The episode's title sequence.
The Legends travel to 1951 Tokyo to find a gigantic sea monster, while Ray recruits Nora Darhk to heal Constantine, with Nate and Ava concurrently trying to survive Thanksgiving with the Heywoods.Tropes:
- Actor Allusion: Tom Wilson finally gets the saying "Make like a tree and leave" right, only for Nate to tell him that's still not it.
- Artistic License – History:
- It wasn't Ishiro Honda himself who had the idea for Godzilla, but producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, seeking to do invoke
Follow the Leader on The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. Justified in that Mick basically altered history by giving him the idea. - The episode has Honda give a big impassioned speech about the horrors of World War II and the attack on Hiroshima, but there were two problems with this; first, Honda wasn't in Hiroshima when the bomb struck, he was in China as a POW of Imperial Military, with his family living in Tokyo at the time. Second; the horrors that he experienced were of his own country, during his service Ishiro Honda was manager of a "Comfort Station" which was little more than a brothel established for soldiers, watched as the Japanese movie industry became an enterprise that would make Joseph Goebbels proud and was left with nightmares for the rest of his life.
- It wasn't Ishiro Honda himself who had the idea for Godzilla, but producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, seeking to do invoke
- The Atoner: When Ray gives Nora the opportunity to escape, she instead transports both of them to the Time Bureau and surrenders.Nora: I can't keep running. If you want me to be free, repentance is my path to freedom.
- Bait-and-Switch: At first, everyone thinks the Kaiju is the magical fugitive, but Charlie dismisses it as a mutant. The real fugitive is a magical journal and the Kaiju is an illustration drawn on its pages brought to life.
- Been There, Shaped History: Mick gives Honda the idea for Godzilla.
- Beware the Nice Ones: At the sight of a creep harassing Nora, Ray breaks the man's phone and threatens him into leaving her alone.
- Big Damn Heroes: Mick uses the book to bring "Garima Queen of Thanzanon" (the heroine of his novel) to life, who saves the group from Tagumo.
- Bittersweet Ending: Nora saves John's life, but turns herself in to the Time Bureau despite Ray's protests.
- Brought Down to Badass: Even after Tagumo gets shrunk, he remains a threat.
- Cringe Comedy: Essentially the entire Thanksgiving at Nate's home is this, due to his amazingly embarrassing family and Ava's awkward attempt at stalling for time when Nate is trying to deal with the crisis at the Bureau.
- Destructo-Nookie: Mick and Garima engage in some over the miniature city set after the latter has killed Tagumo.
- Equivalent Exchange: Discussed when Nora notes that saving John's life would require draining someone else of theirs. Subverted when Ray posits that the type of energy doesn't really matter as long as she has enough of it, so he substitutes a live power cable.
- Forgot About His Powers: Played straight at first; Nate apparently fails to realize that, after solving the crisis with the escaped magical creatures at the Time Bureau, he can simply use time travel to return to the exact moment he originally left the house. Thus, there's no need for Ava to stall time for him. Averted near the end of the episode when, at Ava's request, they do just that.
- Good Feels Good: After saving John's life, Nora remarks how for the very first time in her life, her magic doesn't scare her.
- Gratuitous Russian: Baba Yaga, naturally, speaks Russian.
- Hidden in Plain Sight:
- Ray suspects that Nora wouldn't have run very far in spite of the Time Stone he gave her due to this reason. Sara comes to the same conclusion, drawing a comparison between Nora and a criminal her father once arrested.
- Ishiro Honda's footage is hidden inside the big bomb replica in his bureau.
- Historical Domain Character: Ishirō Honda accidentally makes one of his kaiju a reality while making the film The Blue Pearl.
- Homage: To classic Kaiju films, specifically the original Godzilla film. The Legends even get to meet Ishirō Honda.
- Humans Are Bastards: Charlie's defense against the Legends' presumption that the fugitive is a magical monster is that it's probably a mutant created by nuclear bomb testing. She later defends Brigid's tome as a gift to make human dreams come true, yet humans only dreamt up more weapons.
