Oddballs Season 1 Episode 5 recap: Boy with 2 Brains

James receives an award for accidentally saving his teacher Mr. McFly from the school bully Stuart. But Stuart decides to enact his revenge on James in Oddballs season 1 episode 5 “Boy with 2 Brains”.

Oddballs Season 1 Episode 5 recap – Trophies

James and Max arrive to school carrying loads of outdated books to their lockers. Surprisingly the lockers are even narrower than before due to the addition of more trophy cases.

James is disgusted by the idea of participation trophies, deeming trophies in general to be useless. As he rants to Max, his teacher Mr. McFly is being bullied by the school bully Stuart.

Stuart, a gelatinous green glob, shoves Mr. McFly inside him. With no escape things aren’t looking so good for the teacher.

That is until James decides to shove his books into the trophy case which causes a pile up and one trophy to fly out! It hits Stuart freeing Mr. McFly.

For saving his teacher, James receives The Nicest Person award. The school cheers his name and practically throws a parade.

Oddballs Season 1 Episode 5 recap – Stuart

Angered by this Stuart decides to enact his revenge. While James drinks his celebratory drink from his trophy cup with Max and Echo, Stuart manages to drop down from the ceiling.

James unknowingly ingests the bully. At first, he doesn’t want to throw him up believing it wouldn’t be a nice thing to do.

Echo offers to help him if James agrees that her cup full of soda is the same, if not better, than his trophy cup. Angered by her ridiculous request James refuses.

However, Stuart continually possesses James, forcing him to do mean things. Worried his trophy will be taken away, James asks for Echo’s help.

Echo and Max perform an exorcism, which includes reading from a children’s book and making James drink bottles upon bottles of hot sauce. But in order for Stuart to free James, they need to figure out what his heart wants.

Believing Stuart to be a bully with no heart, James gives up. Stuart possess James’ body and rushes to the school where he hopes to harm Mr. McFly.

Oddballs Season 1 Episode 5 recap – Lesson Learned

As James tries to stop himself from harming his teacher, he passes the trophy case. It is then that he realizes Stuart felt left out and wanted a trophy too.

James decides to give Stuart his trophy and rename it as The Worst Person award. Feeling seen and appreciated, Stuart leaves James’ body, accepting his award proudly.

Mr. McFly thanks James again and offers to get him another trophy. James politely declines.

Oddballs Season 1 Episode 5 review

James calls into question a very real thing that people often debate about; trophies. Should trophies be given out to actual winners, or should everyone get one so that no one is left out?

James changes his tune in this episode once he receives one for his good deed. But he mentions at the end of the episode, that good deeds should be done just because you want to, not for personal gain.

Reminding viewers at home, especially children, that bullies are people too with actual feelings was a nice touch. My only minor issue with the episode is as I feared in episode 4, Echo kind of dominates the scenes she shares with James and Max.

She’s too similar to James. While he can be stubborn and prideful, Echo comes off like a know-it-all. Her sole purpose becomes the person to prove James wrong time and time again.

Maybe she’ll have an episode dedicated to her where she learns a lesson or two and changes but for now, I feel she interferes with James and Max’s friendship and story. What lesson will James learn in the next episode?

What did you think of the Oddballs season 1 episode 5? Share your thoughts in the comments below, we’d love to read them!

You can watch Oddballs season 1 on Netflix.