Clone High ‘A Room of One’s Clone: The Pie of the Storm’: Storm’s A-Brewing

‘A Room of One’s Clone: The Pie of the Storm’ is the only episode of Clone High to feature a voice over, taking a cue from many comedies – both animated and live-action – who have ‘special’ episodes with characters telling us a story, instead of just watching it play out. With the gruff, aged voice of Toots as narrator, ‘A Room of One’s Clone’ isn’t as succinct or hilarious as other episodes, but  it’s one of the show’s most focused half-hours, revolving its plot around a single storm overtaking the suburbs of Clone High.

From the opening moment of the episode, ‘A Room of One’s Clone’ repeats the phrase “Storm’s a-brewing” from the mouth of just about every character, and for good reason: everyone in this episode finds themselves in nasty conflicts, and most of them, with their own friends. What begins as a fun exchange of sexually harassing puns between Ghandi and JFK turns into a brutal argument, with the fists of JFK finding their way into Ghandi’s face multiple times throughout the episode. It’s a very high school-esque idea: JFK defines himself as being the coolest, the best-looking and the wittiest, and when someone else of smaller stature comes along and challenges that, the default reaction is to handle it like a playground disagreement and fight it out. 

Cleo and Joan are in a similarly-juvenile fight, forced to live together after Joan’s house burns down, and Toots reveals his lover is Cleo’s drunk foster mom (whose name is Cleo’s Drunk Foster Mom). Although they’ve clearly had a disdain for each other since the pilot, this is the first time they’ve really duked it out physically. I mean, it’s not a creative leap to make Cleo and Joan hate each other: they’re fighting over the same guy, and are polar opposites in terms of their personal values and beliefs. So this episode was all about the catfight we’ve been waiting for all season (and JFK and Ghandi have been waiting in the bushes all night for), and it plays out in typical fashion, escalating from a fantasy-filling pillow fight (of course), into a primal battle of woman vs. woman, after dividing the room horizontally turns Joan into a wall-climbing primate.

Of course, an episode of Clone High isn’t complete without a Butlertron/Scudworth disagreement, and when Scudworth tries to replace him with E-Cybo Pooch (a gift from the Shadowy Board), Mr. B is not only suspicious, but hurt. One thing about this stretch of episodes of Clone High I don’t particularly care for is how much Butlertron and Scudworth are separated from the rest of the clones. Moments like Scudworth as the basketball coach and Butlertron consoling Joan are some of the best in the series, and unfortunately, most of their time on the show is spent together, not necessarily separated from the main plot, but still isolated from the other characters on the show.

With all these fights going on – and big storms brewing – Abe is sent on a journey of discovery when faced with all the anger surrounding him. He believes its in his DNA to mediate problems, since the real Abe Lincoln managed to bring an entire country back together. But as a clone, his skills in conflict resolution are questionable at best, especially when shouting phrases like “A bedroom divided against itself cannot stand” (something immediately proven by Cleo and Joan), and “Try the churros” (the advice from robomatronic Lincoln during the Abe Lincoln Mild Ride at the local park).

At the end, all of the fighting finds its way into the pie factory where the Principal’s Ball is being held, after a Benny Hill-esque comedy sequence that felt like nothing more than a slightly amusing time-waster. In fact, much of the episode seems to fizzle out once Abe realized he had no relevant advice for everyone, reducing itself to another pie fight (a fun one this time), and the closing images of Toot’s beady blind-many eyes.

But what I found interesting in those final scenes is that the minute Abe stopped trying to emulate his clone father and be a great leader, he actually became one. Sometimes all we need is to let off a little steam, and the clones did just that by unleashing a tirade of pies on Abe himself. There are times when a good, hearty laugh is more healing and therapeutic than a long, boring speech from some loudmouth, and the end of ‘The Pie of the Storm’ reminds us of that.

Grade: B

Overall thoughts/comments:

– the conflict mediation seminar felt like the high school version of every corporate event I’ve ever attended. Whoever thought eggs on spoons makes for good teamwork is a shithead. 

– the theme of this year’s President’s Ball: Old Money.

– the idea that Martin Luther King, Jr. and Moses wouldn’t get along because of religious differences (and attitudes towards lactose) is actually quite a funny one. I think it’s the only time we see either of them in the series, however.

– A shot of JFK spanking Ghandi with a croquet paddle is followed by Toots spanking a tied-up, gagged Cleo’s Drunk Mom. 

– remember those robotic dogs? that reference is almost as forgotten as last week’s O-Town guest star.

– Mr. Scudworth and Butlertron have a movie poster for ‘Reserved Dogs’ on their wall.

What did you think of ‘A Room of One’s Clone’? Feel free to leave your thoughts/comments below, and stop by next week to talk about the Clone High rock opera, which unfortunately features Jack Black, but is probably the weirdest episode in its short life.