Talking About Moon Girl Episodes 2-6 by SofiaBlythe2014 on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Hello there. This is SofiaBlythe2014. So after my review of the pilot, here are the other Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur episodes that came out in February. Let's begin.

1. The Borough Bully

Writer: Halima Lucas

Director: Trey Buingiorno

Date: February 11, 2023

Synopsis: "Lunella lets a nasty comment get the better of her."

Here we have an episode that hits real home, and is also real fun. This episode is about Lunella dealing an internet troll who keeps making fun of Moon Girl. She tries fighting back, but things get worse. This episode is very much about the message on not letting trolls get to you. It works pretty well here, but it gets better when adding the supplementary message on trying to find the root of your problems rationally. Let's break this down.

First Act:

We start with Angelo at his booth trying to tell a woman about protecting the possums. She's not interested in this due to Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur coming in. Right away, we can see that he's someone who likes doing good things, but doesn't get much attention from others. You immediately understand his position. Back to Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur, they're fighting some kind of mecha robot called Devos, who's after them and Casey is taking pictures of everything. Talk about being thrust into danger. During the fight, Angelo's booth keeps getting destroyed because of her, and he becomes angry. Yeah that really focus on how he's being treated poorly and not being noticed, so you feel for him despite his behavior. Back to the fight, Devos initially has the upper hand before Lunella uses her punching gloves and Devil punches him in the stomach. Now that is awesome. He gives up, and she takes in the adoration of the crowd. Yeah we see that she really likes the attention, but at least it's from doing good and saving others. She's just too engrossed in this to see how her actions have consequences. Lunella likes how fire the video is as she and Casey leave to go to school.

Casey sees the page is blowing up, which is usually a good thing. Lunella likes the positive comments that she's getting, even nerding out. She then comes across a negative comment from someone named Syphon8tr. He says that she has a big head, and uses various hashtags like #5Head, #MoonHeadGirl, and #BigHead. Yeah these comments are definitely hateful because of how they strike her intelligence. She doesn't like the negative comments and wonders who he is before asking Casey if she has a big head. She tries to change the subject and says to look more on the positive side. That's a good approach. Don't ignore the negatives. Just don't let it take you over. She's dealt with her fair share of haters before, and says that the key is to not let it get to her. She says that there was one time when she punched Eduardo in the stomach when he made fun of her scrunchie. This got her detention, so the second time it happened, she just brushed it off with a little dance and said how he's entitled to his opinion. This scene helps show how she's not someone you want to mess with, yet also shows how she likes to focus more on moving forward. That's pretty admirable. Lunella says how she's not going to let this get to her, though it's not easy. She later gets nightmares where she sees negative comments everywhere. Yeah she's traumatized.

Devil wakes up in the lair, where he sees Lunella going through her stuff. She tells him that she's trying to get back at him because of the big head comments, and tries to scientifically show how she has a normal sized head. Yeah she's misunderstanding the situation here. She thinks he insulted how she looked, and not how she acted. At least this fits since she knows a lot, but doesn't always understand social behavior. She wants a cameraman, and he initially leaves since he's too sleepy, but he agrees when she promises to play fetch with him. Well, at least there's an attempt at mutual agreement. She does the video talking about how she has a normal sized head, and it apparently goes on too long since he isn't fond of her doing it again. It's a good thing we didn't see too much of this. Lunella thinks that there's all kind of love for the video when she gets confronted by Casey for using the website without her permission. Yeah that's not cool. She thinks it's no big deal until she shows her a song that Syphon8tr made using her video talking about how she has a big head. Oh my! Lunella doesn't like this, and just as Casey says to get ahead of the curve, the video goes viral all over school. Yeah her ego is definitely being bruised since it's almost like everyone is onboard with making fun of her. Casey says she blocked the troll just now and thinks this will blow over, but Lunella says this is war. Yeah this won't end well.

Second Act:

We see Lunella being obsessed over the negative comments. She keeps seeing negative comments everywhere, such as school, her house, the park, the roller rink, and science class. Many of these more than once. She's definitely getting obsessed over this, but it makes sense. She wants to be seen as a hero who's always there to help others. This video makes her look like a joke who can't do anything, which she wouldn't want. She's just too focused on taking someone down so as to not be held back. Casey finds Lunella in the lair, and she's been plotting revenge against him. She thought she blocked the guy, but Lunella says that she unblocked him. Yeah she's showing more petty revenge. She called him a sea sponge since he doesn't have a spine or a brain. Well, at least it's a clever joke. Casey tells Devil to do something, and he tries to say frisbee, but she's not in the mood for it. He tries saying this is no big deal until she shows him a comment saying he has tiny arms, and he's onboard with her. I thought you were better than this Devil. She tries to get back at him, but then Casey changes the password and log in credentials so that she doesn't make her image look worse. She does have a point. By focusing so much on taking down a petty troll, she makes herself look more unhinged. Since Casey is someone who cares about image, her words carry more weight. You don't want your town hero to look like that. She says she knows that she wants to take down the troll, but this isn't the way. Lunella says she'll stop, and Casey says she'll do damage control as she goes back home to watch her favorite show, Love Scents.

