A delusion starts like any other idea .. But ends in disaster.
Tropes:
- Age-Inappropriate Dress: David is wearing boy's period clothing in the spectral dining room where he confronts Farouk; not technically Adults Dressed as Children since he isn't in disguise.
- And I Must Scream: Admiral Fukyama and the Vermillion keep Ptonomy technically alive...inside a computer inhabited only by a mysterious old woman.
- Big Brother Is Watching You: Admiral Fukyama keeps tabs on the people at Division 3 with a feed delivered straight to his basket helmet.
- Burn the Witch!: During the informational non-story sequences.
- Brain Uploading: Ptonomy's mind is uploaded into the Mainframe of Division 3 after his body is all but destroyed by the emerging psychic parasite.
- Enemy Mine: Future!Syd teams up with Farouk.
- Expy: The psychic parasite, due to its form and how it takes over Ptonomy and spreads from person to person, seems to be the show's version of the Brood Queen.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Inverted. The characters from the story come under attack from a creature previously used as a visual representation of the concept of delusion in informative sequences addressed to the audience.
- Jerkass Gods: Seems to be how the Shadow King sees himself combined with Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!!.
- Laughing Mad: Amy in the astral plane
- New Media Are Evil: Old-style horror comics specifically, in the "documentary" style parts of the episode.
- Our Monsters Are Weird: The delusion monster turns out not to be symbolic but an actual psychic parasite.
- Really 700 Years Old: Farouk boasts he has been persecuted by so-called heroes for centuries.
- The Reveal: The great evil Syd wants to stop with Farouk's help is Future!David himself.
- Beneath Admiral Fukyama's basket lies... Fukyama's regular human face.
- Stylistic Suck: The scenes frame rate glitches and even jump backs like a scratch record every so often during Future!Syd's meetings with Farouk and David.
- Visual Pun: Amahl Farouk literally puts David at the kids' table.
- Witch Hunt: Against the enigmatic Admiral Fukyama.
