Evil runs deep in these parts...
Apothecary Gary: You see, these folks wanted my spores because it made them better gardeners. It wasn't mind control—not this time, really—and with this power, we turned Gardenton into a paradise. I've never had willing subjects before, and let me tell you, it makes a big difference.
Horace: With Gary's spores, we can feel the very needs of the plants we cultivate. We're one with nature. It's perfect harmony.
Cultists: (in unison) Perfect harmony.
Horace: With Gary's spores, we can feel the very needs of the plants we cultivate. We're one with nature. It's perfect harmony.
Cultists: (in unison) Perfect harmony.
Anne and the Plantars get stuck in a strange village of plant lovers.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Biology: In-Universe. Anne, true to form, suggests that the possible other member of Gary's species could be "a lady mushroom". Fungi don't have biological sexes (at least, not the types like animals such as mammals and amphibians do), let alone genders, as Gary bluntly lampshades.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- The mechanical dragonfly drone that attaches itself to the Fwagon initially seems like it's going to cause trouble for the resistance, but thanks to the Plantars making a wrong turn, it actually helps the heroes in the end, summoning an extermination team to Newgardington that forces Gary and his subjects to team up with the Plantars, and eventually pledge allegiance to the resistance.
- The mind control spores that Andrias is using to enslave the Amphibian wildlife actually don't come from Gary after his survival, but apparently another mushroom of his kind, and he’ll want to know about it, giving him another motivation to join the resistance's fight.
- Birds of a Feather: Hop Pop and Gary form an unlikely friendship because both are very into fieldwork, which helps them settle their differences in a very twisted way.
- The Bus Came Back: After Apothecary Gary was hinted to have survived after possessing Jeremy at the end of "Children of the Spore," this episode shows what he did since then.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- While taking a tour of Newgardington, Loggle accidentally steps on a flower, causing intense emotional distress among all of the villagers. Hop Pop uses this to incapacitate them after Apothecary Gary reveals himself and expresses his desire of taking revenge.
- The dragonfly spy drone that finds the wagon and attaches itself to it to find the resistance base ultimately proves beneficial to Anne's party when it summons an extermination team that firstly gives them the opportunity to flee Newgardington, and a reason to work alongside Gary and forge an alliance with him.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Jeremy the beetle is revealed to be the insect that Gary managed to possess at the last second of "Children Of the Spore", and now serves as his current host going forward.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The extermination team that the drone summons are equipped with flamethrowers and colored red to separate them from the rest of Andrias's forces and signify how destructive they are.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Subverted; when the gang meets the leader of Gardenton it initially seems to be Hop Pop's old friend Jeremy the beetle. However, it is immediately pointed out that the real leader is Apothecary Gary, who is possessing Jeremy as his new host like he did with Lloyd previously.
- Doom Troops: The Extermination team are Frobots equipped with flamethrowers, tasked with quick purges of settlements, and they give no quarter.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: The mysterious founder's room is filled with purple mushrooms.
- Green Thumb: The villagers' symbiosis with Gary allow them to empathically feel the needs of all plants, making them exceptional gardeners capable of cultivating even the most finicky orchids.
- Heel–Face Turn: Since he has no safe place, and with the reveal there might be another mushroom like him (which is how Andrias is controlling the wildlife), Apothecary Gary joins the side of the heroes.
- Hidden Elf Village: The village of Newgardington is hidden under a perpetual fog bank at the bottom of a valley that's off the path.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: While recruiting for the resistance, Hop Pop tries to pitch being able to grow vegetables and gaining horticultural experience as one of the perks. This has the opposite effect, and the kids' reactions imply this happens every time.
- Kill It with Fire: The Exterminator Frobots are equipped with flamethrowers. At one point, Sprig uses one of the torn-off weapons to melt its previous owner's head.
- Never My Fault: Apothecary Gary is mad at the Plantar family for almost killing him. He simply ignores the fact that he tried to brainwash and enslave them before.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If it wasn't for the dragonfly drone summoning the Exterminator Frobots, Anne and the Plantars would have been immediately killed by Apothecary Gary and his cult.
- Not Brainwashed: While the villagers do have Gary's spores on their heads, he's not controlling them, instead working with them. That being said, Anne and the Plantars can't help but feel very disturbed about the whole arrangement.
- Of Corpse He's Alive: Gary is re-introduced this way, with the team talking to what they think is an old frog in a chair before Anne turns on her phone and exposes it as a desiccated skeleton with Gary's mushrooms growing through it, with Gary revealing himself shortly afterwards.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Anne and the others understandably want to leave the village at the first opportunity after their last encounter with Gary, only to be convinced to help them out fighting off Andrias's strike team by Hop Pop's guilt over accidentally leading them to their Hidden Elf Village.
- Shout-Out:
- At the beginning of the episode, the shot of one of the Frobots crushing an Amphibian skull underfoot is a clear homage to Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
- The entire setting is a reference to Midsommar.
- Loggle does a flex worthy of Alex Louis Armstrong.
- Skewed Priorities: Imprisoned by vines at the mercy of the villagers, Hop Pop takes the moment to preach the versatility of plants, something vehemently lampshaded by the others as inappropriate.
- There Is Another: Gary has previously believed that he was the Last of His Kind, but upon learning of Andrias' mind-control collars, he agrees to join the Resistance in hopes of finding another one of his species.
- Title-Only Opening: The seventh episode in the series to not play the theme song, presumably as a result of "The Core & the King" being the next episode.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Despite Anne and the Plantars saving Gary and the villagers, they have no problem with attacking their rescuers immediately afterwards. If Hop Pop hadn't been able to talk some sense into them, it would have ended very badly.
- Vine Tentacles: Apothecary Gary has Bessie and the rest of the group tangled in vines before the extermination team unwittingly saves them.