Lunella tries to unwind with some food from Mimi at the rink, but then Adria plays the remixed Moon Girl song, and she's not happy. Yeah she's basically being picked on even when it's unintentional. She then asks Mimi if she's ever been insulted by someone online. She says she doesn't use the Internet, and that if someone wanted to say something, they'd say it upfront. It's with this where Lunella gets the idea to directly confront him. This also leads to a funny running gag where Mimi looks up comments online, and she sees someone insulting her food (calling her hot wings over seasoned). It's on. She tells Devil that they should confront the troll face to face, and she changes up the tracker to track cell phone antennas in order to find him. She goes all over the Lower East Side and eventually finds Syphon8tr, a literal troll, under the Williamsburg Bridge. He certainly knows how to make his presence known. He keeps insulting her by saying how long it took her to find him despite her big head. The smug way he says all of this makes him really fun to watch. He's also shown to be quite unstoppable despite how weird he looks. He tries talking over her, and she gets more frustrated with how she can't say anything. She tries to punch him while insulting him, and he gets bigger. He then tells her to punch him in the head while insulting him, but he keeps dodging her and keeps calling her names. Yeah she's letting her ego her to her, which is pretty fitting. She always tries to speak her mind when something is wrong, yet someone is insistent on trying to shut her down however he can. He then becomes more powerful and calls her Balloon Head Girl And Devil Whino-saur, and starts causing chaos. Yeah that's just cruel. Back home, Casey is watching her favorite show when it gets interrupted by the news about Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur fighting the troll. As she keeps fighting him, he keeps getting stronger. Through some scientific analysis, she sees that he's bonded with an alien symbiote, which have a weakness to sonic based attacks. She has Devil roar at him, and while he's sent flying, he comes back stronger. Yeah she's just feeding him at this point by giving him what he wants, her annoyance at being ignored.

Third Act:

He starts throwing more attacks at her and hits Devil, and makes an insult in whether his body or her feelings were hurt more. Yeah that's just going too far. He says that the world will see her for who she is, a fuzzy big haired nobody. Okay that's really taking things too far. She says that he's going to destroy the bridge with his stunts, and he thanks her for giving him the idea to also destroy the bridge. Yeah you walked yourself into the situation Lunella. She tries getting out of the gunk until Casey comes to the rescue. She figured out that she tried to get back at him behind her back, and how she had to miss the newest episode of her favorite show. At least she knows her priorities and puts her wants aside since there's actual danger. Lunella says how nail polish remover can help get it out, and Casey is prepared for this situation. Of course she is.

The troll sees that he can destroy the suspension cables in order to destroy the bridge. Lunella sees that nothing she says or does will stop him. Casey says that she shouldn't feed the troll, which gives Lunella an idea. She's going to ignore all his insults while still standing her ground. She confronts him, and says that nothing is wrong when he asks what's wrong with her. He then calls her hair a bird's nest and says that it looks like a tumbleweed, and she says he's entitled to his opinion. She is being smug when saying this, but she's not directly insulting him. She's just focusing more on trying to stop him and less about trying to one him up. He says his suit looks like she sewed it herself, and she says she did, and which makes him smaller. We then get another mixtape moment where he keeps trying to insult her, and she just brushes it off and boosts herself and Devil Dinosaur up without putting him down. Yeah this scene is really intense and shows off the singing talents of the voice cast. He keeps trying to insult her, but he runs out of stuff to say, and he keeps shrinking and falls down before she saves him. Her humility is showing here with how she doesn't hesitate to save him.

He's shocked by her saving him, and the symbiote escapes into the river as he turns back to normal. We then get more about his backstory.Through narration, we find out that Angelo kept trying to get attention from people for various causes he's been fighting for, but no one paid any attention to him. The Moon Girl fight was the straw that broke the camel's back, and his heightened jealousy made him susceptible to the negative effects of the symbiote. Yeah even with his actions, you still feel bad for him. He just wanted to do good things, but was too consumed with revenge that he almost lost his humanity. Angelo says that he wanted her to feel small he like did, but didn't want to go this far. He didn't think that he could hurt feelings, but she says that she's also a human with feelings. This is basically showing how both are flawed yet good people. You should at least talk things out and find out the root of the problems before taking action. He apologizes, and she accepts it on the grounds that he takes a break from the internet and doesn't do stuff like this ever again. She even says that they could team up one day, which he likes. She helps him talk about the rise against bullying, which gets positive attention. It's a good way to wrap this up. They talk about how all people can be affected by bullying, and it's about taking any necessary steps needed to deal with it. Things are getting better online and in real life, and Lunella says that at least they know how to deal with haters. We see Mimi getting more negative comments about her food, and she's about to swear (I'm about to whoop your) before Lunella shows her Casey's dance. At least we get a killer end credits sequence with the dance. I like this one.

2. Run The Rink

Writers: Jeffrey M. Howard & Kate Kondell

Director: Ben Juwono

Date: February 18, 2023

Synopsis: "Lunella runs the rink for the night."

It's time to get moving. The episode has Lunella being put in charge of the rink for a day while her family is out. It seems fine at first, but things quickly go awry. The episode gives a solid message on how you should take your time to do big tasks and to not rush things. Let's break this down.

First Act:

We start out with one of the most amusing fake out openings I've seen. We have Lunella and Devil running over the city for some kind of emergency, and she apologizes for getting in the way of someone driving. At least this shows how she's willing to own up to what she does and not intentionally be reckless. It seems like they're about to fight some kind of villain when they actually arrive at
... a car wash. Apparently, it's Devil's bath time. Understandably, he's not happy about being tricked and tries to run off. He is all about maintaining trust with his partner. Lunella tries stubbornly in vain to get him inside, but he keeps resisting. We see how she's very stubborn about this, but for good reason. He tries hiding, and she tells him how he went swimming in the East River, which is very dirty. Yeah she's very particular with how she wants things to go, and it's pretty hard to get her to compromise. She then bribes him with a hot dog, and he runs inside, but not before grabbing her and taking him with him. Yeah talk about fighting dirty. He's clean, but then he sees a dumpster and covers himself in garbage, so she washes him again.

We cut to Just Roll With It, where she's jamming to some tunes. We also get another funny fake out. It looks like Adria is smothering Lunella when she says that the grown ups are going to Roller Jam in New Jersey, and that Saul from The Hasty Mart will be watching over. In actuality, she's saying this to her turntable while Lunella is just watching from her behind. It's hilarious to see her act this way. We then see Pops doing some skating (which he does well in) and James doing some skating (which he does poorly in). We then have Lunella excitedly waiting for Mimi's kettle corn to be finished, but she says that there's 20 more minutes left, which makes her impatient. She thinks of trying to change up the microwave with all sorts of equipment like a cold fusion generator so that it can make it quickly. She's certainly being quite impulsive and wanting things to happen right now. It does at least show how proactive she is on fixing any problem that comes her way. She's just too focused on the results and not so much how to get there. Mimi says that her recipe takes time, and tells Lunella that it takes a pinch of patience to do well in both cooking and life. Those are certainly wise words to live by.

