Overview (Spoilers Below):
For Your Consideration
After a fight with Scudworth, Mr. B prepares to leave Clone High for good—but not before telling Joan his epic backstory.
Clone Alone
As Operation Spread Eagle ends, the students of Clone High are offered the opportunity to attend Clone High College.
Our Take:
The first year of the Clone High revival has reached its conclusion. But before we get into summer vacation, we must pass the show’s final exam: watching the last two episodes and seeing if they can end its sophomore season on a high note. It’s a good thing it doesn’t involve any questions involving multiple choice and paragraph-length answers for us to answer.
The first of the two, “For Your Consideration”, sounded like it was trying to earn some awards for its storytelling. Considering its cheesy teen drama presentation and satirical humor, it’s unlikely that the award ceremonies would actually consider it a masterpiece. However, I would likely consider this episode for its focus on Scudworth’s robotic companion. The episode sees Mr. B finally at his breaking point following an intense fight with Mr. Scudworth over not telling Scudworth about the crab stuck in his teeth. Considering how much shit he’s taken from the principal/mad scientist, I’m surprised it took Mr. B this long to say, “Screw this, I’m out of here!”. However, the quarrel is also about Scudworth breaking Mr. B’s promise to clone his human twin brother, Wesley. What follows after that is a backstory chronicling Mr. B’s “epic” and “tragic” past, from his childhood days to his short-lived career as a Hollywood star.
“For Your Consideration” offers a change of pace from the clone-focused narratives that emphasize the depth of Mr. B. It also answers some of the viewers’ big questions about the character, such as why he keeps calling everyone “Wesley”. However, it retains the parodical tone amid its “award-worthy” drama, especially the dialogue poking fun at the award drama elements it follows. What I also liked about the episode was the various presentations used to depict Mr. B in different decades. One example is Mr. B’s childhood with Wesley, displayed as a classic black-and-white cartoon resembling the old-school Disney toons and newspaper comic strips. It’s definitely far from a true awards contender, but like some of the previous episodes, it’s not afraid to make fun of itself for attempting to be one while providing suitable depth for Scudworth’s robotic assistant.
Afterward, we have the season finale, “Clone Alone”. This episode has the clones facing their final obstacle as Operation Spread Eagle reaches its conclusion. They’re offered to take an entrance exam in which the lucky few will attend Clone High College. But, of course, the exam is part of Candide’s plan to send the clones to the Death Maze, where the lucky winner becomes the next world leader. What follows is a Squid Games-type scenario mixed with several tropes involving the pressures of heading to “college”, including retaining friendships.
During the process, Joan feels betrayed by her friends, resulting in her becoming the “lone wolf” and sabotaging the students’ chances by trapping them in pits. Because of this, Joan won the maze at the cost of having their friends’ memories wiped clean, but not before she and Scudworth brought their memories back with a yearbook slideshow. Meanwhile, Abe gets the justice he deserves when JFK breaks Topher’s phone with his butt, ending Topher’s blackmail and sprouting the friendship between Abe and JFK. Considering how much of an asshole Topher is, it made me happy that it doesn’t carry over to the next season. But, of course, that doesn’t mean that nothing else will play a big part in the third season, as Joan’s victory got canceled by Candide, who shows everyone the video of Joan’s sabotages, abruptly ending the season on a sour note.
Overall, the final two episodes of the Clone High revival may not get an A+ from me. However, they got a good enough score to graduate from the show’s second year. “For Your Consideration” is the best of the two due to its focus on Mr. B and humorous dialogue centering on the teen drama’s “award consideration” aspect. As for “Clone Alone”, it’s another season finale that closes a few arcs but opens a few more that’ll come into play for season three. One of them is the abrupt ending where Joan winds up in hot water after her sabotages are exposed to the world. It looks like we’ll be spending its third season with Joan getting canceled by the Clone High students, similar to how Abe got canceled in the first episode. While the revival didn’t top the show’s excellent first season 20 years ago, I still had fun revisiting this particular school, which I will explain further in my upcoming season review.