- Hypocrite: Charlie chides the Legends for assuming that all Fugitives are homicidal monsters. In the process, she comes across as believing that all Fugitives are Not Evil, Just Misunderstood while Humans Are Bastards, showing the same level of bias. Actual evidence doesn't help her argument; three of the last four fugitives the Legends have met were homicidal monsters (at least two of which were intelligent and actively evil), the Time Bureau have captured several other dangerous beasts, and while Charlie herself and the book in this episode are morally sketchy at worst, they still caused damage, however unintentional.
- Hypocritical Humor: After talking about how glad he is to be alive, Constantine leaves to smoke a cigarette.
- Imagination-Based Superpower: The diary of Brigid was designed to help artists bring their imaginary creations to life. Unfortunately, Ishiro uses the book to create Tagumo, a Kaiju octopus who threatens to destroy Tokyo.
- Implausible Deniability: When Zari comes into Mick's room, he tries to make it look like he's watching porn instead of writing his novel. On a typewriter.
- Internal Reveal: Mona, the food delivery girl, learns about what is really going on at the Time Bureau. After handling the situation with the escaped Kaupe, Chupacabra, and Baba Yaga, she is even promoted to the Bureau's official new creature handler.
- Ms. Fanservice: Nora's outfit at the Renaissance Fair is quite revealing. It gets her sexually harassed by perverted creeps, and unable to do much about it without potentially losing her job.
- Muggle with a Degree in Magic: Mona instantly recognizes the magical creatures and knows how to handle them because she reads a lot.
- Never My Fault: Honda tries to blame the journal for his creation. Charlie calls him out for it, and he concedes her point.
- One Dose Fits All: The fugitives imprisoned at the Time Bureau are kept at bay with sedatives. All of them get the same amount, and they all wear off at the exact same time.
- Post-Modern Magik: To get around the risk of using dark magic to transfuse life energy into Constantine, Ray has Nora hold a power conduit and transduce its energy into life energy to infuse instead.
- Power Perversion Potential: Given a book that can bring anything written or drawn in it to life, Mick creates a purple-skinned, triple-breasted, alien warrior babe who, after she slays the monster, has passionate sex with Mick amid the carnage.
- Rent-a-Zilla: Tagumo, the giant squid monster.
- Rewriting Reality: The real fugitive is the Journal of Brigid, a Celtic Goddess. It has the power to bring imaginary things to life. Brigid intended for it to be used to make dreams a reality, but Honda accidentally uses it to give life to one of his nightmares.
- Shellshocked Veteran: Honda is obviously very traumatized about being a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing.
- Ship Tease: Gary and Mona get some.
- Shout-Out:
- Sara's words upon seeing the Kaiju in the newsreel? "Guys, I think we are gonna need a bigger time ship."
- Garima shares a certain quality with a particular character from Mars.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Charlie with everybody on the mission, to the point that Zari and Sara are short of getting into a fight with her.
- Special Edition Title: The title card is done in Japanese characters — complete with English subtitles.
- Tastes Like Friendship: The episode's B-plot is resolved by bringing enough food to feed all the monsters.
- Took a Level in Kindness:
- Nate's dad is a lot more amicable towards his son now.
- Minus Mallus's influence, Nora has become a sweet-natured person who wants to avoid any threat of becoming evil again.
- Wham Shot:
- When trying to heal John, Nora sees a vision of the same mysterious man John saw in his visions two episodes ago, implied to be the big, dreaded threat he knows is coming.
- Hank talking with someone on the phone at the end, reporting that it's possible to tame the magical fugitives, making them potential assets for something called "Project Hades".
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Sara encourages Honda, pointing out that he dealt with the immense pain and darkness inside him via art.
- You, Get Me Coffee: Mick tells one of the Japanese film crew members to get him some when they are on the set. The crew member shows up again with the coffee a few minutes later.
- You See, I'm Dying: Turns out John was already dying before he gave his life force to save the kid at the summer camp.