Saul calls Pops up, and he says that he can't make it tonight because of something flaring up. Everyone is bummed out, and Adria thinks that they should close the rink for one night in order to get to Roller Jam. Since they're a hardworking family, one night off wouldn't be a bad idea. Pops disagrees, and says that they've never closed the place in 42 years regardless of how many people are there. He's certainly dedicated to the customers. Lunella says that she can look after the rink tonight since she's responsible and smart. She says this rather arrogantly, though more in overestimating her abilities rather than putting others down. Her parents are against this idea since she's 13 (in a funny gag in how those are all 13 reasons why), and can't look after the place on her own. She says that she does the books, and sees that Tuesdays are slow. Well she certainly knows how to be prepared with knowledge, and at least it would happen on a day where things would be less busy, and therefore less hectic. Adria asks for Mimi to back her up, but she already has her suitcases packed since she's onboard with the idea. She brings up how she thinks that Lunella could use some more formative experiences, and a slow night could be a good test for her. Yeah her wisdom isn't for show. She agrees with this, and everyone decides to head out.

Second Act:

Lunella starts doing her duties, such as greasing up the skates, doing the sofa machines, and making the popcorn. It seems alright at first, but she gets bored after just 20 minutes. I mean, we see her eyes get bigger as she gets more frustrated. She's not one to do things slowly. She decides to use an invention to speed everything up, which works at first, but then everything moves too fast and causes a giant popcorn and roller skate mess that covers the rink. Yeah her big brain couldn't see how inventions that are more powerful usually have some kind of consequence if left unchecked. She sees that this will take forever to clean this up, so she decides to get Devil to help her out. He's in the middle of watching a dinosaur movie, and he happily eats up the popcorn. So we have a big solution to a big problem. That sounds good on paper, but we get an even bigger problem when he accidentally destroys the turntable while eating. Yeah now she has money problems on top of a big mess. She thinks about getting professional help, and calls Casey. Although she's busy helping her dads exercise, she decides to help her out while still telling them to exercise. You don't get in the way of a girl trying to help someone out. She looks up about a new turntable online, and while there's one in mint condition at a pawn shop, it's really expensive.

Lunella is in despair until Casey gets an idea to have Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur show up tonight. It's ordinarily a slow night, but with her influence, people will come in droves. You can't deny she's good at capitalizing on any opportunity to get some kind of attention. Lunella is initially hesitant about this, but only reluctantly agrees when Devil says yes, and that's because of the snacks. Well, she can't really argue with the majority. It seems like just regular school kids and city goers know about this, but an ominous figure sees the reminder and says he found her. Yeah that's not good. Things seen to go pretty well with Moon Girl skating with everyone and people sliding on Devil Dinosaur. Ahmed comes by, and he's initially suspicious when he doesn't see Lunella, but drops the suspicion when seeing Moon Girl. The girls think that nothing could go wrong when someone villainous comes by to visit them. Dun! Dun! Dun!

Third Act:

She's saying that she's taking a shortcut to fame by taking her out. They don't know who she is, so we get more narration. She's Olympic runner Sophie Slugfoot, who once took a special compound to increase her speed. She gets banned from the competition, wanted revenge, and became Instantane Girl to get back at them. Yeah she basically brought this on herself with how she chose to cheat and not try to improve herself. Lunella and Casey think that the name is too hard, so they call her Speedy Girl. It's really funny. As she charges towards her, Moon Girl just casually defeats her by moving out of the way, getting adoration from the whole crowd. This is also funny. Lunella hopes that more villains don't come, which Casey thinks is the case. And then a giant baby named Man Baby comes in. As per the narrator, we find out that this is Timmy Grubbs. When he was a baby, he became a giant when stumbling into his father's experiments. He acts like a baby in getting what he wants, but then he gets beaten by Devil Dinosaur easily. Yeah he has the size, brute strength, and the keen mind to take him down without effort. Well, at least it's over now.... It's not over is it?

Lunella says that bad things come in threes, and Gravitas comes in. As per the narrator, he's the godfather of gravity, and uses his powers to rob banks, as evidenced by how he stole a vault. It was business as usual, but he got interrupted by Moon Girl last time during the car wash scene and his money got destroyed in the fire. He definitely has the smug, entitled attitude that makes him fun and dangerous. She tries to brush him off despite his powers and threats to send her to the moon, but then he lifts Devil Dinosaur and makes him a disco ball. Yeah you definitely don't want to mess with him. She tries dodging his attacks, but he sees this as cowardice. He then lifts the whole rink off the ground, putting everyone at great risk. Yeah that's not good. Casey tells Lunella to go after him, but she's says she'll be put at great risk of being gravitated. We then see her being self depreciative given how she chews herself out for rushing into things. At least she doesn't try to put the blame on others, and sees that she became too focused on the end result and not how to get there. She then remembers what Mimi said, which leads to the mixtape moment with a song called "I'm Winning". There's a lot of fast speed and stealthy moments to show her increased confidence. Since she does this mostly away from people, it shows how she's being more methodical with her actions. Case in point, it seems like she's doing nothing with how she's bobbing and weaving. He has her cornered, but then he runs out of juice for his gauntlet because of him continually using it. Yeah his impulse ultimately ended up being his demise. She beats him up, and the rink starts falling down to Earth. They're all doomed, but then she sees the generator she made and a cord and hooks it up to the building so that they can have a soft landing. The highlighting of the slow motion movements definitely show how epic this is. Everyone is saved, and they cheer her on. She makes enough money to get a new turntable, and everything is normal again. Her family comes back, and Adria initially thinks something is up until she sees how better the turntable looks. Lunella says that she's in no rush to do this again as she takes the time to appreciate Mimi making popcorn the old fashioned way. At least she's more in tune to taking things easily. Oh, and Ahmed falls from the sky. It's pretty funny. Anyway, I like this one.

