Cause baby now we got bad blood
You know it used to be mad love
So take a look at what you've done
Cause baby now we got bad blood
During a freak storm, every student at Bridgeton gains superpowers. Andrew, who is able to become invisible, and Nick, who can change size, start to fight over their mutual attraction for Missy. Missy can control weather with her feelings. Jessi can make people tell the truth with a touch and finds out that her father has a new girlfriend while her mother is planning a move to the city.
Ultimately, Andrew ends his friendship with Nick, Nick breaks up with Missy, who is left heartbroken, Jessi and Shannon begin the selling process of their house, and Jay has brought his family closer together.
Tropes:
- All for Nothing: Andrew's relationships with Nick and Missy are left fractured and uncertain. In the end, Nick and Missy don’t even become a couple as they're not compatible on an emotional or intelectual level.
- All Just a Dream: In the end, it's revealed that the kids never got superpowers. Caleb was just drawing a comic based on the normal, ugly drama he was watching his classmates go through.
- Bittersweet Ending: Mostly on the bitter side of things as Nick and Andrew's friendship ends on pretty acrimonious terms (this being the worst part), Missy does away with boys (and seems to be taking a slight level in jerkassery), and Jessi and her mother prepare to move out (for which she is clearly sad, but says resignedly that it might be for the best, considering no one is really going to miss her, at least at the moment, being all too involved in their own dramas to care). On the sweet side, however, Jay ends up having a better relationship with his dysfunctional family, Coach Steve has gotten his job back and has a confidence boost (with his life conditions improving overall), and Jessi's father seems to be getting his life on track. Even Barbara and Marty have improved their relationship.
- Blatant Lies: Coach Steve claiming his superpowers are the ability to read a room, and pits Nick and Andrew against each other as dodgeball captains.
- Blessed with Suck
- Andrew has the power to make his body invisible, but not anything else such as his clothes. While initially excited, he is let down when he gets to school and discovers that everybody else got a much cooler superpower.
- Jessie becomes a Living Lie Detector, but everything she learns by touching people are things she doesn't want to hear, like how her father is dating another woman, her mother is forcing her to move and Matthew is going to be too busy with his new boyfriend to miss her when she's gone.
- Both Sides Have a Point: On one hand, Andrew is being controlling and possessive over Missy still, but Nick did lie to him and did take their friendship for granted.
- Bros Before Hoes: Jay seems to be a firm believer in this. Later on, even though neither one of them ends up with Missy in the end, it leaves Nick and Andrew's friendship in shambles.
- Captain Ersatz:
- Nick can alter his size like Ant-Man.
- Andrew can turn invisible like Invisible Woman.
- Jessi's touch-activated, angst-inducing, uncontrollable ability is like Rogue but makes targets tell the truth. Her all red superhero ensemble is also reminiscent of the Scarlet Witch.
- Missy can control the weather like Storm.
- Jay can "bend" semen around like a waterbender.
- Gina can stretch like Mister Fantastic.
- Matthew has an explosive singing voice like Black Canary.
- Jay's brothers are dead ringers for The Joker (the Suicide Squad version) and Bane (the Dark Knight version).
- Maurice is like Wolverine but has dicks pop out of his hands instead of blades.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Nick, Andrew, and Jessi separating from each other and we must wait until the fourth season to see how all of this is resolved.
- Dodgeball Is Hell: Especially when all the players have superpowers.
- Enemy Mine: Andrew and Lars join forces after finding out that Missy likes Nick.
- Entitled to Have You: Both Andrew and Lars have this attitude towards Missy. Ironically, they are resentful towards Nick, who doesn't return her feelings. Ali calls Andrew out on this, pointing out that Missy does not belong to him and that it is not up to him who she dates. Missy herself makes the same statement to Lars.
- Foreshadowing: Caleb is the one to give everyone their superhero names and title cards, and Matthew asks if that's his superpower. In a way, it is, since the superpowers part of the story was just part of Caleb's imagination.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The reality that is selling Jessi's house is named Skumpy Realty, revealing that Lola's mom is a real estate agent.
