The Clever Foreshadowing You Likely Missed In Solar Opposites

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Hulu's "Solar Opposites" is how the series developed its "The Wall" subplot from a meaningless cutaway gag into one of the most captivating aspects of the whole series. The show itself focuses primarily on four aliens trying to get by living in an American suburb, and in the series premiere, it's revealed that one of those aliens, a replicant named Yumyulack (Sean Giambrone), has been shrinking down humans who annoy him to study them. This is expanded upon in the second episode when it is revealed that Yumyulack has shrunken down hundreds of people and placed them into The Wall – a series of interconnected glass boxes wherein an entire society has started to form.

We soon learn that The Wall is ruled by a merciless leader known as the Duke (Alfred Molina), who has no issues executing anybody who questions his authority. The Wall storyline picks up when two shrunken humans named Tim (Andy Daly) and Cherie (Christina Hendricks) lead a group of resistance fighters in an all-out war against the Duke. Although the premise of The Wall is absurd, the storyline, which draws some inspiration from serious dramas like "True Detective," takes on a much darker tone than the series' main storyline — to the point where a few moments within The Wall actually brought fans to tears.

This much more serious subplot is capped off by a shocking twist ending, in which Tim stabs Cherie and pushes her out of The Wall after they defeat the Duke. As shocking as this twist is, it was actually foreshadowed from the very first moment we meet Tim back in "Solar Opposite" Episode 2.

In "The Unstable Grey Hole," Yumyulack is eating at a restaurant with his fellow replicant Jesse (Mary Mack) and shrinks down Tim as he walks by. Why? Simply because Tim is wearing a red shirt, and Yumyulack has not yet caught anybody wearing a red shirt. Jesse immediately criticizes him for doing so, saying that they should only shrink people down when they deserve it, although she relents a few moments later, remarking, "Eh, he was probably a Nazi." Again, the show uses a small throwaway joke to set up a major plot point, as Tim uses his betrayal of Cherie to become the new ruler of The Wall -– establishing a strict government ruled by sheer force and Tim's secret police.

The parallels don't stop there either, as pointed out on a Reddit thread began by u/Jombafomb. Tim also wrote a revolutionary manifesto while he was imprisoned by the Duke in Episode 7, leading to his escape and the true start of his war against the Duke's government. Upon rewatching, it becomes clear that Jesse's throwaway joke is a clever bit of foreshadowing for what Tim would become, providing the seed for his transformation from a kind-hearted man bent on helping the oppressed into a full-blown dictator whose only interest is his own right to rule.