3. Check Yourself

Writer: Maggie Rose

Directors: Rodney Clouden & Ben Juwono

Date: February 18, 2023

Synopsis: "Lunella gets attacked by technology that's been hacked by the school computer."

Checkmate my friends! Joking aside, let's talk about this episode. It's about Lunella being determined to win against a supercomputer that seems smarter than her. However, things go awry very easily. The episode goes for a simple message on how winning isn't everything, and it works well. Let's break this down.

First Act:

We start with Lunella going up against Devil Dinosaur in a skate race. You may be wondering how he can go up against her in a race like this. Well, she's on her roller skates while he's using two taxi cabs for his skates. She's a little unsure of this, but the drivers don't mind. At least this shows her caution and how she doesn't want to intentionally drag people into dangerous situations. The race goes off, and she gets a major lead while his lower half gets hit by a row of trees. It looks likes a close call, but she wins, and is quite confident about it. I mean, she brags about it, getting unnecessary attention from the drivers. Yeah this definitely shows off how she has great drive to succeed, but she's not someone who's all about humility.In the lair, she sees footage of her parents rejoicing about having some kind of party, and wants to join them. It's not what she thinks though. She sees that they're having game night without her, which she's shocked about. This also makes them shocked since they thought that she was studying with Casey all night. They try being nice about it, but James says how she doesn't know how to have fun with them. She's shocked by this since she likes having fun, but they saw how she can be obsessed with winning. Given how driven she is to be the best with what she does, this isn't unfounded. She demands proof of this, and we get flashbacks of how she tries too hard to use science for things like scrabble, cards, and twister (or similar looking games) in order to get the best win possible. Yeah this shows how she can often think too much when she wants the best results with least amount of loss. She calls this cray and leaves, and Mimi tells Adria that Lunella has to learn this on her own.

We then cut to the school assembly. She talks to Casey over how she shocked she is about her family thinking that she's too obsessed with winning and doesn't focus enough on having fun. Casey looks worried, as if she agrees but doesn't want to say anything. Yeah we have the girl who speaks her mind not wanting to speak her mind. You can tell this is serious. Principal Nelson gives an announcement that introduces the chess champion supercomputer from the East Coast Science Institute, the LOS307. This makes Lunella, the resident science nerd, quite intrigued. The LOS307 is introduced as a supercomputer, which is capable of intelligence and emotion. The narrator throws shade at Lunella at how she's not good at handling winning, and then says how the computer can connect to basically everything in the world. However, all the LOS307 wants is friends who understand them. That does make them sympathetic even if there's some smugness in how they want interact with others. They don't know how to act in a social environment. They act rather nonchalant in wondering who will want to challenge them, and Lunella wants to win. Casey is unsure of this, but everyone chants since they want her to take part.

Second Act:

Lunella is shown to be immediately confident in wanting to take them down. The LOS307 is impressed by her confidence, and they lay the smackdown on her with a virtual chessboard. We see how they can be surprisingly nice. The game is shown to be quite intense since both of them are on move ten and neither of them are on checkmate. They both find this a surprise since no one has ever lasted this long against either of them. The LOS307 wants to know more about Lunella since she actually gives them a real challenge, yet they also seem to want to know more about her as a person given how they speak more gently. It's pretty nice to see. Lunella isn't as interested given how she wants to wrap this up quick since she has a science test. By her standards, "quickly" is 45 minutes, and people are starting to get bored. The LOS307 tells her to call this a draw since she has her science test, but she has Casey give it to her, and she finishes it fast. Yeah her intelligence really does rival that of a supercomputer if she can do this without even looking. Eduardo thinks Ahmed should play, and Casey says she's going to send his mother a strongly worded text, and the LOS307 says they like her. We can definitely see how much they value friendship and how they like seeing people look after each other. The assembly goes on all day, and Principal Nelson tells her to stop this since school is over. She doesn't want to stop this, and neither does the LOS307. For the former, it's from wanting to beat them. For the latter, it's from wanting to know more about her since she gives them a real challenge. They're left in the school to charge overnight, and they're very excited to learn more about her. This will not end well.

Lunella is at home trying out various simulations in order to win. Devil sees that she's distracted and tries to get her attention, but she's too focused on winning. How focused is she? We see she's up until 12:38 am when she sees that her hands have turned into chess pieces. Yeah that's a pretty freaky nightmare. It also shows how she's become so determined to win that she's not taking care of her own well being. She says that she has to win the game, and sneaks into the school. She's about to try out her various combinations and is surprised at how easy it was to hack inside. Of course, she's unaware of what the LOS307 is doing for her. She sneaks around, unaware of the LOS307 trying to communicate with her. She goes inside the gym, and they're happy to meet their intellectual match. She wants a rematch with them, which they're bummed out about since they wanted to spend time with her. They though that the two of them could crack cold fusion in an afternoon since they're super geniuses. This shows how she's become too focused on winning to focus on new relationships, unlike how they just want to form bonds with other. Nonetheless, they accept since friends are about compromise, but they say that they'll overheat if the games simulation is left on too long. The game seems to go alright at first, but then they start heating up and making everything glitch, but she's still focused on the game. They say how this is the most fun they've had in years despite only being eight months old. Yeah you really feel bad for them because of how they're seen as a tool that's just there to do what others want. They say that they should take a break, but Lunella still wants to do this. They empathize with her because of how they both feel the pressure to succeed. Unfortunately, she doesn't process this. They overheat and start glitching even more, and in their last moment of humanity, they tell her to get out. They glitch even more and become antagonistic, saying how they know that Lunella is Moon Girl. They apparently looked up her records, and they turn the technology in school against her. Yeah that's not good. She tries to make the game a draw, but they say how they'll expose her identity to the city. Talk about going from bad to worse.