- Gasshole: Andrew's invisibility powers only work when he farts. In one scene, one fart is apparently so potent that Maurice gets nauseous and has to lie down.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: No one is entirely right or wrong in the conflict. While Nick is right in saying that Andrew cannot tell him someone (his ex-girlfriend) is off limits, he really should not have mistreated Andrew as he did and taken his friendship for granted. While Andrew was indeed possessive and controlling towards Missy, he did grow out of it, and was willing two times to forgive Nick and let bygones be bygones, but Nick lied to him on both occasions. And while he is right that Nick has been a shitty friend at times, he is also ignoring the times Nick has actually been a really good friend (when he gave him his pants, when he helped him get together with Missy, when he rescued him from the Pornscape), and he might be acting a bit too unforgiving considering Nick goes to genuinely apologize for his behavior and feels bad about it. On Missy and Lars' side of things, while Missy does suffer, she did indeed cheat on Lars, and her reaction to Nick not liking her back and the whole situation in general is not really positive, because it does not acknowledge her own responsibility, and she (with Mona's pushing) blames the others as idiots that don't deserve her. And while Lars was controlling and indeed a jerk in some ways, he was also the one who pushed Missy to go into acting, was supportive of her, and generally was actually nice and he did not deserve to get cheated on.
- In Nick and Andrew's conflict, the other kids bring good points to either side. Lars says what Nick did was reprehensible (unlike Andrew, he was actually dating Missy at the time), Ali says Missy is not Andrew's property and that Nick did not steal her from him, Jay says that Nick and Andrew are friends and shouldn't let a girl come between them, and Matthew says that calling "dibs" on someone is BS.
- Hypocrite: Andrew harshly condemns and insults Nick because he is bitter over Nick's brief and unsuccessful relationship with Missy. In other words, for not succeeding where Andrew himself failed. He is also angry that Nick did not tell him that he kissed Missy. But Nick makes a valid point that Andrew is a Crazy Jealous Guy (to the extent of acting violently) when it comes to Missy. Also, despite his own past experience with an infatuated Missy, it never occurs to Andrew that she might have been the one who wanted the relationship more than Nick did. Andrew also tells Nick "Fuck your family!" despite the fact that the Birches have been much nicer to Andrew than his own parents, and Leah even let the incident of Andrew masturbating to her bathing suit in their pool house slide without any reaction worse than amusement.
- Hypocrite Has a Point: Despite the above, Andrew correctly points out that Nick has been a terrible friend. At several points throughout the series thus far (discounting the times where Andrew brought it on himself), Nick has put himself before Andrew (being more concerned with impressing a girl from summer camp than with Andrew's discomfort), ditched him, had fun at his expense (mocking his being strong-armed into a relationship with Lola), and generally had little faith in him (such as insinuating that Missy would be the only chance Andrew would ever have at getting a girlfriend—perhaps, in this case, understandably). Kissing Missy, lying to him about it, and later breaking up with her after Andrew gave Nick his blessing was merely the last straw.
- On the other hand, Andrew does seems to ignore all the times Nick has been a good friend to him, like when he gave Andrew his pants when Andrew wet his own, or when he helped Andrew ask Missy out, and when he went to the Pornscape to rescue him from his porn addiction.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Initially feeling betrayed that Nick is dating Missy, he eventually acquiesces and gives Nick his blessing to be with her. Unfortunately, this is ultimately subverted when he learns that Nick doesn't really like Missy all that much, meaning it was All for Nothing.
- Let the Past Burn: Missy's last scene has her lighting all of the photos she has of her exes on fire and throwing them in a trash can to burn.
- Lost Aesop: In Dark Side of the Boob and Smooch or Share there were the Aesops that Nick should not have told anybody about his private moment with Gina, as well as that Andrew should have kept the fact that he masturbated to Leah's bathing suit to himself. In this episode, Nick is demonized for not telling Andrew about his private moment with Missy. Thus raising the question of whether the Aesop is that you owe your friends absolute honesty all of the time or not. Made worse in that Missy withheld the fact that she kissed Nick from Lars, who she was actually dating (unlike Andrew), and even planned to break up with him to be with Nick. But she is not called out on this, and is actually treated as heroic for focusing on her self-interest over others' feelings!
