Awkward High School Relationships Explained After Some Robot Clones Take Over This Week’s “Hamster & Gretel” on Disney Channel

Hamster & Gretel keeps promising a mega-villain’s arrival and we get that promise again before we get into the sociological drama of high school relationships - even though we’re all rooting for Kevin and Lauren, right?

Hamster Ex Machina

Robot versions of Hamster & Gretel have arrived at the docks to create some destruction in order to summon out the real Hamster & Gretel. Too bad they’re at home while Gretel tries to change up catchphrases and other parts of her personality. All of this is happening while their parents are going to go shopping for new glasses (I only bring up this seemingly minute point because it does come into play later).

Eventually, the superhero duo gets word of the chaos happening down at the docks and goes to help. There, they find robot versions of themselves who can think and predict their every move. How? Their creator put some of their DNA into the bots and knows everything about them. So who is their creator? I’m sure you can already guess, but we don’t know for sure.

In an unexpected moment, it is also revealed that there is a robot Kevin! Since their creator doesn’t know much about this seemingly random teen though, this robot is basically a glorified trash can much to the chagrin of the real Kevin.

Across town, their parents are getting their eyes dilated as part of an eye exam. This means that for the next few hours they will see things like mushy porridge or “vintage oatmeal."

As Hamster & Gretel evaded their robot doppelgangers, the bots were able to track the minivan’s address and are now at home waiting for the return. Instead, they get the parents, whose vision is so blurry that they can’t tell their kids have been replaced by robots.

The real Hamster and Gretel are able to get them away and lure them out when they discover that the best way to take on the robots is to let Gretel try out her new random phrases and new personality quirks. The best way to beat predictability is to be random! That’s a song right there.

During the musical montage, sure enough, they defeat the bots (except for the Kevin one, who has learned kindness because of the real Kevin’s dad), and learn that the bots were created by Mordros the Annihilator. Once again, he promises that he will be coming soon to battle Hamster & Gretel, etc etc. We get it.

Awkwardly Ever After

Fistpuncher and Footkicker are destroying their high school, so now the two high schools in town must combine their student body. As such, Lauren the Destructress (and Gretel’s part time babysitter) sees the opportunity to continue on her quest to change her perception of a mean girl into a nice girl. Plus, it’ll help her win over Kevin who she has quite a bit of a crush on. In fact, this whole episode is about to become a multi-dimensional triangle of awkwardness because….DEEP BREATH… Lauren likes Kevin, Kevin likes Lauren, Kevin still has feelings for Hiromi, Hiromi and Lauren are now at the same school with everyone else, including Anthony, who also has had a crush on Lauren for as long as he can remember.

With the two schools combining, each student must take on a buddy from the destroyed school and serve as their host. Despite her aversion, Fred is thrown into the middle of all this as Kevin asks her to take Lauren as her buddy to put in a good word for Kevin, but also to keep Lauren from buddying up with Hiromi. Meanwhile, Kevin has buddied up with Anthony, who clearly sees he has at least some kind of good standing relationship with Lauren and asks him to put in a good word FOR HIM.

I don’t miss high school.

Thanks to a musical montage, we see Kevin attempting to be a wingman but only winning more admiration from Lauren in return, inadvertently shining a light on himself instead of Anthony.

All of this is happening while Hiromi is hosting an incognito Fistpuncher (who is also Lauren’s brother, remember) and Footkicker, who are out to destroy Lauren’s attempts at changing her perception into a nice girl.

This all comes to a head when they reveal their superhero selves in the cafeteria as a food fight ensues, trapping Lauren and Kevin behind some tables together. During the chaos, Lauren reveals her secret to Kevin, that she used to be a supervillain. Yes, he knows this but pretends not to. He also says that he knows she’s a nice girl and doesn’t need any convincing before Lauren asks him out on a date. He doesn’t say no, instead saying that he has feelings for someone else. Which is true, but come on Kevin, really? This is what you wanted too, and Fred even told Lauren that technically you are single.

Either way, Lauren decides it's probably better if she worked on herself for now anyway before she - suited up - takes on her brother and his friend and defeats them.

Afterward, though he doesn’t know what happened between Lauren and Kevin, Anthony feels like he has a bit of a chance with Lauren considering that she finally remembered his name, but only time will tell how this plays out.

This episode of Hamster & Gretel is now available on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW app. You can also catch up with earlier episodes and the first season streaming now on Disney+.