Poster by Tara Billinger
Max air date: 5/23/2023
Written by: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, and Erica Rivinoja
Twenty years after the Homecoming Prom, the clones are unfrozen by the Secret Board of Shadowy Figures as part of their plan: Operation Spread Eagle. Abe, Joan, JFK, Cleo, and the rest of the 2003 clones head back to Clone High and meet newer clones that Scudworth secretly created during the 20 years. The clones attempt to adapt to the new norms, such as Abe grappling with cancel culture, though Joan enjoys her newfound friendship with Frida Kahlo and Harriet Tubman. Meanwhile, Scudworth has to deal with his new supervisor: Candide Sampson.
Let's Trope This Again:
- Bland-Name Product: FlipFlop, which is totally not TikTok.
- The Cameo: Marilyn Manson is one of the people sitting at the "canceled" table.
- Content Warnings: The Canadian airing on Much gave this episode a stricter warning than usual for the series, saying "Some adults may be offended." This could be due to Abe trying to say the word "retarded", which the channel had been bleeping out when airing South Park reruns.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Having been frozen for twenty years, Abe hasn't caught up to modern standards and is reprimanded for saying "spaz", the r-slur, and calling something "gay."
- Demoted to Dragon: Candide Sampson is assigned to be the new boss of Principal Scudworth, who'll be monitoring him from a newly-installed room above his office in Clone High High School.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: In Abe's apology video, he makes his situation worse by continuing to say politically incorrect things. Eventually, he gives up and becomes unapologetic.
- Dramatic Drop: The response of everyone in the cafeteria to Abe saying politically incorrect things repeatedly as he tries to explain his plan for the unity luncheon.
- Dream Reality Check: Cleo exaggerates this trope by pinching herself, slapping herself, smashing a glass of water in her face, pouring gasoline on her head and lighting it on fire, shooting an arrow in her eye, sawing at her head, and then stepping on a bear trap when she realizes she's no longer popular. She later offers the bear trap to Abe when he similarly gets rejected by the new popular kids in favor of JFK.
- Hypocrite: Frida Kahlo and Harriet Tubman tout themselves as inclusive and diverse, but they shove Cleo, a person of color, to the side in favor of letting Joan, who is white, join their inclusivity committee. Then again, Cleo is a proven judgmental Alpha Bitch who doesn't care much for people and someone like her wouldn't care for it, for example: she made a piranha moat to keep herself away from the special Ed class.
- In Love with Your Carnage: Scudworth falls in love with Candide when he realizes she's trying to kill him.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: In season 2, Cleo is no longer the most popular and hottest girl in Clone High, Joan, the girl she mocked the most being more respected than her. She also injures herself to attempt to wake herself up, first by pinching herself, then slapping herself, smashing a glass of water in her face, lighting herself on fire while covered in gasoline, firing an arrow in her eye, sawing her head a bit, then finally purposely stepping in a bear trap. She then has to swap shoes with Attila, whose foot is quite disgusting to look at and smells really really bad.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- The Board of Shadowy Figures gush about where the clones were in their lives before getting frozen (namely the lack of resolution to the Love Triangle) in the same manner as fans of the show getting hyped about the unresolved cliffhanger.
- After Scudworth douses himself with coffee a second time after accidentally spilling some on himself, Mr. Butlertron asks (with an Aside Glance), "Why would anyone do anything a second time after they got burned so badly the first time?" referencing how Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are reviving Clone High after getting in so much trouble from offending Indians with the original run.
- Never Grew Up: As of this episode, the series now takes place in 2023 (20 years after the last season ended), although the clones all think it's only one day later. The clones, having been cryogenically frozen all this time, maintain the same age and mindset. Due to the sudden timeshift, everyone is experiencing culture shock, not understanding the new technology and social changes of the past 20 years.
- Nothing Personal: Though Frida and Harriet don't ask Cleo to join the inclusivity committee, it doesn't seem to be due to any dislike of her with Harriet saying "She's great."
- Put on a Bus: Ghandi was left behind, still frozen, in the meat locker.
- Self-Deprecation: One of the last parts of Scudworth's Long List of things to catch up on in the last twenty years is "Only reboots on TV".
- Shout-Out:
- Scudworth uses a strategy straight out of A Clockwork Orange to get the old clones caught up on the last twenty years.
- Scudworth opens his safe while scatting the guitar riff from Weezer's "Buddy Holly".
- Swapped Roles: This time, it's Abe who's pining for Joan while she goes out with a popular student (JFK).
- Take That!: The Cancelled Table consists of John Wayne Explanation , Marilyn Manson Explanation , and Mr. Sheepman Explanation .
- We Didn't Start the Billy Joel Parodies: Scudworth's recap assembly is a Long List of what happened during the past 20 years, singing similarly to "We Didn't Start the Fire." It takes several hours.
- You Don't Look Like You: Harriet Tubman and Frida Kahlo are included among the second generation of clones, despite being members of the first generation. The second-generation clones of these characters are also completely redesigned.
- YouTuber Apology Parody: Abe makes an apology video on FlipFlop, but keeps digging himself deeper by inadvertently saying phrases with racist connotations like "I don't see color" and "all lives matter." The poor reception towards his statements eventually leads to him devolving into a childishly misogynist rant.
