History Recap / NightmareTimeS1E2ForeverAndAlwaysAndTimeBastard

As with all ''Nightmare Time'' episodes, it's a DoubleFeature, consisting of two stories -- and, in this case, one CreativeClosingCredits sequence that serves as a mini-story:

* TheBigGuy: Creator/DylanSaunders is mostly in this story to play this role, in his {{cameo}} as Tom escorting the Homeless Man out of the wedding and as the leader of the biker gang sexually harassing the two Emmas.

** When watching this scene in hindsight, it's pretty clear Emma 2 is pulling off an ExactWords lie -- it's ''true'' that she was a drifter with no friends or family who was desperately jealous of Emma 1's life, and that she took the opportunity to steal that life after Emma's accident. She just doesn't mention that the ''reason'' she has no friends or family is she's a time-traveling robot from the future... and that Emma 1's BusCrash ''[[VehicularSabotage wasn't an accident]]''.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"Keep runnin' away, you time bastard!"'']]

* DreamSue: The ambiguous DreamSequence of Ted and Jenny's wedding doesn't just give Ted his TheOneThatGotAway back, it makes ''everything'' in his life better -- Paul ''actually is'' his best friend and best man instead of barely tolerating him, his {{Frenemy}} Bill is now his direct subordinate at work who seeks his approval -- in fact, just the fact that he has a huge crowd of approving friends and family on his side of the aisle means his life is much better than his real life as TheFriendNobodyLikes. Sadly, what we learn about Ted's life is that this trope is justified -- [[ForWantOfANail it was losing Jenny in the first place]] that triggered Ted's downward spiral into an unrepentant {{Jerkass}} to everyone around him in an effort to NeverBeHurtAgain.

* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: "I just shot my OneTrueLove with a DisintegratorRay! (While I was incompetently trying to seduce her and she, revolted by my new self, was trying to fend me off.)"

** The first is of Ted's surname, long touted by WordOfGod as being a spoiler: Spankoffski. WordOfGod later clarified that previous claims of the surname being inherently a spoiler ''were'' true back when ''Nerdy Prudes Must Die'' was expected to be the third installment of the Hatchetfield saga, a plan which was disrupted by the pandemic, so they decided to just reveal his name here. Presumably, Ted's younger brother, obliquely mentioned in "Watcher World", would have been introduced in NPMD and Ted would have been revealed to share his name later. As it stands, it still works as a Reveal that Ted has a [[PunnyName silly]] and [[MeaningfulName meaningful]] surname (it helps that all the cast members have giggle fits as Nick reads it out), and instead it will be the identity of his brother which serves as the reveal of their relationship.
** More significantly, we learn that Hatchetfield's resident [[CrazyHomelessPeople crazy homeless man]] is in fact Ted himself, having travelled back in time 15 years and been forced to take TheSlowPath back home. WordOfGod confirms that this is true of ''all'' incarnations of the Homeless Man, despite Ted dying young in every other story in which he appears, this [[TimeyWimeyBall timey-wimey]] oddity working on the same still-unknown mechanism by which there are multiple Hatchetfield timelines to begin with.

* ReunionShow: One for both the actors and characters from ''Theatre/TheGuyWhoDidntLikeMusicals'', minus only Mariah Rose Faith -- all of the core cast of ''TGWDLM'' reappear as their primary characters from that show in either this story or its immediate prequel, "Forever & Always", since it's about all of Paul's friends from CCRP Technical showing up at his wedding. This story notably brings in the two characters from CCRP Technical who didn't show up in the previous story for a {{cameo}}, Charlotte and Mr. Davidson.

"Peanuts!" directed and performed by Creator/JoeyRichter and Creator/LaurenLopez

* TheBadGuyWins: Arguably, depending on who the audience empathise with, Android Emma and Paul 23 might ne considered the Bad Guys, but they remove anyone who could threaten their scheme to KillAndReplace their originals, and are able to live on, with no one the wiser and their marriage intact.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* ExcitedShowTitle: "Peanuts!" The exclamation point may be a CallBack to the mild RunningGag in ''Theatre/TheGuyWhoDidntLikeMusicals'' where every time Peanuts is mentioned in a newscast someone in the room smiles and responds, "Peanuts!"

