An alien spaceship lands in Riverdale. Inside is a small, furry little creature named Gleebo, who Betty latches onto like a child. Gleebo needs help to get in contact with his people to avoid a duo of ugly aliens coming after him, so the group decides to help him out. However, it will soon become clear Gleebo isn't being entirely honest.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Aliens Are Bastards: It turns out Gleebo is far from innocent as he's actually a criminal who sells plutonium on the black market after stealing it from planets. The aliens hunting him, the Planetary Police, avert this.
- Aliens Speaking English: Gleebo explains to Archie aliens have translators implanted in them since birth.
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Broken Aesop: The episode is the typical "don't judge a book by its cover" as Betty thinks Gleebo is good for being cute and the aliens hunting him are evil and not the law. However, the Planetary Police try to straight up capture Gleebo without even bothering to explain themselves to the kids, much less speak to them at all as opposed to chase after them with their spaceship. They don't even try to do that when the group uses Veronica's treehouse as a base, just shooting at it (with stun guns admittedly) and expect them to hand over Gleebo. It's only after Gleebo's reveal do they bother explaining the situation. So, in this case, the teens were justified to not trust the two since, ugly or not, they should've explained themselves. - Corrupted Character Copy: Gleebo purposefully plays the role of an innocent alien being captured by people, liking candy and wanting to build a device to supposedly phone home, like in ET The Extraterrestrial. In actuality, he's a criminal who was building a disruptor that lets him break into the plutonium plant and has no gratitude to the teens for helping him.
- Evil All Along: Gleebo is in fact the actual villain of the story, pretending to be an innocent alien wanting to go home, but is in fact a temperamental criminal.
- Fantastic Racism: The first thing he does after revealing his real personality is call Betty a "dumb mammal".
- Foreshadowing:
- The first thing Gleebo says upon waking up is that he's innocent, suggesting he may actually have had trouble with the law.
- Jughead's analogy of "don't judge a book by its cover" is by showing off an empty box of jelly beans. Betty uses the set up to hide a smoke bomb in a similar box before Gleebo heads off to space.
- Hidden Disdain Reveal: After Gleebo reveals his true personality, he also reveals that he thinks little of Betty, who was nothing but sweet to him.
- Hope Spot: After Gleebo is shot, Betty cries over his supposedly dead body, saying she loves him. Gleebo is shown opening his eyes, which would signify everything will be alright. However, it's then he stops faking his cutesy attitude and snaps at her for failing to protect him.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Betty assumed Gleebo was innocent because he was so adorable and the aliens hunting him were evil because they were so ugly due to watching ET and seeing the same thing. It's the opposite.
- Jerkass: Gleebo's actual personality, a rude and uncaring jerk who doesn't mind tricking people into helping him so he can steal and make money.
- Monster of the Aesop: Gleebo is a cute sasquatch-like creature who turns out to be an ill-tempered criminal who is motivated by greed. Betty, who spent the entire episode coddling him and falling for his act, learns from the experience not to assume someone is good or evil based on their looks.
- Never My Fault: Because he grabbed the Idiot Ball and stuck his head out of the window while thinking the Planetary Police was out cold, leading to him getting shot, that's when Gleebo reveals his true personality to snap at Betty and the rest... for failing to protect him, which was hard to do when he put himself in danger.
- Police Are Useless: Despite that they got the drop on Gleebo before, the Planetary Police neglect to notice he's small enough to just walk through the bars. There's also the fact they neglect to tell the teens until it's too late not to trust Gleebo.
- Spoiler Cover: The "Riverdale High Reporter" image at the beginning of the episode shows that while the rest are terrified by the alien spaceship, Betty is happily hugging Gleebo, who has a less than adorable smile on his face like he's up to no good, hinting he's the actual villain.
- Third-Person Person: Gleebo speaks about himself in third-person in a cutesy voice when working alongside the group. After he gets shot by the police, he drops this and the tone he used entirely.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Gleebo begins to love being fed jellybeans. Betty exploits this by handing him one final gift of jelly beans but hiding a smoke bomb inside of it.
- You No Take Candle: Gleebo talks in the third person and speaks childishly. However, he's also inconsistent in how he talks, which hints it's all an act.
