Forced out of his own body by his smug alter-ego, Nick fights back — with help from his friends and the Gratitoad. Matthew comes out to his dad.
Tropes in this episode:
- All Your Powers Combined: A variant. Nick uses his friends' anxiety-reduction techniques to defeat Nick Starr: He calms himself down using Andrew's four-second breathing method when he returns to his body. Nick then uses the Gratitoad gifted to him by Jessi to give him the confidence to keep fighting and help him fend off Tito. Finally, at Rick's urging, Nick enters his evil counterpart's mind to embrace his insecure self like Missy did, allowing him to defeat Nick Starr once for all.
- Art Shift: Jay's photo of Brad and Suzette on his phone is a live-action photograph with their cartoon faces on their real-life counterparts.
- Ass Shove: Nick learns that ghosts have to go up people's butts to possess them.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: The final battle between Nick and Nick Starr, with the Gratitoad and Tito duking it out in the background.
- Behemoth Battle: A giant Gratitoad fights a giant three-headed Tito.
- Bittersweet Ending: More sweet than bitter. Matthew is accepted by his father, who promises to help him with his mother rejecting him. Nick gets his body back, thanks to help from Jessi, Andrew, and Missy, and accepts Rick being his Hormone Monster again. Tito is eaten by the Gratitoad and Depression Kitty is shrunken down to something Jessi can manage better. However, the Gratitoad mentions that Tito will never truly go away, and Jay and Lola break up.
- Call-Back: Connie mentions the time Nick saved Jessi from the Depression Ward in the second season finale.
- Andrew mentions the time Duke possessed him and punched him in the groin in "Duke".
- Continuity Nod: Jay has autographed photos of the Fab Five and the magicians seen in "Requiem for a Wet Dream". He also has a poster for Gordie's Journey on his ceiling.
- Empathic Environment: When Nick successfully vanquishes Nick Starr, the Bad Future full of Scenery Gorn around him shifts into a Solar Punk Crystal Spires and Togas future.
- Everybody Knew Already: Matthew's father already knew he was gay.
- Foreshadowing: The fact that Matthew's father called him "Sailor" rather than "Soldier" was pretty much an indicator that he already knew.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: While Tito and Depression Kitty don't completely disappear, they are shrunken after defeated by the Gratitoad. Jessi even admits that Kitty is kinda cute when she's small.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Averted, as Nick says he is grateful for all of his friends, even Jay.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: During the song at the end, Kroll, singing as Rick, slips into his Coach Steve voice during the high notes.
- Product Placement: Nick Starr does plugs for Four Loko and French's Yellow Mustard.
- Running Gag: Whenever Nick possesses a body, the person being possessed (or someone nearby) shouts, "Ooh! Outrageous!"
- Saying Too Much: When Tito and Kitty try to dissuade Jessi from helping Nick, Tito brings up how much Nick’s behavior freaks her out to keep the friends apart. Instead this makes Jessi realize that if Tito's been bothering Nick, it means he's been struggling with his own anxiety, which leads her to giving him the Gratitoad to help.
- Sequel Hook: Deliberately, when Lola tells Jay he'll be destroyed in the next season.
- The identity of the Masked Principal. (But here's a hint: it's Roman Polański.)
- Shout-Out:
- Missy shouts "Jinkies!" when first seeing Nick as a ghost.
- When Connie tells Tito and Kitty to stand down from messing with Jessi, she wears a yellow dress and holds a baseball bat while yelling "Hold up!", a reference to the Beyoncé song "Hold Up", in which she wears the same outfit and wielding a bat.
- When Nick calls the Gratitoad, "Mr. Toad", the Gratitoad says, "'Mr. Toad' was my daddy. He was known for taking wild rides."
- Nick compares Nick Starr's apartment to American Psycho without all the charming references to Phil Collins. This is unusual, as in the previous episode, Nick outright said he did not watch movies.
- So Proud of You: While inside Marty's body, Andrew asks Nick to say that he's proud of him. When Marty finds out Andrew slapped him in the face, twice, he tells Andrew that for the first time ever, he's proud of him.
- Connie also says she is proud of Nick.
- Take That!: One of Matthew's fears about coming out to his dad is being forced to watch Wedding Crashers.
- Tarot Motifs: "Whatchya Gonna Do?" briefly shows some of the characters as tarot cards.
- Nick is The Fool.
- Andrew is The Tower.
- Missy is Justice.
- Jessi is The Star.
- Lola is The Empress.
- Jay is The Magician.
- Title Drop: The episode is named after Rick's Catchphrase, which he says a lot in this episode.
- This Means War!: Said by Lola to Jay after finding out he cheated on her with Brad and Suzette.
- The Voiceless: Leah and Judd appear but have no lines. Leah is justified, since Kat Dennings was busy filming WandaVision.
- Wham Shot: Notice how in the beginning of the episode, they only show the top half of Nick, and it's not until Duke mentions that he might be a ghost that the camera pulls out to reveal his wisp.
- You Can See Me?: Said word for word by Nick after Andrew sees him following the former's possession of Marty's body. It's implied he's only visible to those who have seen definitive proof of his ghost abilities or has reconciled with him; he becomes visible to Missy after thanking her for her kind words, and Jessi after she sees the Gratitoad be lifted into the air by Nick's invisible self.
