"We discover that we need to create a serum using the blood from one of these girls. Daniel goes off on his Woodward Deep Throat meeting, and we discover that Bree is under lock-and-key because there is going to be a Hymn of One Ceremony in one month! One month... one month! You know what that means, don't you? It means that we have a mission, and we choose to accept it!"
—Spencer recapping the past week, "We Have A Plan"
Dates Posted: (2007) July 11-13, 16-19, 22, 23, 25-28, 30
Having at last met with Spencer Gilman, the gang deciphers the formula for the serum to cure trait-positivity and goes on a mission to obtain the rarest ingredient required for it. And as time runs out on Bree's preparation for the Ceremony, a glimmer of hope to find her appears...
"The Bree Solution"
: Spencer and Taylor hang out at his apartment and attempt to decipher Isaac Gilman's waterlogged notes.
"Sing Until The End": Bree and Carl encourage viewers to join the Hymn of One.
"Deep Throat": Daniel goes to meet with someone who claims to have information about Bree.
"We Have A Plan": Spencer explains the TAAG have come up with a plan to get the trait-positive blood sample to make the serum.
"Mission Alpha": Spencer runs Jonas through a training course to help prepare him for their mission.
"Mission Beta": Spencer runs Daniel through a series of exercises in preparation for their mission.
"Mission Gamma": Spencer goes to a soccer field with Taylor and Sarah to train Taylor for her role in the mission.
"Mission Possible": The big day arrives, and the TAAG sets off to break into the Wyman Foundation and steal the blood sample needed to complete the serum.
"Proceed With Caution": Alex apologizes to the gang one last time, then gives them some information about the Order before she goes into hiding.
"The Serum": Spencer and Taylor work on making the serum that will cure Bree's trait-positivity.
"No Girls Allowed": Jonas takes Daniel out golfing, to get away from it all and just hang out with each other.
"Something's Coming": Bree and Barb announce that Bree is going to be undergoing a "change" soon.
"They Broke In!!!": The gang gets roused by an alarm at the lab, which came after an Order member broke in.
"A Week To Remember": Bree discusses with Carl and Barb how she feels about the journey she's about to undertake.
Tropes:
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: In "They Broke In!!!", someone from the Order breaks and ransacks the place, forcing the TAAG to take the serum and find a new hiding place.
- Ambiguously Gay: The security guard in "Mission Possible" is seen and heard crying about what's either the end of his relationship with his boyfriend or his roommate, but which isn't specified.
- Artistic License – Biology: Defied by Spencer in "The Bree Solution", who points out that sexual activity has no effect on DNA, meaning that Bree is still trait-positive.
- Bad "Bad Acting": The consolation Sarah provides to the security guard in "Mission Possible" is extremely wooden and flat, especially compared to the guard's Inelegant Blubbering.
- Blatant Lies:
- Daniel tells the woman in "Deep Throat" that the camera's turned off, but he obviously does not turn it off.
- The goofing-around montage at the end of "We Have A Plan" is briefly interrupted by Spencer speaking to someone off-camera:Spencer: I-I'm just recording some notes for my, uh, project. (nods)
- The Bus Came Back: Alex returns in "Mission Possible", to provide the retinal scan that unlocks the room containing the blood sample.
- Come Alone: In "Deep Throat", Daniel says that this was one of the instructions the informant gave him.
- Conveniently Interrupted Document: Isaac Gilman's research notes are nearly incomprehensible in places thanks to the water damage they received in "All Wet", extending the process of deciphering it.
- Double-Meaning Title: "The Bree Solution" uses solution in both the "answer to a problem" and "chemical compound" senses.
- Drinking the Kool-Aid: Seemingly invoked in "A Week To Remember" by the fact the three cult members are all drinking out of paper cups...
- Dude, Not Funny!: Taylor does not appreciate Spencer joking in "The Serum" that he might've heard a Watcher outside.
- Eccentric Mentor: Spencer during the first three "Mission" videos. He makes Jonas, Daniel, and Taylor go through seemingly ridiculous exercises (kangaroo hopping, contorting around ropes blindfolded, and playing classic video games respectively) while mostly maintaining his geeky demeanor, but these all turn out to actually teach them important skills for their upcoming mission.
