Thirty years in the future, rich but lonely game show host Nick prepares to flee a dying Earth. But first, he has to track down the perfect plus-one.
Tropes in this episode:
- All Just a Dream: In the end, it is revealed that Nick slept on the bus home from the 9/11 Museum field trip, but several episodes later, this seems to have shades of Or Was It a Dream?.
- And I Must Scream: Nick's nightmare ends with him floating all alone in space, with only Tito (the personification of anxiety) to keep him company.
- Apocalypse How: Years of global warming and strip mining have taken their toll on the Earth.
- Bad Future: The Earth is basically a barely habitable hellscape where the gap between the rich and poor is so wide that people perform on humiliating game shows just to get medical care.
- Batman Gambit: Jessi only wanted to get on the ark with Nick so she could blow it up to take the 1% down along with the rest of the doomed humans.
- Call-Back:
- Nick's agent says the end of the world is being caused by the oceans flooding through a sinkhole in Florida.
- Jessi remarks that the hallway Nick and she are in is the same one where they kissed in the pilot.
- Once again, Cyrus insists that the bras he uses are for holding radishes, and not wearing.
- Eat the Camera: The episode ends with the camera zooming in on Nick's mouth while he screams.
- The Elites Jump Ship: The 1% try to escape Earth's destruction by getting onto a spaceship.
- Fantastic Drug: Nick Starr is shown constantly sniffing tubes of "Oh Yeah", which help him instantly climax. At the ruins of Bridgeton Middle, Nick assaults Andrew and demands him to make him some more when he runs out, while shaking and jittering. Nick Starr then becomes disturbed when he learns that it is made from Andrew's semen.
- Flash Forward: The entire episode takes place thirty years in the future. Until it turns out to have just been a nightmare.
- Foreshadowing: Andrew mentions he jerked off at a funeral. Several episodes later, in "The Funeral", he indeed does that.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: One of the shots of the people watching Missy's hologram on television is of a grown-up Roland, who seems to have married Kevin the now fully-grown Dolphoodle. Another one of the shots is of Seth and Natalie.
- From Bad to Worse: After Nick wakes up to find Tito's back, he then discovers Rick's back from retirement to be his Hormone Monster again.
- Future Badass: Jessi is a member of a protest group trying to save the earth. At the end, she ultimately blows up the space ark the rich and powerful try to use to escape the end of the world.
- Future Loser: Played around with for Nick and Andrew - Nick is a wealthy game show host, but he's utterly Lonely at the Top, whereas Andrew may be fat and balding (just like his own dadnote ), but he's Happily Married to Gina with a comfortable middle class life and a family.
- Gaia's Lament: The Bad Future features a world where pollution has obscured the sky for the lower classes.
- The Ghost: The Hormone Monsters are this since the characters are adults. Andrew and Gina's son is shown talking to Maury (though he's invisible to everyone else).
- I'll Be in My Bunk: As the world is literally falling apart, Andrew, Gina and their son Andrew Jr. initially decide to spend their last moments together as a family. Maury then suggests to Junior that he get one last self-love session in before he's burnt to a crisp. Junior follows Maury, telling his parents he'll be up in his room with the door locked.
- Immediate Sequel: At the end, Nick wakes up from his dream, still on the bus going home from the 9/11 Museum from the previous episode.
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Nick Starr says he can't go to Missy's funeral because he is marrying a bottle of tequila shaped like a boxing glove.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Future Jay looks extremely similar to Jason Mantzoukas, even having the same two white stripes in his beard.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: It initially looks like the rich and powerful have successfully escaped the planet they've reduced to a dying ball of fire into space on an advanced ark, but then Jessi reveals the bombs she strapped onto herself, detonating them to destroy the ark and kill them along with the rest of mankind.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Missy ends up dying in what appears to be an accident, but, in her last holographic message, she reveals she was murdered.
- Must Not Die a Virgin: A variation - as the world comes to an end, several characters decide to either have sex or masturbate before they're killed.
- Paying for Air: People have to pay to pee, with piss tokens being the main currency.
- Polyamory: Jay and Lola are the leaders of a sex cult in the Birch family home. Elliot and Diane participate.
- Shout-Out: After murdering Cantor Dina, Jessi says, "That'll do, pig!"
- Special Edition Title: The title sequence is shown while Nick Starr does his morning routine, while the original Black Sabbath version of "Changes" plays.
- Taking You with Me: Jessi blows up the ark the 1% took refuge in to escape the end of the world.
