While at his mother's grave, Virgil tells her about a kid he helped out at school, and his mixed feelings about her memorial service.
Tropes for this episode:
- Anti-Villain: Tantrum is a metahuman version of an angry toddler, unaware of the damage he is causing. Static manages to calm him down, and says that Thomas's parents managed to get him help for his condition.
- Asian Politeness: Tantrum is essentially Thomas's repressed emotions from trying to practice this.
- The B Grade: One of Virgil's classmates Thomas Kim gets a 99 out of 100, the highest grade in the class (Virgil gets a 95). His father is still disappointed in him about it.
- Blessed with Suck: Thomas turns into a raging monster whenever he loses his temper, and doesn't even remember it. There's also the fact that he's an academic prodigy at the expense of having a social life.
- Bookends: The first season of the show ends as being told as a Whole Episode Flashback, just as the first episode was told in the same way.
- Chekhov's Gun: The amusement park construction site. Static uses it so that Tantrum can wear himself out.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Virgil has a good relationship with his dad, but Virgil still hasn't fully come to terms with the death of his mom, who he also had a good relationship with when she was still alive.
- Dramatic Irony: Virgil and Richie's teacher believes Thomas' parents will be proud that he got the highest grade in her class, unaware that this means nothing to his father if it isn't 100%.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Played with. When Richie begins watching a home video of baby Virgil having a tantrum, Virgil himself is livid. Richie shrugs it off as embarrassment. ...But then, it shows that not only is this also a home video of Virgil's mom, but it's a poignant documentation of how good a mother she was. By the end of the video, a somber Richie realizes that indeed, this isn't funny so much as it is a saddening testament of how the Hawkins lost a wonderful mother. This also leads Virgil to have a "Eureka!" Moment as the video of his mother dealing with his baby self's crying gave him the clue to deal with Tantrum.
- Foreshadowing: The bang baby Static faces throughout the episode has the same hairstyle as Thomas.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: At one point, there's a picture of a young Virgil at some sort of celebration in the Hawkins family photo album. What's he dressed up as? A superhero.
- Fun-Hating Villain: A downplayed example. Thomas takes academics so seriously to the point he treats a field trip to an amusement park as if it were a mid-term. When Virgil and Richie start instigating a food fight, he leaves in frustration.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: While he doesn’t lash out immediately as himself, Thomas will later go berserk as his alter-ego on any slight that bothers him. This would include his teacher for giving him a 99 on his essay and Virgil after teasing him.
- HULK MASH!-Up: Thomas/Tantrum is a shy genius who turns into a shirtless brute when he gets angry. Bonus points for also having a jerkass father.
- Jerkass: Thomas's father is a perfectionist prick who gets angry at his son just because he was off by a point from a perfect score. He pretty much forces Thomas to dedicate every waking moment of his time to studies as he was shown to be visibly angry when Virgil and Richie show up at the house to hang out. Why? Because spending time with friends cuts into his son's study time.
- Logical Weakness: Static can't stop a runaway monorail because it's made of fiberglass. He then has to switch to using the metal tracks to help the train slow down safely.
- No Social Skills: Thomas spends so much of his time studying, he is unable to comprehend the idea of having fun at an amusement park. He also takes great offense at Virgil for joking that he might throw a tantrum, in spite of the fact that the joke itself is completely harmless, and that people who would be offended would be mildly annoyed at best.
- Once More, with Clarity: When Richie sees a video of a young Virgil through a tantrum, he laughs and Virgil bitterly walks off. Then we see what else is in the video...Virgil's mother calming him down.
- Pet the Dog: When Richie and Virgil visit him to investigate if he's Tantrum or not, Thomas' mom (who we can presume is just as strict as his father) decides Thomas could use a break from studying and allows him time with the two.
- Second Place Is for Losers: Whilst the two are studying for his History test, Thomas's father quizzes him the name of Arch Duke Ferdinand's assassin. Thomas reasons there's a chance that won't be on the test, but his father merely points out that sort of attitude would only get his son a 99%. (For context, his previous essay was off by one margin, despite being one of the two highest grades in the class, the other grade being Virgil's 95.)
- Small Role, Big Impact: The teacher who reveals why Thomas got his 99 kicks off the plot when his suppressed rage goes after her, leaving his test behind.
- So Proud of You: One woman that Static saves tells him that his mother is probably proud of him, unaware that his mother is deceased.
- Took a Level in Kindness: According to Virgil, Thomas' parents (including his strict father) treat their son much better.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Thomas's dad triggers his metahuman abilities by forcing him to be a better student.
- Wham Shot: It’s already foreshadowed that Thomas might be the Hulk-like bang baby from his hairstyle and the fact the creature attacks Miss Pettibone not too long after Thomas was upset about his essay grade. What steers Virgil and Richie in the right direction is when the latter finds Thomas’ essay nearby.
- The moment Virgil and Richie leave Thomas’ house, the latter’s face starts to change into that of the bang baby. And considering that Thomas was angry at the minor joke Virgil made about him seconds before, the audience knows he's the next target.
- Whole Episode Flashback: The episode is mostly Virgil telling a story at his mother's grave of how he helped Thomas.