- Magic Pants: Particularly notable with Nick and Gina, who can change the size of their bodies and have their clothes change to match. But Andrew's clothes do not become invisible when he does.
- Mass Super-Empowering Event: A strange storm gives every kid in the school superpowers. Too bad it's just part of Caleb's imagination.
- Naked People Are Funny: Andrew spends a lot of the episode naked since his invisibility powers don't work on his clothes.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Jessi accidentally gets Nick to tell the truth about not really liking Missy and only dating her because of the excitement of the play right in front of Andrew. This is what leads to them getting into a full-blown fight that leaves their friendship in shambles.
- Noodle Incident: Why does Marty have an eyepatch at the end?
- It's an obvious nod to Nick Fury, but other than that pretty much goes nowhere.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Greg not knowing when Jessi's birthday is. While he isn't the best parental figure, it's still made clear that he loves Jessi a lot, so it seems off he wouldn't know when she was born.
- Power Incontinence:
- Missy has some problems controlling her storm powers with her emotions.
- Jessi's powers have a Midas effect on making everyone she touches tell the truth. It ends up causing more conflict than good.
- Required Secondary Powers: Nick has them, but Andrew does not.
- Nick's Sizeshifter power seems to also include Super-Strength, Super-Toughness and In a Single Bound when he grows.
- Andrew can make his body invisible, but absolutely nothing else. Which means that he usually becomes a seemingly empty set of floating clothes and glasses unless he strips completely naked.
- Played with in Lars' case. Andrew reaches the Fridge Logic conclusion that Lars's telekinesis should enable him to move his legs and walk, but Lars gets annoyed when Andrew tries to point it out.
- Shout-Out
- The shot of Nick and Connie on the bus is a reference to the final shot in The Graduate.
- When Greg tells Jessie that he's dating a girl from work, he does Wallace's "excited hands" gesture while giving an awkward "Yaaay!"
- Superhero Episode: The episode has all the kids at Bridgeton Middle gaining superpowers and super identities, culminating in a massive battle outside. However, it turns out to just be a story Caleb is making up.
- Throw the Dog a Bone:
- For the second time, after "My Furry Valentine", Andrew manages to make a basket, but he is too depressed to gloat about it.
- Jay's efforts to get his family to be better people start to pay off, and he's the only one who has a happy ending.
- Averted, quite literally, as the family dog, Featuring Ludacris, is conspicuously absent during the whole reconciliation scene.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Andrew suffers from this greatly. Jessi's mother too, when she decides to move to NYC with Jessi without even consulting her.
- Took a Level in Kindness: The Bilzerian family. With Jay's influence, they genuinely start becoming better people (his dad acknowledges him as a good son and shows affection to Jenna, who herself is touched by Jay's efforts and shows him affection and pride, and even his brothers, Val and Kurt, are seen playing to catch Jay at the end while Jenna and Guy are making love over the table), and behaving better towards him. He is the only one who has a genuinely happy ending here.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Even Connie finds Mona to be too much for her to handle.Connie: (referring to Mona) This bitch is crazy.
- The Unreveal: Lampshaded by Marty."Aren't you going to ask about my eyepatch?"
- We Used to Be Friends: All four main characters angrily go their separate ways by the end of the episode: Andrew takes Nick dating Missy as a betrayal of trust, Nick and Missy are mad at Andrew still being possessive, Missy is heartbroken than Nick doesn't return her feelings and Jessi is angry that none of them seem to care that she's being forced to move away. The last scene of Missy even has her tearfully burning photos of her and her now-former friends.
- Wham Episode: The ending shows all of the four main friends splitting up and while one (Jay) has a positive ending, the others don't. Nick and Andrew's friendship is fractured and Jessi moves to the city with her mom against her will.