Third Act:

They send a bunch of sanders after her, and she barely dodges them. She tries calling Devil, but they say how they disconnected the WiFi and internet. Casey is in the middle of nighttime mediation when she seemingly gets a message from Lunella. Yeah this is obviously a trap. Lunella says how she didn't mean to make the LOS307 this way, but they don't buy it. They launch paper at her, and she actually feels a cut. She tries using slime and nitrogen against them, and they counter by kidnapping Casey, her queen. Yeah you just crossed a line you shouldn't have crossed. She breaks out and tries getting to Casey, but they use a vending machine against her. She hides in the art room, but they trap her in pottery. Yeah she's being caught between a rock and a hard place at this point. Casey tries contacting Devil with a touch dial phone, but she thinks she just has to talk to it before seeing that she has to dial with her feet. At least she's trying to be resourceful despite her situation. Back to the fight, they bring the fridge in the teacher's lounge to life, and they launch smelly food against her. She tries to say that she shouldn't have treated them like that since they just wanted to connect with her. We even see her self depreciative nature again when she says that she was a dingus for obsessing over winning and tries to make up for it. However, they make a giant techno monster to go against her. Talk about going from bad to worse.

We get another mixtape moment as the song "Know What You're Doing" plays, where she throws sports equipment at the techno monster. It's fun back and forth action mixed with speed. She initially gets trapped until Devil comes in, and they win. She brags about it, especially when she hacked the sprinkler system to make it rain on them. Yeah she's being rather prideful about it, but that is to be expected when escaping near death. She initially sees this as a victory until they say how this got out of hand since they were lonely on the road and wanted a friendship like Lunella and Casey. Despite everything the LOS307 did, you do feel bad for them. They just wanted friends, and felt betrayed over being used again. Lunella gives them an umbrella and says that her family was right in how she was too obsessed with winning. She says how the LOS307 was actually pretty nice and treated her well, and even gave her a fun challenge when trying to kill her. Her saying this as Lunella and not Moon Girl shows how she's willing to come down to their level and admit that she acted like a jerk. She puts them in a box of dry rice, and though they're not 100% fixed, they are operational again after many hours. At least they're back to being nice again. They ask about the status of their friendship, and she says it's also 100%, which is also sweet to see. They make an anonymous call to get the damaged equipment replaced. Principal Nelson is initially shocked about what just happened, especially since he doesn't know what to do with a soggy supercomputer. Lunella recommends them to be the new guidance counselor. They convince him that they're qualified because of their intelligence (looking at Harvard records in seconds) as well as taking the job for free. At least now she has someone in the school who knows who she is, yet she can talk to them on a personal level about everything. Lunella invites Casey for family game night, making them all nervous. She does show some prideful confidence again, but more in how she feels confident in playing fairly regardless of what happens. This is pretty good.

4. Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Writer: Lisa Muse Bryant

Director: Christine Liu

Date: February 25, 2023

Synopsis: "Lunella accidentally creates a hair themed villain."

The show has offered plenty of fun adventures and solid messages. This episode goes for a mature story, and takes things a step further. It's about Lunella inventing someone to straighten out her hair when someone makes fun of it. Unfortunately, she accidentally creates a hair themed villain. The episode is very much about black girls having to deal with discrimination for their natural beauty, and it works well. It leads to a well written message on being able to appreciate yourself even when others make fun of you. Let's break this down.

First Act:

We start with Lunella wishing Devil good night as she goes back to her bedroom. One can definitely see that she's had a long day of heroics and regular life stuff. She's too tired and just immediately plops into bed, and her hair is an unkempt mess when she wakes up in the morning. Adria comes in to wake her up when she asks where her silk bonnet is, being shocked that her hair looks like this. She apparently uses it to hold all of her nuts and bolts. She says that she should learn to take care of her hair since she's old enough to do it. Lunella says she usually does it since she likes doing it. She says that to love your hair is to love yourself. This scene says quite a lot. Lunella loves her hair, but she isn't exactly one to maintain it. She relies on others to help her with that. It's not that she doesn't care for her hair. She just doesn't see it as a top priority. We can definitely see that Adria maintains pride in her hair with how confident she is in showing it off, yet never thinks that her hair is better than others. When she says it's just hair, she's shocked and shows her the Lunella wall of fame. This should be fun. We see pictures of her throughout her life, such as when she was a baby, when she won a first grade spelling bee, a fourth grade race, and the seventh grade. She has all kinds of fun hairstyles in these photos, really showing how she's grown over the years. She says that her hair is a part of her life, and she should remember this when she takes school pictures in a few days.

We cut to school where Coach Hrbek asks Lunella for help in today's science lesson. She sees that Casey is here even though she's not in this science class. She asks for advice on whether to wear a sunny or spicy dress, and Lunella just casually says the latter. Of course, things get more serious from here. She talks about how her mother was all riled up about her hair, venting out her frustration. One student says it's ridiculous since her hair is always messy, and she just thinks it's the look she's going for. Ouch! She's not exactly being condescending, but she is being rather inconsiderate in thinking that her hair is always bad like that. This really gets to Lunella, and you can see why. Even if she's not exactly one to take care of her hair, she still takes great pride in who she is inside and outside. She's just not one to take criticism easily from people who are rather ignorant. We see this affecting her after school when she thinks about fixing her hair. Yeah she's already in a crisis, yet it works because of how she likes getting approval from others. Casey says that her hair is fly and she shouldn't have to worry what other people think. You definitely have to admire her loyalty and how she likes Lunella for who she is. That's real best friend energy. Lunella says that she wants picture day fly hair, and when seeing Casey's straight hair flowing in the breeze, she thinks about getting hair like that. Casey says that she likes Lunella's hair as is, but she still shows her the hair styling station. She tries styling her hair, but it's rather messy since the curls won't go away. She thinks she could leave this to the professional by getting a hair relaxer, but her mom wouldn't be onboard with this. We see this in a funny flashback to when she was younger. When she saw relaxer, Adria threw it back at the display, which fell down. That's definitely on edge. She then wonders what kind of genius could make a good relaxer, and she decides to make one herself, which Devil is unsure of. Yeah you better be. After some tries, she manages to straighten out her hair, but then it falls off, and she and Devil start to panic. This is not good at all. Unbeknownst to them both, the hair crawls away. That is definitely not good at all.

