Zeke: I told you, I'm innocent!
Tina: I don't care.
Tina: I don't care.
While serving as hall monitor, Tina is ordered to bring Zeke to his immediate suspension, only for him to escape. Meanwhile, Linda starts hanging up napkin drawings, leading Bob to take art lessons when his aren't good enough to make it onto the wall.
Midday Tropes:
- Analogy Backfire: When Tina argues for letting Zeke go, she tells Mr. Frond, "We're hall monitors. But people aren't halls."Gene: Tell that to Daryl Hall.
Louise: And Anthony Michael Hall.
Mr. Frond: Arsenio Hall.
Tina: Okay, a lot of people are Halls. - Beware the Nice Ones: Rudy learns that Tina lied about Zeke being sent to the principal's office and is so upset by it he single-handedly ruins her plans for promotion.
- Broken Pedestal: Rudy looks up to Tina as a fellow hall monitor until he learns she lied about getting Zeke to the principal's office.
- Call-Back: Zeke tried to do the simple solution of asking Coach Blevins for the mascot costume, but Blevins refused because he thought Zeke would just poop in it, just like he pooped everywhere in "Broadcast Wagstaff School News".
- Cassandra Truth: Zeke wishes to use the school mascot to cheer his grandmother up before her surgery, but no one believes him. It's not until Zeke's grandmother calls the school asking about him that Tina realizes he was telling the truth.
- Chained Heat: Tina uses a Chinese finger trap to keep Zeke from running away from her. Zeke being Zeke, he has no idea how it works and is convinced it's an overly complex contraption, leaving him amazed when Tina easily undoes it later.
- Fan Disservice: For one of his art lessons, Bob has to paint the elderly, out-of-shape Edith Cranwinkle... in the nude. Bob reacts about as well as one would expect him to.
- Imagine Spot: Tina imagines that receiving her hall monitor promotion includes a knighting and a flyover.
- Inspector Javert: Tina and Regular-Sized Rudy both serve as this.
- Pun: Tina to Louise and Gene when they slide down a banister.Tina: You just slid into detention.
- Riddle for the Ages: Gene apparently has a middle name that Linda never revealed to him. This is the only episode Gene's middle name is ever referenced in, and just like Gene the audience never learns what it isnote .
- Ship Tease: A lot between Tina and Zeke at the end. Zeke remarks that he'll finally have a story to tell on his and Tina's wedding day. He then remarks that while Tina might not think they're ending up together, he'll win her over eventually. Tina can also be seen with a small smile after this comment.
- Shout-Out: The Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title and several plot points are references to Midnight Run.
- Tina bribes her siblings to help find Zeke with a permanent hall pass. Gene refers to it as the one hall pass to rule them all.
- The iconic dam scene from The Fugitive is parodied when Zeke is at the edge of a stack of boxes in the storage closet, he tells Tina he's innocent which Tina responds with "I don't care." He then tries to make a dramatic escape by jumping off the boxes but since he's only a few feet from the floor, nothing really happens and Tina catches him anyway.
- Simple Solution Won't Work: Zeke tried simply asking if he could borrow the mascot costume, but Coach Blevins's refusal caused Zeke to resort to stealing it.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Zeke’s grandma looks like an old, female version of Zeke. She even has the same haircut. Louise lampshades it.Louise: Yup, that is definitely Zeke's grandma.
- Take Our Word for It: Bob's nude drawing of Edith is not shown for obvious reasons, but according to Linda it's actually pretty good (and detailed).
- Title Drop: Tina says "It's a midday run" when Rudy asks if Tina is fine escorting Zeke to the principal's office alone.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Mr. Frond is so determined to punish Zeke that he refuses to accept any explanation from anyone that can clear his name, to the point where he takes the kids to the retirement home Zeke's grandma resides and resorts to very childish gloating and "I told you so"s when they don't find Zeke. Only for him to be instantly proven wrong when Zeke appears in the mascot costume.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Besides Midnight Run, the episode also follows the plot of 1993's The Fugitive, even including a moment along the lines of the "I don't care!" scene.
