What You Need to Know About Solar Opposites' The Wall Ahead of Season 3

Hulu's animated comedy Solar Opposites is outwardly about a family of aliens who crash-landed on Earth and must play out an approximation of average American suburban life while they wait for the pupa in their care to mature and ultimately terraform/destroy the Earth. A simple tale as old as time, really. In execution, the show is funny, a little shocking, pleasantly daring at times, and almost always more gory in its outcomes than you'd expect.

But while the adventures of aliens Korvo, Terry, Jesse, and Yumyulac are the main story on Solar Opposites, more and more the show's most compelling aspect is the show-within-a-show (or more accurately the post-apocalyptic-survival-epic-within-a-show) that initially seemed like a tossed-off stinger at the end of its second episode. In that episode, alien teen Yumulac — who we'd already seen has the ability to shrink irksome humans with his shrinking ray — dumps one such unfortunate soul into the terrarium built into the wall of his bedroom. This shrunken human, named Tim, encounters inside the Wall a whole society of humans who Yumulac had previously shrunken, engaging in a post-apocalyptic fight for survival. Thus began Solar Opposites' saga of The Wall.

The Wall subplot has appeared in roughly half of the 16 Solar Opposites episodes across the first two seasons, with one episode in each season dedicated almost entirely to happenings inside the Wall. None of the aliens seem very much aware of the drama happening within its caverns and compartments (although Yumulac does once mention the war that takes place in Season 1, so maybe he does keep tabs). The Wall essentially functions as a shadow series, and as it's progressed across two seasons, the narrative and world-building has become more elaborate and more epic.

Beginning as an explicit Escape from New York parody (to the point where one character points out that they're cribbing from the John Carpenter classic), the Wall cutaways became more complex, both narratively and in tone, evoking everything from The Walking Dead to Dune to The Lord of the Rings. The creativity that the Solar Opposites team gets to express within the Wall interludes is essentially boundless. Each scene is a visual feast packed with miniature knick knacks that end up inside the wall, repurposed for post-apocalyptic value. Toothpicks become arrows, LEGOs are armor, Slim Jims are currency, at one point a bong is used as a prison. Most of these aren't even commented upon, so you really have to stay on your toes to catch, say, a Sweet-n-Low packet used as a pillow.

Here's a quick catch-up on The Wall — the major players, the storylines, and where things stand heading into this new batch of episodes.

The Major Players

Tim (voiced by Andy Daly), who gets shrunk in episode 2 of Season 1 ("The Unstable Grey Hole") for wearing a red shirt. He's plunged into a world of fellow Wall captives who have become barbaric killers or shrouded survivalists, all operating under the control of the Duke.

The Duke (voiced by Alfred Molina), who rules the civilization inside the Wall as a harsh hierarchy where those on the upper levels take part in the goods and services he provides, while the lower levels are an underclass who toil under his thumb.

Cherie (voiced by Christina Hendricks), a former Benihana waitress who displeased Yumyulac by serving him shrimp when he asked for no shrimp. She's dumped into the terrarium in episode 3 ("The Quantum Ring") and introduced into the Wall's turbulent ecosystem by Tim.

Halk Hogam (voiced by Sterking K. Brown), introduced in Season 2, episode 2 ("The Earth Eraser"). In the "beforefore" times, Halk was an executive story editor on the FOX drama Bones, but inside the Wall he became a hero of Wall War I, before settling into detective work, though he's haunted by his war memories.

Season 1: The War

Once Cherie is introduced to the Wall's political hierarchy, the plot begins in earnest. The Duke rules with an iron fist, and Tim and Cherie initially try to help people procure supplies like food and insulin. But after the Duke has their friend Pedro killed, they resolve to fight back. As the season goes on, the Resistance intensifies, Tim is thrown into prison, and Cherie is seemingly thrown down into a hole and killed.

But in episode 7 ("Terry and Korvo Steal a Bear"), which is the first all-Wall episode, Tim gets broken out of prison by a surviving Cherie, where he sees that his words have become a kind of rebellion manifesto, and the Resistance needs him to lead them. Which he does, in a great raid on the Duke's stronghold, a battle that would be known later as Wall War I.

The Duke floods the lower levels, drowning dozens of people, but Tim is able to get to the Duke's lair, where he sees the Duke escape out of a hole to the outside world. This was how the Duke had been able to smuggle in items that allowed him to retain his position at the top of the food chain. Rather than reveal that there is a way out of the Wall, Tim chooses to kill Cherie to keep the hole a secret, then assumes the Duke's place as leader. (This all happens while, in the background and uncommented upon, Terry and Korvo and the other aliens wrestle with a bear they've apparently stolen from the zoo.)

Season 2: The Murders

Time has passed, and the events of Season 1 have become lore, depicted in dramatic art on murals, and told to newcomers with reverence for the heroes of the War. Cherie in particular has been elevated to legendary status, as Tim lied that she died while killing the Duke, and Cherie Day is celebrated by all.

Things are better than they were under the Duke's rule, but not all is well. A string of gruesome murders bring fears of a serial killer, and former war hero Halk is tasked with investigating, along with two of Tim's flunkies (known as "Walldermen"). The Walldermen are eager (and dumb) enough to blame it all on a rogue cricket who got into the Wall, but Halk investigates and finds the culprit, a real creepo named Ethan.

Ethan tells Halk that he's been a smuggler for Tim and reveals the existence of the Hole. Halk refuses to believe it, but when he takes Ethan to Tim, the truth is revealed to him. Tim manages to persuade Halk to go along with his lie for the good of the people, and Halk eventually speaks to the gathered crowds on Cherie Day and says the murders were done by a cricket.

Season 2: Cherie's Return

Meanwhile, in the second all-Wall episode (Season 2, episode 7, "The Unlikely Demise of Terry's Favorite Shot Glass"), we flash back to reveal that while Cherie was pushed out of the hole after Tim stabbed her in Season 1, she managed to survive. She ended up in the yard, forming an initially uneasy alliance with the Duke, with whom she hid out from a savage opossum that kept trying to eat them.

Cherie also revealed that she was pregnant with Tim's child. After the Duke was killed saving Cherie from the opossum, she gave birth to her baby and then trekked beyond the fence to what she thought was a Walgreen's but was actually a billboard for "Wallgreens Presents: A Handmaid's Tale Christmas Special." With nowhere else to go, Cherie and her baby trekked back to the Wall, where she witnessed the Cherie Day celebrations.

Now caught up to the present timeline, Cherie makes herself known to Halk and convinces him that Tim must be stopped for the good of the Wall.

And that's where we're at heading into Season 3. Given the way the plot for the Wall has played out so far, there's absolutely no way of predicting what's coming in the new season. Cherie and Halk will try to take down Tim, but the range of possibilities for how that will go down are pretty much endless. We do know from the trailer that at some point people will escape the Wall and even get big again, so there's that to look forward to. There will likely be at least one more all-Wall episode this season, although with the season's episode order increased from 8 to 11, it's possible we'll get more than one. However it goes down, it'll no doubt be epic.

The entire third season of Solar Opposites drops on Hulu Wednesday July 13, 2022.

Joe Reid is the senior writer at Primetimer and co-host of the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. His work has appeared in Decider, NPR, HuffPost, The Atlantic, Slate, Polygon, Vanity Fair, Vulture, The A.V. Club and more.