Airdate: February 11, 2007
After Drake makes Josh miss an important chemistry exam, Josh decides to cut ties with Drake. Josh's life starts to improve, while Drake's life starts falling apart, making the latter realize that he needed Josh in his life.
This episode contains tropes of:
- An Aesop: Don't take your family and friends for granted. You may never realize how much they do for you until they're gone.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Josh announces he is done with Drake, Drake asks him if he's going to leave home, leading to an Armor-Piercing Response on Josh's behalf.
- Armor-Piercing Response: When Drake asks Josh if he is moving out, Josh says that he isn't but he just considers Drake a roommate and nothing else and says that he's through with him.
- Berserker Tears: Josh bursts into tears and then angrily tries to tackle Drake for causing him to be late for his chemistry exam, but he still ends up getting kicked out of the classroom.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Drake learns this the hard way when Josh flips out at him for making him late for the exam and when Megan calls him out on it too after watching Josh calmly says that he's done with him.
- Big "NO!": Drake gives one to Mr. Roland after leaving the power shower when he tells him to sit down. Keep in mind that this technically qualifies as talking back to his teacher; it says a lot that Drake was willing to disobey his teacher just to have a chance to mend his relationship with Josh.
- Book Ends: The episode starts with Drake and Josh playing ping pong together (albeit Drake forces Josh to play with him when he was studying). At the end of the episode, as they reconcile, they play ping pong again.
- Break the Haughty: Drake thinks that he doesn't need Josh in his life, but after a failed chemistry experiment, he realizes that he was wrong and that he needed Josh way more than Josh needs him.
- Butt-Monkey: Drake, and not in a funny way either. After Josh cuts ties with him, his guitar breaks, he can't gas up his own car, his benefits at the movie theater go away, he's almost late to class because Josh didn't wake him up, he gets a zit, and he ends up stuck with a lab partner who speaks so incoherently they can't do their experiment. It all comes to a head when he spills chemicals all over himself resulting in him having to take a power shower, which causes Drake to realize just how much of a piece of shit he's been to Josh and how much he needed him.
- Defensive "What?": Drake gives this response as Josh points at him, which Josh does not take very well.
- Disowned Sibling: The basic plot of the episode is that Josh disowns Drake after he gets sick of his behavior.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Not only does Mr. Roland kick Josh out of class for being a minute latenote , but he forces Josh to take a make-up exam on Saturday at 6 A.M. and will have his grades dropped because of it. Fortunately, Josh aces the make-up exam and Roland is impressed enough that he takes back the grade deduction.
- Dull Surprise: The look on Josh's face after Drake's tearful apology to him after his accident in chemistry class is clearly this. Clearly Josh was not expecting Drake to sincerely apologize and admit that, not only had he been a terrible brother to him and that he indeed deserved to be cut out of Josh's life, but that he needed him far more than Josh needed him. And in front of the entire classroom, no less.
- Even Evil Has Standards: After seeing Josh's Tranquil Fury, even Megan agrees that Drake went too far. She sincerely warns Drake that if he doesn't fix this, then Josh probably is never going to forgive him.Megan: (to Drake) You really did it this time.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: After Josh's breakdown and getting kicked out of class, he's studying at home, unusually calm. He actually smiles when Megan tells him about the whale watching field trip, and says that her new orca plushie is cute. Josh never enjoys Megan's antics. A few seconds later, Drake comes home and Josh announces he's done with his stepbrother. Megan takes notice and gets worried.
- Get Out!: Mr. Roland does this twice to Josh; first when Josh runs late for class, then when Josh furiously lunges towards Drake.
- Heartfelt Apology: Drake gives one to Josh at the end, breaking down in tears in front of everyone. It convinces Josh to give Drake one more chance.
- Heroic BSoD: Drake ends up in depression after he gets home from school. Not even Megan revealing she used his guitar to squish a spider phases him.
- I Reject Your Reality: A mild example. Because of Drake's vain, selfish and self-centered attitude, he frequently mistreats Josh and takes advantage of him whenever it suits him, yet he genuinely believes Josh's life is better with him in it simply because ''he's Drake'', and that Josh needs him in his life more than he needs Josh. But when Josh finally gets fed up with Drake's selfishness and cuts him out of his life, Drake finds that Josh's life is improving without Drake while his life is much more difficult without Josh's assistance and presence to coast on. Leading to an emotional breakdown that hits him on two levels. First, he realizes that he needs Josh in his life, while Josh doesn't need him at all. And second, when he realizes his presence in Josh's life make his life worse, not better it finally dawns on him how toxic he's been all this time and what a terrible brother he truly is.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Josh does this after Mr. Roland kicks him out of class for being tardy. Turns into Berserker Tears when Drake gives off a smug comment as Josh points at him, prompting Josh to nearly tackle Drake in a fit of rage.