* ADateWithRosiePalms: We get to hear a lot about Ted's apparently insatiable need to... satisfy his own appetites whenever he's bored at his desk at work -- indeed, it becomes a major plot point, since it's the reason no one else ever goes into his office [[SkewedPriorities even when there's a time portal there]].

* ExtremeLibido: A big theme of this story is making it clear just how much of a "horny bastard" Ted really is -- he can barely stop talking or thinking about sex for five minutes, including compulsively [[ADateWithRosiePalms masturbating]] whenever he's briefly in private, no matter how inappropriate the venue.

* TooMuchInformation: Prof. Hidgens gives Ted and the audience this when it comes to his "relationships" with his AI assistants. Ted, in turn, gives everyone this when it comes to his [[ADateWithRosiePalms habits at his desk at work]].

* IncrediblyLamePun: Ted defends his right to jerk off in his office by saying that all US citizens have the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of ha-PENIS".

* ContrivedCoincidence: One reason Ted can't let go of TheOneThatGotAway is that the ''very next day'' after he tried and failed to [[CannotSpitItOut pluck up the courage to confess to her]] he found a DearJohnLetter saying she'd left town never to return because -- crushing {{irony}} of ironies -- she couldn't stand being around him knowing her love for him was [[UnrequitedTragicMaiden unrequited]].

* MyNameIsInigoMontoya: After his NoHoldsBarredBeatdown of Young Andy, Ted not only leaves him alive, but outright ''tells him'' to remember the face of the man who beat him and his [[TheRedBaron badass title]] of "The Time Bastard" -- not just TemptingFate but ''ensuring'' that the StableTimeLoop that turns Andy into Executive Andrew Kilgore is completed. (Sadly, Ted doesn't yet know exactly how this StableTimeLoop ends...)

* TheRedBaron: Ted ends up treating "The Time Bastard" like this kind of title.

-->'''Music:'''\\

-->'''Music:'''\\
"Time Bastard" performed by Kim Whalen

-->'''Music:'''\\
"Peanuts!" performed by Creator/JoeyRichter and Creator/LaurenLopez

* KnifeNut: Emma 2 would ''prefer'' to arm herself with a gun -- saying it's a shame to ruin the expensive carving knife Bill got them for their wedding -- but acquits herself very well in combat with the knife and seems to enjoy herself while doing so.

* AbsenteeActor: This time, Mariah Rose Faith wasn't available to be in the main cast, meaning that Emma's coworker Zoey is mentioned as being at the wedding but doesn't actually appear. (Alice is also mentioned but doesn't appear, having already left for college.) This played a role in the staging of the TitleSequence for the story -- it had been proposed that the song "Forever & Always" be performed by Prof. Hidgens and Zoey in-universe, but with Mariah not actually in the cast of the episode proper it was easier to have the SurrealMusicVideo be entirely [[MusicalWorldHypotheses non-diegetic]].
** Kendall Nicole was also absent for this episode, meaning that we don't get to see if Tim Houston is an attendee at the wedding (even though his father Tom is).
** It turns out that, even though Jon Matteson is obviously in this episode, his ''character'' of Paul Matthews doesn't show up in this episode -- or in ''Nightmare Time'' Season One as a whole -- at all, having been KilledOffscreen long before the story starts.

* AbsenteeActor: Curt Mega, who played Peanuts' owner Papa Ed in ''Theatre/BlackFriday'', couldn't actually be in this video, hence Papa Ed only appearing as part of Peanuts' backstory as a still photo in the newscast.

* TakeThat: This story is a very harsh one both to "pickup artist (PUA)" culture (a la ''Literature/TheGame'') and its associated mindset of the [[EntitledToHaveYou entitled "Nice Guy"]].

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: "Peanuts!" comes out of ''nowhere'' and took the audience completely by surprise.

