Dale takes Joseph on a vision quest, but it's Dale who begins seeing things and believing that he is a Native American. John Redcorn attempts to influence Joseph's upbringing against Dale's newfound religious zeal, while Joseph falls in with a bad crowd of kids.
Tropes:
- An Aesop:Joseph: "Sometimes the coolest thing to do is make your own path and not kill a panda."
- Bullet Catch: Joseph accidentally lets go of the arrow, but before it could impale the panda, John Redcorn catches it with ease. Dale then takes out a gun and says, "Can't catch a bullet." Thankfully, Joseph turns him down.
- Hard Truth Aesop: Even if a parent is genuinely loving, caring, and desire's what they think is best for their child, they can still be a bad influence. Which is perfectly shown with Dale's insistence with Joseph hanging out with the troublesome cool kids.
- Hypocrite Has a Point: For all his hypocrisies, John Redcorn isn't wrong to take issue with the way Dale goes about raising Joseph. Hank and Peggy eventually come to agree with him early on in the episode after seeing some of Joseph's behavior and Dale's nonchalant reaction to it.
- Permissive Parents: When Joseph starts misbehaving at school, vandalizing the neighborhood with the other kids, and ignoring Bobby, Hank tells Dale to talk to Joseph so he'll stop misbehaving, but Dale says he's actually happy that Joseph is hanging with the "cool" kids, and decides to not do anything about the situation.
- Psychic Dreams for Everyone: The vision quest gives Dale a vision of the fact that John Redcorn was Nancy's lover and Joseph's father, though since it's Dale, he completely misses the point of the dream.
- Serious Business: John Redcorn wants Joseph to go on a Vision Quest as it is a sacred ritual for his tribe, and describes the process as going into the wilderness without food and water, and when the inductee collapses from hunger and exhaustion, they'll have a vision that will guide them through their life. After Hank writes down the gist of it, he leaves to make the preparations, which is when John Redcorn warns: "Hank, remember this is a very important ritual for my people. Don't half ass it."
- Toxic Friend Influence: While at school, some hooligans call Bobby and Joseph over to talk. Later Bobby gets home alone, upset that Joseph spent most of the day ignoring him, and the other kids merrily enjoy encouraging Joseph to get in trouble at school, and commit vandalism in the neighborhood.
- The reason why Dale wants Joseph to hang around these kids and be cool is because he doesn't want Joseph to end up like him when he was in high school. In a way, Dale is trying to live through Joseph due to his insecurities.
- Vision Quest: Several characters undergo a revelation while starving out in the wilderness.
- John Redcorn recalls seeing a tree with shallow roots being blown away, leading him to abandon the job he had in his youth, wrangling groupies for Winger.
- Dale sees a faceless Native American man, identical to John Redcorn, making love to Dale's wife and fathering Joseph. Dale chooses to interpret this as to imply that, as Joseph's father, this obviously makes him an Indian. John Redcorn encourages this interpretation.
- Joseph has his while sleeping, portraying him running with a herd of buffalo, only to be trampled when he can't keep pace, before coming face-to-face with a panda. Dale tells Joseph that the dream means he should "go with the herd," sticking with his new, delinquent friend group, even against his better judgment, and to go above and beyond their antics by killing and butchering the panda they were about to graffiti as a prank. John Redcorn explains to Joseph that the vision was warning him that trying to live a lifestyle not meant for him, like running with the wrong herd, would trample and ruin him.
- Parodied at the very end of the episode with Bobby, who had been unable to eat or sleep with all the excitement of the previous day. Bobby sees himself as a panda serving as a celebrity panelist on The Hollywood Squares.
- We Used to Be Friends: When Joseph starts to hang out with the "cool" kids, he actively starts ignoring Bobby because he's not willing to do stuff the other kids do.
