Tina goes a little power mad when she's put in charge of the school time capsule, leading to Tammy starting a rival one in revenge. Back at the restaurant, Bob and Linda compete over which is cooler: Trilling Rs or whistling.
Fast Trope Capsules at Wagstaff School:
- Adults Are Useless: Like usual, Frond is no help when the Time Capsule debacle gets out of hand, abdicating all responsibility when Tammy starts her own un-authorized capsule.Frond: I can't stop Tammy from making a Time Capsule. I can barely stop that one kid from keeping bees in his locker. There'll just be two time-capsules; yours, which is the authorized, official one, and then the cool one that people would wanna be in.
- All for Nothing: After Louise goes to the trouble of taking the Boyz 4 Now tickets for herself, it turns out she had fake tickets all along. Susmita had changed her mind over the tickets and did the same trick before Louise did.
- Ambiguously Bi: Gene is open to dating Henry Haber, but only because he thinks Henry will do his homework for him.
- Bad Liar:
- As usual, Louise's interest in Boyz 4 Now is incredibly obvious, and her attempts at lying border on pitiful.
- Teddy's attempt to get Bob and Linda to reconcile with his fake story about his Handyman Jamboree is so obvious to the two the moment they sing his weird letter about whistling and Trilling Rs. He still doesn't realize they knew it was all made-up.
- Berserk Button: After being shown up by Tammy's time capsule, Tina gets instantly infuriated when she's told about it and lashes out with rage, which Louise weaponizes to get Tina to do the digging. When the girls get into an argument after Tina dug out and buried both time capsules, she asks Louise if she could push her button to dig out her time capsule fast (again) to bury the (fake) tickets, only Louise refuses, to Tina's dismay.
- Bittersweet Ending: Tina and Louise don't get to see the Boyz 4 Now concert since Susmita took the real tickets before they could, but Tammy and Jocelyn don't get in either after they stole fake tickets from Tina and Henry and Susmita are dating again. Also, the concert can be heard from outside the Wharf Arts Center, allowing the four girls who didn't get into the concert to still enjoy the live music.
- Comically Missing the Point: When it's revealed that Henry Haber won the Boyz 4 Now tickets, Gene hears the name and, thinking it's a completely unrelated guy, remarks that he'd get along with Wagstaff's Henry Haber.
- Continuity Nod: Linda first said she couldn't whistle as an aside in "The Ring (But Not Scary)".
- Henry and Susmita previously became a couple in "UFO No You Didn't".
- Furthermore, Henry is one of the very few people to have outwitted Louise, having done so in "The Millie-churian Candidate". This time it’s Henry's girlfriend Susmita who beats Louise at her own game. Either Henry taught her some tricks or they're even more perfect for each other than it seemed.
- Henry and Susmita previously became a couple in "UFO No You Didn't".
- Crazy-Prepared: Louise made dozens of fake tickets in case of not only Tammy catching them, but also of Tina turning on her and taking the tickets for her time capsule (both of which ended up happening). She also keeps the "original" tickets on her person rather than in her backpack with the rest of the fakes, to avoid any chance of accidentally handing off the "original" ones.
- It's later revealed that Susmita took back the original tickets and also prepared fakes for Tammy's time capsule.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: One of the items stored in the original time capsule is a Wagstaff yearbook from fifty years ago, which Tina flips through and notes is "not super diverse."
- Drunk with Power: Tina becomes way too picky in choosing the right items to put into the time capsule that she's described as this.
- Dumb Blonde: Jocelyn thought they were digging up a student named "Tim Capsule".
- Even Nerds Have Standards: Not even Mr. Frond is excited about making a time capsule.
- Gasshole: Linda claims that she can fart on command, one short and one long, to warn Teddy instead of whistling.
- Humans Are Bastards: Or, as the ticket-taker puts it when Tammy and Jocelyn realize they've been duped:Ticket-Taker: Welcome to the world. People are garbage.
- Hypocrite: Louise states that leaving fake tickets in the time capsule won't hurt anyone. When Susmita basically quotes the same ideology, having done the same thing, Louise growls it's not "a victimless crime".
- Imagine Spot: Tina has one of the current Wagstaff time capsule being dug up. Mr. Frond is still alive fifty years later (which Tina lampshadesnote ) before immediately dropping dead after the time capsule is revealed.
- Insufferable Genius: Henry writing "mediocre effort" while correcting Susmita's homework is the final straw that leads to their (temporary) break-up.
