Arlo

Arlo is a guest character introduced in Season 1 of Atypical. He is described as the spoiled, popular kid who enjoys bullying social outcasts, specifically Sam Gardner. Arlo is portrayed by actor Major Curda.

Biography[]

In the episode "A Human Female" of the first Season, Arlo makes his first debut, along with the other popular kids or his followers, including Bailey Bennett, who flirts with Arlo by kissing him, at Newton High School. When Sam approaches Bailey and Arlo to ask them on how to steal a girlfriend and he calls her a "skank" for kissing Henry and then Arlo, Arlo is offended and annoyed by Sam. He and his followers intimidate Sam by insulting him that he will never get laid by girls, but once Sam's anxiety starts to rise and while Bailey, in pity of Sam, tells Arlo and his followers to stop messing with him, Sam runs away from them.

Later on, in the episode "The Egg Is Pipping" of Season 2, he approaches Sam again at school near his locker by politely inviting him to his party at his house. However, since Sam told his mother that he was invited to Arlo's party and Arlo manipulated him to gain about $700 of funding to his party, Elsa calls Arlo's parents on her phone to ask what cutlery Sam would bring, based on advice given to him by Arlo. This is revealed to Arlo's parents that he was planning a party while they were going to be out of town that weekend. Arlo gets angry at him and grabs his expensive phone to smash it by tossing it to the ground, after Sam was watching a video of a baby penguin egg preparing to hatch on his phone. On top of that, Arlo pushes Sam to the ground to dehumanize him even further, causing Sam to feel sad about it and he leaves the scene in pain, while every students around them didn't do anything to stand up against Arlo or report to authorities about the incident. Otherwise speaking, the students around Arlo enable him out of fear of being targeted by him next right after Sam.

Appearances[]

Season 1[]

A Human Female (S1:E2)

Season 2[]

The Egg Is Pipping (S2:E5)

Trivia[]

Arlo is half-Asian and half-white, since his rich father is Asian and his rich mother is Caucasian, making him Eurasian like Julia’s infant son, Hanzo.
He was childhood friends with Sam Gardner until Sam’s autism started getting on Arlo’s family’s nerves that made his ableist or narcissistic parents and Sam's parents to break them up, resulting in Arlo's parents no longer being friends with Sam's parents.
He’s likely to be one of the most disliked characters, along with Elsa Gardner, for tormenting Sam throughout high school in the Atypical community.
As Doug states it, Arlo wouldn't have grown up to be an insensitive jerk if his parents had exposed him to different types of people, including those with autism like Sam. Much of Arlo's obnoxious and ignorant behavior is a result of the lack of diversity in his upbringing, as well as the ableist mindset instilled into him from his parents.
Sam unintentionally got Arlo grounded for planning a party when his parents weren’t going to be home.