When Burgerphile mistakenly gives Dan a burger with cheese on it, he stages a protest by chaining himself to the counter. The manager, Jeff, is determined to prove that Dan ordered wrong. But Dan finds an ally in the plucky counter girl Hortense. Eventually Dan has almost everybody on his side.
The protest comes to an end when franchise owner Jeremiah Burger shows up, and Burgerphile accidentally goes up in flames. Dan and Jeff put aside their differences - briefly - to save it.
This episode provides examples of the following Tropes:
- Almost Kiss: Between Dan and Hortense, but Jeremiah drags her away for her promotion to her new regional manager position in Santa Monica.
- Bait-and-Switch: It looks like Jeff is going to stab Dan to death, but it's revealed he's just cutting onions near his eyes.
- Big "NEVER!": Dan's response to Jeff trying to use onion torture to get him to retract his order.
- Big "NO!": Jeff when he finally loses his perfect order.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Dan and Jeff in response to Crunchy's "Not So Different" Remark.
- Blatant Lies: Jeff keeps insisting that Dan didn't order his burger without cheese, though Dan has said so four times in the drive-thru.
- Burger Fool: Hortense specifically. Before she gets promoted by the CEO.
- Buried Alive: One of Dan's revenge fantasies.
- Callback: In a previous episode, Dan has Burgerphile on his List.
- Casanova Wannabe: When Chris and Elise express surprise over Hortense becoming Dan's girlfriend, Dan insists that the ladies love him. He's displeased by Elise's openly skeptical face.
- Chain Pain: Dan chains himself to the counter in protest, and later, Hortense is inspired to join him.Dan: Sweet! Get in my chains!
- Continuity Nod: Chris and Elise eat at Cafe Puree, from "Dan Vs The Fancy Restaurant". Also, the New Age Retro Hippies from "Dan Vs The Beach" show up to assist Dan with his protest, as does the Wolf Man (in human form), who also sells Dan chains.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Jeff cuts onions near the eyes of a chained-up Dan.
- Denied Food as Punishment: Jeff's strategy to get Dan to abandon his protest.
- Determinator: Dan chains himself to the counter and refuses to leave, until he gets what he wants.Jeff: You'll give up before you die.
Dan: You clearly don't know who you're messing with. - Didn't Think This Through: Jeff threatens to throw out any customers that give Dan food and forbids his employees to give him any, all in an effort to drive him off by starving him. Dan points out how long it takes for the human body to starve to death, so he still has plenty of time to cause trouble (plus, if he does die, they'll have to deal with a dead body chained to the cash register).
- "Eureka!" Moment: It's Jeff saying he's bad for business that gives Dan the idea to chain himself to the counter and actively lie about the place's practices.
- The Final Temptation: Jeff tries to get Hortense to convince Dan to give up by offering her the assistant manager position she's long wanted. She's reluctant to try, but Dan's sincerity convinces her to join his protest instead.
- Foreshadowing: Dan fantasises early in the episode about burning the joint down.Chris: This place is like 70% of your diet. If you burn it down you'll probably starve to death.
- Hartman Hips: Hortense.
- Honor Before Reason: Hortense offers to buy Dan a replacement burger. Even Elise offers to do that. However, Dan refuses as a matter of principle.
- Human Hummingbird: Dan and Jeff when they are lunging violently at each other.
- Hypocrite: Jeff refuses to fix Dan's order because he's more concerned with his 100% customer service record than actually serving the customers.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Dan for Hortense.Dan: We'll always have heavy chains!
- Improvised Weapon:Dan: CONDIMENTS!
- Irony: When the building catches fire, it looks like Dan and Jeff will team up to put it out. Jeff tells Dan where to start, but Dan deliberately shoots the fire extinguisher in Jeff's face."Now you know how it feels when someone gets your order wrong!"
- Jerkass: Jeff, who refuses to fix Dan's order because of his obsession with his perfect record.
- Jerkass Has a Point: One of the few episodes where Dan is 100% right.
- Large and in Charge: Jeremiah Burger.
- Last-Second Chance: After getting tossed out once, Dan goes back inside. He gives Jeff one last chance to just do the right thing. Jeff refuses, kickstarting Dan's plan.
- Manipulative Bastard: Jeff.
- "Not So Different" Remark: During the fire, both Dan and Jeff move to try to protect Burgerphile, acknowledging that they both do genuinely care about the place. Crunchy ruins the moment by lampshading it and gets yelled at.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Dan is constantly falling over himself to be nice to Hortense, even when in the process of complaining about Jeff getting his order wrong.
- Parental Substitute: Jeff refers to Jeremiah Burger as the closest thing he has to a father.
- The Perfectionist: Jeff, who refuses to fix Dan's order because it'll mess up his 100% perfect service record.
- Perfectly Cromulent Word:Dan: Enshackle me!Chris: "Enshackle" is not a word!
- Pet the Dog: Dan is considerably nicer to Hortense than anyone else. In fact, it's arguably the nicest he's been up to this episode.
- Place Worse Than Death: "Anywhere but Maryland! Anything! Send me to jail! Just don't make me go back to that awful place!"
- Police Are Useless: Invoked. They politely ask Dan to leave, and when he refuses, they give up. To be fair though, there was something more important that they were called away to deal with.Dan: Ooh, the police! I'm so scared! What are they gonna do, lock me in chains?
- Rapid-Fire "No!": Jeff after Hortense joins Dan's protest.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Jeremiah Burger. Unlike Jeff, he recognizes the first rule of their profession: the customer is always right.
- Also, the two police officers whom Jeff asks to arrest Dan. Since Dan isn't doing anything illegal, instead they just politely ask him to leave, and then go away once they're called to deal with a more important issue elsewhere.
- Skewed Priorities: When it's all over, Jeremiah Burger chastises Jeff for forgetting about the importance of the customer."Also, you nearly killed me, which is irksome."
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Dan and Hortense grow closer throughout the episode, eventually declaring their love for each other. But at the end, Hortense is promoted to Regional Manager, which requires her to move to Santa Monica. She and Dan both treat this as an eternal separation, even though (as Chris points out) Santa Monica is only a twenty minute drive away.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Before and after chaining himself to the counter, Dan points out this would all be over quite simply if Jeff just gave him what he ordered or a refund.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: The Channel 32 reporter actually agrees with Jeff about Maryland.
- A Taste Of His Own Medicine:
- All of this happened because Jeff got Dan's very specific order wrong. During the fire, Jeff tells Dan where best to start using the fire extinguisher. When told that is indeed Jeff's order, Dan sprays him in the face and says that's what it's like to get a specific order wrong.
- Jeff got this ball rolling by ordering Mac and Carl to escort Dan out of the building. In the end, after admonishing Jeff for his behavior, Jeremiah orders Mac and Carl to take him away.
- Telepathic Sprinklers: Averted, as Burgerphile has No OSHA Compliance, and Jeff hasn't checked the sprinklers regularly. They don't go off until operated manually.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Dan suddenly smells both smoke from the oven and hot grease. Just as he hopes those two don't mix, a fire breaks out.
- Threat Backfire: Jeff tries to scare the chained-up Dan off by saying he called the police. Dan feigns being scared, sarcastically asking if they'll put him in chains.