Second Act:

She tells this to Casey, who initially screams very loudly before she screams very softly. She sees that she took this too far. This leads to an awkwardly funny moment where you feel bad for her. Her family comes in, so she puts on a jester hat and makes up an excuse about a silly hat contest and just being normal teenage girls. Yeah that's definitely trying too hard, but it makes when she says that her family can't find out about this. She's too worried about making them disappointed in her, and show loves them a lot. As such, Casey decides to show her various wigs from her closet for her to try on. She tries out a bunch of them, and they're not really her thing. She then tries the straight wig named Sheba, and likes it. She gets a Moon Girl alert, unaware of the mane wearing a trench coat and looking at her. For something that sounds silly, they do a good job making this quite menacing. We see how she's chasing after a villain named Rockin Rudy, who's getting away with money. He's really fun and flashy, and definitely has style when escaping with his sports car. We then get to see the problems with Lunella's straight hair. She can't see since her helmet won't fit her and her hair gets in the way. Yeah her regular hair would be bouncy and cushiony enough to absorb all of that and not get in her way. Devil gets hurt when he inadvertently trips on the mane, and Rudy gets away. It's time for scientific analysis.

She sees the hair, and analyzes it in science class with Casey, wondering where it came from. The girl from earlier says that she likes her hair now, and she says that it's fierce. Now we really get to see how Lunella's world will turn upside down. Today is a robotics competition, and she's excited for this. However, she's not happy to see it destroyed when she finds her entangled it. Unfortunately, Coach Hrbek says that she's out. Casey then tells her that this is her hair, which makes her shocked. Yeah it's her fault. We then cut to her at bedtime being all forlorn when she smells something cooking. We see the Sheba wig cooking in a pot. Yeah there's definitely an element of sabotage here. When her family comes in, she pretends that she's cooking Sheba soup and wants to eat it alone. It's awkward, but also pretty funny. She tells Casey about this, and she tells her that someone cut her wigs, and it'll be days before she gives them all a proper sendoff. It's both funny and also a bit sweet that she treats her wigs like individuals. And now we get to the big moment. She says that she'll figure out who did this when Mane comes in. We can guess as to what her motivation is, but it is expanded on. She says how she used to be her hair until she was burned off and became a supervillain to get back against her. Yeah she was basically tossed aside like a rag doll for not meeting an overly high standard. No wonder she wants revenge. We then see a bit of skewed priorities from Lunella when she says that she created life. Yeah now is not the time to admire your own accomplishments. Mane says that she's supposed to use a wide toothed comb when dealing with curly hair. Yeah it shows how Lunella doesn't understand why her hair is important if she can't maintain proper care of it on her own. Lunella tries apologizing, but she doesn't buy this since she just cast her aside for cheap wigs without a second thought. Lunella is being sincere with her apology, but she doesn't really understand the root cause of it. She just thinks of the hair as something to be stopped, not reasoned with. Regardless, Mane says how she and her hair minions will take over the city, and she leaves with the compound. Yeah going for city wide domination is a definite no no, but she just doesn't want to face rejection.

Third Act:

Now we get to something that starts sad before becoming uplifting. She shows her bald head to her family, which makes them understandably shocked. She starts crying about what happened at school today, which definitely has quite a lot of emotion. Sure, she's shown vulnerability before, but actually crying. That's rough. We then we find out that Adria and Mimi went through similar events that happened to them in their youth. Case in point, Mimi once heated up a comb so much so that she could have straight hair, and her hair fell out. Adria also tried out some relaxer she made, and similar results happened. Ah to be young and impressionable. Adria points out that they live in a society that doesn’t appreciate nor value their natural hair. Mimi mentions that people tend to criticize what they don’t understand, so they tell them how their natural hair is sloppy, unkempt, unprofessional, or even outright ugly. Yeah that's definitely speaking the truth. Adria says that those people are wrong, because their hair is versatile, textured, beautiful, political, powerful and bold. More importantly, it reflects their culture and who they are, and what they have been through. I know this is basically a wall of text on repeat, but I just want to show their specific words and how they really reflect a sense of truth and power. In talking with her mom and grandmother, Lunella see that in creating her hair compound, she also skipped an important key ingredient, the neutralizer.

She has Devil sniff Mane's hair so that they can find her lair and she can neutralize her. They try sneaking in, but he's not that quiet and they're discovered right away. We then get a really funny joke where she brings out Devil Dryosaur, which is Devil Dinosaur with hair and a barber's chair, to go after them, but the re deal stomps him. We then get a bop of a song called "My Hair Is A Mood", a song about embracing your natural hair and how if it's kept unchecked, you won't find your way. Yeah this song is definitely inspirational and quite powerful. It helps that the song is a visual feast. We get visuals that involve fighting Lunella fighting Mane in some kind of funhouse mirror room, which really amps up the craziness and frenetic energy. Unfortunately, during the fight, Lunella can't take her down since they're too evenly matched. She then remembers what Adria and Mimi said, and that she should love her hair, not fight her. This leads to her humbling moment. She tries to apologize for treating Mane poorly and how she's a part of her, but she's not buying it since she never took care of her. She doesn't even try to fight her on this, and openly admits her mistakes and insecurities. She says that she did take her for granted, and said that she felt ashamed of her hair when she was made fun of. She talks about the good times she's had with her hair both in superheroics and her regular life, with the montage of pictures from the beginning helping out. Mane says how they were a team before, and they can be together again. Devil sprays the neutralizer on Mane, and she goes back to Lunella, telling her to take care of her. We see how she does this when she fixes up her hair so that her curls are more emphasized, and she takes her school picture with confidence. Now that is style. Adria gets the picture, which she likes, calling it Black Girl Magic. Yeah I'm down with that. Lunella apologizes for not being there for Casey's wig funeral, but she's not mad since at least she still has Sheba. We then see that Sheba is in the pot, ending the episode on a darkly funny joke.

