Gretel has a "hero hunch" that her teacher, Mr. Chabner, is secretly an evil villain, notably due to his mustache and goatee. Kevin doesn't believe her because her previous hero hunches had always been wrong, and asks her to just be wary instead of jumping to conclusions. Despite this, Gretel keeps notifying Kevin on her findings during his and Fred's book report on Sigmund Freud.
Tropes:
- A Dog Named "Dog": A Van Dyke beard named "Van Dyke".
- Bat Deduction: Van Dyke, as Mr. Chabner, already figured that his student Gretel had to be the superhero Gretel he was looking for by their appearance, name, and hamster's name alone, but he needed to see more just to be sure. His conclusive evidence? The Smoking Gun of her hamster completely wrecking the class python from the inside and walking out of it unscathed earlier in class? Nope: both Gretels are right-handed.
- Beard of Evil: In this case, the beard is evil.
- Body Surf: During their fight, Van Dyke takes matters in his own hands- er, whiskers, and take control of Hamster. After Gretel punches him off of Hamster, he then takes control of Gretel. Punched off of her by Hamster, Van Dyke lunched himself towards her once again before Kevin intervenes, taking control of him before Fred sprays him with hair removal spray.
- Calling Your Bathroom Breaks: Because Gretel calls him frequently during his book report, Kevin has to use this excuse in order to get out of the classroom and talk to Gretel. Fred later uses this excuse right after finishing the book report.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- When Kevin shows Fred his "beard" (a single strand of hair), she offers to remove it with her hair remover spray. Later, Fred uses said spray to defeat Van Dyke.
- After Gretel throws the cupcakes against the wall, one of them falls on the teeter-totter on Hamster's cage, sending him flying. Later, when Gretel and Hamster are trapped by Van Dyke, Hamster figures out how to free themselves the same way, instructing Gretel to stomp on a floorboard that sends Mr. Chabner flying and landing on the release button.
- Evil Teacher: Zig-zagged. Gretel suspects that the new teacher, Mr. Chabner is an evil supervillain, but everything he does during the day seems to prove Gretel's hero hunch wrong. Only after realizing that she was wrong after class does Mr. Chabner reveal himself to be evil... except that it's actually the facial hair that was taking control of Mr. Chabner the whole time.
- Gone Horribly Right: Van Dyke used to be a human scientist who couldn't grow a beard, so he mixed the facial hair gene with his own DNA and used the resulting concoction as fuel for a beard-growing machine he used on himself. It turned himself into a beard.
- Kill It Through Its Stomach: The class snake swallows Hamster whole. Big mistake, because then Hamster procedes to grab it by the tail from the inside and give it a Metronomic Man Mashing before emerging out of its mouth unharmed.
- Noodle Incident: Kevin mentions some of the past incidents of Gretel's "hero hunches", including breaking Mrs. Green's mailbox, several cars and a gazebo. It is never elaborated why Gretel thought these things were somehow evil.
- Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: Van Dyke acts as a friendly substitute teacher while Gretel behaves badly in front of her class to stop him.
- Puppeteer Parasite: Van Dyke is a living clump of facial hair that possesses people by attaching itself to their faces like a regular mustache and beard.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Gretel's hero hunch was completely right for once... not because Mr. Chabner himself is evil, but his facial hair is.
- Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Double subverted. After Gretel has to stay in class, she realizes her mistake and realizes Mr. Chabner is not a bad person after all... only for Mr. Chabner to trap her and proclaim that he is evil and was specifically searching for Gretel for two whole weeks ever since her introduction as a superhero... only for then to turn out that the beard is actually the evil one and had been taking control of Mr. Chabner the whole time!
- Shout-Out: The settings on Van Dyke's facial hair machine include Zappa and Dali.
- Take Over the World: Van Dyke realizes that he could do that if he's able to possess Gretel, hence why he searches for her.
- Villain-Possessed Bystander: Mr. Chabner, by a sentient 'stache-and-beard combo.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: In-Universe and literally. In class, Gretel tells Hamster that the cage he is staying in used to be the place where the class mouse was. Hamster asks what happened to the mouse, where it is revealed that the mouse was eaten by the snake.
