The Sarah Jane Adventures “The Curse Of Clyde Langer Part 1”

Wait, Clyde got cursed?  That ain’t right.  What did Clyde ever do to deserve that?

He didn’t do much, but I think it says a lot that it would be Clyde that got himself cursed.  Clyde is, basically, the “regular guy” on the team.  Yes, he has a lot of artistic skill, but he isn’t a kid genius like Luke (or perhaps Sky), he isn’t an investigator with good observation skills along the lines of Sarah Jane and Rani, and Clyde, well, he tells jokes that amuse small children.

It makes Clyde a rather likable kid.  He’s got a good heart, and even if he is a bit of a smartass, he’s not a character that deserves the audience’s hatred.

But in-story, he also doesn’t deserve the hatred of the other characters.

See, there’s the usual alien research that takes the gang to a museum where Clyde ignores a “do not touch” sign to touch a totem pole.  He gets a splinter, and the legend did say something that sounded extraterrestrial  was involved, so it probably is because that’s how this universe generally rolls.

Regardless, the following day, anyone who hears, speaks, or reads Clyde’s name suddenly has an irrational hatred for him.  Yes, it’s kid’s show level hatred.  No one is suddenly looking to murder him (well, maybe in the case of the kids in the park, but he managed to run away and they didn’t seem that bright when they were chasing him considering how easily he hid behind some trash cans).  It’s just that people suddenly turn on him one by one.  Starting with…Sarah Jane, and she then asks Mr. Smith to keep an eye out for Clyde and keep him out of the neighborhood.

Mr. Smith does what he’s told, but he doesn’t really understand why.

Next up are Rani and her father, and Papa Chandra expels Clyde because….wait, he can just do that?

Luke succumbs over the phone, so we never see him outside the opening credits, and even Clyde’s own mother throws him out.  Clyde has by then figured out what’s going on, but he can’t even go to the museum for help because the expert there remembered his name…

Well, at least that homeless girl he gave some spare change to in the beginning of the episode is still being nice to him.

Also, Sky is immune to the curse for reasons, and since she’s basically a more precocious version of Luke, she is sure to use her cloying ways to help fix all this.

But man, it sure does suck to be Clyde at times like this.