* ExtyYearsFromNow: Ted's travels take him first 85 years in his future, then 15 years in his past, meaning Andrew Kilgore spent exactly 100 years waiting for him.

* LemonyNarrator: Normally the voice of TheNarrator (as played by Creator/NickLang) in the stage directions is fairly neutral, but in "Time Bastard" the narration almost takes glee in constantly putting Ted down, insulting him and finally gloating about his endless eternity of suffering in the Bastard's Box once the story ends -- almost as though it's [[NightmareFuel Tinky himself doing the narrating]].

* LotusEaterMachine: The HopeSpot with the "AlternateTimeline" of Ted and Jenny's wedding seems like a DreamSequence, but TheNarrator outright tells us it isn't -- it's far too vivid to be a dream, with Ted being able to smell Jenny's skin and feel her breath on his neck, taste the wedding cake, etc. In hindsight, it's probably this trope, with Tinky using his RealityWarper powers on Ted directly.

* ContrivedCoincidence: One reason Ted can't let go of TheOneThatGotAway is that the ''very next day'' after he tried and failed to [[CannotSpitItOut pluck up the courage to confess to her]] he found a DearJohn letter saying she'd left town never to return because -- crushing {{irony}} of ironies -- she couldn't stand being around him knowing her love for him was [[UnrequitedTragicMaiden unrequited]].

* MismatchedEyes: When the robot Emma [[GoForTheEye gets her eye damaged in a fight]], she has to replace it with one belonging to a biker she killed, resulting in one eye having a different color than the other.

** This also applies to some of the more minor physical features of the characters, like Robert Manion conspicuously stroking his imaginary BadassBeard as one of the bikers, or Paul 23 revealing his SlaveBrand tattoo (that Jon Matteson doesn't actually have) on his right wrist.

* NotSoDifferent: Paul's final {{reveal}} to Emma 2 that he's an impostor as well.

* CurbStompBattle: The fight between Emma 2, the biker gang, and eventually everyone inside the Birdhouse tavern, which is [[TakeOurWordForIt lavishly described by the stage directions]] in bloody, gory detail.

* ChurchOfSaintGenericus: Paul and Emma are pretty clearly having a non-denominational wedding (to hold off Ted's Presbyterian objections to walking into a "stinky-ass Methodist church" from ''Theatre/TheGuyWhoDidntLikeMusicals''), using the Hatchetfield Natural History Museum as their venue, but it still seems to be a religious service -- we enter InMediasRes to Prof. Hidgens wearing a clerical collar saying "Thus ends the lesson" after apparently having just read from the Bible. That said, [[CloudCuckooLander it's Prof. Hidgens]], so any conclusions about what church he belongs to are still up in the air.

* TheBadGuyWins: Emma 2 and Paul 23 remove anyone who could threaten their KillAndReplace scheme, and are able to walk away alive, with no one the wiser and their marriage intact.
* BaitAndSwitch: The whole fun of this story is doing this to the audience ''multiple times'' -- first luring everyone in hoping to see Paul and Emma's wedding, then revealing that Emma isn't who she says she is and is just an IdenticalStranger who stole the real Emma's life -- then revealing that this story can't be the whole truth because the real Emma is alive and has come back to Hatchetfield and is actually ''completely'' identical to the woman Paul married, and finally confronting us with the sheer absurdity of a TerminatorImpersonator plot. And just when you thought you'd been through all the twists and turns the story had in store comes one last WhamLine that ''Paul'' was ''also'' an impostor all along.

* AntiClimax: A deliberate one for the TitleSequence, where after a lengthy homage to Franchise/JamesBond describing the titular "Time Bastard" as something in between a MagnificentBastard and a CompleteMonster, the final musical sting shows us this James-Bond-esque figure is... Paul's sleazy coworker ''Ted'', of all people (complete with an [[UnflatteringIDPhoto unflatteringly goofy photo]]).

* TheFamilyThatSlaysTogether: At the end [[spoiler:Emma and Paul both admit they're duplicates who killed their originals and agree to go and kill the homeless man who knows she isn't the original so he won't blow her cover.]]