A story: Phoebe joins the cool group for a project, but soon discovers they don’t want to work.

B story: Hank and Barb challenge Nora and Billy to run the house better than them.

First of all, welcome back Sarah, Evan and Tyler.  You have been missed.  One of the challenges of watching the Thundermans is keeping up with their revolving group of friends.  In some ways, its better to have too many friends (that’s normalcy in a teen’s world) as opposed to just having one.  Its good to see them back – and to see Tyler’s new haircut.

Second, the best episodes of the Thundermans are the ones that pit Max against Phoebe against each other somehow.  That happens here when Phoebe bows out of the “A Plus Train Group” and joins Winnie and her friends on a social studies project on China.  Max, seeking maximum reward for minimum effort, joins the A Plus Train (and subsequently ruining their project by leaving the project out in the rain) and eventually he is kicked out.  The scene where Max flexes his biceps in front of Sarah and practically starts drooling is a gem.  Evan’s awesome line, “Sarah, give me your glasses.”  Sarah seems a little less wacky here as well.

Third, we revisit Phoebe’s desire to be a normal teen.  She has been struggling with this normal teen – superhero dilemma for the first two seasons and its in play again here.  When she realizes that (1) Winnie and company are happy with a C and (2) she’d rather have an A, she dumps them and decides to work by herself.  No dice, says teacher Ms. Austin, group work or you fail so she ends up paired with Max.

Phoebe holds her own against Max, vowing not to do any work but in the end, she makes egg rolls.  Ready to accept her F, Phoebe is spared when Max creates a fireworks show (since fireworks were created in China).  Its an A for both of them.  Once again, Max comes through in the clutch, reinforcing the idea that, while they may be good v evil, Max does care for Phoebe.

The B story with Hank and Barb challenging Nora and Billy to run the household was fun – but the resolution – that Nora and Billy had asked for help from a number of other superheros – did not come as a surprise.  The Thundermans does have fun, though, creating fun superhero names.

All in all, a fun episode!