Lawrence (Reece Shearsmith) invites his old friends from university, Callum (Mark Gatiss) and Darren (Steve Pemberton), to join him for a reunion on board a pedalo. But as they head out across a lake with Darren's girlfriend Donna (Diane Morgan), events take a darker turn.
Tropes:
- Afterlife Welcome: At the end Lawrence gets greeted by his dead wife (offscreen) when he enters the afterlife.
- Artistic License – Education: A mild example. Assuming that Lawrence taught at his old university, it would be very unusual to do so with only a PGCE (which is usually geared towards school educators) and not a PhD.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Darren threw a milkshake on Donna when they first met, just to get her attention.
- Can't You Read the Sign?: Lawrence and his friends miss a sign saying that pedalo rental is closed for the season (indicating the weather is currently unsuited for it.)
- Cell Phones Are Useless: There's no reception on the lake which traps the protagonists on their pedalo.
- Class Reunion: Middle-aged Lawrence invited his two friends from his university years to a reunion trip on a lake.
- Coins for the Dead: Lawrence spits up a silver coin when the Fisherman asks for payment.
- Continuity Nod: Darren mentions pooping in a paint pot and leaving it behind when he moved house. This was previously referenced by Spike in the episode Once Removed.
- Exact Words: When Lawrence sees the pedalo empty and wonders where his friends are, The Ferryman assures him that they are alright on the other side. What Lawrence doesn't realize is that the other side means "the living world".
- The Ferryman: One appears in the Ambiguous Ending where he takes Lawrence to the afterlife for the payment of a coin.
- Gender-Blender Name: Lawrence and Bonnie have a child of indeterminate gender named Alex, who is away at university.
- Glory Days: Lawrence views his university days as this, and seems to have never moved on from his past even when Bonnie was still alive. He married Bonnie (his university girlfriend), teaches at his old university, and still considers Callum and Darren his closest friends despite not having spoken to them in more than a decade.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Bonnie, described by all as kind and loving, is shown to be blonde from a photo.
- "L" Is for "Dyslexia": Referenced by Darren - "When life gives you melons ..."
- Literal-Minded: After Lawrence breaks the news that Bonnie has died, he says she's in his bag (meaning her ashes.) Donna asks if Bonnie was a guinea pig.
- Literary Allusion Title: The episode gets its title from the children's song "Row Row Row Your Boat".
- Malaproper: Darren reveals that he has dyslexia. As a result, he confuses words like thinking paedo means pedalo.
- Plot-Driven Breakdown: The pedalo getting stuck in the weeds creates some drama. It could also be seen as a metaphor for Lawrence's inability to move on with his life.
- Potty Emergency: Donna has one and ends up having to pee off the side of the pedalo.
- Shout-Out:
- Lawrence refers to them as the ¡Three Amigos!, and also Three Men in a Boat.
- The Ferryman, and the coin Lawrence vomits up, are a Shout-Out to Classical Mythology. The ancient Greeks would bury their dead with a coin in the corpse's mouth, so that the dead person could pay Charon, the ferryman who takes the dead across the river Styx.
- The mention of a fourth friend being unable to attend the "reunion" because he lives abroad is seemingly a shout-out to Jeremy Dyson; the only League of Gentlemen member not involved with this episode.
- Shrine to the Fallen: Lawrence creates one for his late wife Bonnie on the island.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Lawrence jumps into the freezing water to get to the island, despite Callum saying it's so cold they would get hypothermia in there. The next morning he has died from the cold water.
- Time Skip: There is a skip from nighttime to the next morning.
- Together in Death: Lawrence is reunited with Bonnie at the end of the episode.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Bonnie is implied to have been this.
- Wham Line: "Because Bonnie's dead!"
