Solar Opposites: Hidden Details About The Main Characters Everyone Missed

Like its predecessor Rick & Morty, Solar Opposites is full of wild characters doing disturbing, fantastic, and bizarre things. After having crash landed on Earth, desperate Schlorpians Korvo and Terry, along with their replicants Yumyulack, Jesse, and the mysterious pupa, have to integrate into human society.

While they strive to adapt, different facets of their personalities emerge when they become entrenched in the consumerism of Earthly life. While Korvo disdains it, Terry embraces it, and the replicants try their hand at being teenagers. The creative team pack each episode of every season with lots of little details about the main characters that most people will only notice if viewers know where to look.

Updated on April 30th, 2021 by Kayleena Pierce-Bohen: With the successful premier of Season 2, Solar Opposites has discovered its identity apart from its connection to Rick & Morty, really growing into its own as a series. Korvo, Terry, Jesse, Yumyulack, and The Pupa have settled on Earth and  been through darker, stranger, and more craven events than ever before, offering plenty of opportunities for eagle-eyed fans to spot clever references and Easter-eggs while taking the violence and hilarity to extremes. 

14 Terry’s T-Shirts With Obscure References

Sharp fans trained to Terry’s burgeoning closet of t-shirts will notice that with each episode, the clever Schlorpian slips more funny sayings into his wardrobe. In Season 1, he wore shirts that said “Dick Wolf” (the longtime producer/creator of Law & Order) and “17’5 4 7R4P” (the famous phrase said by Admiral Ackbar in Return of the Jedi), and the second season brought even more pop culture references.

From innocent shirts like “ET TEXT HOME” and “Flash Back” (done in the style of Flashdance) to suggestive shirts like “Horn if you’re Honkey”, and “Area 69” with a downward arrow, Terry always has something extra to say (though some fans may not get the “Mayor of Shondaland” reference to the production company owned by Shonda Rhimes).

13 Halk Has A History Solving Crimes

Prior to being miniaturized and put into Yumyulack’s human ant farm, Halk was an “executive story editor” Bones, which seems to make him the perfect character to head up the investigation involving the murder of various residents of The Wall in Season 2.

In reality, Halk is perfect because his voice actor Sterling K. Brown has played an investigator and or police detective before, as well as had guest roles on dozens of crime solving series. He’s played Detective Cal Beecher in Person of Interest and Officer Dade in Third Watch, and has appeared on NCIS, Without A Trace, Castle, Criminal Minds, and many more.

12 Ethan Is A Reference To The Da Vinci Code

As Halk’s investigation in The Wall narrows on one suspect, a sociopathic former rock climber named Ethan, he learns that Ethan is but one link in the conspiracy chain (albeit a deranged one). Where once Ethan aligned himself with Tim and kept his secrets faithfully, he’s taken it upon himself to cleanse The Wall in his own way as a “god” among tiny men.

With his bleached white hair, pale skin, and holier-than-thou complex, Ethan bears a striking resemblance to Silas, the albino assassin (played memorably by Paul Bettany) from The Da Vinci Code, right down the religious zealotry and the pale blue eye.

11 They Constantly Make Sci-Fi References

Being a series about aliens visiting Earth, it’s only logical that Solar Opposites includes as many sci-fi references as possible, but for every episode featuring Robocop chasing the Pupa or Terry and Korvo in a police lineup with Alf, Mork, and one of the Coneheads, there are more subtle references.

In Season 2, as Korvo conducts his war on Dinner Parties, he consults his “E-Cogs” – individuals with the power to “sense E-vites before they’re sent”. This is a direct reference to the “Precogs” in Phillip K. Dick’s classic sci-fi novel Minority Report, about beings who have the ability to sense crimes before they happen.

10 Terry’s Star Wars Obsession

There have always been a few references to Star Wars in the series (such as Yumyulack and Jesse attending “James Earl Jones School”), which makes a certain amount of sense given Disney’s partnership with Hulu. But by Season 2 it’s clear that Terry’s obsession has a way of sneaking into every story. From his Poe Dameron jammies, to his wanting to shop at “Gretchen Darth-Mall”, they vary from the obvious to the unexpected.

He’s even been known to sport Chewbacca themed Mickey ears from Disneyland after going on vacation, and slip into talking like “Jar Jar Dinks”. If only he could have gotten into Yumyulack’s wall and seen Tim dressed like Old Man Luke from the Sequel Trilogy!

9 Terry And Korvo Are A Couple

While some fans may be inclined to believe that Terry and Korvo are BFF’s, brothers, or team leaders, it’s been stated by the creators themselves that Terry and Korvo are something more like a couple. The creators wanted to make more possibilities for their dynamic to grow without being strictly roommates. 

