The VHS cover, a montage of alien!Aabel keeping a watchful eye on Ethan and Anna.
The Control Voice: In light of today's growing anxieties, it has become more absolute that the wealth of a nation consists in the number of superior men that it harbors. It is therefore a matter of deep concern, and deeper consequence, when four of the most magnificent and promising young minds in the country suddenly disappear off the face of the Earth...
A young man discovers that he and four other men are alien hybrids whose father has come to reclaim them.
The Control Voice: The wealth of a nation, of a world, consists in the number of superior men that it harbors, and often it seems that these men are too different, too dreaming. And often, because they are driven by powers and dreams strange to us, they are driven away by us. But are they really so different? Are they not, after all, held by the same things that hold us — by strong love, and soft hands?
The Tropes of Spider County:
- All There in the Script: Aabel's name is never spoken or shown in the episode.
- Bittersweet Ending: Aabel fails in his mission to save his homeworld, but at least Ethan and the other hybrid geniuses are free to live their own lives.
- Eye Beams: Alien!Aabel uses them to "uncreate" pesky humans.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Ethan and the other missing geniuses have human mothers and alien fathers.
- Only the Leads Get a Happy Ending: In this case, only one of the leads. The last time we see Ethan, he's cavorting through the woods with Anna. The last time we see Aabel, he's returning to Eros to tell his people that their civilization is doomed.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Bartlett, who is always focused on Ethan's well-being.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Aabel wears a snappy suit in both human and alien modes, although Ethan's Dream Sequence shows that his Erosian attire is more utilitarian.
- The Smurfette Principle: Anna is the only female character in the episode.
- Stock Sound Effects: The sound of Aabel's Eye Beams was originally the Martian heat ray in The War of the Worlds.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Aabel, although his ability to shift back and forth between his human disguise and true alien appearance is never explained. Is he literally transforming his body, or just using some form of hypnotic suggestion?
