The Woobie: Hector. He's one of the smartest kids in town, but his parents don't love him, and he learns that he's cloned from a master criminal. On top of that, the first book ends with him apparently getting killed.
The game show
Sequel Difficulty Drop: The third season of Minds compared to all prior episodes. First off, the show lowered the requirement to two wins, which had been done three times under the three-win requirement. Secondly, Ken Jennings, who easily had the highest number of main game wins during the Minds run, left the show to focus on Jeopardy!. Ken had only three outright defeats in his entire tenure, all in the original Best Ever incarnation. Everyone who beat him on Minds did so via tiebreaker.