- Jerkass Ball: With Susmita's exception, every girl involved with the time capsule is at their absolute worst, with only Tina barely dropping the ball past her time capsule duty.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Tammy has a point about starting her own time capsule since Tina's is way too exclusive.
- Just Whistle: The B-plot starts because Teddy wants Linda to whistle if someone comes to ticket his truck. Linda confesses she can't whistle, which sets up the rivalry with Bob because he finds Linda's inability to whistle weird.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Tina's impossibly-high standards for what goes into the time capsule ultimately lead to everyone whose submissions she rejected leaping at the opportunity to contribute them to Tammy's more inclusive capsule, leaving Tina's with almost nothing.
- Noodle Incident: One kid kept bees in his locker, and Mr. Frond was (as usual) useless to stop them.
- Off the Table: After having dismissively relegated Rudy's poem to the "maybe pile" when he first offered it, Tina's offer to reconsider it when Rudy prepares to put it in Tammy's capsule only gets her a different poem from him: "You snooze, you lose!" Similarly, Mr. Frond's offer of one of his therapy dolls is rejected, and subsequently retracted during Tina's sucking-up attempt.
- Out-Gambitted: Louise's plan to replace the tickets inside the time capsule with replicas fails because Susmita had already done the same thing, meaning the tickets Louise took were already replicas.
- Poor Communication Kills: Non-fatal example, but it does lead to the episode's climax/main conflict. After Tammy buries Henry's concert tickets in her time capsule, Tina and Louise both agree to dig it up so they can have the tickets. Louise thinks they're doing it so she can have them and attend the concert, though, while Tina thinks they're doing it so they can put the tickets in her time capsule.
- Radio Contest: Louise spends the first act trying to get Boyz 4 Now tickets by calling the station. Henry Haber ends up winning the tickets so he can take Susmita. When Susmita breaks up with him, Henry donates the tickets to the time capsule, setting off the rest of the plot.
- Replaced with Replica: Louise's plan is to take the tickets out of the time capsule, copy them and put the copies in the time capsule. Unfortunately, Susmita had the same idea first, and Louise ends up with her fake tickets.
- Serious Business: Tina is the only one to take the time capsule seriously—not even Mr. Frond can muster any enthusiasm over it. She finds none of the students' suggestions worthy, which leads to Tammy making her own time capsule where everyone's suggestions will be admitted and it'll be dug up the next week so they don't have to wait for 50 years.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Bob asks who is going to chaperone the girls to the concert (he hastily says "not it"), Louise tells him that he can come as long as he pays $300 for a ticket. He quickly tells Tina to do it because he believes in her.
- Shout-Out:
- The title spoofs Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
- The Store Next Door is "How Can You Mend A Broken Hearth: Fireplace Repair".
- The Exterminator Van is "Ant Stop the Feeling".
- When asked to screen the time capsule submissions, Tina says, "Decide what best represents Wagstaff? Who lives, who dies, who tells their story?"
- When Mr. Frond asks how old the kids think he is, Gene asks "How old is Dumbledore?"
- Second Burger of the Day: The Unbreakable Kimchi Schmidt Burger.
- Henry gets the idea of putting the tickets in the time capsule after seeing Titanic (1997), where Rose left Jack's drawing of her in the safe.
- Teddy mentions the Simon & Garfunkel song "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" when talking about Bob's whistling.
- Start My Own: Tammy makes her own time capsule after her suggestions to Tina go "in the Maybe pile."
- Stylistic Suck: Discussed; both the original time capsule and Tina's time capsule end up being a whole lot of nothing.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- The time capsule has a note in it, but between fifty years of being buried and a ton of bugs chewing through it, the paper falls apart in Tina's hands right after she reads the opening line.
- Tina putting nearly damn everyone's items in the "Maybe" pile (which no one believes will get into the time capsule) causes everyone to happily support Tammy's time capsule in droves, leaving Tina's time capsule pathetically empty with just her barrettes and a note she wrote.
- Suspiciously Apropos Music: Tina lampshades that the Boyz 4 Now song playing in the end is oddly fitting for the current situation.
- Swapped Roles: You'd think that Tammy would be the restrictive time capsule while Tina's would be more inclusive, but it's the other way around.
- Trilling Rs: Linda can do this while Bob can't, which forms Linda's side of the argument in the subplot.
- We Win, Because You Didn't: Despite having wound up with fake tickets themselves, the kids were satisfied that Tammy and Jocelyn also had fakes, which was their original intention.
