"I'm just saying that the plan was genuinely dumb. As many of our plans are, I now realize."
— Dennis
The gang's plan to steal a priceless "artifact" leads to them getting trapped in a suburban home when the owners return unexpectedly.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Apple of Discord: Dee deliberately splits up Mac and Charlie by asking Charlie why Mac is the only one who gets to press the button on the walkie-talkie.
- Artifact of Doom: Charlie suggests that the vase might be cursed and advises Dennis not to touch it.
- Big Eater: Mac spends most of the episode eating from a bag of chips that he refuses to share with Charlie, and at one point ditches the gang mid-plan to go and get a burger.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Charlie describes the husband as having "pointed feet". When Mac states that he's just wearing cowboy boots, he insists that his feet could still be pointed underneath.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Discussed; the gang fear that this will be their fate if they get caught, as the homeowners have southern accents.
- The Drag-Along: Dee claims that she got dragged into the plan and never wanted to be a part of it, though Dennis disagrees with this assessment.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- The gang have stunned reactions when Frank threatens to whip the daughter's face if she exposes him.
- Dennis, Dee and Charlie are shocked to learn that the mom is having an affair with a friend of the dad, and are noticeably distressed when the dad gets home and gets into a screaming match that causes the little girl to start crying. But once the dad threatens to have this arrangement go all night, the three opt to just make a break for it.
- The Faceless: The faces of the family are never shown until the very end of the episode, when it's revealed that they're Asian.
- Failed a Spot Check: Played for laughs as the gang point out how utterly oblivious the family must be to not have noticed them despite the amount of noise they're making.Dee: I'm beginning to think that this family has zero awareness of their surroundings.
- Hillbilly Horrors: After hearing that the family has Southern accents, the gang becomes convinced that if caught they'll be raped and tortured.
- In Medias Res: The episode opens with the gang already mid-scheme as Dennis and Dee are trapped in a closet in some random house, and we gradually learn how they got there as the events unfold.
- The Klutz: Dee knocks into a table full of ornaments as she and Dennis are attempting to make their escape.Dennis: Dee, you gangly, uncoordinated bitch! I am not getting hogtied over your lack of grace!
- Lampshade Hanging: The episode ends with Dee asking if it was weird that the Asian family had Southern accents.
- The Load: Dennis accuses Dee of being this, insisting that she "nosed her way in" to the plan and is nothing but a liability.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: While it's mostly chalked up to mounting frustration, Dennis uncharacteristically accepts the blame for getting the Gang in the situation they were in by making his grandiose speech in the "hamburger shop".Dennis: [to Dee] I know I shouldn't have stood on that table and given that awesome speech about how I was the perfect one to lead us into the house because of my wonderful grace. I know that. I regret that now. It was a very persuasive speech.
- No Indoor Voice: Both Dee and Frank.
- Oh, Crap!: Dennis, Dee, and Charlie have this reaction upon hearing that they could be stuck in the house all night.
- Only Sane Man: Dennis lampshades the importance of having one of these in the group.Dennis: We immediately escalate everything to a ten! It's ridiculous. I mean, somebody comes up with some preposterous plan or idea, and then all of a sudden everybody's on the gas, nobody's on the brakes, nobody's thinking. Everybody's just talking over each other with one idiotic idea after another, until finally we find ourselves in a situation where we've broken into somebody's house! And the homeowner is home.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: You know the situation is bad when Charlie is willing to bail on the plan by leaving Philadelphia, which he hates doing.
- Potty Emergency: Dee is so desperate to pee that she ends up going in front of Dennis when the two of them briefly duck into the bathroom.
- Priceless Ming Vase: It's revealed that the gang are in the house to "recover" a "stolen" vase (that was actually sold to the family at a perfectly legitimate auction). Frank ends up smashing it with his whip at the end of the episode.
- The Reveal: The family with the very strong southern accents... are actually Asian.
- Rousing Speech: Dennis apparently gave one prior to the gang breaking into the house, though we don't actually get to see it.Mac: What about your whole speech about how "I have the grace of a falcon and I'll be in and out like a demon's whisper"?!
Charlie: Dude, you stood up on your chair in that burger restaurant and said that speech for everybody!
Dennis: It was a damn good speech. It was very persuasive, but I regret it now. - Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- At one point Mac and Charlie threaten to ditch the others and run away to Arizona to open a custom leather shop, until Dennis reveals that he's heard their entire conversation thanks to Mac holding down the button on the walkie-talkie.
- The Gang decides just to walk right out when the father says they might spend all night working through the family's issues.Dennis: Screw it. Let's just walk right out.
- Self-Deprecation: The gang start to worry they will be raped and murdered by the family after they hear the mother's Southern accent since, according to them, people from the South are all insane. Dennis' actor Glenn Howerton is from Mobile, Alabama.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The vase was in the living room, and Frank just breaks it with his whip.
- Shout-Out:
- The Indiana Jones movies are referenced throughout the episode, with Mac wearing an Indy-style fedora while Frank carries around a whip.
- Frank hiding amidst the stuffed toys in the little girl's room is a reference to ET.
- The gang believing that Southerners torture and rape trespassers alludes to Pulp Fiction.
- Smart Ball: Subverted, Mac at first comes up with a decent enough plan to distract the family while his friends sneak out through the back. Then he insists on using a Swedish accent, something so ridiculous it causes Dennis to abandon the plan all together.
- Stating the Simple Solution: After Charlie admits that he got inside via the front door, Dennis (basically done at this point) suggests just walking out the front door to escape.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Dennis and Dee both have the exact same reaction to hearing Mac and Charlie's plan to open a leather shop in Arizona.Dennis & Dee, several minutes apart: You'll/They'll be out of business in a week's time!
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Frank tries to grab the vase they were after using the whip. Naturally, he ends up destroying it instead.
- Take That!:
- To Jay Leno.Dee: Who wants to see Jay Leno fifteen, sixteen times?Dennis: No-one! No-one wants to see him once!
- Even Mac and Charlie, who took offense at Dennis's comment about Indiana Jones, admit that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull "was dumb."
- To Jay Leno.
- We Need a Distraction: At one point Dennis and Dee ask Charlie and Mac to create a diversion so that they can escape. Unfortunately, Charlie doesn't seem to know what a diversion is and just runs straight into the house, getting trapped with the others.
- Wham Line:
- Concerning the plot twist of the family's situation, there are two specific ones, one for the audiencenote , and one In-Universenote .
- For both, there's also the sound of a car screaming into the driveway.Dennis: [quietly] That's the dad.
- Wham Shot: See The Reveal.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Mac's terrible "Swedish plumber" accent.
- Would Hurt a Child: Frank threatens to whip the little girl in the face if she blows his cover.
- You Need a Breath Mint: Dennis and Frank comment on how terrible Dee's breath is when they're stuck in close quarters with her.
