- The Control Voice: Our desire to exceed our own limitations can be a positive drive for self-improvement... or a siren calling us to self-destruction.
A high school wrestling coach gives his team performance enhancing drugs, but there are side effects.
- The Control Voice: The values we instill in our children are those within ourselves. We should make sure they are the values we want them to live by... and die by.
Lion's Tropes:
- Actor Allusion: Brae refers to his friend Morris Shotwell as "Flash" when he beats the track and field star Brent Kearns in a race. Morris' father Peter is played by John Wesley Shipp, who previously played the title character in The Flash (1990).
- Asshole Victim: The Lewisborough High School track and field star Brent Kearns, a Jerk Jock if ever there was one, taunts the members of the school's wrestling team on a regular basis because of their poor track record. When the team start taking Neuroflex 500 which turns them into Cat Folk, they have their revenge on Brent by attacking him in the school after hours. He is left with deep scratches on his neck and a broken right arm.
- Career-Ending Injury: Peter Shotwell was one of the stars of the hugely successful Lewisborough High School wrestling team from 1976 to 1979 but he tore up his left knee, ending his chances of a professional career.
- Cat Folk: Peter Shotwell is the coach of the Lewisborough High School wrestling team, which is in the middle of a major losing streak. His old friend Jon gives him a supposedly all-natural performance enhancing drug called Neuroflex 500 which has yet to receive FDA approval. When Peter gives the drug to his team (including his son Morris), their strength and stamina dramatically improves. However, the drug has serious side effects and the team begin to exhibit animal characteristics such as fangs, sharp claws and eyes similar to those of a cat. These physical changes are accompanied by a marked increase in their aggressive tendencies. When Peter presses him for more information, Jon admits that Neuroflex 500 is laced with the DNA of a big cat and that it is not supposed to be having this effect. He speculates that the boys' transformations have been so dramatic because of the increased hormonal activity in teenagers compared with adults.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: A performance-enhancing drug that turns athletes into aggressive monsters?
- I'm a Humanitarian: The Lewisborough High School wrestling team, who have become Cat Folk, eat the retired coach Terni and later their own coach Peter Shotwell when they try to stop them from taking Neuroflex 500. One of the members of the team is Peter's son Morris so it doubles as Patricide in his case.
- Monster Munch: The Lewisborough High School wrestling team eat a dog while still in the early stages of their transformation into Cat Folk.
- Muggle Sports, Super Athletes: The Lewisborough High School wrestling team become champions after taking Neuroflex 500 which is laced with the DNA of a big cat.
- Space Whale Aesop: Don't take performance enhancing drugs, kids, or else you'll turn into Cat Folk who eat people.
- Technicolor Eyes: The Lewisborough High School wrestling team develop eyes similar to those of a cat.
