It's out of one nightmare and into another for the White Gestalt. So a normal Tuesday, basically.
This arc contains examples of:
- Abandoned Hospital: Where the Chapter takes place.
- Anger Is Not Enough: What Nanu is trying to teach Ash with his methods. Due to the events of Blossoming Trail we know that the lesson can only partially work.
- Asshole Victim: The person Killjoy executes to demonstrate the soul in his video is one Dr. Bumby. Frankly, Killjoy did the world a favor.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Specter's feelings for Easter are quite mixed, but he is angry when Grace uses her knife to grace their arm, bashing her nose in with his shield.
- Berserk Button:
- Nanu figured out a new one to make Ash furious, instead of insulting Ash's skills, he's gone to insult the performance of Ash's team in general throughout the series.
- A minor one, but don't tell Tapu Bulu you think Tapu Koko is cooler or you will get a berry thrown in your face.
- Big Brother Instinct: When Simon notes that Gladion isn't the last "Poke guy" they fought, Gladion remarks that they could easily fight off a trainer akin to Lillie's level...and then gets enraged at the idea of the asshole Apex leaders hurting his sister.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Dark Easter and Lampetia point out how the other behaved to get Specter to confess (Lampetia was too passive, Easter was too forceful) and decide that they need to do better next time if they truly care for him.
- Call-Back: As the White Gestalt leaves the car, they suddenly get surrounded by a multitude of spiral-wing butterflies.
- Call-Forward: Just count how many times in Part 3 the fight with Grace and Simon are foreshadowing the end of the Apex, Simon and Grace's death and Simon actually going as far as to murder a girl as proof he's the Apex.
- Grace proclaims that denizens aren't real people...and then Voyage of Wisteria reveals the entire time that she knew the truth the entire time but retreated into a "safer" paradigm.
- The storm of moths that appear as the Gestalt enter Psycke and Grace's reactions to them? All foreshadowing Ogami's appearance two stories later.
- Cliffhanger:
- The end of part 2 has the White Gestalt encounter Grace and Simon.
- The end of part 3 has Grace coming face to face with Kisaragi.
- Cool Shades: The vampire trio wears them...which London forgot to mention about the Brood when Dark Easter tried using a light attack to weaken them.
- Continuity Nod: As a reminder that Trip was once a passenger on the Train, Simon remarks that the last Poke guy got a souvenir (the faded eye and the Apex wavelength tattoo on the wrist) for ruining an "art show" (The Calligraphy Car).
- Creepy Puppet: Wouldn't be a Puppet Hospital without these.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Going with the idea that Specter's going through a sexuality crisis (his arc is about coming to terms that what he wants is to confess to Ryoken about how he wanted to have a partnership with his Ignis in a way that an LGBT person is taking the steps to tell their family about their orientation), we have Dark Easter and Lampetia acting like former lovers who want to be on the same page with their flame and help them out.
- Evil Counterpart: Riley is one for the Easters - a parasite that needs a host to survive. Both Light and Dark sides are disgusted by her.
- Grace and Simon are this to London who murder people and not feel a single bit sorry for what they caused, whereas London has realized what his actions have done.
- Exact Words: When Grace and Simon are levitating in mid-air by London, Grace demands the wrestler to put them down. London obliges...but not before telling them that he'll put them down over a barrage of sharp glass shards and sharp surgical objects.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Lampetia notes that Grace and Simon have a mouse...before she realizes that's a doormouse...
- Gilligan Cut: When the vampires appear, London asserts that he can handle this. Cut to the White Gestalt in the dungeon.Specter: How exactly is this handling this?!
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: Specter tells the Apex leaders that their philosophy and everything they built will crumble like a sand castle.Specter: Sooner or later you will fall and when you fall, not a single person will mourn for your loss. You will both die as pitiful shells of human beings. And we will laugh and tell tales of your fall.
- Hypocrite:
- Grace mocks Gladion in how he's "raising" Tokio who is summoning a tornado of sharp objects to attack her. Grace, how many kids did you brainwash again?
- She also notes that "no adult is gonna tell me what to do". Grace then quickly answers to London's question of "How old are you" with an "18", so she is an adult.
- Inkblot Test: Killjoy's first altered pod is hidden behind one, with a riddle that people will need to use their 'mind's eye' to find it.
- Lampshade Hanging:
- The final line of the first part has Gladion point out how annoying it is to go through multiple nightmare inducing cars.
- Specter actually using the shield that Gladion carried from in the Toy Brick car, something Lampetia brings up.
- Mythology Gag:
- Nanu's done his research on Ash's team and can recount their history and does so gleefully in regards to their various failures. Ash can counter these back having been there, but Nanu's plan remains unhindered.
- The way Rowlet learned Sucker Punch instead of Aerial Ace offscreen is similar to the same moment later in canon with Seed Bomb and Bullet Seed.
- Grace and Simon once encountered the Docent, a monster from Infinity Train Book 4.
- No Name Given: The vampire trio don't have names, so London decides to name them Gangrel, Edge and Christian out of convenience.
- No Sympathy: London does not give a fuck that he drops Grace and Simon over numerous pointy objects; after all, they should be able to take what they dish out and this is after Grace gave no sympathy on killing Utahoshi either. It's also because he's experienced wrestlers going through worse stuff like this referencing the stuff that the likes of Randy Orton (back covered in thumbtacks), Kane (set on fire) and speared at least twenty feet into the air dangling onto a championship belt (Jeff Hardy) have gone through.
- Precision F-Strike: London lets out a "FUCK YOU!" at Grace when she states that the denizens that she killed aren't real people because she's so callous about all of the murders compared to how he's realized what he's done.
- Ring of Fire: How the vampires make their entrance.
- Seen It All: Nanu apparently had a lot of adventures just like Ash, but burned himself out and became...who he is now.
- Shout-Out: The vampires are essentially denizens of the WWF staple the Brood, with the most notable reference being their ring of fire entrance.
- Stunned Silence: After Grace mutters "So what?" in regards to how she can barely give a damn on murdering Utahoshi, all of the White Gestalt let the words sink in before glaring at her.
- Subverted Kids' Show: The Puppet Hospital Car is described as a children's show having been left to rot.
- Tempting Fate: Everything Grace and Simon say about the Apex being eternal, how the denizens aren't really human and everything else will be this in hindsight when they enter the Fog Car in Blossoming Trail.
- There Was a Door: The vampires only make their appearance from a ring of fire, even to check up on the prisoners in a tiny cell.
- Wham Shot: Poipole flipping out and drawing Necrozma...much earlier than in canon.
- What Does This Button Do?: Light Easter finds a button unearthed during the fight and presses it, which opens the ceiling of the train car for the White Gestalt to escape on Psykhe.
- Would Hit a Girl: Part 3 is basically "All of White Gestalt gets to beat the shit out of Grace".
- Specter bashes Grace's face in with his shield, which Simon remarks. Specter reports that Simon would kill a girl to satiate his ego.
- London strikes Grace with his staff and doesn't care when he lets her fall into a barrage of sharp objects.
- Tokio uses his boomerang to hurl the sharp objects down below.
- Gladion is quick to attack Grace with Umbreon at the thought of Grace and Simon attacking his sister.
