Solar opposites season six has arrived on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+, and that means Solar opposites is finished. It ends on a good note (read io9’s spoiler-free review here), and it also does a remarkable job of ending all of its plotlines, surprisingly. It was a bit of a rehash, but it stayed true to the series and ended up being very satisfying to boot.
First, we learned of the fate of the Wall; the storyline wrapped up in episode eight, “The Last Flight of the Ariana 1.” After a daring mission to steal Yumyulack’s shrink ray – hoping to use it on everyone to return them to human size – Cherie and company realize they were chasing a replica. Yumyulack cleverly and cruelly created an exact copy of his weapon… in cake form.
But it doesn’t stop there. With the SD card from Yumyulack’s phone in their tiny clutches (and the help of Pupa), the little people threaten to blackmail Yumyulack with his embarrassing selfies and tickle videos. Reluctantly, he agrees to make everyone great again, but there’s a problem: one person in the Wall isn’t physically capable of measuring up.
This is of course Cherie’s daughter, Pezlie, who was born small. Cherie’s entire motivation was to make Pezlie normal and able to live a normal life. Devastated, she encourages Ringo, Nova and the others to let Yumyulack zap them, but until Pezlie can grow up, Cherie doesn’t want to either.
To Cherie’s surprise, everyone agrees to stay small in solidarity (and not tell the rest of the Wall what happened). Yumyulack reluctantly promises that he would help make life in the Wall more bearable by occasionally providing food that isn’t candy.
“I know in my heart it’s going to work!” »Declares Cherie. Then we cut to 90 years later.
The world has suffered a devastating apocalypse. The Shlorpians are seen as decaying alien skeletons in their ship, presumably killed while trying to flee the planet. We zoom in on a skull in the yard, where the last generation of tiny humans are roasting an insect to stay alive.
That’s when “Great-Grandma Pezlie” steps in, launching into the story of how her mother, despite all her best intentions, “accidentally caused the destruction of worlds large and small.”
We never see what actually happened – that’s left to the wildest limits of your imagination.
However, we can see that the Pupa has done not eventually terraforming Earth – the long-promised endgame Solar opposites– which the series addresses in its last two episodes.
In episode nine, “The Goocleus and the Protoshlorpian”, Korvo destroys the “goocleus”, which is, in short, the substance from the homeworld necessary for the Pupa’s ultimate transformation. The Pupa will be just fine, but he won’t pursue his destiny of completely reshaping the Earth, thus undoing the mission the Shlorpians have been accomplishing all this time.
In Episode 10, “What’s the Mission Anyway,” we see how putting the mission aside made everyone feel free and happy. Opposites thrive. Terry’s romance books are adapted for cinema. Jesse and Yumyulack struggle in school and apply to top universities. Korvo’s new job in construction showcases all of his authoritarian strengths.
Have Solar Opposites finally found happiness?
Not so fast! The Pupa, despite having its terraforming directive removed, has been strangely aggressive and has been performing all sorts of disturbing shapeshifts. The Opposites initially think it’s their fault – is there still unresolved business with the Red Goobler, Korvo’s archenemy, perhaps? – but that’s not the case.
Throughout the season, there have been rumors that something strange was happening with Aisha, the ship’s computer. She revealed a sinister “red mode” in the middle of a reset attempt in a previous episode; then, the evil Aisha contacted the SilverCops (Solar opposites‘dirty intergalactic police) to denounce Korvo’s sabotage of the Goocleus.
In space, we find Glen, once the Opposites’ human neighbor, now a transferred GoldCops agent working undercover with the SilverCops, as he joins the Earth mission to wipe out the Opposites. In their true villain form, the SilverCops announce that the alien family is screwed, but not before offering a detailed explanation of the “Shlorpian scam.”
You see, the SilverCops invented the Pupas to help the Shlorpians terraform planets. They created Aishas to ensure that the Shlorpians remained faithful to the mission. They are even behind the asteroid that destroyed Korvo and company’s home planet, the planet Shlorp. In fact, it’s a centuries-old cycle: once a Pupa terraforms a planet and Shlorpian society rebuilds, the SilverCops launch a celestial object at it. Once the population disperses and the planet explodes, they arrive and steal anything of value left behind.
What to remember: “Your real the mission is to make us make money.
The horror! Luckily, Glen manages to summon the GoldCops just in time, and the bad guys are stopped.
We fast forward to a few months later and the family is doing better than ever. Terry makes his film. Jesse and Yumyulack are at university.
And Korvo, the Pupa and his robot sidekick, JK Sevens, travel the galaxy, visiting all the other scattered Shlorpians to tell them about the Shlorpian scam. Shlorpians around the world no longer have to worry about their missions; they may simply be families. “I am about to free you and rule you,” Korvo announces with great joy.
There is one more tease at the end. Thanks to the magic of editing, the final photo of a galaxy is transformed into a small object that Pupa finds deliciously tempting. Korvo scolds the Pupa for not eating Solar oppositesbecause “no one will pick up the show if you have spit on them!” »
We can hope, but if “What’s the Mission Anyway” is indeed the end, the Shlorpian scam seems like the right way to tie things together. And if you’ve seen episode eight, you know that Earth will be doomed in 90 years anyway.
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