After escaping from the mentally unhinged fox, Guy and Sam spend the night at the bottom of a pit in a junk yard. When danger arises, Guy has to use his inventing skills to escape.
Tropes appearing in "Dark"
- Achilles in His Tent: Even as they sink into deadly toxic ooze, Guy refuses to give into his calling as an inventor, leaving Sam to try and make something himself. When it nearly kills him, Guy grabs the tools from him and sets to work on it without another thought.
- A Good, Old-Fashioned Paint Watching: The old woman who owns the bed and breakfast literally sits on her front porch and enthusiastically watches the grass grow through binoculars.
- …And That Little Girl Was Me: At first, Guy insists that the story of the failed inventor isn't about him but someone named Gee, but when Sam doesn't pick up on it, he solemnly confesses that he was talking about himself.
- Art Reflects Personality: Michellee and E.B.'s respective drawings speak not only to one another's skills but their personalities: E.B.'s self-portrait is a whimsical mass of squiggly, brightly-colored lines. Her mother, inversely, draws a more technically correct and clean drawing of E.B. just standing with her arms at her sides.
- Bait-and-Switch
- The first thing that happens in the episode is Michael, encroaching on our heroes, saying "You'll pay for this!" while bearing his teeth at them. Seconds later, he says "You'll pay for this, Michael!" revealing that it was a Survival Mantra to prevent himself from succumbing to his egg addiction.
- After eating the necktie too fast, Mr. Jenkins' stomach lurches and a bulge travels up his throat. At first, he looks as though he's about to throw up all over Guy, but it turns out to be a harmless little pop-like burp.
- Sam shakes his bottle of fizzy drink as hard as possible before opening it, causing Guy to panic that if he opens it, it'll douse the fire, but it doesn't. Double subverted when the cork that Sam popped off of it lands on the bottle, knocking it over into the fire, dousing it.
- Berserk Button: In his moment of weakness, Michael does not like being reminded of Sandra, the hen he's trying to give up eggs for, and saying her name sends him into another Freak Out.
- Bilingual Bonus: “Gee” is a alternative French pronunciation of the name “Guy.”
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Courtesy of the narrator in his first lines of the episode."Oh man, this is scary!
Was this in the book??
Just tell me what happens!!
I can't bear to look!" - Chekhov's Gun: The misleading motel sign in the junk pit ends up working as a makeshift bridge in the climax when Sam needs to get across the river of toxic waste to reach the vending machine so they can get it's coinage.
- Cool Car: Inverted with the car Michellee rents which is covered in bubble wrap, which is meant to look as uncool as possible.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Both Guy and Jenkins' are revealed in flashback. Guy's is about how all of his inventions failed because they randomly explode while Jenkins's is about how he was stolen from his mother in the wild by poachers. Sam nearly reveals his - and it's the darkest and most troubled of all- before Guy interrupts him.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Michael telling Guy and Sam to save themselves as he freaks out again resembles a Painful Transformation from a monster movie.
- Fatal Flaw: Guy's backstory reveals that his inventions usually work perfectly as they're intended, but they all explode at random.
- Foreshadowing: Michellee reveals that she's quite skilled at drawing. In the penultimate episode, it's revealed that she used to be a professional painter.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Pausing on Guy's newspaper reveals that all of the inventors he's competing with all have rhyming names. There's also a blurb about another inventor who invents a phone with wheels (a "mobile phone," you see).
- Genre Savvy: As Guy prepares to tell what is definitely not his origin story, Sam excitedly asks if it is.
- Growling Gut: Two examples.
- After slurping up Michael's comically long necktie in one go, Mr. Jenkins' stomach begins to lurch, as eating them too fast gives him gas.
- While at the bottom of the junk pit at night, Sam asks Guy if he's hungry, which Guy angrily denies. His growling stomach disagrees with him, however.
- He's Back!: Sam says this word for word when Guy finally starts building inventions again.
- Hidden Depths
- Guy passively mentions that he's a feminist and admires that Michael respects Sandra's autonomy to be her own hen.
- This episode reveals Michellee's talents as an artist.
- I Have This Friend: Guy insists that he is not the protagonist in the story he tells Sam about a failed inventor named Gee. Sam believes him, even after Guy outright tells him he was lying.
- Insistent Terminology: As Guy builds his fire-making device.Guy: I have an idea.
Sam: An idea? Like, for an invention?
Guy: It's not an invention. It's a new device I am assembling out of necessity to do something not previously possible.
Sam: No, I think that's what an invention is.
Guy: Alright, fine! It's an invention! - Incredibly Lame Fun: Michellee describes staying at a bed and breakfast as being like "a slumber party with your mom instead of a friend" to E.B. Understandably, E.B. is not impressed.
- Let Me Tell You a Story: As they sink into the toxic ooze, Guy tells Sam about how his dreams of being an inventor were dashed.
- Pet the Dog: Seeing how attached E.B. is to the chickeraffe but still not willing to let her have a pet, Michellee decides to meet her half way and makes a beautiful drawing of Mr. Jenkins with a note at the bottom reading "So your pet's with you forever. Love always, your mom."
- Pun
- Sam refers to Sandra the hen as Michael's "chick" (girlfriend). Michael replies, offended, "Sandra is no one's chick!"
- One of Guy's failed inventions is a can opener. No, it doesn't open cans for you, rather it tells you that you can open it yourself while cheering you on.
- The blurb in Guy's newspaper during his flashback is about an inventor who creates a "mobile phone." As in a phone with wheels. A quote from the inventor says it'll help with rolling calls.
- Sam calls the tools he uses to try and build an escape device a thingamabob and a thingamadave.
- This Is Reality: As Guy tells Sam, as nice as the sunset in the middle of an open field is, it also means that soon it will be dark and they have no place to stay.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Guy tells his story in Seussian rhyme.
- Scenery Porn: The sunset that Guy and Sam watch at the beginning of the episode.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Sam and Guy spend their last hours of daylight heading towards what they think is a motel. It turns out to be a motel sign sitting in a junk yard, which is at the bottom of a pit, which they fall into and are forced to spend the night in, nearly getting burned alive by toxic waste.
- Stalker Shrine: Michael has one for Sandra that plays "Baby Love" whenever the door is opened.
- Technology Porn: The coin-operated horsie ride which Guy retrofits with spring-loaded plungers and that he and Sam use to escape the junk pit, then travel to the next town. Unfortunately, it explodes as soon as they're done with it.
- Tempting Fate: Sam happily notes that their invention didn't blow up on their trip. Guess what happens as soon as they dismount it.
- Visual Pun: The restaurant which Sam and Guy visit at the end of the episode has a "half-off" menu, which has a diagonal perforation to tear it in half to see the less expensive dishes. The dishes themselves are literally a regular-sized dish cut in half.
- Waxing Lyrical: As Sam collects the bruckles spewing from the busted vending machine, he exclaims "Bruckles from heaven!" in reference to the Bing Crosby song "Pennies From Heaven."
- You Know What They Say About X...: Sam has trouble remembering that "necessity is the mother of invention" because he doesn't know what they say about necessity.
