Review: Clone High “Anxious Times at Clone High/The Crown: Joancoming: It’s a Cleo Cleo Cleo Cleo World”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Anxious Times at Clone High

As Candide’s manufactured crisis wreaks havoc, Joan begins to doubt her relationship with JFK. Meanwhile, Abe turns to Frida for advice, and Harriet frets over her future as a #winemom.

The Crown: Joancoming: It’s a Cleo Cleo Cleo Cleo World

When a rumor derails Cleo’s bid for homecoming queen, Joan is forced to reconsider their lifelong rivalry for the sake of the school — and the world.

Our Take: 

Adjusting to the new norm is just the beginning of the clones’ problems in the next set of episodes. I also want to mention that these two episodes came at the right time, with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s highly-anticipated Spider-Man sequel, Across the Spider-Verse, already arriving this weekend. Before I dive back into the Spider-Verse, however, I first have to deal with some of the most stressful days of the school year: “Pre-Midterms” and Homecoming. Why do the frustrating parts of life always get in the way of our exciting ones?

The first episode, “Anxious Times at Clone High”, speaks for itself. It consists of the government’s “Operation Spread Eagle” entering its second phase, with Candide and Scudworth having the clones take the “Pre-Midterms” to increase their stress levels. This crucial part of the school year puts the clones close to their breaking point, but to the sinister scientist and his superior, it’s also popcorn entertainment to see who will break first. But, of course, the Pre-Midterms aren’t the only things the clones (except Frida) are stressing about, as they’re also highly anxious about their personal issues. First, Joan is worried that wearing the gold necklace JFK gave her would mean she’ll lose her self-identity and be bound to him forever. Then, Harriet stresses out about her grades plummeting and becoming a “wine mom”, while JFK gets anxious from the fear of getting dumped by Joan.

This episode puts a humorous and entertaining spin on the students’ anxieties over school exams and real-life problems, adding to the show’s parody of soap opera television shows. Additionally, it provides an amusing horror-like scenario involving the students being haunted by Candide’s school mascot, Heeby Jeeby, who is actually Ian Ziering from Beverly Hills, 90210 in disguise. It resembles the Boogeyman, but instead of feeding on people’s fears, it feeds on their stress.

There’s also a side plot featuring Scudworth trying to win over Candide by making himself cry over the death of something he loves. However, that plan backfired when the rabbit he got ate Candide’s pet reptiles. That pointless moment broke the episode’s pace with its predictable twist, but Scudworth still proves himself watchable with his charismatic personality.

The second episode then focuses on Cleo facing another overly dramatic scenario as the school’s homecoming dance approaches, thanks to Joan. Not only that, but the school is also confronting a mystical stone of servitude that Candide plans to use as a homecoming crown to enslave humanity. But, of course, it went downhill from there as Joan’s rumor about Cleo’s pumpkin spice latte caused the former to win the crown instead of Cleo. Afterward, Joan angrily gives the crown to Cleo, causing her to enslave all the students at Clone High.  

This episode focuses more on the “rivalry” between Joan and Cleo. If you’ve watched the first season of Clone High, you’ll immediately notice that these two girls hate each other’s guts, even after Abe’s “relationship” with Cleo. However, with the world in danger of being “Cleo-ized”, Joan is forced to rethink her rivalry and come clean about her “rumor” to make amends with Cleo. It may not end their stereotypical feud entirely, but it’s a start. 

Overall, both episodes don’t match the show’s fantastic debut, but they’re entertaining and hilarious enough to continue the second year of Clone High. The first episode was a consistently funny perspective on anxieties despite Scudworth’s little side plot being unnecessary to the story. The second episode involving Homecoming provided a suitable mixture of bizarreness and high school drama to further progress Joan’s relationship with Cleo. Even though some of its satirical humor shows signs of losing a bit of steam regarding the main characters’ personalities, mainly JFK, the series continues to delight me through its concept and strangely amusing scenarios.