Archie keeps paying more attention to his car than to anything else, much to Veronica and Betty's mutual irritation. However, Archie's obsession becomes requited when he buys a magical set of fuzzy dice. Now Betsy has a mind under her hood, and she has no intention of letting anyone get between her and her master.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Berserk Button: Betsy hates it when people leave crumbs in her or become too close to Archie.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Dr. Beaumont directly addresses the viewer when he gets exasperated that Archie's forgetting about his date with Veronica.
- Cargo Ship: In-Universe. Archie opens the episode being fixated on his car. When he hangs the dice on Betsy's mirror, the feeling becomes mutual, to the detriment of everyone involved.
- Hidden Harasser: While Archie is on a date with Veronica, Reggie mocks Betsy, who chases him up a streetlight. Veronica notices this and calls Archie's attention to it. However, before Archie looks back, the car has re-parked itself, making Archie think Veronica is just insulting his car.
- Made of Iron: After Archie removes the fuzzy dice from Betsy's mirror, inertia keeps the car careening straight towards the statue the others climbed earlier. When it hits, Archie gets thrown head-over-heels and lands on the pavement. He hasn't got so much as a scratch, let alone broken bones, when he wakes up.
- Meaningful Echo: At the beginning of the episode, Jughead exasperatedly tells his obsessed friend that a car is just a thing. While Archie is trying to stop Betsy from killing the others, she accuses him of choosing them over her. Archie tells her that they're people and she's just a thing, indicating that he's gotten the lesson.
- Monster of the Aesop: Archie becoming obsessed with his car to the detriment of his other relationships results in him buying a magical pair of fuzzy dice. The dice turn Betsy into a yandere who is willing to kidnap her master and kill his social circle just to make sure he and she will remain together forever.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: A semi-platonic example; Archie's car wants him to pay attention to nothing but her, so she drives off to the prom to kill Betty, Veronica, Reggie, and Jughead.
- Mythology Gag: At one point, Dr. Beaumont offers Archie "a compact disc of Ron Dante's greatest hits". Ron Dante was the lead singer of "The Archies", the protagonists' band in The Archie Show.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Archie buying dice for his car results in it coming to life and going Yandere on him. Noted by Dr. Beaumont who is annoyed that Archie will be learning his lesson the hard way.
- Oblivious to Hints: No matter how many hints Dr. Beaumont gives Archie about his date with Veronica, Archie doesn't get it. He lampshades his annoyance with how people have to learn things the hard way.
- Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: Betty and Veronica overhear Archie talking about a girl, which they assume is referring to themselves...until he mentions "Betsy", his car.
- Pet the Dog: Reggie shows genuine concern when Archie gets knocked out while rescuing the group from Betsy, calling him "buddy" and pleading with him to say something.
- Please Wake Up: Archie gets knocked out while saving the others from Betsy. By the time he wakes up, they're all gathered around him, very concerned, and begging him to be all right.
- Pun-Based Title: The episode, a Whole-Plot Reference to Christine, puns on a phrase about being irritated to the breaking point.
- Secret Test of Character: The plot gives one to Archie. He's been basically ignoring his friends in favor of his car, so the fuzzy dice he buys make the car go Yandere. Lampshaded by Dr. Beaumont, who reluctantly sells him the fuzzy dice after giving him every chance to remember he's paying for them with the money he needs for his date with Veronica.Dr. Beaumont: (to the audience) I always hate it when they go for the hard lessons.
- Shipper with an Agenda: While the group is cowering on the statue to escape Betsy, Veronica offers to set the raging machine up with a cute foreign car.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The plot heavily resembles Christine.
- Yandere: When Archie's car comes alive, it quickly becomes obsessively possessive of him.
