Recap / Solar Opposites S1 E5 - "The Lavatic Reactor"

Looks like Jesse and Yumyulack are in trouble, after one time too many sci-fi incidents causes them to face expulsion should they ever miss a day of school. Thus, they diligently attend classes, hoping to get back on good graces, unbeknownst to them that school's closed for the summer break.

And speaking of school, Terry and Korvo enroll in a junior college where the former, unsurprisingly, lags behind in classes. Korvo gets pissed at how Terry would rather emulate college movies and party like there's no tomorrow instead of studying, so Terry zaps him with a Dumb Ray to make him like his foolhardy self.

Inside the wall, Tim and Cherie lead a rebellion to liberate the Duke of his food supply but suffer an unexpected betrayal.

The episode contains the following tropes:

• Belief Makes You Stupid: When Terry accidentally hits a book with the dumb ray, it turns into a bible.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Tim sets a detonator with a ten-second delay, with more than enough time to run away. One party member takes the detonator and plans to pull a Heroic Sacrifice, only to realize he can run and sprints too late. He ends up blind from the blast. Tim gives a Face Palm and says that was the whole point of the delay.
• Downer Ending: Tim and Cherie are betrayed by Enrique to the Duke. Cherie is thrown into the Boo Hoo Hole while Tim is imprisoned.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Tim and his friends disguise themselves as the Duke's soldiers as part of their plan to confront the Duke. Ironically, Enrique is later revealed to be working for the Duke all the long and dressed up properly to be one of his minions.
• Everyone Has Standards: Terry is fine with standard dumb alien-frat shenanigans. Even so, he won't let Pupa accidentally hurt himself with the dumb ray. He also becomes concerned when the frozen lava floods the entire city and will destroy their neighbors.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Tim expresses his shock at Enrique's sudden betrayal to the resistance.
• Face–Heel Turn: Enrique betrays Tim and Cherie to the Duke; he blames Tim for causing Pedro's death.
• Inventional Wisdom: Korvo says they made a "dumb" ray for the purpose of emergencies. One must question what those emergencies are.
  • Fridge Brilliance: In the very first episode, Jesse and Yumyulack had to dumb down a school bully with cola after they shrank, kidnapped, and tortured her. The dumb ray could have been built in case something like that happens again.
• Karmic Twist Ending: To save the town and their ship, Terry is forced to fix the smart ray, which he destroyed, proving Korvo right that his episode arc was to learn that you can't cut corners or ignore common sense.
• Kick the Dog: Terry shoots Korvo with the "dumb" ray when the latter runs into the countertop and falls to the ground with a head injury, bleeding blue blood.
• No Such Thing as Wizard Jesus: In the Couch Gag Korvo complains that people on Earth get annoyed when he points out that Christ was an alien.
• Not So Above It All: Angry that they were attending school on a regular basis for nothing and getting along with her brother, Jessie happily joins Yumyulack in trashing the classrooms with sci-fi bullshit.
• Skewed Priorities: When the library floods with freezing lava and the kids have to climb to the top of the bookshelves, Yumyulack takes the opportunity to shoot Jessie as part of their play-fight. She lampshades it.
• Stating the Simple Solution: Yumyulack points out that if Pupa is going to destroy the universe, then why not stay home and watch TV? School shouldn't matter. Terry mentions they don't know when Pupa will terraform the planet, and Korvo asserts that regardless of the institution, learning can be useful.
• Suddenly Voiced: Pupa says his first real word: "Pepsi".
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Tim refuses to kill the Duke's enforcers, saying that's what makes them different from the Duke.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Terry assumes college will mean frat parties and endless shenanigans. He and Korvo go to a community college, however, and find out that most of the students are middle-aged adults. One classmate says to go to a party, she would need a babysitter. Another one says she prefers to chill and watch NCIS.

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