Our hero friends take on two serious super villains this week on Hamster & Gretel, all while teaching us to just be ourselves while also making sure our best friend doesn’t know who we are.
Comic Shop Copy Cat
Kevin and Gretel are spending some time at their local comic shop (where Kevin’s crush, Hiromi, just happens to work) while Hamster stays at home watching his telenovellas. Fortunately, Kevin is reading comics that Hiromi likes…though she read them when she was much younger. Just outside the store, Gretel sees some action when this week’s supervillain is terrorizing the parking garage. Dressed like a cat and taking notes and direction from a comic book of his own, he is known as Copy Cat.
Gretel goes to face the villain one-on-one since Hamster is still at home enjoying his shows, but down below, the wreckage from the tossed cars has trapped Kevin and Hiromi in the comic shop. The local news is on in the store, and while the villain is still battling Gretel, he turns to the camera and quotes further dialogue from a comic. Being a comic nerd himself, Kevin recognizes it immediately and Hiromi, who runs the comic shop, recognizes that voice as a recent customer. A quick cutaway to a previous day shows plain and ordinary man (who happens to be some kind of degree in engineering) in an oddly specific debate about whether or not a comic book Man-Cat could take on the likes of Hamster and Gretel.
Back at home, Hamster’s telenovellas are interrupted by a news bulletin and he rushes to help Gretel. In the garage, Gretel puts together that he is imitating a comic book on her own while back in the store, Kevin and Hiromi are watching on the news while looking for the comic book source material this guy is plagiarizing as his persona. Gretel, in today’s lesson, tells the villain to just be himself like all the adults on TV say. Kevin takes cue and comes clean about his comic book preferences while talking with Hiromi. The geek-out he has reminds him of Man-Cat’s origins and figures out the weakness of Man-Cat and uses Gretel’s super hearing to his advantage – though it almost blows their cover.
He shouts that Man-Cat’s weakness is water, so Copy Cat’s weakness will probably be the same. At the last moment, Hamster arrives on scene and together, they use a conveniently located water truck to douse the villain. Too bad that weakness wasn’t as easy, and Copy Cat is just fine. However, his villain suit has exposed wiring which now got wet and causes the supersuit to backfire on him, so I guess it was his weakness.
After all is said and done, Hiromi thanks Kevin for the awesome team-up. See, it works to just be yourself. Thanks, Hamster & Gretel.
Neigh it Ain’t So
Kevin, Gretel, and Hamster are at home listening to the radio while the local DJ does a call-in contest asking what color Hamster’s cape is. Who else would call in but Gretel’s best friend Bailey, and gets it right with the very specific pumpkin pie orange. The prize? To spend the day with Hamster and Gretel. This prompts Kevin to invoke his once every 18 month Gretel-Kevin Pinky Promise that she won’t get into any fights or fisticuffs considering that she is spending the day with her best friend, so her cover is sure to be blown. Fortunately, Hamster agrees to reschedule much of his wheel time to help with this effort.
Now, the running gag of the episode begins and over time it becomes less amusing – but we see Bailey spending time with Gretel (the hero) and takes every little moment to say that she will tell her best friend Gretel who’s name is also Gretel. At this point, I’m rooting for her cover to be blown. Together, they spend the day together and at a local park they encounter another supervillain – but first a quick backstory: Ned Slayer, a track and field star who wanted to increase his horsepower stole radioactive DNA (that originated from a horse) that turned his limbs into horse legs and he became the Neighslayer. In the park, he is stealing baskets of apples for a party back at his place, complete with an open barn.
As Gretel tries to reason with him without fighting, a threatening army of ponies is about to charge when Hamster takes over to get the fighting done. Tragically, a horseshoe traps Hamster while nearby Kevin and Fred (who are supposed to be looking out for H and G) end up watching that cheerleading anime from last episode and Kevin seems to enjoy it far more than he thought.
Gretel and Bailey are now at the horse track to save Hamster, who is precariously perched over a vat of acid, only because Gretel embarrassed him in front of his crew. Arguably one of the funniest moments in the series thus far, Hamster says “I’m rubber…you’re glue” and Neighslayer and the horse army all get offended before Gretel appears and the musical moment of this episode takes over when the two engage in a rap battle.
Gretel wins, and we find out Kevin and Fred completely lost track of time watching their anime, and Hamster and Gretel get back in the car, ready to go home. The next day at school, Bailey tells friend Gretel about all her adventures with Hero Gretel, and assures friend Gretel that friend Gretel is still her best friend. Not Hero Gretel.
This episode of Hamster & Gretel is now available on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW app. You can also catch it on Disney+.