Roger learns that someone has been charging his credit card and sets out to destroy his life...only to discover that it's one of his personas that has taken on a life of its own.
Tropes:
- Beware the Nice Ones: Sidney might be the nicest of Roger's personas, but that doesn't stop him from hiring a hitman to kill Roger after he ruins his life.
- Black Comedy Rape: In addition to destroying Sidney's garden, one of the things Roger did was rape his sycamore tree.Neighbor: I mean...yeah, the guy raped a tree.
- Call-Back: Francine mentions Professor Jordan Edelstein as one of Roger's past personas.
- Chekhov's Gun: Roger laments that he's missing a black glove before he sets out to sabotage Sidney's life. He finds the second glove at Sidney's apartment, just before realizing that he's really Sidney.
- Complexity Addiction: Roger sets out an elaborate plan to steal a pair of gloves which cost $10 that involves courting the saleswoman and even spends $700 on a necklace so that he has an opportunity to grab them when the display case is unlocked. Sidney calls him out on how dumb this was.Sidney: Wait, you spent $700 to steal a $10 pair of gloves?
Roger: (beat) Shut up! - Expy:
- Sidney Huffman is based on the many "nice guy" characters played by Jimmy Stewart.
- Judy is based on Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors.
- Foreshadowing: Tons.
- Throughout the whole of the first act, Roger is never seen during the day - combined with Hayley's offhand comment that Roger is "disappearing all day" and running around as one of his "ridiculous personas"...
- Roger has an insane streak of luck in his revenge quest against Sidney - managing to find his workplace, home address and phone number easily and being able to find Judy through Sidney "conveniently" leaving his address book at work.
- Steve accuses Roger of hiding behind his personas, so he doesn't have to face the fact that he's an inconsiderate asshole. This is exactly what happened.
- The Fundamentalist: Sidney is a devout Christian who sells Bibles and abstains from alcohol, which he calls "the Devil's nectar."
- Incredibly Lame Fun: Only Stan is initially interested in playing Simon.Stan: Wait, you haven't seen the yellow light yet! There's a yellow light!
- Jekyll & Hyde: Inverted. Roger is his usual mean self while Sidney is a kind and gentle soul.
- The Jekyll Is a Jerk: It turns out that the split personality, Sidney Huffman, is actually a genuinely nice character who only resorted to attempted murder after being pushed to the limits of tolerance by Roger Smith's douchebaggery. By contrast, Roger has always been Comedic Sociopathy incarnate, to the point that he created the Sidney Huffman persona because he didn't know how to process guilt.
- Nice Guy: Sidney Huffman is a clean, teetotaling Bible salesman who is kind to everyone he meets.
- Pet the Dog: Even after killing Sidney, Roger decides to take Judy out on a pity date.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Double subverted. Roger calls the hitman that Sidney hired to call off the hit. However, the hitman has a password for this, and says that it's not "password." Roger later remembers that it's "password1," as the hitman requires letters and numbers.
- Punch-Clock Villain: The hitman is targeting Roger only because Sidney hired him to, and has no problem walking away once Roger remembers the password.
- Skewed Priorities: After realizing that Sidney hired a hitman to kill him, and that he used his own card to do it, Roger notes that he's still getting airline miles out of the charge.
- Smoke Out: Roger attempts this twice to get out of the family's intervention and later when his credit card is declined at the liquor store. Both times he passes out rather than getting away. Klaus later successfully uses one to get the Simon game away from the family, though he ends up in some fantasy realm for sixty years.Roger: Son of a bitch, it can work!
- Tomato in the Mirror: Roger breaks into Sidney's apartment to torch it. Just as he's about to do so, he finds a picture of him...and discovers that Sidney is one of his personas having taken on a life of its own.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: Klaus uses a smoke bomb to save the family from Simon, and reappears a minute later inside some creature after having spent sixty years somewhere in which he is now their king.
