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Recap / 3Below S1 E9 "Lightning in a Bottle"

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The royal heirs look for Aja's missing serrator in the forest, where they mistake Trollhunter Jim Lake's Amulet of Daylight for her lost weapon. Meanwhile, Seamus' father, upset that his son isn't getting the one A+ Miss Janeth gives out per class, forces both him and Krel in a math duel to decide who's going to receive it.

Tropes for this episode include:

  • Abusive Parents: Seamus' father is the type of parent that thinks that their child must have perfect test scores lest they whip out severe punishments. In this case, he threatens Seamus with not going to space camp if Krel continues to take the one A+ Janeth gives in her Math class.
  • Blind Without 'Em: When Nana takes off her glasses, she completely misses the massive gun Varvatos pulls out of his serrator. He then waves his hand in front of her to be sure before taking his chance to chase after Chompsky.
  • Bullet Time: When Chompsky tries firing at Varvatos with the serrator, he bends back and dodges it in slow-motion like in The Matrix.
  • Call-Back:
  • Heel Realization: Seamus goes along with his father's xenophobia and the math duel so he could get the A+ and the ability to go to space camp. However, noticing Krel intentionally losing the duel just so he can help Seamus get his father off his back makes him realize that he's been taking his rivalry with Krel too far.
  • Mistaken Identity: Due to the letter only having the initial 'S', along with Steve's timely arrival, Aja assumes Steve returned her serrator, NOT Stuart.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: Seamus' father makes multiple xenophobic insinuations about Krel's exellent performance in math class, even though as Krel himself points out, mathematics are a very ancient intercultural subject. He also doubts that Krel and Vex are related simply because they have different skin colors.
    Seamus' Father: Everyone knows that people like him are terrible at math!
    Senor Ulh: What do you mean? Cantalopians?
    Seamus' Father: Someone new to this country should not be good at math!
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons: Seamus' father doubts that Varvatos is actually Krel's grandfather, but he only made that assumption because Varvatos’ human skin color is much lighter than Krel’s human skin color.
  • Road Runner vs. Coyote: Varvatos spends much of the episode trying to get the serrator back from Gnome Chompsky with minimal results. He does eventually get it back though.
  • Synchronous Episodes: We see the events of "In Good Hands" from Aja and Krel's point of view, where we learn they were Obfuscating Stupidity due partially to them thinking Jim had the serrator (actually the Amulet of Daylight), and partially due to curiosity.
  • Throwing the Fight: Krel intentionally sabatoges his answer in the math-duel with Seamus, because while Krel could have easily won he had no real stakes in the duel. He also recognized the pressure Seamus' father puts on him and decides that winning was not worth it if it meant that Seamus’ father would have treated his son much worse if he didn’t get the A+. Seamus noticed what Krel did, and later thanks him for it.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Krel and Aja find an undisguised NotEnrique pigging out in the fridge. They just shrug and close the door.
  • Wham Shot: In the end of the episodes, Morando unveils his secret weapon: The Ocular Mechanically Engineered Neutralizer.


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