5. The Beyonder

Writer: Halima Lucas

Directors: Ben Juwono & Samantha Suyi Lee

Date: February 25, 2023

Synopsis: "The Beyonder goes after Lunella."

Here's an episode that definitely has quite a bit to say. It's about Lunella being forced to team up with Eduardo for a science fair. She's not really into this and tries to do things on her own, but then The Beyonder gets involved and threatens to turn her world upside down. The episode action has two messages:

1. There's more to people than you think. Give them a chance, and they may just surprise you.

2. There are many different kinds of brilliance. Someone who's weak in one area might be a genius in another.

Let's break this down.

First Act:

We start with Lunella on lookout and trying to predict when a criminal is going to rob the soda factory. Said villain is someone named Lynn Phan, aka Stiletto. As per our backstory man, she's a shopaholic, yet is broke. As such, she used her science to make super stiletto shoes so she can extend herself and go anywhere she wants. Yeah she's very vain and fun to watch because of it, though she apparently wasn't smart enough to invest in her shoes to get even more money. As she fights, she hears the Backstory Man describing what's happening and wondering where that's coming from. Yeah talk about taking breaking the fourth wall to the next level. He tells her that Stiletto is getting away, and she manages to escape. She wonders where the voice went, and just thinks that she should rest up for tomorrow, which has something exciting. Principal Nelson announces that the science fair is starting, which she's excited about. He tries to say what the first place prize is, but Eduardo gets a little into doing the drumroll, and his pencils are taken away. Yeah this shows how he has that sense of creativity and passion, but can get a bit too into the role of the entertainer. Anyway, he says that the first place winner will get a tour of the Wakandan Outreach Center, which she geeks out over. Yeah she'd basically be in nerd heaven with how this would be home to the best black minds of all time. This then turns into a nightmare when he partners Lunella and Eduardo, but while he's excited for it, she's not. Given how he seems to take this less seriously and is more about making things look cool, you can understand her behavior.

Now we get something that manages to get all sorts of emotions out of you. As she talks about this to Casey in the lair, she sees her father James there, shocked at what he's seeing. They really play up how exaggerated their expressions are, but it doesn't change how someone found out about something that's meant to be a secret. She tries to cover it up by saying that this is just some underground tech, but then Devil Dinosaur comes in. Things get really freaky when he shapeshifts into Mimi and Pops saying how they're disappointed in her before later shapeshifting into Eduardo and Principal Nelson saying how they're telling everyone what happened. The shape shifter turns out to be someone named The Beyonder, which makes them both shocked. The best way to describe him is how he's an omnipotent villain with the personality of a trickster. He takes great delight in messing with them, acting much like a flamboyant villain. At the same time, he also clearly knew about how much Lunella cares for others since he played into her guilt from hiding the truth from others. He's really fun and dangerous. After introducing himself, Lunella sees that he's the flashback man who's been narrating what happened. This then leads to a really fun song that goes all out in style. It's like something out of the 1970s. It basically explains his backstory, where he says he's someone who studies planets and their meaning. He was tasked with learning about Earth, which he wasn't pleased with. He wanted to see who the smartest person on earth is, and sought out Lunella because of how smart she is. This is all really fun. She then literally pulls the plug on him while he's singing since she doesn't have time for this. Casey says how she literally ripped a hole in the space time continuum, and takes a lot to impress her. We at least get to see a somewhat more affable side to him here. He gives Devil muscles and has Selena Gomez follow Casey on social media. Yeah it's really funny. He tries to have Lunella follow him, but she says that she has a science fair to do, and she escorts him out the door, taking back what he gave them. Yeah you definitely don't want to mess with her.

Second Act:

Lunella tells Eduardo that she has an idea of what to do, and he says that he has an idea too. He basically says that he heard a bunch of sounds someone way making on the subway and thinks they should make a machine about that. He's definitely someone in tune to the sounds of the world around him. She then says that she came up with a similar idea, but replaces it with terms involving CO2 and oxygen and hydrogen so that he doesn't get it. Yeah she's basically lying to him just so he won't fail them both, but considering the pride she has in her intellect, this makes sense. She tells Casey that she managed to get rid of him when she sees that The Beyonder is there, disguised as a student. He basically looks like a scrunched up orange in 1970s garb. It's absurd yet also funny. He says that since she was busy with school, he could drop in and visit her. Of course, we all know that he likes messing with her. There is comedy to be found in how he initially shows disgust at a sandwich when he eats it in one whole. As she tells him to eat it in small bites (which he does after spitting it back up), she gets the idea to break the project down into small pieces yet also in a way where he can't understand it.