- Expospeak Gag: Spencer gives us this gem when Jonas questions his expertise in "Mission Alpha":
- Jonas: Hey Spence, can I ask you something, buddy? Have you ever rock climbed before? Or you know like, um, exercised or anything?Spencer: I actually can't because I have a condition called nociception, which can be exacerbated by a build-up of lactic acid. Especially when it's situated in my teres minor and lower trapezius.Translation
- Failure Montage:
- A brief one near the end of "Mission Alpha", as Jonas repeatedly fails to hook the branch stump with the rope.
- In "No Girls Allowed", we're treated to a series of shots of Jonas generally failing at golf, whether from needing to hit his ball out of the woods or missing the same putt several times in a row.
- Film the Hand: Jonas at the very end of "Mission Alpha" pushes the camera to the side.
- Geeky Turn-On: Discussed by Sarah in "Mission Gamma" after she sees Taylor and Spencer celebrating her performance in Pac-Man:
- Sarah: I think my sister just met her future husband. (beat) That was the weirdest display of geekdom that I have ever seen... in my entire life.
- Hollywood Hacking: Taylor's hacking of the building's security in "Mission Possible" is this trope to the hilt, as she just taps the keyboard a few times and disables the security camera.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Sarah's terrible rendition of "Star-Spangled Banner" in "Mission Gamma", especially since Alexandra Dreyfus is a classically-trained opera singer.
- Hypocritical Humor: In "Mission Alpha", Spencer tries to convince Jonas to follow his workout plan:
- Spencer: It's the equivalent of a pegboard!Jonas: A peg bo— first of all, first of all, there's nothing to stab into. This is rock, okay? And second of all, even if this did work, I— there's no way I'd be able to pull myself up with these things.Spencer: Look, what I'm asking you to do is a very simple exercise that works the brachialis, the posterior deltoid, I... I... it's not that complicated!
- Info Dump: In "Proceed With Caution", Alex gives a bunch of information about Watchers and Shadows, both being kinds of Order operatives.
- Jump Cut: One occurs in "Mission Possible" while Daniel is navigating the laser grid, and it is painfully obvious it was inserted to cover up the fact his actor did not actually make it around one of the lasers.
- Laser Hallway: Appears in the heart of the Wyman Foundation in "Mission Possible", and navigated by Daniel using the contortion moves from "Mission Beta".
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- In "We Have A Plan", Spencer talks about how crazy all of this is:Spencer: I've just penetrated an alternate world, a semi-factual world very similar to my own.
- "A Week To Remember" has this line from Bree, in the final proper episode before the Season Finale where the Order will presumably try to make Bree do the Ceremony:Bree: This is it. This is what we have all been waiting for.
- In "We Have A Plan", Spencer talks about how crazy all of this is:
- Mood Whiplash:
- The end of the mostly lighthearted "Mission Alpha" whips around twice at the end, after Spencer gives Jonas a trophy:Taylor: Jonas, um, how do you feel after receiving such a prestigious award?Jonas: I wish my parents were alive to see this.Taylor: Aw...Jonas: (to Spencer) Did you get this at a garage sale? I don't— anyways, turn that thing off. (pushes the camera away)
- Daniel and Jonas show up at the lab after a fun day at the golf course in "No Girls Allowed"... and discover that the door has been left open, even though Spencer and Taylor had the day off, leading them to wonder if someone from the Order has been snooping.
- The end of the mostly lighthearted "Mission Alpha" whips around twice at the end, after Spencer gives Jonas a trophy:
- My God, You Are Serious!: This exchange in "Mission Possible", when Spencer worries that Jonas might not get in:
- Spencer: (now wearing a black mask) If Jonas doesn't succeed, I'm goin' in.Taylor: (laughs, then abruptly stops) Oh my god, you're serious.
- Mysterious Informant: The woman Daniel meets with in "Deep Throat", who tells Daniel some important information about Bree and the Ceremony. Daniel even calls her "a complete Deep Throat wannabe".
- Necessary Drawback: As Alex explains in "Proceed With Caution", Shadows, the Elite Mooks of the Order, take several drugs that raise their awareness, build muscles and remove the need for sleep, but as a side effect, few can survive past the age of 30.
- Pac Man Fever: In "Mission Gamma", Spencer has Taylor playing classic video games (including Pac-Man itself) as part of her training. Justified because the point is to train her to detect patterns, which most such games have in abundance.
- Properly Paranoid: How Spencer views himself in "The Serum":
- Spencer: Seriously, I'm not paranoid. Paranoia is when you think you're being followed, but you're not. We, on the other hand? Are legitimately being followed.
