As has become a new tradition over the past few years, the Hulu original adult animated sitcom Solar Opposites has released another holiday special– its second Halloween-focused installment entitled “The Hunt for Brown October.” Below are my brief recap and thoughts on The Solar Opposites Halloween Special 2.
It’s the day before Halloween, and the “Solar Opposites”– namely Korvo (voiced by Dan Stevens), Terry (Thomas Middleditch), Yumyulack (Sean Giambrone), and Jesse (Mary Mack)– are distracted from seasonal spooky shenanigans by their efforts to get into a hoity-toity country club called Fancington Pines. They are shown around by an admissions agent (guest star Peyton Crim from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) who tells the aliens that the club is looking to expand its sci-fi diversity, although the capital-A Alien from the movie Alien and the Klingon villain Chang from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country are somehow already members. But when the agent says that the Solar Opposites’ interview for admission will be “tomorrow” (meaning the day of Halloween), our protagonists must quickly purge all their love of the holiday– except Korvo, who characteristically doesn’t really care for it– from their lives in order to fit in at the no-nonsense club.
Unfortunately for them, it turns out that Korvo has a curse left over from the previous Halloween special– it seems as though he is rapidly transforming into the next Great Pumpkin after having killed the previous one, The Santa Clause-style. A witch (Ashley Adler from the Disney Dreamlight Valley video game) appears in a cloud of smoke to explain all of this to the family, but Korvo zaps her into a slimy amorphic blob and hands her over to the Pupa (Sagan McMahan) and his robot JK7 to deal with, in an effort to postpone his eerie fate. But as the witch warned him, resisting the transformation only causes the people and environments around him to become even more imbued with Halloween spirit, so Terry turns into a ghost, Yumulack becomes an overly sexy cat, and Jesse morphs into a candy-corn-hungry werewolf. Meanwhile the Pupa and JK7 do their best to eliminate the witch, by smashing her with a rock and running her over with a train, but their struggles are in vain, as this magical being seemingly cannot be destroyed.
And in true sitcom form, that interview for Fancington Pines is swiftly approaching, so the family has to come up with a solution quickly. The diversity agent stops by and attempts to help them with a series of comical efforts that amount to nothing because the aliens keep reverting back to their spooky states, so at long last he suggests crafting a potion to help them regain their usual forms. They use the holiday cauldron left over from previous specials in the crashed spaceship perched atop their suburban house, dumping all of their Halloween belongings into it and climbing inside. This endeavor actually works, and the aliens report to the interview sullen and exhausted, which actually helps them nail it. Unfortunately it turns out that they were never candidates for membership, but were instead being considered for position as the club’s valets. This discovery leads to the revelation that the “agent” never worked for the Country Club at all, but was instead the gravy-like Spirit of Thanksgiving in disguise, seeking to wipe Halloween entirely from existence.
There’s a big showdown between the main characters and this spirit, and once he’s defeated (through Korvo falsely gushing about his love of Halloween), the climax of the special ends with Korvo foregoing his destiny to become the Great Pumpkin and bestowing that honor onto the witch, who helped them defeat their enemy. Halloween is saved, and the Solar Opposites are rather arbitrarily, but hilarious, allowed to make wishes for their efforts. So the Chang and the Alien become the valets and the family throws a big costume party in the country club, with everyone dancing to the song “Spooky Scary Skeletons.” I had a great time with this Solar Opposites Halloween special, as I have with all the other holiday installments of this animated series. Its rapid-fire jokes and barrage of irreverent pop-culture references (consistent with regular seasons of the show) kept me in stitches throughout– not to mention the fact that the voice cast (including regulars and guest stars) of this series is still working at the top of their game. I really get a kick out of the aliens’ love-hate relationship with Earth culture, and as always I’m looking forward to more adventures with Korvo, Terry, and the replicants.
The Solar Opposites Halloween Special 2: The Hunt for Brown October is available to stream right now, exclusively via Hulu.