- Internal Deconstruction: To Drake and Josh's relationship. Usually, Josh puts up with Drake's inconsiderate behavior towards him, but this time, he gets fed up with it and decides to cut ties with Drake for good. Without Drake, Josh is actually having a good time since he no longer has to worry or stress about Drake screwing stuff up for him. Meanwhile, without Josh, Drake cannot function in life since he no longer has Josh to help him out. At the end, Drake realizes how much he actually needs Josh and how toxic he was to Josh's life.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Drake steals the sit-in-bounce from a neighbor's kid (Robbie) as an Apology Gift to Josh. Josh rejects it and says that he's done. Then Robbie comes inside the house, takes back his toy, and kicks Drake in the leg.
- Let Me at Him!: As Josh furiously charges towards Drake for making him miss the exam, the other classmates have to hold him back and Mr. Roland throws him out of class again.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently, Drake accidentally ran over Josh's bike the night before the exam.
- Oblivious to His Own Description: At first Drake believes that Josh's life will "fall apart" without him in it, even as it's obvious that his life is going downhill and Josh's is vastly improving. It isn't until the accident in chemistry class that Drake realizes that he was the one that needed Josh far more than Josh needed him.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Josh is normally depicted as a Large Ham when it comes to dealing with Drake's shenanigans. He also actually smiles when asking Megan about her field trip, and admires her new plushie. However, when he tells Drake he no longer wants to be associated with him, he is noticeably calm, making it clear that he truly means what he had just told him. Megan herself notes that Drake crossed a serious line.Drake: Stop being mad at me.
Josh: I'm not mad at you. I'm done.
Drake: What's that supposed to mean?
Josh: I don't want anything to do with you anymore.
Drake: So what, are you gonna move out?
Josh: No. This is a house where I live and I guess we'll be roommates until the day I leave for college, but that's all we'll be is roommates. I'm done with you. - Pet the Dog:
- Megan notices that it's not like Josh to be angry and calm. She warns Drake that Josh means it about being done with him, and he ought to do something before it goes too far. Likewise, she sincerely congratulates Josh on acing his makeup exam.
- Though Mr. Roland planned to mark down a grade to Josh for being late while he takes a make-up exam, he backtracks it because he did so well on it, getting a one hundred percent. Later, he offered Josh a chance to talk to Drake after the latter's breakdown during a botched chemistry experiment. He immediately shoved Drake into the shower after his mishap and didn't punish him for his breakdown.
- Poor Communication Kills: Drake doesn't inform Josh that he's leaving to make out with his girlfriend, causing Josh to have no ride for school and end up being late for the exam. He also ran over Josh's bike which didn't help matters either.
- Rage Breaking Point: After getting thrown out of class and being forced to take a make-up exam with his grades getting dropped, it only takes Drake to give out a Defensive "What?" as Josh is pointing at him to make Josh completely lose it and nearly attack Drake on the spot.
- Rejected Apology: Drake tries to apologize to Josh for making him late to class, but Josh just ignores it and sternly tells him he's done with him, mostly because Drake's apology at the time was insincere at best. Though after Drake's sincere apology to him in chemistry class, while he wanted some time to think about it at first, he does truly accept it and reconciles with him.
- Revenge Before Reason: Granted, Josh has every reason to get angry at Drake, but he should know better than to take his anger out on him in a classroom. Naturally, Josh gets into even more trouble.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Josh angrily tries to attack Drake after the latter makes him miss his important chemistry exam, only to get himself thrown out of class again.Josh: (points at Drake) You!
Drake: What?
Josh: Raaaaaaaaaaah! Come here! Come here, you wanna tussle!
Mr. Roland: Mr. Nichols! You will leave this classroom now!
Josh: But I—
Mr. Roland: Now!
Josh: I just—
Mr. Roland: Now!
Josh: (leaves) Now... - Tears of Remorse: Drake bursts into tears as he apologizes to Josh for mistreating him.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Josh gets his life back on track, all thanks to cutting out Drake in his life. For example, he gets a 100% on his make-up chemistry exam and won't get his grades dropped because of it.
- Tranquil Fury: Josh never expresses any anger or malice towards Drake when he's ended his friendship with him, aside from trying to attack him in the classroom, making it clear at the start that "He's not mad. He's just done."
- Trauma Conga Line: Drake goes through so much trauma after Josh leaves him, but the final straw is when he gets covered in chemicals after screwing up an experiment and realizes that he's nothing without Josh.
- Unexpectedly Dark Episode: While Drake and Josh have had their arguments in the past, never before has it reached a point where they became estranged from one another as it did in this episode. As such, even though everything gets resolved in the end, this is one of the few episodes to portray an issue completely seriously.
- Unstoppable Rage: Josh nearly beats up Drake in a fit of rage, though is restrained by his classmates and teacher before he could do so.
- Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: Discussed in-universe. When everyone finds out that Josh has severed ties with Drake, they agree that he made the best decision possible. His stress rash disappeared, his grades are doing better, and he's getting along with Helen.