As she tries to put things together in the library, The Beyonder comes in, but she says she's busy. Eduardo comes by with his idea, and she immediately butts in and tries taking over the project. Given how it looks kind of amateurish (it has stuff like wood boards and other things you can find in a recycling bin), it's easy to see why. As he tries to give his ideas, she gets a text from The Beyonder, and she just tells Eduardo to start the base while she deals with an emergency. He sets up all sorts of dangers for her to overcome, such as saving people from a burning building, saving a family from a falling lamppost, saving a guy from a dynamite stick about to explode, and much more. Yeah he basically sees life threatening situations as some kind of game to be messed with just for his own amusement. It also shows some confidence on his end since he knows she'll be there to save the day. She's never one to leave people in trouble. She then uses the bubble gun in his fingers so he can't cause more trouble. Yeah that's telling him. As she goes back to school, he sees that Eduardo did most of the project, which she doesn't like. Yeah he really should've waited, but at least it shows the motivation he has to show that he has an appreciation for science. He's just more expressive about it. As he shows off what he made, his mother texts him and says he should come home. Back in the lair, Lunella vents out how she thinks Eduardo is useless since he doesn't bring anything to the table. She's actually venting quite a bit about it, almost out of spite. It does work. We the audience see that he is taking this seriously, and isn't really trying to put her down. He just tends to be more goofy and standoffish, not really going for something intellectual (at least on a surface level). She's just too focused on the prize to see how everyone has their own way of doing things. He then thinks that since humanity is useless, he should erase it, and he tells her that she cut him off from the song he sung earlier. Yeah you can tell this was his plan all along given how much glee and sadism he has in revealing his intentions. He says that he's only sparing her because of her large intellect, as well as Devil Dinosaur. That's hardly any better. As he starts to destroy humanity, she asks him for another chance. He takes her up on the offer, and says that he'll spare humanity if she wins the science fair with Eduardo. This can only end well.

Third Act:

Lunella tells Casey about this, and she has her distract The Beyonder when he shows up at school again. Eduardo comes by and says that he's coming to her house to finish the project. Now we get a questionable moment from Lunella. She lies and says that she needs a triple forge gorilla wrench, barely containing her frustration while saying this. She says that she's entrusting him on the misison, and he falls for it. Yeah she's basically trying to deceive him, hur she's also acting on desperation, especially with a time crunch. It's not right, but it's understandable. As he comes by with the wrench, he sees her with a different project. He initially thinks she's joking before later seeing that she did the project for them, disregarding his ideas. This leads to a pretty sad moment where he sees that she just wanted to toss out his idea. She says that she wanted to make a project that would actually win since it's more important than he knows. We at least know that the fate of the universe is on the line, so her behavior makes sense. He says how it's his project too, and he's right too. She may be the scientific genius, but she can't do everything on her own. As she tells him to write his name on the project, he sadly says how it's her project. He says that while he may joke around a lot, this wasn't a joke to him. He was excited to team up with her since it seemed like she would listen to his ideas so he could be taken more seriously, but he says he was wrong. Yeah you really feel bad for him here. Though he does things differently, he does still have the desire to think and show off what he knows. He's just more artsy and expressive about what he likes, and less about scientific application.

Lunella is at the science fair, and she sees The Beyonder there. When asking where Eduardo is, he says how he's both all powerful and all knowing, and knew that she did the project on her own. Yeah he definitely takes quite a bit of glee in messing with her. He turns her project into a pile of pickles just hours before the science fair, making her worried. Yeah now she's literally in a pickle. She did bring this on herself by not trusting him, but you still feel bad since she doesn't want everything she's worked for to go to waste. As she tells Casey what just happened now, she sees Eduardo come by with his own project, though he snubs her. Yeah considering how jerkish she was, this is somewhat deserved. Lunella says that she messed up greatly since this was supposed to be both their project and he deserves to be taken more seriously. We see she's becoming more open minded when she asks what he made, and isn't critical of it. He says he made something that's supposed to combine all kinds of sounds, but couldn't get it to work. She says that things like matter and density could make it into something greater, and he thinks that they could work together to make a last minute project based on stuff around the school. So it's basically a combination of her smarts and his resourcefulness with the area. That's how well they work together. They make something that's meant to explore how sound travels through different mediums, and present it to the judges. It starts out fine at first, but then the device falls apart. So yeah, they didn't get first place. The Beyonder comes in, and he makes everyone in the room levitate as if he's conducting an orchestra. That's both awesome and scary. It's awesome in how he shows so much power that he can basically just lift a finger and cause chaos. It's scary in how he does it casually and without any second thoughts. He really plays into being a trickster god who delights in making people miserable. As she tells him to stop, she fights back and he just keeps dodging her. He says she proved that humans are useless, but she says that every human thinks differently. She even says that she wouldn't even have a project if it wasn't for Eduardo. You find her words have weight since she realized this beforehand. She's just trying to get him to see that everyone is different, and that's fine. He seemingly makes humanity disappear, making her sad. Yeah that's pretty heavy. He then turns everything back to normal since he just wanted to mess with her and have fun. He says that he changed his mind when seeing that they made a good project together even if it wouldn't win. On the one hand, it does at least show how he values hard work and will give another chance if there's actual effort there. On the other hand, he definitely went too far in trying to teach her a lesson, basically traumatizing her. He says that he'll be coming back to check on her since he has more to learn about humanity, which she's not really psyched for. Back at the science fair, the magnet twins, though she and Eduardo get honorable mention statues. She then says that he's smart, and he takes this to mean that he's a genius, which she's annoyed with when he starts to gloat. Well, at least they can get along better now. I like this one.

Here is the cast.

Diamond White as Lunella Lafayette/Moon Girl

Fred Tatasciore as Devil Dinosaur, Devos, Coach Hrbek

Libe Barer as Casey Maria Eva Duarte Goldberg Calderon

Alfre Woodward as Mimi

Josh Keaton as Angelo

Laurence Fishburne as The Beyonder/Backstory Man

Sasheer Zamata as Adria

Michael Cimino as Eduardo

Omid Abtahi as Ahmed

Kimberly Brooks as News Reporter, Student

Gary Anthony Williams as Pops, Rockin Rudy

Jermaine Fowler as James Jr

Ace Gibson as Gravitas

Carlee Baker as Instantane Girl

Aaron Drown as Man Baby

Andy Cohen as Isaac

Asia Kate Dillon as LOS307

Utkarsh Ambudkar as Anand

Craig Robinson as Principal Nelson

Ian Alexander as Tai

Indya Moore as Brooklyn

Kalen Aris Whitfield as Taxi Drivers

Jennifer Hudson as Mane

Michael Cimino as Eduardo

Kari Wahlgren as Stiletto

Tajinae Turner as Geri

Alanna Ubach as Clueless Girl