- Public Secret Message: "Sing Until The End", like with the rest of Bree's Hymn of One videos, contains a secret message, decoded by looking at the words at the end of each sentence. The message is "Roadblock I Am Coming To You Everyone Must Be Careful Order Everywhere Stop Questions Answers May Be Too Difficult For You".
- Put on a Bus: In "Proceed With Caution", Alex says she's going to be going into hiding for "a long time", and this ends up being her last appearance in the series.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: When Spencer's stretching Daniel in "Mission Beta", he lets out a high-pitched scream after he gets stretched a little too far.
- Sensory Abuse: In-Universe, the alarm in "They Broke In!!!" to the TAAG members, who are more distressed by the alarm's blaring than with sorting out what set it off.
- Serious Business: In "Mission Beta", Spencer tells Jonas to stop joking around when he's running Daniel through the gauntlet at the end.
- Shout-Out:
- Three of them from "We Have A Plan":
- Spencer says "We have a mission, and we choose to accept it", a frequent phrase from Mission: Impossible. Later episode "Mission Possible" is also a reference to this.
- Spencer comments that he feels like Edward Bond from Dark World, another reference to the work of Henry Kuttner.
- Spencer goofs around with a lightsaber at the end of the video.
- "Mission Alpha" has this exchange during "qi time":Jonas: I got it, I got it, it's like... The Karate Kid.Spencer: No, no! No, no, no, no, no! Not The Karate Kid!
- In "Mission Gamma", Spencer rattles off the video games he has Taylor playing as part of her training:
- The title of "A Week To Remember", to the 2002 movie A Walk to Remember.
- Three of them from "We Have A Plan":
- Show Some Leg: Subverted in "Mission Possible". This is obviously the way Sarah was intended to distract the security guard, but not only is he probably gay, but his boyfriend just broke up with him, leaving him an emotional wreck with Sarah barely needing to do anything.
- Speak in Unison: In "A Week To Remember" when Bree, Barb, and Carl toast the Hymn of One, and again at the end when they all say "To the Hymn of One".
- Technicolor Science: "The Serum" features beakers filled with red, orange, green, and yellow liquids.
- Thanking the Viewer: Spencer mentions in "We Have A Plan" that the fans helped them decipher his dad's research.
- Tradesnark™: All of the "Mission" videos have title cards with the names of stages of each mission, and all of them are labeled with "© Spencer Gilman".
- Troll: Spencer has some fun messing with Taylor in "The Serum".
- First, he talks about what the lab used to be:Spencer: Tell 'em, Taylor.Taylor: ...A morgue. (shakes her head)Spencer: (sniffs) Do I smell rotting flesh? (Taylor drops her stirring rod and looks at Spencer with exasperation)
- Then while mixing the serum:Taylor: Maybe I grinded up the wrong sample.(Spencer tastes a bit of the powder from the sample)Spencer: You idiot!Taylor: (alarmed) What? What did I do?Spencer: (laughing) I'm just kidding. It's calcium, no big deal. (Taylor is not amused)
- Then, at the end:Spencer: Wait. What was that?Taylor: What was what?Spencer: That sound.Taylor: What?Spencer: Maybe it's a Watcher. (cracks a smile)Taylor: That's not even funny, Spencer! (Spencer starts laughing)
- First, he talks about what the lab used to be:
- Viewers Are Goldfish: Played with and lampshaded to almost the highest degree possible.
- Spencer: (having just wrapped up an explanation) I'm totally sure. (Taylor starts typing) What are you doing?Taylor: I'm going into chat to tell some friends what you just said.Spencer: But, they just heard me say it.Taylor: (beat) Then I'm telling them twice!
- Virgin Sacrifice: Defied by Spencer in "The Bree Solution", as he points that the Hymn of One's purity bond couldn't have any effect on whether or not Bree's DNA is trait-positive, meaning that losing her virginity won't let her escape danger.note
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Subverted in "They Broke In!!!". Somebody broke in, destroyed Spencer and Taylor's notes, and generally made a mess of the science experiment, but they failed to steal the serum, leaving the TAAG still with a chance. This trope usually being played straight against them was lampshaded as well.
- Jonas: What are we going to do now? This... every time! What are we gonna do?Sarah: (after Spencer finds the serum) Well, something went our way.
"This is it. This is what we have all been waiting for."
