social media savvy and use of video games to placate the public.
76	* TheReveal: Oliver confessing that Homer's incurable cancer was a lie.
77	* RoyalBrat: Oliver quickly turns into one once he becomes president.
78	* RuleOfCool: Oliver wants to have a music video about world peace where he pretends to shoot the dancers because the blood would look cool.
79	* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: How Oliver Foley rules, disregarding precedents and established standards, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking even when playing golf.]]
80	-->'''Oliver:''' "No! I want a hole-in-one!" ''(empties bucket of golf balls)'' "There! Hole-in-one! I win!"
81	* ShoutOut:
82	** Oliver's story about his dog Homer recalls Richard Nixon saving himself from what looked like political freefall with a highly sentimental speech about his new dog Checkers.
83	** Oliver's "bomb Russia" joke is a reference to Ronald Reagan joking about a missile strike on Russia, [[IsThisThingStillOn not realizing he was being recorded]].
84	* SpoiledBrat: Oliver, especially after he gets elected. He has very little interest in running the country (he doesn't have any stance on taxes or foreign policy) and cares more about video games, miniature golf, ice cream and dogs.
85	* TakeThat: Oliver calls for fewer ''Franchise/StarWars'' movies.
86	* TemptingFate: In the opening, Rafe repeatedly says how successful the election has been, even before the votes have been counted. Maura calls him out on this, and sure enough, President Stevens is not re-elected.
87	%%* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Oliver Foley, when elected President, becomes a UniversallyBelovedLeader thanks to giving everyone free video games. Even his own staff greatly revere him after initially trying to oppose his immediate ideas.
88	* WeHaveReserves: On the first day of his presidency, Oliver threatens to fire and replace anyone who disagrees with him.
89	-->"I'm settled in, Raff, and I know what I want. And you guys are gonna get that done for me, or I'll get ''other'' people to get it done for me. There won't be a shortage of people who want to work for the new President of the United States!"
90	* WithUsOrAgainstUs: As President, Oliver views any disagreement as treason.
91	* WoundedGazelleGambit:
92	** Homer's cancer -- the event which turns Oliver's fortunes around -- turns out to be a lie.
93	** Oliver uses one to [[FrameUp falsely blame Raff for trying to shoot him]] after he starts to resist Oliver's demands.
94	* YesMan: The members of Oliver's Cabinet, who only offer token resistance to his most ludicrous demands.
95	-->'''Raff:''' "Don't you think the president seems like a kid? [...] Like the most spoiled kid in the history of the world, you know?"\
96	'''Chairman Mitch:''' "He's commander-in-chief, this is the greatest country in the world. President says 'Jump,' I say 'How high?' I don't care that he's a kid."
97	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: After Raff helped get Oliver elected as President, Oliver has no use for a campaign manager anymore, ignores his advisers and tries to convert Raff into just another one of his Yes Men. Raff ultimately refuses to be one, and so Oliver does away with him.
98
99	----
100

Context Recap / TheTwilightZone2019S1E5TheWunderkind