Credit: Storyboard artist Kellye Perdue
Storyboarded by Jacob Winkler & Jessie Wong
Climbing down through the hole Alan Dracula left, MT and Jesse search for their lost deer companion. The duo soon learns that the tree is composed of branches that have living portraits of family members in the Gillicuty and Trumbleshanks family lines; the two families absolutely despise one another, but are forced to share the tree due to one of their descendants marrying one another. While MT wants to brute force her way to the bottom in order to find Alan, Jesse believes that the best way would be resolve the family feud so they have additional help. MT scoffs at the possibility of Jesse resolving the centuries-old conflict, but he's adamant about his ability to do so and they go their separate ways.
Both find their respective methods difficult; branches continue to grow faster than MT can break them, while Jesse's attempts at peacemaking only serve to anger both families. When they start insulting each other for their failures, the tree begins devouring them, while also turning Jesse into wood. Seeing Jesse's fear and anxiety, MT apologizes for her behavior and immediately realizes that the tree is responding to their remorse by loosening its binds and returning Jesse to normal. Now with the knowledge that acting amicably gets the tree to leave them alone, the duo continue their journey unimpeded by giving each other compliments throughout. However, as soon as they reach the base, they find that Alan Dracula has already begun climbing back up the tree on his own by turning his feet into suction cups.
Catching up to the deer, MT and Jesse ride Alan Dracula to the top of the canopy once more. MT again apologizes for her behavior and reluctantly admits that the best course of action going forward would be for her to help Jeese get his number down and leave the train, if only so she can have Alan Dracula all to herself afterwards. She states this will be an easy task when Jesse reveals his number is 32, only to have this belief dashed when he further explains that it actually started at 31.
Tropes:
- Continuity Nod:
- In Jesse's contact list, it's revealed that he puts sunglasses on animals, names them "Dracula" and takes pictures of them. Among those animals is a duck from the Cross-Eyed Ducks Car (which was hinted at in one of the documentaries).
- Damsel out of Distress: By the time M.T. and Jesse reach the bottom of the tree, they find Alan Dracula no worse for wear. He then decides to walk out on his own by turning his feet into suction cups, so they hitch a ride back up.
- The Ditherer: Jesse tries to mend the divide between the feuding families but keeps flip flopping his opinion at every argument they make.
- Feuding Families: The tree houses two families that hate each other's guts: the Gillicuties, consisting of classy Southern Gentlemen and Belles, and the Trundleshanks, consisting of not-so-classy hillbillies. Jesse's attempts to bridge the divide fall on deaf ears.
- Love Across Battlelines: The whole reason the two families are forced to share the same family tree in the first place is because a Gillicuty and a Trundleshank fell in love and got married. The couple is depicted at the bottom of the tree in mid-smooch.
- Overly Polite Pals: M.T. and Jesse act like this to get the tree to calm down.
- Poor Communication Kills: Rather than properly explain to Jesse why she's so defensive around him, M.T. describes her relationship with Tulip as if they were actual friends growing up, in hopes of making him understand. Naturally, this causes Jesse to misunderstand and label M.T. a terrible friend, and leads to them arguing more.
- Portmanteau Couple Name: In-universe example. After getting married, Gilda Gillicuty and Herbert Trundleshank combined their last names into "Trundlecuty".
- The Power of Hate: The tree feeds on the animosity of those trying to navigate it, growing branches to ensnare and absorb them. The branches recede when people are polite.
- Taken for Granite: Jesse begins to turn to wood when his anger gets the better of him. Mirror Tulip figures out that being nice reverses the process.