There are several times when this is confirmed in Season 1, like when Terry offers to help Korvo de-stress, as well as when Korvo reminds him about their college years where Terry invited partners into “their bed” and he didn’t seem to mind. In Season 2, Terry gets angry with Korvo for cheating on him, and after a near brush with death, they share a kiss in a Whole Foods Market.

8 The Duke Is The Janitor

One of the very first humans to go into The Wall is the janitor that upsets Jesse and Yumyulack. They shrink him down and put him into their miniature kingdom, created primarily from hamster cages. He’s seen again helping Tim when he first gets into the wall, then he disappears for the rest of the season.

Unless he didn’t? When The Duke appears, he’s sporting the same voice and the same hair as the janitor, but with much more stylish clothing. He’s become the self appointed ruler of The Wall, based on The Duke of New York from Escape from New York. 

7 The Pupa Is Ser Davos

Terry and Korvo are responsible for the pupa, a curious creature who is ultimately going to turn into a creature capable of killing humanity and terraforming Earth into a planet inhabitable for Schlorpians.

Normally the pupa makes gibberish sounds, but in the last episode of Season 1, the pupa speaks in a sonorous accented cadence, revealing the dulcet tones of Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham aka Ser Davos.

6 The Pupa Gets Locked Up With Disney Characters

On one of the pupa’s random adventures, he gets kidnapped by a rabid seagull and deposited on the deck of a merchant ship, whose crew sells him to the Rare Collector’s Academy.

He’s auctioned off as “Spongebob Squarepants” amidst several Disney icons, including Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse (in the bottom right corner of the cages), 101 Dalmatians, and Paddington Bear.

5 Tim’s Evil Turn Was Foreshadowed

Tim may present as a hero in The Wall in Season 1, but before shrinking him down and putting him in there, Jesse explained he deserved it because he was “probably a Nazi”.

Flash forward to Episode 7 when Tim is writing a manifesto while in prison, then going on to lead a revolution and ultimately staging a coup on The Duke, ousting his rule and taking over his kingdom, putting his own regime in power under a new name – the Wallderman.

4 The Kids Might Know About Rick & Morty

Yumyulack and Jesse go to a human high school where they struggle to fit in, but find it difficult to relate to other teenagers since they’re plant-based aliens, and often don’t understand the logistics of basic human interactions.

On the walls of the school there are signs for the Schwifty Jazz club, which implies that the kids are aware of Rick and Morty in their universe, hinting at a possible cross over.

3 The Characters Interact With Tons Of Product Placement

Barely a scene goes by where the main characters don’t interact with some consumer product featuring a brand name or logo plastered on the side. They eat freely from KFC buckets, play Monopoly, and Korvo is partial to Miller Lite beer.

One of the biggest reoccurring product placements is for the streaming service Hulu itself. In the first three minutes of the first episode, fans can watch series creator Justin Roiland get strangled by Funbucket wearing a Hulu t-shirt. In Season 2, the Hulu references get even more extreme, with the appearance of a “Hulutron” and other devices.

2 Terry And Korvo Are Huge Nerds

Sprinkled throughout the house and the “Manc Ave,” fans will find a series of posters and paraphernalia pertaining to the fictitious franchises that Terry and Korvo love, particularly sci-fi and fantasy.

In Episode 3 there are “War of Stars” (Star Wars) posters, Gundam Wing posters, and even “The Dragon Queen”, a reference to the Mother of Dragons on Game of Thrones. 

1 *They Reenact Scenes From Famous Movies

There are several film references throughout both seasons of Solar Opposites, from Korvo performing the finale trick from The Prestige at the end of Episode 3, to creating something that resembles a Stargate from the Kurt Russell film of the same name. One of the biggest homages comes when Yumyulack is attacking Jesse in Episode 2, mimicking the “Here’s Johnny!” scene from The Shining.

In Season 2, the entire third episode is devoted to a The Wolf of Wall Street plot involving “the Urbanizer”, the sixth episode references The Great Escape and Shawshank Redemption, and the penultimate episode is chock full of references to genre fiction including everything from Conan the Barbarian to Jurassic Park and AVP. 

About The Author

Kayleena Pierce-Bohen
(1342 Articles Published)

Kayleena has been raised on Star Wars and Indiana Jones from the crib. A film buff, she has a Western collection of 250+ titles and counting that she’s particularly proud of. When she isn’t writing for ScreenRant, CBR, or The Gamer, she’s working on her fiction novel, lifting weights, going to synthwave concerts, or cosplaying. With degrees in anthropology and archaeology, she plans to continue pretending to be Lara Croft as long as she can.

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